Sparkling Turquoise Putty [Project 27]

I never did a day’s work in my life.  It was all fun.
Thomas A. Edison

After mixing the dry pigment into the white putty, I had a gorgeous turquoise mess!  The camera didn’t pick up the sparkly shine to my alien-like fingers.  Too, too cool. 

I mixed about a tablespoon of the dry Pearl Ex Pigment [681 Duo Blue-Green] by Jacquard Products [see Squared Rainbow Concept] into the oily putty — usually a whitish-cream.

It took quite a bit of mushing to get all [well, almost] the white to turn colour.  Hence, my alien hands.

I certainly don’t mind getting my hands mucky with putty — but this was extra fun! 

After cleaning, you don’t see much of the putty but there is a line of it between each piece of glass & the lead that surrounds it.  The best photograph I could get was along the larger piece of clear glass.

See the thin turquoise line beside the grayish-black lead?  That’s the turquoise putty in my window.

You can also see the gray-black putty line of the brown, vinyl-framed windows [oops, & a dust bunny] in this old place.  This definitely needs replacing — hmm, have to ask the landlord about that one.  Later.

I absolutely love this coloured putty idea — I don’t see much sparkle to the putty — but in certain lights, it does seem to have a slight sheen.

I’m hoping the sparkly effect will be more pronounced once all eight panels are installed in the porch & sunlight is shining through.

Even better, up close photography of the putty showed me a spot where the lead was bowed — a little straightening & more putty fixed it all up.

But again, when I photograph stained glass, the special uniqueness of the materials is not captured — a highly-proficient photographer is needed to do that.

While the putty shows a bit in the smaller squares when viewing up close — mostly against the white glass or under the larger, ½” lead [vs. the smaller ¼" leading part of the design] — it blends in with the lead & appears black in photographs.

The first panel [of eight] sits in the sill of the living room windows.  In this view, the turquoise putty is hardly seen.

I love this Pearl Ex Pigment!  When I was at Opus Arts, I saw lots of wonderful, sparkly colours — copper, earth red, light blue, yellow, . . .  I’m going to pick up a few to have on hand for future projects.

Vanessa Dawne Studio of Design

Functional glass & wood art on Vancouver Isle

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