Topic: Mystery Overlay Paperweight?

[Penelope12]

Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, it’s the stretched bits at the bottom that confused me, which is why I thought that the Chinese might have come up with a fiendishly clever method to simulate overlaying without the hours of tedious work involved in cutting out the facets.

I have attached some more photos to show where the top layer hasn’t been cut and polished out...maybe it was just a Friday afternoon!

[chopin-liszt]

You can see it is not canes going through the glass much better in those photos.
The stretched bits did confuse me, I assumed they'd found some, as you say, fiendish new method of getting a machine to do the cutting, en masse.
But there appears to be the odd tool mark around the base too. They're not smooth and completely round.

[glassobsessed]

I would assume made with a hot gather rolled onto the marver covered with millefiore slices, they would be picked up and give the finish we see. In this case 'window' or cathedral canes by the look of it, is that flakes of mica I can see reflecting inside too?

Much less work than polishing and grinding... Could still have been made in China though.

John

[chopin-liszt]

I don't think it's mica, it's not big chunks, just glittery stuff. I don't know what it is. But I have looked at them carefully in Heart Foundation shops, new good displays. They cost ~ £4.99.
They really do look finely cased twice, then cut and melted a bit. It doesn't look like canes jigsawed together.

[Penelope12]

Wow £4.99!!! Should have snapped up the lot and put them on a well known auction site! Here's one with some nice photos that looks to be in better shape than mine and not done on a Friday afternoon. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Iridescent-faceted-glass-paperweight-in-good-condition/192812235523?hash=item2ce4813b03:g:xaUAAOSwtRBbjXxJ:rk:3:pf:1

[chopin-liszt]

I got thinking about how this might have been constructed last night, and wondered if there was some way of creating a double layer of the dark enamels into a sort of stencil shape, with holes in it, which then had a gather of hot glass pushed into it.
Rather than canes put on the surface, a stencil shape with holes in put onto it ?

[KevinH]

With the benefit of the addtional photos in the auction link, I agree with John about the use of cane slices.

The canes are formed as: central core of clear within thin green coating within white coating followed by a fairly thick coating of  purple / amethyst. When sliced they will all be a perfect buillseye type cane - amethyst over white over green over clear centre.

At the stage of "picking up the canes" and other shaping (see below) the roundness of the canes will be affected by each cane pressing against the next. In normal cases where the canes are set together as if it were "six-around-one", the "pressing together" will form a hexagonal shape to the "central" cane. When used as a full covering a whole series of "six-around-one" will be apparent and all the canes will show more-or-less straight edges forming lots of hexagons.

But when the canes are not set exactly "side by side" to the same extent, then the forming of a hexagin will take on varying shapes - including no shaping at all thus showing a (mostly) perfect circle. These varied effects can be seen clearly in the auction link example.

I suggest (in principle) the basic working to be ...
a) gather(s) of clear glass as needed to make a required internal size
b) add the "fancy bits and pieces" (air bubbles / flecks)
c) add a thick-ish coating of clear to get to a required size
d) roll onto marver to pick up the cane slices
e) shape to the basic domed form
f) final gather of clear and final shaping

I do not understand what the internal "fancy bits and pieces" really are, nor at which stage they would  be added to the construction of the weight, so my stage b) is certainly open to question.

I did wonder if the "fancy bits and peices" were part of the central core of the cane but that seems too complex. Much simpler is addition of "bubbles / flecks" to the central mass of the weight at the proper stage. This would allow the clear centre of the cane to give the view into the depth of the weight.

[glassobsessed]

In those ebay photos it is possible to see overlapping canes as well as a tiny gap between two.

[Penelope12]

Thank you for that fascinating insight Kevin and for solving the mystery ...a fiendishly clever method then! The ‘fancy bits and pieces’ that look like flakes of foil, form a layer just underneath the canes; they are silver when viewed from underneath, but blue/green on the surface. The centre of the weight is clear apart from a large bubble ring with smaller bubbles rising up through the middle.


Such a lovely little complex paperweight for so little money...incredible!