Oh Look, Natalya Made a Mosaic (Updated October 2018)

[Natalya]

Continued from previous page...



Most of the chin is ready. See how I extended the lines from the tips of those two hair sections down across her chin? The grout lines that will be present later aren't going to intersect and make her face busy. Keeping them separate keeps the piece looking clean and may add a bit of motion later when it's done.




This was probably the most difficult part. I cut away the top first because it's easier to cut away at a convex curve than to deepen a convex curve.




I had difficulty hollowing out the mouth section as one piece, so here it has become 3 pieces, but I think it will be okay.




She's coming together now.




Here I've actually glued down the pieces. Before everything was left loose for the positioning tests. I also completed the final cuts on the bottom right area.




And this is where I left it when I stopped working today. 2 hours in all. The dotted lines are approximations of where I'll cut up the hair pieces. There were some minor changes between this picture and the previous one. I lined up the face pieces a little better, but the changes were very subtle. When the glue has gotten sticky but isn't quite dry you can still nudge pieces slightly one way or another, and that's what I did here.

[Keldoclock]

Stained glass is brittle and will shatter if you use the wrong technique with a given tool.

How would using a rotary tool or similar cause breakage though? Just use a grinding disk that's made for hard materials and have steady hands, and there shouldn't be any strange behaviour. It ought to just grind away material.

That being said, now that you have explained your process I can see that a rotary tool is the wrong tool for you- it would be useful for shaping or precision fitting edges together so they are flush, but it seems like the real labor comes from "rough" working the pieces into the desired shapes. I think a bandsaw could be the right tool for you to use.

I did a quick search and found this bandsaw, designed for working with glass. You may be able to use some other bandsaw with the right blade, like, a very fine toothed diamond blade.



You'd even be able to cut polished stone, like marble or obsidian.

I don't know what it's like for glass, but I can tell you that when working wood, bandsaws love to "walk" and you will need to be very patient when making long, curved cuts, and to support your work properly when making straight cuts. With such small pieces though that's not as big of a deal.

I see that the professionals use http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/C ... 64661.html or similar CNC tables. I don't know much about automatic class cutting machines, but any CNC is probably impossible to purchase below $8000 or so, but you could try building your own or repairing a broken machine. A waterjet may be best suited to your needs.


Do you find that you spend more time planning cuts, or actually doing the cutting and shaping?

[Natalya]

I only have difficulty with cutting convex areas out of a larger piece, and with cutting very narrow pieces, though usually I am able to manage both. Anything big enough that I'd be able to bandsaw it is also large enough for me to cut with my hand-tools.

There is a grinding tool to smooth out the edges of curves and stuff, but I don't use one of them. I don't really NEED to. I mean I could but that isn't necessary.

What takes up all my time?

I guess my process goes like this:
- Get an idea
- Choose dimensions and style
- Create the base
- Choose colours
- Draw pattern if applicable
- Glass work
- Grout
- Finishing (painting or soldering a metal channel trim or whatever)

Most of the time is spent in glass work, with a few exceptions. But usually it's on small details and shit. Look at this one again:



Look at this thing, see the really tiny white pieces all over the place? That kind of shit is what makes it take a lot of time. Triangles can also be difficult because of how glass wants to break. Bigger triangles could be band-sawed I guess, but there's no way you could bandsaw all the tiny pieces. With this thing I kinda began with scraps but then I started filling in the gaps and cutting pieces to match the openings. That's what took forever. It has approx. 150 pieces, all hand-cut, most of them cut to fit a specific space.

[Blitzen]

Solution: plan mosaics with fewer small pieces

[Keldoclock]

OK, if it is acceptable to instead of cutting small pieces, grind them out from a larger piece, than a Dremel is totally the way to go. Mount the work firmly in some sort of clamp or vise and go to town.

[Natalya]

About 1½ hours more, plus another trip to the glass store. I underestimated the amount of the light blue this will need the other time I went.

[BFenix]

Looking good!

[Natalya]

[Natalya]

On a roll today...

[Blitzen]

whoa

those are some complex curves

[Tzan]

I think it will be best one ever.

[Natalya]

Yeah I think so too. Perhaps that's an acknowledgement of the great artwork of Evangelion.

Maybe in the future I'll be able to make my own stuff which compares.

[Natalya]

Made this little thing today. Took about 2 hours or so. 100% finished.

Rei is basically done but I'm not sure what to do about her sides, I might do an aluminum frame border. I have to go look at aluminum though; I don't think I have a suitable style of it.

[Natalya]

Basically finished, but I think I'll put an aluminum frame around it.

[Tzan]

Looks great!

Earlier I was thinking the character is going to come out great, but the piece could be effected by the background.
In this case, I don't really like the background. Its not easy to do a good one.
I never have, I've always had problems with doing them.

The problem is that the blue background doesn't contrast enough with the hair, its too similar.
Maybe dark gray or black, like space or night. Or that super dark blue, like that band.


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The last abstract piece is my favorite of all the ones you've posted.