I think it is a horrible idea!! You should just send these to me so I can dispose of them for you! LOL!!!
Seriously though, what about doing crash glass over metalic paint? With all the fractures and small pieces, you'd get a lot of sparkle, very inexpensive too.

Hey Carol. Those are really neat. I like Bama's idea, especially if you can get the crash glass in good-sized pieces. One thought as soon as I saw the sculpture...will you need to reinforce those stems somehow to hold the weight of the mosaic/grout?

I can't add anything helpful. Just agree with Bama about the crash glass..that would be soooo cool and maybe you can get some from your local auto/glass body shop type place for free...all they do is just throw it away!
Good point about the possibility of needing to reinforce the stems to hold the weight, Ronnie....I wouldn't have thought that through!

Great minds think alike. Crash glass is what I thought the moment I saw them. If you haven't broken it yet, you could paint one side of the glass and glue that side down.
I did that with a shower door. I painted stripes of different colors on the glass before I broke it, works great for flowers or whatever. You can also paint the leaves with a metal color paint, then do the glass.

That sounds like such a good idea. I have not worked with crash glass yet. I got a couple windshields at the auto/glass shop, then read that you all don't use windshields, so will have to go hunting.
Fern, love the idea of painting one side, how do you hold it together when you break it? Come on you guys, I need a tutorial on this...the stems are pretty solid.Right now they sway in the wind a little bit, but maybe with the addition of the glass, they will be a bit more immobile. I have some lime green spray paint, I may use that on the backs of the leaves and then do the metallic on the tops.
I will e awaiting the tutorial. Thanks you guys.

I can't give you much of a tutorial. I've done 3 or 4 crash glass projects, but it was already just a pile of tiny pieces, placed one at a time. The way I did THAT was to put down a glob of silicone about the size of a dime, smear it around with a toothpick to a couple inches square, then place the glass into the silicone, as close together as possible. The rest of it, someone else will have to share. One tip...if you quit before you are through (and you will!) be sure to clean up the silicone around the edges where you will have to lay glass later, so you don't have dried silicone keeping the glass from laying flat. Easiest way is to run a paring knife along your last pieces of glass while the silicone is still soft but cured enough that it will come up in a little "worm", for lack of a better term. HTH!

Hey hold on a second here... I thought the glass of choice WAS the windshield...no? What then? I've collected a few windshields thinking that was the right thing...... I think crash glass would look awesome on those leaves...

From everything I have read and studied, the windshield is a laminated piece, the safety glass of the side windows is supposed to be the best or tempered glass of storm doors, shower doors, table tops, camper windows, etc. Of which I have none at the moment. I will go to the auto junk yard next week and get side windows, but tomorrow I will check the dumpster at the glass shop and hope for a good find.
I have a large plastic tub of broken windshield glass, so don't know.....??

Yep, windshields are laminated. They break in larger, dagger like pieces that hold together. The side car windows are tempered glass, it breaks into the little cube shaped pieces. You could use the laminated glass, but it just gives a different look with larger pieces.

Those leaves are drop dead gorgous the way they are...they'll be over the top mosaiced!!! WOW!!!

Hadn't thought of the tempered glass, FLAG. That's a great idea. However, I'm w/BAMA on saving you the decision making. I could be there in 20 min., take them off your hands, and you could go on w/other things. How close are you to finishing grouting the urn? I'm anxious to see that puppy installed, and in person. Also, after seeing what the recent rain did to your dry creek bed, I'm anxious to see the beginning of the grotto and permanent water works in that creek bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Had a big long message almost done, then the electricity blinked, and I lost it. I'll be more succinct.

As I was saying...

For the record, tempered glass is also laminated. You can see this if you look closely. This is useful for the little cubes that are only about as wide as they are thick, for telling which way is "up". This is only important I guess for keeping the depth the same all over, and the glass is also more clear if that seam side isn't up, not that you will ever be looking through a single tiny piece. THAT's all I was saying :)

Sorry for the delay getting back, lots going on here.
Flag, you asked about preparing the glass. Clean it, paint one side (optional of course) wrap it in a tarp or whatever and tap a corner. It just breaks all over! Then the fun part of picking it all up and keeping the colors separated.
I am concerned that about the movement you talked about.
I am not sure that weight will help that, they may just bend down!
If that is the case, maybe you could do lady bugs or something like that on them just in spots with the glass.
If you did that, you would have to paint the leaves then do the glass over them. Can you imagine painting crash glass pieces to make a bug!

Paint the bug on the metal, and put the clear glass over it.

What a wealth of information. I just love this forum.

It all sounds great to me. Especially Slow's suggestion sounds like the easiest way out. Kinda neat too.
Thanks to all of you, U have all helped and I will probably take all your advice and soon.
Carol