Thursday, November 19, 2009

Cutting Glass

After transferring the pattern to the glass, the obvious next step is cutting the glass. Each glass breaks differently. Some snap perfect every time, others are a real pain, very brittle and send chips flying all the time. Fortunately for me, I picked stuff that breaks nice. There are over 50 pieces in each stepping stone so this is a time consuming project.



They say that you dont have to grind the glass for stepping stones. The sharp edges are encased in concrete so it doesn't have to be perfect. I grind anyhow. I have the pictures reversed, the second one is after cutting, the top one after grinding. First off, I don't play with glass all the time so my cutting skills are a little rusty. Also I was never perfect anyway. Grinding just allows you to smooth out the rough spots and get neater results. Look at the differences in the lower fin for example.
After cutting, you place the glass good side down on contact paper to go into the mold. This keeps the glass from shifting when you pour the concrete. More about that later though. Bye for now.

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