Faceting and shaping various sized pieces of a dalle is one of the unique aspects of my work. While the necessary skills are not difficult to perform, they will require some practice.  I hope that following information and the Youtube video will prove to be a useful for illustrating the process.

As you will see I only facet one side of the glass. There are two reasons for this: the first is that I have compared glass that was faceted on one side with comparable pieces faceted on both sides and I was unable too discern any difference. The second reason is that it is much easier to foil and solder ( or epoxy ) the faceted pieces to each other and to the sheet glass if there are two adjacent flat surfaces on the back of each piece.

Another point worth noting that may help facilitate the faceting of the glass is that the dalles come from the factory with smooth and often irregular edges which make the edge more difficult to facet since the smooth surface may cause the chisel to slip and also the glass seems a bit harder. The smooth irregular edges of a dalle are visible in the image of a dalle in the post on Choice of dalle and also in the following image.

The dalle becomes easier to facet and to foil if a very thin strip of glass is removed from the edges of the block of glass using the 10 inch tile saw which creates a flat roughened surface pictured below.

Another question that often arises is which surface of the glass should be faceted, the top smooth surface or the bottom rough ( textured ) surface? I generally remove the rough ( textured ) surface since the irregularities present on the back may be visible through the faceted surface in light colored or clear glass dalles.  Before making the decision always check the location of the pigment in the glass ( discussed in the post on Choice of dalle  ) to be sure that you do not remove it with your faceting.

YouTube video of the faceting process:

 

I would also like you to be aware that it is possible to make long narrow pieces of faceted glass. The piece illustrated below is 12″ long and 5/8″ wide at one end tapering to a point at the other end. Long pieces are sometimes required for a design as illustrated in several of my bamboo panels #1 & #3 .

 

The technique for faceting long narrow strips of glass is demonstrated in the following video: