If you saw this post and thought, “Whoa, that looks great! I should make that! Wait, glass cutting? I’m out!” then you probably aren’t alone. I had wanted to try mirror cutting for a while now, but just the sound of it gave me the shivers. I think I have a mild case of aichmophobia with some materials (the irrational fear of sharp objects), so the thought of trying to break a mirror into several pointed edges sounded less than ideal. However, life is for facing and conquering your fears, right? I looked up a few tutorials on the technique, and I was shocked at what I found—it looked so easy to do. Of course, I was skeptical that they were just making it look easier than it was, but I asked Josh about it and he said that he had done it before and assured me that, yes, it was in fact that easy. Sweet! I’d been wanting to make a gem mirror for a while, and I thought this would be the perfect technique to learn in order to achieve that goal. Let’s do it!
Supplies:
–glass cutter tool*
-mirror (we used this one)
-metal ruler + marker
-gloves and safety glasses
gem line drawing and cutting guide (right click to download)
-fine grade sandpaper
-contact paper
-X-Acto knife
-gold spray paint
-clear spray paint
*Note: Most of these glass cutter tools come with an area in the top where you can put oil that runs down to the blade, but you don’t really need the oil to score the glass. The oil helps keep the blade sharp longer, but you can still cut just the same without it.
To make your octagon gem shape, first you’ll want to cut your mirror into a square. Use a metal ruler and marker to measure out and draw a square the size of your desired finished width onto the mirror (don’t worry about the marker, glass cleaner will take it right off). Position your glass cutting tool on your line and place your metal ruler up against the cutting wheel. Use your glass cutter tool to score a line into the mirror that runs the entire length of the mirror (make sure to keep your tool right up against the ruler as you score). You want to firmly score the line in one single pass, so don’t go over your line again once you’ve scored it. You are basically cutting off the entire chunk of mirror that is to the left (or right) of your marked square line. It basically feels the same as cutting with an X-Acto knife. And if you worried it will make a “nails on a chalkboard” sound as you score the glass, don’t worry. It hardly makes any noise at all.
Once your line is scored, scoot the mirror to the edge of the table and line up the scored line with the edge. In one swift motion, push down on the piece you are breaking off and it will snap at the scored line leaving a clean break between the two. It’s a bit scary to actually go through with the breaking part because your brain is convinced that the mirror will shatter as soon as you press down. But once you do go through with it, the mirror only makes a tiny snapping sound and you feel a bit silly for building it up so much in your mind.
You’ll want to wear gloves and eye protection for this step just to be extra careful, but Josh is a bit of a daredevil as you can see, so he skipped the gloves part. I still felt a little nervous at this point, so I wore really thick leather gloves just to be safe when I did my pieces.
Once your four sides are snapped and you have a square, measure, mark, score, and snap off the corners of the square to get your final octagon shape. Clean the lines off the mirror with glass cleaner.
Now that we have our shape, let’s create our gem lines! Cover the whole front of your mirror with contact paper. Use this handy dandy that Josh made for you (right click to download) to draw and cut the lines of your gem with your marker and then X-Acto knife. It looks complicated, but just draw and then cut all the lines in the order he has shown. It’s a lot easier than you’d think. You can make your lines as thick or as thin as you want depending on the overall size of your mirror, but ours are about 1/4″ thick. So we cut 1/8″ on either side of the lines. Peel off all the lines to expose the mirror underneath.
Spray your mirror with a few coats of gold spray paint and top it off with a clear coat spray. Use the X-Acto knife to lift up the corners of your contact paper shapes and peel off each piece. I love this part of projects like this. There’s something so satisfying about peeling off each square to reveal the design, isn’t there? Once all the contact paper has been removed, you’re done!
This is the same process you would use to cut clear glass as well, so it’s great to have another DIY tool under my belt that I can use without being afraid. I think the final result of our mirror is adorable and looks totally profesh! It would also be fun to do with colored gem lines or make a group hanging with a few different shaped gems (like with an emerald shape and a radiant cut). Think you’ll have the courage now to try glass cutting? If I can do it, you can too! xo. Laura (+ Josh)
Credits // Author: Laura Gummerman and Josh Rhodes, Photography: Laura Gummerman and Janae Hardy. Photos edited with Stella from The Signature Collection.
Original article and pictures take abeautifulmess.com site
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