This is the table top for the orrery that we're building. An orrery is one of those old fashioned models of the solar system with all the planets on arms above a table. You've probably seen one in an old museum or library. No one in the world seems to make them anymore, except us!!!
So this is the table top for ours. Each piece is about 3 feet long by about 18 inches wide on the outside. They're about 1/2 inch thick, and I MADE each and every one! Isn't that cool??? We looked into purchasing a 6 foot glass table and having it cut into 12 pieces, but the price was outrageous!! And the glass in those tables is flat and greenish and just well... plain ugly. So after a few days of stewing over what to do, I said, well, why don't I just cast them and make them however we want? YAYYYY!! And they've come out gorgeous!
Why 12 pieces? Easier to handle than one 6 foot round tabletop, I can get them into my sandblasting cabinet, and it allows for a decorative edging between the pieces.
But why 12? An orrery shows the paths of the planets through constellations, which are symbols in the zodiac, of which there are 12! So each glass panel will have a gorgeous zodiac image and a little information etched into the underside, where you see just blank glass, not the blue stuff toward the center.
What is the blue stuff? It's blue glass cast into the glass plates. Actually, there's also red and yellow. That section of the table will be installed over a dark aluminum baseplate, so it will be darker than the outside. The swirly colors are meant to depict nebula, stars and such.
Peace,
Joy
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