Design and Glass Steps

I wanted to focus on the design development and how I apply that on the glass for blasting. 

I use a bit of old school and new school.

The client gave me a specific plant to be used. 

This is called an arrowhead plant and is very common in the Southeastern United States. I had creative freedom beyond that.

So I start with some sketches and trying to work out the different components I wanted to use. 4 feet is a lot of real estate to cover.

I scanned the drawings and start moving them around to get the overall design and try to get an idea on how it will work with the wood. There is a lot of back and forth with the client to make sure they are happy with proposal. This way everyone knows what direction the project is heading toward.

After getting the glass and looking at the perspective, I tweaked the design a little and flipped it horizontally for printing

Now at this point many artists hand the digital file over to a vinyl machine and have it perfectly printed and cut out for them to place it on the glass. I typically do smaller size sculptures and prefer to cut my vinyl by hand.

I print out the design to scale with guide lines to match everything up.

The sheets are all lined up and centered with the glass. I try to have many steps to make sure the design works and to make sure I didn't forget to account for anything.

I apply my vinyl. I use clear because I will draw the outline of the design directly on the vinyl and can see through to my print outs. 

After the design is in place and drawn out. I start cutting. I remove the vinyl that I want frosted and leave the sections that will be clear.

After everything is cut out its ready for blasting.

In this week's next entry I will talk about the design and the symbolism that it represents. 

Thanks