Wednesday, January 5, 2011

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???

4 comments:

  1. I was going to joke that "I'll trade my ugly coffee table for your ugly coffee table" when I scrolled down and saw that your carpet is almost identical to the one we have in our living room. We also have the same colour of couch. And, from what I can tell, pretty much the same colour of wall behind it. How weird is that? Do you think our living rooms were separated at birth?

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  2. HA! We have good taste in decorating & accordions! Twin living rooms of different mothers...kind of scary. Let me know if your coffee table will hold the top (16" X 44")....I'll mail it to you. :)
    Thanks for the comment. What are you practicing on the accordion lately? Tam

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  3. I made a resolution to learn to play Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" this year -- may change my mind if it turns out to be really hard. But wouldn't it be cool?

    What about you? How are the duets going?

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  4. I've been playing the duet versions of "Tennesse Waltz", "Don't Be Cruel", "Just Because", & "Sandman." I love Sandman & have a good arrangement. You should join the Anchorage Accordion Club site (it's free) & then you'd have access to all our music...we play together twice a month & usually have a 15 or more song list for each meeting. So fun! Check it out! Tam :)

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