The Mirror

I prefer making sculptures, but enjoy creating the occasional flat piece.

The mirror came about as a request shortly after I finished the Fantasy in Glass course. It was a nice challenge so I spent an evening doodling in my sketch book. The result was two satisfactory designs, and the client chose the circular one.

Off we went to the Fantasy in Glass shop to choose a selection of opaque glass. The mirror will be hanging on a wall so the glass frame needs to be reflective. We chose a few pieces of Uroboros 'Heads and Tails' as they have such fantastic colours and occasional dramatic patterns. I also asked Mike to cut the mirror circles for me as I have yet to get a circle cutter.

Once the pattern was drawn up full size I changed the colour layout from that in the sketch book. It was then a case of making paper templates and cutting the glass - not so easy for the deep inside curves around the small circles so I used the grinder to cut notches then hand cut between them as there was a lot of glass to remove.

Once assembled and cleaned the solder was given a copper patina to allow the glass to dominate.

 Perhaps a case of over engineering, but I was concerned about the weight and strength of copper foil and solder joints, so added a continuous length of heavy copper wire around the perimeter. The suspension ring is made from another length of copper wire soldered to the perimeter and every joint that it crosses. Together these should keep the work in one piece.

 

Back view showing hanging loop

The mirror was hung from an existing wall fitting, but was then too high for the client and her daughters. The simple remedy was to make a short chain to lower the mirror, using the copper wire again, soldering each link for security.