mosaic, tiles, glass, panel, landscape, cityscape, roman, floor, panel, Ceramic, Mistakes, Help, Advice, Patterns, Designs, Granville
Natural Wood
Ever since I started working with glass I've wanted to try this project - partly just to see if it was possible. The idea of inserting coloured glass into driftwood fascinated me and I had a lot of ideas kicking around in my mind. I wanted to be able to see both the beauty of the wood and the sparkle of the glass but there were all sorts of problems.
Finding a suitable piece of wood was nowhere near as easy as you might think. I found it impossible to get hold of a large piece of driftwood and it took me several years to find something suitable. The wood I used came from a steam saw cutting demonstration at a local county show where I managed to scrounge a couple of offcuts. They were no use to them since they were the very edge of the trunk but perfect for me since the wood was full of knots and gnarls and still had a fair amount of bark attached.
My next problem was cutting the holes and preparing the timber. I'm lucky enough to have a few power tools but without the use of an electric planer and sanding machine that would have been impossible. I wanted a wide range of hole sizes so had top use an adjustable drill bit to get the variety of sizes. However, because I used a ceramic hole saw set to drill the glass circles which only had three or four sizes, I had to take great care and planning matching the drilled holes to the cut glass circles. (I can assure you that a 1" circle will not fit into a 25mm diameter hole !!).
The other decision I had to make was whether to drill the holes right through the piece and somehow inset the glass in the hole - thereby allowing light through, or leave the glass embedded in wood.
As you can see I tried both options with variable results. I think the large single piece works best on many levels. Even though the sun doesn't shine through, it is finished well and the colours look lovely against the polished wood. The back is still the original solid rough bark and has a natural look and feel.
I feel that I did a little too much experimentation on the other two pieces. Firstly I drilled holes right through to allow light from behind but that gave me all sorts of problems securing the glass in the holes. I ended up having to use a white adhesive which contrasts a little too much with the glass. The overall effect does work though and they look great if you manage to get exactly the right angle with the sun behind them and they produce a lovely set of coloured rays across the garden.