Raven’s Glass

Working some glass and metal magic in my free time

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I realized I never showed you my insect child, The Mossy Moth completed!! Outrageous! (I fully put him in my bedroom for decor and forgot to give him a photoshoot, oops)

He was declared goblin core by my sibling, and who am I to disagree with a teenager? So he shall be described as such in the tags.

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Finally finished the Green Moon 2.0! She’s fully iridescent on one side (because I may be a raven, but I do enjoy shiny things!) and equally as lovely on the other ✨

I attempted to take pictures with the water droplets from the thaw dramatically splashing on the moon, but that didn’t end up working. The photos are still pretty great, if I say so myself ;)

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Two of my takes on Lucent Glass’ Mini Leadlight pattern from February ✨

It was surprisingly hard to get the framing pieces symmetrical in a piece this small (and on the right you can see I failed a wee bit :D).

I dubbed the color schemes Winter Sky and Spring Colors respectively, and Winter Sky is my favorite (she’s a delight and a beauty)

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Vibe of the day is breakcore and insects

(It’s an old world swallowtail btw)

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Irises I made the previous summer! I would like to think my soldering has gotten better since then, but they are little darling either way

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A joyful little mandarin! Made a whole lot of these over the winter and this one in particular went to a friend.

There are some pieces and designs that are just lovely and uncomplicated to make, and this is definitely one of them. If I end up selling stained glass, this is definitely going in the roster

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Two of four daffodils I made this week, my favorites! Semi-transparent white with a transparent orange center and an opaque white with opaque pink. They are so soft and lovely

On another note: spring is actually here, can you believe it? It’s been +2°C in my area for a whole 24 hours. Summoning spring with flowers worked!!

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What type of metal do you use? Im worried about lead, but a lead free alloy was somehow much harder to work with… maybe you have tips you could share

Disclaimer: I tried using leadless and hated it, so I work with 60/40 solder. I’ve been thinking of experimenting with jewelry made with leadless solder, but for now my knowledge is minimal here.

Two pieces of wisdom: more flux than you think you need and go hotter than when you work with 60-40 solder. When I tried lead-free solder I did 450°C and it was barely enough to get the solder flowing as clean as I would like. But my soldering iron is a temp-regulated 80W, so with a 100W you would be able to get a good flow by my estimation (it should be about 500°C).

The reason the lead free solder is harder to work with is the metal content. It’s composition is usually something like Sn 97% Ag 2,3% Cu 0,7% or Sn99,3% Cu 0,7%, and both silver (Ag) and copper (Cu) have a higher melting point than tin (Sn). So even in an alloy they will be a problem to work with. For comparison melting point of tin is 231. 9 °C, silver is 961.8 °C, and copper is 1085 °C. You don’t typically see fully tin solder because it’s unstable long-term by itself and suffers from something delightfully called “tin plague”.

(Though do be warned that glass starts softening at 540°, so don’t overdo it)

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The Beholder

(Is this a TMA reference or a legit name of this design? Wouldn’t you like to know)

I’m not supremely satisfied with the color scheme, I’ll have to try something different next time I make this design. Suggestions are very welcome!

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The dynamic duo! Number four of the four tulip sketches of this spring summoning season.

It’s supposed to get to positive degrees in a couple of days!! I think the magic is working, guys (said gender neutrally)

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Starlight candlelight!

The second ever 3d project I made out of glass. The first one was a jewelry box with hinges for my dear mother, but I didn’t take any pictures of that, so you will have to take me at my word for it :D

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A banner, a branch, a beauty.

Wanted to try something new, specifically making foil overlay in place of stems (it’s not that new, I just never did that before). I think it turned out pretty neat :)

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It has come to my attention that I have only shown you dear people one of my tulip designs! Here are two more: the elegant and the cheeky. You can probably guess which is which :D

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I’m once again in the basement

(This is my mossy moth design. Don’t mind the sharpness, he’s a work in progress)

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A cicada wing I made last summer. (She is my favorite!)

I’ve seen multiple people do their own interpretations of cicada wings and when I was making mine, I wanted her monochromatic, but very textured. There are five different textured types of glass here, and one is even faintly iridescent :)

Ah, I love her.

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Descend (to the basement) and grind (glass for trinkets)

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One of my four tulip sketches, lovingly dubbed “the long one”.

The agenda is to summon spring with flower imagery. So far, it’s not working. But at least I have a suncatcher out of it?