Foiled Again!

This past weekend was both incredibly productive and incredibly frustrating at the same time.  I decided to take the weekend and attempt the rather daunting task of recutting the pieces suggested by my instructor and completing all of the foiling on my 77 piece Mario project.  By the time hubs called it bedtime on Sunday night, I had foiled all but 8 small pieces (yes, I had completed 69 pieces), so I feel like I achieved quite a bit.  Of course, I must admit I was more than a little upset at missing my goal by just a handful.  I am hoping to complete foiling tonight and be able to begin soldering tomorrow.  But enough about that, let's see some pictures!!!

Saturday's Foiling

As you can see, by the end of Saturday night, I was close to halfway.  Unfortunately, I was set back by the need to recut a number of pieces when I started.  And then I was further set back by dropping a piece that I had spent a *very* long time getting the foil just perfect.  Sadly, it broke, and I had to recut that piece and start over with the foil.  There might have been much cursing and gnashing of teeth.

Sunday's Foiling

So now I have most of the foiling done.  I still need to complete the teeth and the spots on the piranha plant on the top right, but those pieces are MUCH easier than many of the other pieces I've already completed.

So why does foiling take so long?  It's all about precision.  First of all, everything that you see in the above picture that is shiny copper will be a black lead line when I am done.  You don't want a lot of foil on one side and little or no foil on the other, or the completed piece will look odd in the light.  Secondly, no matter how precise your (or at least *my*) glass cuts were to start with, foil adds a thickness in between.  This means that I have to constantly be checking the fit of the pieces and possible grinding them down a little here and there.  A good example of this is my incomplete piranha teeth:

The pieces no longer fit together perfectly

If you look at the blue piece next to the foiled tooth, you can see how it overlaps the next tooth.  This is because the foil on the pieces next to it has made the fit too tight.  I will need to grind down the blue piece more before I foil it so that it will fit properly.

Lastly, I think everything is taking so long is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  This is only my second piece of stained glass, and I really want it to come out exactly right.  I'm probably spending unnecessary time making sure everything is just so, but I can't seem to help myself.  Hopefully the final product will be totally worth it!