As Lou Ann Weeks describes in her pinterest for mosaic artists article, Pinterest is a treasure trove of inspiration and ways to connect with other artists. I check my Pinterest feed at least once a day and usually pin one or two mosaic pieces that I love. When I opened my Etsy shop in 2016, I started to pay more attention to the artists from Etsy as well. One of those whom I loved is a European artist that makes these glass-on-glass bottles that sell for over $200 dollars — wowzers said the newbie in me that is selling things that average around $20-50 dollars.
When I found a glass bottle at Goodwill with a drilled hole and twinkle lights already installed inside the bottle, I knew I had a project idea! Yet this was a project that haunted me. It sat on my work table just staring at me when I was looking for something new to start. “I’m going to be hard” it whispered…. but one day I was working on a light fixture for my kids’ room. I had a tube of silicone already in the glue gun. Maybe it was inspiration, maybe it was just the silicone fumes, but I decided to tackle that bottle the same night.
I wanted to use turquoise-ish colors and my stash of turquoise mixed glass also had some purple-ish things in there (I’ll blame that on my six-year-old daughter who likes to help me sort scrap glass). I ended up mixing the two palates and really liked how it came out.
gluing it on
I have done several 3-D pieces, so I knew a) I wanted to light to come through the glass so I couldn’t use axpoxy sculpt or the like. I knew I COULD use weld-bond, but that if I did I would be doing each side over the course of a few days. So I chose silicone in a tube (I think that was liquid nails clear from the Habitat for Humanity Restore, but I may have finished a GE Silicone II as recommened by my friends at FleaMarket Gardening who got me started with the gluing of glass on glass for garden flowers!).
I made a general swirl pattern with the glue and then started to place the tesserae on the bottle.
grouting
Once I was finished, I let it dry for a few days. I chose a dark gray grout and found that my gluing had not been as precise as it should have been. I lost quite a few of the odd-sized beads I’d mixed in with the glass. But I kept them, washed them off with vinegar, and later glued them into place on the bottle.
learning lessons
What I learned was that I should have glued the edges of each piece of tessera down to the glass. Not only would that have probably helped the beads as the glue would have been “fresh” with each one, but it would have avoided the ugly grout-bleed situation.
When the lamp is turned off, it looks okay, I like it sitting in my bathroom. Yet when I plug in the light, I quickly see all the unfinished grout lines that seep into the space of many of the larger pieces.
ALSO: I need to remind myself that my inspiration artist says the INSIDE of her pieces look like kaleidoscopes, not the outside. Hers are not lamps. . .
would I do it again?
For where I’m currently selling my pieces, this took a lot of effort and even if I perfected the technique I don’t know that I could get the time/cost out of the project. However, I would definitely try it again with MAC glue (which I learned about thanks to the lovely artists in the Glass-on-Glass enthusiasts group on FB) and plan to spend a few days working on it. They would make a great gift! ….and I am also worried about the heat from the non-LED (aka traditional cheap) lights that are inside the bottle. So if I made one for sale or to give away, I’d choose LED twinkle lights, perhaps even battery operated ones since they work so well now!
