Glasswork

[Wayne]

Finally, finally got these two glass gilded pieces framed up and hung - the Cambells was a seminar piece from The Scotish letterheads meet in May.
and the Victorian S was from a gold workshop I did with Dave Smith in Torquay in July.- Acid etch glass and gilded- with mother of pearl inlay- Great Fun to do.

Nice aint they!

[Signoholic]

very nice Wayne, I need to do more glass work, milo's last post was saying he struggles to compete with the gold mirrored vinyls that are available, I think these are attractive, but when authentic glass work is marketed as it should be, their is no substitute, im a firm believer of mixed media stuff, if you can compliment one thing with another, then so be it, what do you think Wayne, - whoever?

[jaggedpixel]

:shock: amazing

[Steve]

Bloody good Wayne :wink:

[Chunkie]

Well Wayne, you taught me everything I know and I can't do that! :( I want my hobnobs back! Ha ha ha.

Bloody gorgeous work Wayne. As always!

[Wayne]

Yes mate- I agree..The more media we use the better and more perfect the result is..then were all happy!

[milo]

They look the muts nuts wayne.
Your right pete we do try and mix traditional with modern. got a fanlight
to do tomorrow, polished gold numeral black outline with etch background,
would love to do it in burnished gold but think they would have run a mile.

Think I may get more gold work if I had more samples like wayne's
hanging round the workshop but don't find the time to do them. Will have to try and make a letterheads meet, will be the only way.

Milo

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

Wayne those are BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I have been playing with glass gilding too, & have SO much to learn!!!!

I do not belive we should mix medias such as vinyl with other things like real gold leaf & abalone & such. I think it devalues the good stuff to use it with vinyl. Maybe that isn't what you meant? Mixed medias such as gilding with the mother of pearl, abalone, etc.....yes!

[Chunkie]

Wayne those are BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I have been playing with glass gilding too, & have SO much to learn!!!!

I do not belive we should mix medias such as vinyl with other things like real gold leaf & abalone & such. I think it devalues the good stuff to use it with vinyl. Maybe that isn't what you meant? Mixed medias such as gilding with the mother of pearl, abalone, etc.....yes!

I'm sorry but I sort of take offense at that comment. I primarily use vinyl in my work and my signs are just as worthy of praise and value than anything made with any other format. If I design it well and make it the best it can be, the media is almost irrelevant.

Each style of work and each medium has it's benefits and each has it's downfalls. To rule one as better than the other is unfair. Mixing vinyl and gold with paint is a very good way of embracing the whole industry and avaoiding any one of them is a mistake not many of use can afford to make.

I really admire the work that the 'traditional' guys and girls like you lot do out there and I am struggling to try and meet a standard where I can sell that type of work myself. That doesn't mean to say that I fel vinyl is less of a product and I definately wouldn't say it is worth any less in the right hands. Just look at Mike Brown (http://www.mikethesign.com/) what that guy does with vinyl is astounding.

This forums is based around the trad side of the industry and as such, we see praise for the work carried out in that way but lets not demote other forms of work to something less in status because we don't necessarily like that ourselves.

[Mark Fair]

Beautiful work Wayne!
Never have tried glasswork except the occasional office door Gold Leaf(nothing Fancy)

Those 2 are excellent.

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you, Chunkie, I really didn't. Most of what I do is vinyl! I agree, you can do beautiful work with vinyl. I try to make my vinyl signs look like they are dimensional sometimes too.

I have only had my shop for about 7 years, & only recently learned how to hand paint fairly well. I just did my first gilded piece on glass late last year. Being new at the gilding thing, I was not aware that people mix genuine gold leaf with vinyl, tho I have used Signgold a few times, even using it on my shop vehicle. I have never heard of it. I just began to visit & post on the Letterhead Handpainting Forum & never heard them speak of mixing like that either. I am still learning!

I guess I am very excited that I have found I am able to do these other things that only a year ago, I thought I would NEVER be able to do.

Please forgive me for offending you! :(

[paulp]

I think I understand what you meant Bobbie, and I agree with you mostly, if you are using gold leaf and the like I think it should be ALL traditional irrispective of wether masks and such are used. As a comparison and if my memory serves me right, at Ashley Bishops meet in 2002 Dave Smith, the godfather of glass work, did an astounding mirror but Nigel Eden did one similar using vinyls (nigel also does awsome glass work) to prove that different media can look as effective and it really did. You could only tell the difference really close up but then Nigel is a master with vinyl as well.

[Signoholic]

I don’t know why you are offended Chunkie, I have been painting beautiful signs for 23years, 7 years ago I bought a vinyl cutter to ease production & with the intention of doing some mixed media work.

I can’t produce the same quality of work in vinyl, initial impression looks good if designed well, but it just doesn’t have the same charisma, great for mixed media & 2nd copy, or the odd paint mask, when combined with other media. That’s why I created this site.. For all interested in great design, something that usually follows the fundamentals of the painted letter.

Guys like Mike Brown & the few others manufacturing from vinyl & plastics do this well usually using the elements of period design, but as with us sign painters this is the minority. Their is no substitute for creating letterform from scratch, perfection & attention to detail, face renderings, layout, negative space it is all perfectly balanced, something of the cuff a computer doesn’t, do, all smashing great for dtp but not the basis for the eye appeal a hand crafted sign.

My point, we are both at different ends of the spectrum, vinyl now dominates the market, where as fine painted works are within the specialized sector & for those that demand the best, my painted signs sell for far more than vinyl produced signs & often produced in the same time line, their are lots of other folk in modern signage manufacture that respect the difference between a computer generated sign & a sign that’s created from the heart. Signoholics we are.

[Wayne]

Bobbie, thanks for the nice comments-
Everything I do is paint-I dont have a plotter so I don't get the easy option anyway! :P - But I like it that way!

There was a small amount of Vinyl harmed during the making of those pieces ( as masks for the acid etching process)-but the rest is hand done.
Paint-gold-mother of pearl

Dave Smith is still talking of taking a workshop in the States.-(there were a couple planned but he didnt have enough people commit)-

Seriously Dave is the best of men- and if you ever get the chance to to a workshop-with him or John Studden, Larry White, or any of the Glass men- Grab it while its hot!

Since i have Joined the Mike Meyer School of pic posting - heres a few more pics of the workshop i did with Dave.

[Wayne]

Here's some more

[Chunkie]

The only offense I took was to any suggestion that vinyl is in some way inferior or worth less. It simply isn't - it's just different. Saying that Bobbie, I don't hold grudges so by the time I posted my comment, I'd forgiven and forgotten anyway. :wink:

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

Oh MY!!!! Thank you so much for posting those pics!!! How absolutely beautiful!!!! Tell me, how did you do the blends?

Maybe I can post a pic of my first reverse glass painted piece....



http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/THEWORDINSIGNS/REVPAINTR.jpg

Silver leaf with varigated gold & abalone, also reverse painted. I used a brush for the shadow.

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

Darn! I am having trouble here....

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b278/THEWORDINSIGNS/REVPAINTR.jpg

last try....

[Chunkie]

The file size seems too large - it's 106 KB and the forum won't accept it.

Resized and posted for you. Nice work BTW.

[Wayne]

Thats a nice piece Bobbie-
The blends are great fun to do ( and you can get really really fussy with it)- Using Intenso (ready bound colour) and a dash of smiths cream- and just work- work-work away at the wet edge with a brush until it bursts into the next colour.
The blends in the corners and the smokey effect in the bottom half of the S (Black to brown into white- and back out again ) was a finger blend -using-You guessed it) Your Finger!

[Wayne]

Heres a better pic of that Cambells Piece- as it was on the easel at The Scottish letterheads.

[BOBBIE ROCHOW]

Chunkie, that was very nice of you to post that for me! Thank you so much!

Wayne, that is gorgeous! Finger blending, huh? I have heard of that, just might have to try it!

[Signoholic]

Hey Bobbie, why dont you use the file attachment just below where you post from, its very easy to do, just upload from your pc, make sure less than 700px wide and hey presto, once you post you will be redirected & you will see your picture........ no messy bb code, just plain & simple.