Wreckers are highly attracted to the colour red, so it is no surprise that one of my favourite places to visit in search of materials is the Big Red Shed in Kelvin Grove. The combined fact that half of the city is dedicated to demolishing heritage buildings to make way for apartments and McMansions while the other half is busily restoring the charms-of-yester-year to their old timber homes contibutes greatly to the success of salvage retailers like the Big Red Shed. Dedicated to carefully recycling all sorts of timber and fittings, it is the old glass that gets my attention. Stacks of old louvres and odd bits of heritage glass are available and while some of it is able to be sold for building works and reused by the skilled glazier on site, other bits get broken (it wasn't me!) or are not popular enough to retain. Especially the old louvres which don't go that well with modern security standards and airconditioning systems. And that's where I come in - you can see above some of the pretty blue and green pieces above that I got there this weekend - yum!
Perhaps you are wondering how I make this into the jewellery that you find on my website glass galleries. Here is an secret glimpse into the processes I use:
As you can see, I am harnessing the ancient power of the pyramid in my manufacturing process. In the northern hemisphere you may be aware that razor blades can be sharpened by placing them under a pyramid such as this. But down under, the opposite effect occurs, which is why I am treating these sharp shards to several days of pyramid power to smooth off the edges. Visit my blog next week to view the astonishing results. You will be amazed.
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