This site describes a project to build a decorative birdbath using glass, gold leaf, and copper.
The supporting column is fashioned from 65-feet of gold-leafed glass tubing. The ''bath'' part is made from a wedding cake pan which is gold-leafed and wrapped with teardrop-punched copper.
Twenty-six 0.6" diameter Pyrex glass tubes, each 30-inches long, form the column. One-half of the diameter of each tube is gilded with 23 karat gold leaf. The gilded halves face the inside of the column so when observed the gold is seen through the un-gilded half of the glass. Thus the gilding is not exposed to the weather.
The bowl is made from a 16-inch wedding cake pan. The outside of the pan is double-gilded and then wrapped with copper. This sits atop a 10-inch cake pan with identical double-gilding and punched copper wrapping.
Copper strip is punched with a modified teardrop paper punch, then artificially aged. A few months in the weather will turn the copper a deep brown which will highlight the gold showing through the punched holes.
|
|
A window of reinforced tempered glass is affixed to the center of the bowl using underwater sealant.
A light inside of the column shines through the window to illuminate a chunk of glass cullet placed in the bowl. Some of the same light leaks through the thin gold leaf of the column to add a glow from within.
The placement is in a ''garden'' of volcanic rock and glass cullet adjacent to a Koi pond made of glass block. Two homemade walkway lights in the foreground provide interesting lighting at night.
Other links that may be of interest...
Round Patio with Custom Tiles:
The Glass Block Pond:
The Glass Block Pond... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv
NEW - A White Light Emitting Diode (LED) lit Patio Cover:
White Light Emitting Diode (LED) lit Patio Cover... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/patiocover.html
A gilded metal wind sculpture of fish:
Fish Swimming with the Breeze... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/windsculpture.html
Details of a unique bamboo and gilded copper garden trellis:
Bamboo and Gilded Copper Trellis... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/trellis.html
Painted glass block landscape light project:
Painted Glass Block Landscape Lights... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/blocklights.html
Water Lily Pots with Integral Feeding Tubes:
Easy to Feed Water Lily Pots... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/lilypots.html
A unique 97-foot long fused glass-on-brick project:
97' long fused glass-on-brick project... http://www.peltier-info.com/wall.html
Directory of over 120 pond supply dealers:
Pond Dealer Directory... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/ponddirectory.html
A permanent Heron-deterrent Scarecrow installation:
Heron-deterrent Scarecrow Installation... http://www.kissingfrogs.tv/scarecrow.html
Homemade Glassworking Lathe:
Homemade Glassworking Lathe... http://pw2.netcom.com/~sjnoll/glasslathe.html
Largest Thermoelectricity information site on the 'net:
Thermoelectricity information site... http://www.peltier-info.com
Largest used high-tech equipment dealer directory on the 'net:
Largest used hi-tech equipment dealer directory... http://www.big-list.com