Johnny Blue has been working with traditional stained glass for many years. Like many of us, he is - simply said -intrigued with "shiny things". One day he noticed that glass gems seemed to have better shine and reflectivity than most flat glass, and he began to experiment with ways of overcoming the inherent difficulties of working with glass gems as an exclusive medium. Due to their circular shape, glass gems require a large amount of solder to fill in between them, excessive heat, and present great difficulty in achieving a smooth burnish on the copper foil due to both the small size of the gems and the compound curvatures which tend to wrinkle the foil. An experienced machinist familiar with many metal-working techniques, Johnny utilizes his own version of "spin-forming" to achieve a completely smooth and wrinkle-free bond between the copper foil tape and the glass gems. It was immediately evident that the traditional method of building up a raised solder bead between the glass pieces not only required an excessive amount of solder, but also subtracted from the gleam of the glass gems. This lead him to develop a technique which he calls "inversion soldering". Inversion soldering is an art form unto itself and gives the appearance that the piece was dipped in molten solder rather than hand soldered. It takes advantage of the surface tension properties to create a meniscus in the solder. Whereas the traditional method of soldering flat glass gives the solder a raised bead, this method conversely stretches the solder for a concave or "sunken" solder joint between the gems. It is also necessary to eliminate all surface irregularities in the solder in order to give it the appearance of a highly polished "silver" setting much like that of jewelry. This method is the result of lots of practice, and demands a great deal of heat, time and patience in order to achieve the desired effect of maximum reflection and shine. This soldering technique, when combined with the convex surfaces of the glass gems, breaks a single light source into hundreds of points of reflection.
For more images of his work, please visit his online art gallery at: www.bluestarglassart.com. Thank you.
Johnny Blue
Austin TX 78704 US
Phone: 512-276-2012
www.bluestarglassart.com
Profile Link:
http://www.StainedGlassArtists.org/BlueStarGlassArt
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Mosaic Art
