Hook Handmade

Someone should buy this before I get accused of stolen valor for having it hanging in my living room.

FOR SALE & READY TO SHIP!! - 20.5” in diameter stained glass Top Gun patch. Zinc frame with matte black patina. Pewter patinated solder. Lettering is hand painted matte black enamel fused at 1280F.

A short gap between commissions has given me the opportunity to make the first non-commission piece I’ve been able to offer.

DM or comment if interested.

$1,200 (free shipping in the lower 48)

When people ask why stained glass is so expensive and why I’ve been raising my prices, I just point to the price of solder. In the last 10 months the price of solder has increased 30%. It takes five pounds to construct a 36” set of wings. At $36 a pound that equates to $180. Two years ago that cost me $110. But it’s not just solder. The cost of copper foil has gone up 56% over the same time, which adds another $15 to each piece. I’m too afraid to deep dive into the price of glass, but I’ll tell you my last order for 10 sheets was $727, which included three 22”x24” sheets of red at $106 each. So, yeah, prices have to go up because the price of materials has gone up. Thank you, Economics 101.

Normally my lettering is made from individual pieces of glass, but the number of letters in this panel would have required hundreds of pieces of glass and pounds of solder that would have detracted from the overall composition. To get around this, I ventured into enameling. The letters are made from a glass enamel paint that is fired at 1265 F, which fuses the enamel into the glass. This was a new and exciting challenge that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

‘Merica!

Although my shop is freezing cold in the winter, the winter light is awesome when it comes time to photograph. Check out the sparkle!

Congratulations, Lancer!

This one miggght become popular. However, I need to make a test piece before I can start taking orders because there are some unique challenges. Primarily, there are A LOT of letters. If I cut them out of glass the surround would become a distracting web of solder that would detract from the central focal point. So to avoid that I’m going to try painting the letters with an opaque black enamel, which is fused to the glass at 1200 degrees in a kiln.

The two latest creations.

Christmas came early! This new bending jig will let me branch out into squadron patches and other roundels. A Top Gun Adversary patch will be the next piece out of the shop…as soon as I figure out how I want to do ALL of the letters.

This beauty is off to Virginia Beach.