Crash Glass Info Needed

15 years ago

I think I'm being given some TG to work with. Maybe three windows! I could use any tutorials you all can offer. I will start with a bowling ball, since I've never done one and have three taking up room in my closet. Please don't limit your information to BBs though. I especially want to know for sure if it's Weldbond that you all use to coat it with before breaking to keep parts of it intact. I understand I can paint it before breaking too? Does that hold it together at all?

Any information you know, have archived, or referrals to otherwise existing info would be appreciated so much. I'd sure like to use some of this on a project or two for the Christmas fair a month from now.

THANKS SO MUCH!

Daisy(me!)

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Comments (12)

meadel
15 years ago
Congrats on your score ! TG is fun to work with..small but fun.
I can only tell you how I broke my storm door glass.
I cleaned it well and then I put it in a construction bag ( the heavy duty plastic one) and smashed the corner with a hammer...several times. It wouldn't break ! So I scored it with my glass cutter and hit it again~~ voila it all fell nicely into the bag. I have a lot of single pieces and some large clusters that are nice to work with.
I use MW's tip about using Funtak on a pencil eraser to help pick up the pieces.
I'll look forward to other replies about painting and breaking.
katishooked
15 years ago
Daisy I'm still waiting to get my first stash. I have seen some awesome works with cg. Can't remember the posts but they are there.
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daisyme
Original Author
15 years ago
Lori, Thanks, for passing along that Funtak idea. I'll give that a try. Did you coat your window with anything to give you some of your larger pieces? Did you grout? Someone suggested that grouting between the pieces of the larger (held together) pieces was really difficult and suggested to place all pieces farther apart?

Kat, I hope you get yours soon. Maybe we could share what we're learning as we go. I hope to hear from more people. It always seemed there was a lot of info on crash glass, and now not so much.
crafty777
15 years ago
I can never figure out how to post a picture but maybe this will work. This is an old window that I did with crash glass. I really like working with this glass.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z136/weezy1234_01/Copyofdebssillypictures002.jpg
crafty777
15 years ago
Lets see if I can make this one work. Thanks daisyme for your help. This one the window is painted first then the crash glass added on. Hope it doesn't come in real big.
seaglassic
15 years ago
that's really how it was done?
only the glass was painted and then the crash glass glued down?..then grouted...and that was it?
it looks too complicated and time consuming, without knowing how it was done..
man, for as laid back as I am, to not get things done, I actually think I could get into a project and stay with it, till it was done..especially, if I had the grand kids over and turn the paints loose on them, then finish up with the glass..
thank you for this post!

Becky .(*_*).
seaglassic
15 years ago
crafty777,.......well, I just made a phone call and got a place, where I can get glass any time I want. Right now, she has two windshields in a green tint color.
thank you for this...even though I've been watching several being made, for some reason, this one clicked. Funny, how some things take a certain jolt, to register.

Becky .(*_*).
crafty777
15 years ago
To me its like a puzzle, Ill walk by it and stop and glue some pieces on. Until in a few days its all filled in. And I dont grout them. Or havent grouted one yet. I glue my pieces so close together I figure I dont need to grout. Plus when they are hung outside the sun really shines through them.
meadel
15 years ago
Daisy, I didn't coat it with anything. Some pieces were just big and they are nice that way, so when you are mosaicking a BB for example, it'll form right on the ball and make little cracks. Some I left bigger and just grouted as normal.

@seaglastic: Windshield glass is laminated not tempered!! Don't get it. It has plastic in between the layers. I think the side windows of cars are tempered. A lot of the tempered glass is marked with the word 'tempered' ( as in my storm door window) If you google it, there are sites that tell you how you can tell the difference. ( I think their might be threads in this forum as well)

On my "winter song" I only grouted in some areas and poured the two part epoxy over it. The photo just doesn't show it so well though.
seaglassic
15 years ago
thankyou..I called her back, right after I read this and she said I had just hung up the phone and she wanted to say that it doesn't break like I want, so I thanked her and said no thanks, after all...
guess that's a project that can wait for a time.
it's ok, I have many other things around me, to begin something.
daisyme
Original Author
15 years ago
Don't give up, Sea. Ask at any auto repair or glass shop for tempered glass they're throwing away. They usually have it I hear.

Meadel, I want to see that Winter Song again. It's one of my all-time favorite pieces that anyone's done. Why don't you post it here for everyone to enjoy again?
lovemosaics
15 years ago
I envy all of you that can use crash glass!
I hate how it looks for me.........so you must have a real trick! I'll keep watching your work.