Hippie Dude
New Member
As a big fan of portal, I decided to make an Aperture Science logo inspired mirror out of stained glass.
I used the Tiffeny method of stained glass.
To begin I printed out the logo and cut out one of the segments using scissors. Using contact spray adhesive I glued it to a piece of acrylic and cut it out on a band saw. I now had a template to cut out the segments out of stained glass.
I then cut out these segments using a glass cutter, using the template as a straight edge, then smoothened the edges using a glass grinder and then a glass file. I needed to use the glass grinder as the glass easily chipped and didn't break cleanly on the curved line. I'm sure with more practice you could break the glass cleanly.
I then washed the glass using soap and water to remove any dust from the filing, then carefully dried the pieces. After this I carefully wrapped the pieces with copper foil and used a fid (small piece of plastic used for smoothening) to smoothen the copper foil and stick it to the glass better.
I then aligned the pieces to get an idea of what it would look like finished and to get measurements for the mirror that would go in the centre. Next I cut out the mirror using the aforementioned technique, using a piece of plastic for a straight edge.
With the octagonal mirror in place, I brushed flux over one side, then soldered the pieces into place (with all the pieces upside down). First tacking the corners of the pieces using solder, and then soldering the whole of the copper foil on the one side. I used a soldering iron for this of course
Next I flipped the now solid mirror over and brushed it with flux, then soldered this side. On this side I made sure to raise the solder as this is the style of this stained glass. Finally I soldered the edge of the whole mirror. When finished there was no copper foil showing as it was all covered in solder.
I then soldered a jump ring (small loop of steel) to the back of the mirror so it could be hung up
I used black patina (this oxydises the solder) to give the solder a black finish. I brushed the black patina all over the solder until it was blackened to my liking. Note: this is not paint and will not affect the glass. What I did not do was wash the whole mirror before applying the black patina. I actually should have done this because the flux reacts with the patina and over time the nice black colour fades to a rather lackluster grey.
Remember this if you are doing stained glass yourself.
To end it all I attached a suction cup to the jump ring and attached it to a window.
The finished mirror looks great when the sun hits it.
I used the Tiffeny method of stained glass.
To begin I printed out the logo and cut out one of the segments using scissors. Using contact spray adhesive I glued it to a piece of acrylic and cut it out on a band saw. I now had a template to cut out the segments out of stained glass.
I then cut out these segments using a glass cutter, using the template as a straight edge, then smoothened the edges using a glass grinder and then a glass file. I needed to use the glass grinder as the glass easily chipped and didn't break cleanly on the curved line. I'm sure with more practice you could break the glass cleanly.
I then washed the glass using soap and water to remove any dust from the filing, then carefully dried the pieces. After this I carefully wrapped the pieces with copper foil and used a fid (small piece of plastic used for smoothening) to smoothen the copper foil and stick it to the glass better.
I then aligned the pieces to get an idea of what it would look like finished and to get measurements for the mirror that would go in the centre. Next I cut out the mirror using the aforementioned technique, using a piece of plastic for a straight edge.
With the octagonal mirror in place, I brushed flux over one side, then soldered the pieces into place (with all the pieces upside down). First tacking the corners of the pieces using solder, and then soldering the whole of the copper foil on the one side. I used a soldering iron for this of course
Next I flipped the now solid mirror over and brushed it with flux, then soldered this side. On this side I made sure to raise the solder as this is the style of this stained glass. Finally I soldered the edge of the whole mirror. When finished there was no copper foil showing as it was all covered in solder.
I then soldered a jump ring (small loop of steel) to the back of the mirror so it could be hung up
I used black patina (this oxydises the solder) to give the solder a black finish. I brushed the black patina all over the solder until it was blackened to my liking. Note: this is not paint and will not affect the glass. What I did not do was wash the whole mirror before applying the black patina. I actually should have done this because the flux reacts with the patina and over time the nice black colour fades to a rather lackluster grey.
Remember this if you are doing stained glass yourself.To end it all I attached a suction cup to the jump ring and attached it to a window.
The finished mirror looks great when the sun hits it.
