February 18, 2017
Winter is always too long no matter where you live. February is certainly too early to plant flowers, or is it? We have been looking through some of our vintage glass pieces to price then put them in our shop for sale.
Occasionally we miss a chip or flaw, when buying second hand for resale purposes.
We normally try to avoid selling anything in the shop that isn’t high quality. In fact some pieces are pulled off the shelf of our shop. Some become chipped through customer handling. We used to throw these away or sell them at our garage sale.
By applying some minor welding skills, and having the proper tools to drill glass, we turn trash pieces into beautiful additions to our garden. Below is a 12 inch diameter glass flower. They are beautiful and especially so, when they catch the sunlight passing through them just right. Chips can be smoothed with a ceramic file, using a torch, or epoxy fillers. While these techniques fail to restore the vintage glass to collector condition. It allows us to recycle them into spectacular art pieces.
The stem is a piece of bent re-bar. A 3/8 nut was welded on the end.
The Stamen of the flower is 1/8 steel rod welded to a washer. The rod was bent using a torch to heat the metal. It was finished off with a coat of gold glitter paint.
The glass dish was drilled using a diamond bit in a drill press, with adequate cooling water, as well as lots of patience.
A bolt threaded through everything and tightened into the welded nut completes the project.
All that is left is “planting” it in the proper garden spot to catch the sunlight.
Repurposing chipped Vintage Glass
Artist at work!
