It’s “one of those days” where I’m moving slowly in the shop.
I got the finish applied to the wood bodies, and I started on the glass panels for the shades, but I was struggling with it a bit. My focus is off, and I wasn’t getting as nice a fit on the parts as I wanted. I went ahead and finished the one panel, but it didn’t feel quite right.
First the wood. I used the same finishing approach as I used on the cabinet I just finished. Dye, stain, Oil, shellac, brown wax.
Sanded white oak, no finish
Brown Mahogany dye stain, slightly diluted, scuff sanded
Candelite Gel stain
Linseed oil
Garnet Shellac rubbed out with 0000 steel wool, brown wax
I’m pleased with the finish, the differences in the steps don’t show as clearly in pictures as it does in person. The final result is silky smooth, has a nice luster without too much gloss and a deep rich color.
For the shades I’m making stained glass panels, four for each sconce. They will be soldered along the edges and a piece of copper soldered to the top, bored to 1.25″ to fit over the lamp socket. That ends up being eight stained glass panels, with a dozen or so small parts in each. I’m feeling a little intimidated by this part.
I tried making the pieces as I drew them, but the sharp inside corner in the large green pieces was beyond my skill with a scoring wheel and nippers. I modified the pattern slightly to make it in more pieces, but I just wasn’t working to the level of accuracy I wanted. I tried making patterns for all of the individual parts, and that helped. I need to get a finer pointed sharpie though.
Here I marked and cut out the first dragonfly. The cuts aren’t the final edges, from here I go to the glass grinder and smooth out the edges. That’s where I was having the most trouble — I was in too much of a hurry and was over-grinding the parts instead of sneaking up on just the right contour.
Rough cut dragonfly body. I need a finer sharpie, trying to score accurately to a 1/8″ wide layout line is a losing proposition!
Finished test panel, back lit
The finished test panel came out OK. I didn’t patina the solder seams yet (which always make a huge improvement) as I need to solder it to three others to make a shade first. The seams are a little fatter than I want, but once it’s all finished it should look good. I need to get cracking on these and get them finished!
If you squint, it looks like a sconce…
Lamp socket test fit
McGlynn on Making 