Let Me Put It This Way...


I completed the new panel using plastic spacers only to decide that the square toothpicks I found would be fabulous as filler in the spaces instead of glue. Off came the panes again, on went the panes again with snipped toothpicks. Each pane was hot glued in place (I could always use alcohol to remove it, right? yeah.) I painted cardboard strips, instead of the squeeze paint mixture as Hila had suggested, as I couldn't see how to get flawless straight lines directly on the panes. I chose a brown/stainless steel mix that ended up slightly looking like rusted wood when done. (See problems and lessons below, as Hila had foreseen.)

And then I'll put it that way...

I thought I was being clever by hot gluing (instead of rubber cement as Hila had suggested) to secure the panes down which worked well and I was happy working away filling in the whole panel. I was even happy still as I painted and glued the cardboard strips over of the panes/toothpicks gaps on the first side with white tacky glue. I pressed it under weights to dry. Happy happy. When it was dry it came time to undo the hotglue with rubbing alcohol. But because I had glued the panes onto a work surface of a rigid metal rectangle (unlike the wax paper Hila had suggested) it wasn't possible to peel it back. I dove in and slipped alcohol down the back of the panel like ball bearings falling down a pachinko machine, which of course nearly undid the whiteglue on the panes as well. On with the test, Forward Ho. I flipped over what I could, pieced it back together and outfitted the reverse side with the brown cardboard strips to be able to test the sparkle effect.

And then maybe back like this...

Holding up this newest, all-day-taking, window panel sample I was sure this was a loooong way to go not to get what I wanted. Because now, my spiffy new techniques made it look so straight the window looked perfectly flat. However, light sources do in fact refract in it just right. I'll know more tomorrow.

If I go this technique/materials route, it'll look more like wooden lattice than rod iron, but that's not bad in Halfland's case, in fact it could be better, rustic, natural. And I was pleased to realize that I should use brown as the base rather than black as it dawned on me that Rana's cottage palette is all warm reds and rich browns. There shouldn't be any black in Halfland except for the Crow Character, Tarn.

This new window look is one of those things that I would never have come up with from my mind. I had to have my hands and the doing figure this one out.

Comments

  1. I like the wooden look! Of course, if you want more of an iron framework look you could cover them with glue, maybe with a little sand in it or smething.

    So, on the next panel you'll be using Hila's wisdom, waxed paper and rubber cement? Sounds like a good plan.

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  2. Anonymous4:25 AM

    I Like the Wooden lattice too.
    And just so you'll know, I earned my "wisdom" the hard way :)

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  3. Hi Mike! It's more the shape of the squared cardboard than the texture really. The straight strips look like mini milled model wood (which by the way, would work wonderfully but I can't be bothered to go out to locate the right stuff and get it.) Oh, and staining the toothpicks (or smaller model wood strips, if one did that) would be better too. On the next one, yes, sticky dots (if I get 'em) or rubber cement on wax paper and I'll see about shaping the cardboard before painting, maybe. Thanks!

    Hi Hila! Thanks for stopping by! Knowing you had some trial and error does make me feel better. The thing is, could you use a squeeze bottle to pipe leaded lines directly into the gaps between the panes? No, don't tell me. How would you keep the dark stuff from seeping under the glass? No, don't tell me. !*L*!

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  4. Ok, tell me. hee.

    (The above is just a joke as our Hila is very busy for a while and couldn't have time to sit around reading these blogs! I'll ask her how she'd manage it again one day.)

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  5. Well, I don't know how Hila might approach it, but if it were me, I might try rolling out long thin worms of some kind of clay and press them into the gaps about halfway, this needs to end up on the underside though, so you'd just about have to go through the hotglue/waxpaper thing once, press in the worms of clay, then remove the hotglue and flip it over, with blobs of funtak or something on the back of each pane onto another sheet of waxpaper. Then lay a straightedge between two blocks set on each side of the window and use that as a guide to run the squeeze bottle along. A lot of work, and I don't know how well it would end up working out. But that's probably how I'd try it. If it were me.

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  6. Ok no wait! Much easier. Forget the initial hotglue thing... just lay some worms of clay on a sheet of paper... doesn't need to be wax paper, and in fact probably best if you first rule out a grid to show exactly where to lay the worms of clay. They go right where the leading needs to end up, and over them you place your individual panes. Might be hard to get them to lay perfectly flat though unless you can work out some kind of system for it.

    Then... well, you now what then....

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  7. Thanks so much for directing some of those sweet brain units over this way, Mike. Really nice of you. The clay worms/fun tack ideas sound like they have some real merit. And the straight edge guides worked when I was piping the lines on a seperate sheet, but threre were uncontrollable burb/blobs every few inches, even when I tried to remove the air in the bottle. So I imagined havng to scrap and clean the panes a lot with those messy errors all over them, hense the cardboard idea instead.

    Now that I'm elbow deep in minute detail with these, wanna know what I'm thinkin' today? Yeah, taping and soldering the whole lot like a real stained glass window. I had in mind doing that all these years but then thought of the cost of that much copper tape and solder and opted for other ideas. Plus, Tudor diamond quarry windows aren't stained glass as I understand it, they are really made by sliding the small shapes of (what was expense at the time) glass into gooves in iron mullions. In what is the only thing Google has not supplied me with, I have not been able to locate any visuals or info other than that on Tudor window construction. If I could, then I'd just follow the real method. Duh.

    I could still apply (thicker) pre-piped whips instead of the cardboard for an iron look but I kind of like the lattice look for 1/2L. now. (I'm putting it like this and then like that again aren't I? Oy.)

    Anyway, thanks so much for your important input.

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  8. Ok, some of your pics are showing up now... including the avatar. But some still aren't there. Do you upload directly through Blogger for the pics (asde from your Flikr pics, obviously)? I've used the Blogger pic upload feature for some of mine, and they have an annoying tendency to come and go. all the pics I upload through Photobucket seem incredibly stable. At least so far.

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  9. Hey thanks, Mike. I didn't even realize it was possible or preferable to upload from outside Blogger. I signed up and have already used them on the next post above. Stability differs, eh? Didn't know. If you still can't see all images maybe I should lose the Halloween Flickr badge in my sidebar too and see if that's the issue.

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  10. I think the other pics disappeared before you added the Flikr applehead thing. You ought to try clearing your cache and then look at your blog... then you'll see what the rest of us are seeing. And the new pics show up nicely.

    And that applehead is looking really wicked now! He keeps squinting harder and harder! It must be because the future for you and Halfland is looking so dazzlingly bright. ;)

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  11. So sweet of you to say, Michael McNicey Niceison! Aw.

    I dun cleared my cache just now and see that my avatar isn't showing. So I dunno what to do. Shrug. Hmm. wait, now it's there. Maybe it just takes a long while to load all the stuff?

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  12. No, sometimes it's there and sometimes it isn't. Same for all the pics except in the top post. If I were you I'd just put that avatar on Photobucket and switch the link to there.

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  13. I dun did it. Still not showing, eh? Shrug of defeat.

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  14. The new one is working for me. And the old one still shows up in the older comments by you too. Crazy! It's like two of your personalitites are together here on the same page! Uh-oh! Better keep 'em apart... no telling what might happen!

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