The Ugly Coffe Table Fix ~ Or Not??

So, we have this old & ugly coffee table. 

Well, "ugly" or "beautiful" ....it's all in the eye of the beholder, right?

We used it at our Girdwood cabin for a number of years & more recently used it as a bench at the end of our bed.  It's oak, sturdy, & has been painted a number of different colors over the years as our decorating taste changed.  It's still in good shape & I have a tendency to hold on to things & try to reinvent them as our needs change.

So, this time around it's been painted black & I decided I would make a glass top.  Somewhere along the line the original clear glass top was either broken, cut up to be used for another project, or fused for another float glass reincarnation.

I have six sheets of 16 X 20 float so thought I'd try to piece these together in three layers with a copper insert.  I usually use one continuous sheet of glass on the top for a seamless finish but this piece is almost 48" long by 16" & I don't have a piece of float that big ~ so I must improvise!

 

Here's the layout pre-firing.  Two layers of pieced glass on the bottom, a layer of copper, & then another pieced layer of glass on the top.  The seams were staggered for strength.  The lines you see in the copper are a reflection of the kiln elements in the lid.  I'm not totally sure what will happen at the seam lines with float.  It's harder & more brittle than Bullseye & I have to use a different firing schedule ~

I'm not sure the seams will "heal" or fuse together or slightly pull apart(?)



Here's a close up of the border detail.  You can see two seam lines.

Here's the same shot post firing.  The red line on the right is a seam on bottom or middle layer and the black line on the left is a seam on the top layer.  Both seams allowed oxygen & probably more heat into the glass thus the increased processing of the copper.  Copper reacts with increased heat by changing color:  Natural color, orange, red, green, black.

I guess I should have thought about this a little more & included more seams on the top as part of the overall design....note to self for future experiments. 

I like how the copper moves & crinkles up as a reaction to the heat. 

It provides more interest in the finished piece.

Here's the finished glass top. 

The little dots are bumpons that I stuck on the bottom of the glass so it doesn't slide around.  In reality these aren't noticed as they are clear & the copper is darker & not so orange in color. 

Glass is tricky to photograph as there's lots of flash back & reflection. 

What do you think?  Keeper or garage sale item???