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Many thanks for the very kind offer Carey, but I need to find a constant supply as the project is open ended and I can see it growing toward some of those whole building picassiette mosaic examples - there is inspiration!
Tink - have you looked at the crushed glass from Business Services in Shipman? It's pretty cheap, ~$20 a ton, and can be used as a partial replacement for aggregate in the concrete mix or as a source for glass chips. They'll work with you for getting samples so I have some buckets of it around for experimenting with poured pavers, or perhaps a table top. Be very interested to hear your experience with the test slab as recycled glass might be the solution to the mosaic supply problem.
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Thanks Ironyak, have to check it out. For now I have been using "roadside" glassI have found along roads and beaches, seems the green Heiniken bottle is quite popular. Blue is really hard to find, and it is a "flash" coating of blue on the glass,but appears to hold up in the cement mixer tumbler set up I have created so far. Have a bit more tumbling/polishing to do before the experimental pour, as I just completed the size uniformity stage, and will update later.
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A 5 gallon bucket of glass is a couple bucks and material size ranges from glass sand up to about an inch. It's tumbled enough that you can run your hands through it without injury and is a mix of colors (but not too much blue either - I liberate those from the recycle bins when they are within reach. Many of them are solid blue glass, not just glazed
How big are the pieces you are using?
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About the same size, but prefer 3/4 maximum, as hard to chip down less than that unless you pull the bottoms and very end of bottle neck out of the mix while initially tumbling. 1/2 works best from aggregate size experience as far as how I was taught.
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I have a buddy who does picassiette for a living on the mainland. Ross is a favorite source material, they have odd broken, chipped or left over pieces with maximum discounts, often in rich colors. The best blue glass I've ever worked with is momokawa sake bottles. I know I saw it on the menu somewhere in Hilo in the last year, maybe Hilo Bay Cafe? It might be worth it to let your fingers do the walking and call around, maybe a restaurant would pull their blue bottle from the recycling for you, or you could develop a taste for good sake.
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Thanks for the heads up about Ross - will check it out on the next trip to town.
The blue bottles and Pearl sake of Momokawa are already a source of inspiration! Can think of a few places that serve Momokawa and might lend to the collection - good idea!
Tink - any tips to share on the mixer as tumbler method? Adding agg mix or sand? How long do you let it spin to break the material into a suitable size with dulled edges?
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Using an old Sears. 2- sack cement mixer lined on the exterior with a chunk of old carpet bungee corded in place to deaden the sound, with large styrofoam type planting pot as a lid for same purpose. Inside I have 3 good sized lava rocks to smash the glass, add a little bit of water to keep glass dust/shards from flying about with a good handful of really coarse beach sand. This will also initially dull the broken edges some.
Once "sized" by eye, I dump the glass thru a screen to size out , first chicken wire screed, then across an expanded metal screen to get the really small stuff to drop out. Then once sized, back into the mixer with more coarse sand mixed with water to a really soupy slurry to polish out.
Kind of a slow process, but once you get it going, it works on its own while you are tending other projects on the "to do" list. I am also considerate of the neighbors on initial rock tumble and usually wait until 0900 to plug it in, and unplug around 400 pm when most are at work. Rough breakdown was a couple of days for a contractors wheel barrow full of glass aggregate.The sand Polish is a lot quieter and can work longer hours. Also am spacing out this work to make electric bill palatable!
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At one point I was going to make concrete countertops for my kitchen and experimented with different forms and materials. One of the things I was going to try was adding colored glass to white concrete. I decided not to go that route but found if you Google "recycled glass for concrete counters" you'll get a lot of options. I still have several bags of blue and green... Not as cheap as finding glass bottles (free), but an option nonetheless.
http://www.concretecountertopsupply.com/index.php?app=ecom&ns=catshow&ref=Glass
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Yeah, I figured I could find a source for more glass by paying, but the idea struck me while I was cleaning up a beach after somebodies party and feeling a bit lazy to drive to the recycler that day. Figured "why not clean up somebodies mess and make something nice from the results...", and here I am, tumbling glass!
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You might check the ReStore for small amounts of tile. They had pale pink (yuck) the other day, previously had some nice light blue.
I have maybe 8 big blue Skye vodka bottles, with no plans for them, plus a chipped blue glass plate. I'm sure the plate is solid glass (not coated), and I think the bottles are, too. Anybody want them?
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