I’m stuck how can I make a brick wall effect?

[Flowers]

Hellooooo I am so stuck! I have literally hit a wall!  I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.  I am making a picture out of transparent Bullseye glass and I need to create a sandstone coloured wall.  I have been having sleepless nights over it because I just can't get the colours right or the effect right.  I want to tack fuse the wall onto the clear tekta but I need the wall to show up and to look like a sort of ancient sandstone brick Roman wall.  All ideas would be greatly valued and appreciated.

[Dietmar]

[brick][brick][brick][brick][brick]
ick][brick][brick][brick][brick][br
[brick][brick][brick][brick][brick]
ick][brick][brick][brick][brick][br

Let's figure out what you want/have on materrials and how large the wall should be.
Can you tell us a little more about the size of the picture the whole wall section and the single brick?
Are you using transparent coloes only or mixed with opaque colors?

Do you have lampwork equipement?

First idea:
Use wide stringers aka "noodles" for the grouting and mix the sandstone from frit. That should look nice like a sandstone wall.

Alternatively start with thin rolled Clear and sprinkle it with a mixture of frit before firing it just to make the frit stick. Cut it into brick sizes and fill the gaps with grouting colored frit.

For more slate like look take a streaky (grey with white or amber with white) and cut it into stripes. Use a rod nipper (Zag-zag pliers...) and chop the stripes into 3mm short sections. Use these sections as bricks and apply them edge up to see the layered texture inside the glass. Fine powder for grouting if needed.

Use a colored glass as the base and "spice" it with black, brown and caramel frit. Then add the grouting via stringers or noodles.


Now lampwork ideas:
For more individual striations in the bricks take leftovers from the wanted colors and melt them into a gather on the end of a steel punty. Shape the gather into a brick-like crossection, apply a second punty heat the whole fun and pull into the wanted crossection. Let it cool and cut with "Zag-zag" or with a saw for larger crossections. These bricks can be made into micro mosaic sizes for very elaborated constructions...

For more individual frit make a gather from the suspicious colors and add few black stringers. Start mixing the gather untill it is nice and streaky, not 'till death. Pull it into pencil diameter and let it cool. Once it is cold melt the end and flatten it into a lollipop. Rewarm the lollipop and quench it in water. The lollipop only! Repeat heating, flattening and quenching untill there is enough grit (f~) to make the stone texture on thin glass.


I hope there is some helpfull in this brainstorm (not assorted or tested).

[Moira HFG]

Dear me, that's a challenge!

If I wanted to do that, I think I'd make it as an 'add-on' feature. Maybe take some sandstone-coloured fine frit (cinnabar, carnelian spring to mind), mix it with clear and maybe a little darker colour colour (garnet?) for variety - then add PVA glue and create the shape.

Probably the best way is to make an original 'wall' in clay or plasticine, cast it in silicone, then push your glue/frit mix into this mould.

When dry, glue it onto your panel. Hopefully this will give you a 'sandy' look.

You could even use the same method with actual sand! After all, sandstone is effectively sand particles stuck together.

Do show us what you come up with!

[Flowers]

Dietmar & Moira
Thank you both do much for your brilliantly innovative ideas I love them all I have literally been stressing over this for days.  The picture is on a 30x30 clear tekta base and they want it all in transparent glass but to make it even more challenging I have glass from then that they want incorporated into the piece!!!!!  So I have had a go with transparents but none of them are sandstone coloured I am still working on it how do I upload a pic I don't know how to do it but I can try to upload a pic I have basically cut little strips of trans yellow and amber (I think it is amber) and I also sprinkled a frit mix of marzipan and sienna very thinly on clear which looks quite nice but  I forgot about the grouting arghhh so I think I will have a go with some of your super ideas the wall itself is not big it's about 25cm x 6cm.  I'm going to have another play around truly thank you both for helping me 🙂

[Margram]

To post photos -

Ruth, posting photos is clunky but doable: upload photo to Flickr, click the curvy arrow, choose bb code, medium size and copy and paste here 

Another idea for the brick wall - maybe paint it using enamels?

[Dietmar]

OK, that size of the wall gives some limits to ideas. But it helps to find more precise recipies...

The grouting can be made from a slightly darker or lighter hue of the wall color. Just use finely ground powder and it will be little more opaque than the "bricks". Just mix the powder with some fusing glue to a paste that can be applied with a stiff paint brush. Apply it first and add the stone material later.

If you do the stones themselves in frit try to add a small quantity of grond Schott AR glass (clear only). This glass is much stiffer than Bullseye and leaves a more textured surface. Alternatively try this with Schott ARTISTA. This glass is stiffer than Bullseye as well and fits well enough from the fusing properties. It's little less stiff than AR, somehow comparable with Uroboros COE90 (running out of the market).


Other question: Do you have any kind of torch for lampworking? A bunsen burner type brazing torch would do it. It helps to make frit or stringers, murrina or mosaic tiles.

The alternative way to layered glass is stacking a high pile of small shards and give them a full fuse. The resulting disc will be about 6mm thick and has finer layers. Cut into stripes (diamond saw) and used side-up there is a nice "stony" texture more layered like slate.


Having not the true color for something is the reason why I started mixing colors. Clear glass makes mixing eaven easier: Just layer the components ant the light coming through will mix the colors. OK, this works easy in lampworking, but fusing with frit can do it as well. Maybe you should think more into the granite area. This allowes you more "natural" colors and the use of more coarse frit.


Now it's Playtime...