Bottle walls and windows. Where's the red?

[Mike Halmarack]

My wife and I built a raised garden bed with green wine bottles and mortar. Then we tried a bottle window. This time we scoured the local charity shop for coloured glass items because we fancied a bit of colour in this trans lucent situation. The blue items we found were genuinely coloured glass but all the red items we found turned out to be painted or at least have a easily removable coat ing of red over plain glass.

Does anyone know what the situation is regarding the availability of genuin ely red glass bottles and other glass items?

I read that some red glass is made with the use of gold, which might make i t a kind of semi-precious material. Ruby red glass is said to be made with the use of copper which would indicate a more economical ingredient and con sequently more widespread availability.

[Malcolm Race]

IIRC from Antiques programs on TV, Uranium compunds are incorporated into the glass to make a reddish coloured glass.

Malcolm

[Huge]

You don't RC. Uranium glass is greeny/yellow.

[Mike Halmarack]

shop for coloured glass items because we fancied a bit of colour in this t ranslucent situation.

tems we found turned out to be painted or at least have a easily removable coating of red over plain glass.

nuinely red glass bottles and other glass items?

ke it a kind of semi-precious material. Ruby red glass is said to be made w ith the use of copper which would indicate a more economical ingredient and consequently more widespread availability.

That's interesting Malcolm The Uranium may be an OK factor but I hope we do n't have to resort to purchasing antique glassware to colour up this projec t. It started out as a low cost exercise.

Mike

[Reentrant]

Couldn't you coat the *inside* of a clear glass bottle with red lacquer?

[Syd Rumpo]

Ebay item 201419800930 is 230mm x 230mm for £4.60 plus postage but I know nothing about it.

Cheers

[Chris Hogg]

+1 Also known as Vaseline glass. Fluoresces in u/v light. Typically around 2% uranium. Radioactive. I have a small collection. Lots on ebay e.g.

[Mike Halmarack]

ve a easily removable coating of red over plain glass.

Just tried that with some red glass spray paint, applied in-situ after mort aring the glass objects into place, because removing the mortar residues fr om the glass objects rubbed off some of the red coating.

Not great though, maybe because spraying into an open ended vessel doesn't have the right effect. The open ends are on the inside of the window, so as to present a more weatherproof surface to the outside world. Going to try some brush applied glass paint next. It's never going to come close to havi ng the same effect as real red glass though.

What is it going to take to get some real red glass objects? Attempting to do so via Alibaba has resulted in an absolute storm of "everything but".

Mike

[Chris Hogg]

The glass that contains gold is known as cranberry glass. It's a suspension of sub-microscopic (a few hundred angstroms diameter) gold particles in the glass. Only minute amounts are used, so hardly semi-precious. Not really a good deep red though. More a pinkish red.

Copper glasses are a better red IMO. Similar to gold glasses, it's a suspension of copper particles in the glass. Not sure where you'd get any though. We bought some deep red glass ornaments from an 'ethnic' shop years ago. They were probably copper reds. It's often used for bangles and other forms of jewellery in India, apparently.

I used to have some discs of signal glass that were a good red. I think they came from old signal lamps used on the railways. May be somewhere that deals in railway memorabilia would have some. This on ebay

The there are old road-works lamps such as

[Mike Halmarack]

shop for coloured glass items because we fancied a bit of colour in this t ranslucent situation.

tems we found turned out to be painted or at least have a easily removable coating of red over plain glass.

nuinely red glass bottles and other glass items?

ke it a kind of semi-precious material. Ruby red glass is said to be made w ith the use of copper which would indicate a more economical ingredient and consequently more widespread availability.

That's really nice Syd and when I come to do some stained glass windows, wh ich is on the list, I'll buy and use some of that stuff.

The components in these "bottle windows" tend to be more chunky 3D objects than sheet glass, though perhaps sheet glass could be cut and added the the base of bottles, giving the red effect to the light passing through them.

Mike

[harry]

op for coloured glass items because we fancied a bit of colour in this tra nslucent situation.

ms we found turned out to be painted or at least have a easily removable co ating of red over plain glass.

inely red glass bottles and other glass items?

it a kind of semi-precious material. Ruby red glass is said to be made wit h the use of copper which would indicate a more economical ingredient and c onsequently more widespread availability.

[Mike Halmarack]

shop for coloured glass items because we fancied a bit of colour in this t ranslucent situation.

tems we found turned out to be painted or at least have a easily removable coating of red over plain glass.

nuinely red glass bottles and other glass items?

ke it a kind of semi-precious material. Ruby red glass is said to be made w ith the use of copper which would indicate a more economical ingredient and consequently more widespread availability.

Very educational Harry, I don't know for sure but it seems possible that wi th some chemicals and a kiln, it will be possible to take a plain glass bot tle, cover it in red colouring, then put a layer of glass over it to protec t the red coating.

Mike

[Chris Hogg]

It's called 'casing'. A bottle, for example, is blown by hand, and while still red-hot and soft, is put into a second furnace containing molten glass of a different colour, coated and removed. It may then dipped back into the original furnace, but this is not necessary, before blowing to its final shape. When cold, the cased glass bottle or vase or whatever, can have a decoration deeply cut into the surface to reveal the different layers. Like these examples on ebay

[tabbypurr]

It always struck me that it wuold be better to make windows from short jars, 2 or 3 in series to replace each bottle. That way you get double/triple glazing. Build would be slower though.

NT

[stuart noble]

I think I might fake it with some red plastic from the auto sector

[Syd Rumpo]

Aha! Of course, old traffic light lenses! There must be some available when they're replaced with LEDs - I guess they were glass, but it is only a guess.

You could even have a little red man crossing a road.

Cheers

[Syd Rumpo]

Or rather waiting to cross.

Cheers

[Mike Halmarack]

I wouldn't want to give the wrong impression but empty jars are a lot scarcer around these parts than empty bottles. The colour range of jars seems even more limited than it is with bottles too.

Mike

[sm_jamieson]

Coloured liquid in the jars ? Be hard to keep it from going "off" though.

Simon.

[tabbypurr]

that surprises me. Most households chuck out jars.

Oh yes, just clear. Perhaps one could combine the 2 for habitable structures, jar + bottle.

NT