Making glass paperweights & spheres

[Horus]

If anyone is interested in how to do this I will post some instructions:

Turn this (or any image you choose)


Into this:


Or maybe something like this:

[LovelyLadyLux]

Do you know one of my hobby's is collecting glass paperweights - real ones I love them. Don't have a bizzillion of them but I have a few that are hand blown and signed and a few that are old but I love the ones best that have flowers inside them.

Your spheres are beautiful too H!

NOW - you need to get a kiln or glass furnace going and start blowing some real ones

[Horus]

not sure I could make a real one

[Grandad]

That looks interesting H. Always ready to learn a new technique

[Kiya]

I haven't done anything or taking photos in ages so ready to learn something new Horus

[Horus]

Making Spheres in Elements

1. First of all select a suitable image, most will do, but flowers, Butterfly’s etc. are very good.

2. Open Elements, add your image and be in ‘Expert’ mode.

3. Use your square selection tool and pull a square across a suitable interesting area in the image.
( Note! you may have to choose the ‘square’ shape from the tool options menu at the bottom.)
(Also Note! If you don’t know already, you must hold down your ‘Shift’ key as you pull the square other wise it becomes a rectangle and they don’t work properly.)

4. This should leave you with a perfect square with the ‘Marching Ants’ all around it.

5. With the ants still visible, Go to ‘Edit’ and choose the option ‘Copy’

6. Now from your top menus choose ‘File’ > ‘New’ then ‘Image from Clipboard’

7. With this as your new image, now go to your top menu again and choose the ‘Filter option.

8. From the drop down menu choose the ‘Distort’ then ‘Polar Co-ordinates’ options.

9. From the next menu make sure you choose the ‘Polar to Rectangular’ option.

10. The next image will look very strange and distorted, but that’s OK.

11. Now go to your main menu again and choose ‘Image’ > ‘Rotate’ > 180 degrees and this will flip your distorted image upside down.

12. Now repeat the step ‘Filter’ > ‘Distort’ then ‘Polar Co-ordinates’ but this time ensure you choose the ‘Rectangular to Polar’ option instead.

13. To isolate your sphere from the background, use your ‘Magic Wand’ selection tool and set the tolerance very low, to about number 2, then select the outer background.

14. Next go to ‘Select’ on the main menu and ‘Inverse’ your selection.

15. Next you can either go to ‘Edit’ > then ‘Cut’ which will leave you with a chequered background which you can bucket fill with another colour, or you can choose to do an ‘Edit’ > then a ‘Copy’ and then open up a New Blank file and ‘Paste your ‘Copy’ into the new file, or again you could paste the copied sphere as many times as you like into another or several other images.

16. Alternatively you could create a new layer with a gradient as a background and position it under your ‘Cut’ layer that had the chequered background to create a different effect.

17. Also worth knowing is that when you have something copied onto the ‘Clipboard’ if you choose to open a ‘New Blank File’ instead of using ‘File’ > ‘New’ then ‘Image from Clipboard’ then the ‘New Blank File’ is always the size required to match any copied image on the ‘Clipboard’.

This should stop you getting bored for a few days, so off you go and experiment.

[Kiya]

Thanks printing out now & will try it later

[Horus]

Very good, just take your time and follow the instructions it is not a difficult exercise, but can be very usefull for other creations.

[Grandad]

As Horus said, this is not a difficult process; but I am certainly finding it a bit of fun.

I have deduced that the centre of your original picture becomes the outside edge of the 'Paper weight' and this can be used to create other than floral results. I have also found that to get the nicest looking result (something approaching Mirafiori) the original needs to have an all over distribution of colour.

This first effort is from a close up of autumn leaves which filled the frame. The colours then automatically gave a suitable frame colour.


This one is from a picture of Mrs G on her 70th holding some balloons with 70 on them. By positioning her head in the centre of the square selection it has move it to the outside in the final result. Don't tell her though because it is MOST unflattering. The cream 'curtains' are in fact the cream painted garden fence against which I took the original picture.


And this one is created by using four of the first attempt as a square collage and then giving it the 'treatment'


Still got a few things to try in an effort to create something different

PS: Don't forget the grid that Horus showed us in the past. Can be useful in positioning your subject........

[Kiya]

Have not tried the above tutorial yet..............late on Sat aftn our boiler broke down & water spewing out of it & lot's more spewing from my mouth

After speaking to engineers on the phone they couldn't send someone out till Sunday morning, even then they didn't have all the part's, they came back this morning Mon & wrong parts been sent, however they left us with two electric fan heaters which we get to keep after.

No heating & hot water is a real pain

On the plus side Roy decided on buying a new printer for me, it's a Epson XP-750 if you care to have a look at in Argos.........it 's better than me to say what all it does.
Having a play around with it it is super duper in printing out text & double sided also fast in printing out photos with good quality.

I will get back to the tutorial once I get my thinking head on

[Kiya]

Grandad just saw your post above after I submitted my own one.............. your trials are looking pretty good

[Grandad]

late on Sat aftn our boiler broke down & water spewing out of it & lot's more spewing from my mouth

Sounds like a job for JOJO

(If anyone remembers her exploits with her boiler some time ago)

[Horus]

I remember her exploits very well Grandad, if you remember after giving her the full instructions on what to do she went and stuck a screwdriver into it then ....................... blamed me for ever after for having done it!

Kiya you are not alone with your boiler problem mine went on the blink just before Christmas and it still isn't sorted. One of those weird faults where it works perfectly for days then plays up again, so now I hold the speed showering record as I never know at which point the water goes from nice and hot to freezing!

Grandad those are looking good and as you have found out each one will vary depending upon where you place stuff as your image and once you have the basic principle sorted it leaves lots to experiment with afterwards.

[Kiya]

I remember very well about JoJo & her boiler, don't worry I aint going to try anything she does I do miss my hot water & my baths though, just have to wait & see if they have the right stuff tomorrow.

Hope you get yours sorted soon Horus

Here is my first attempt rather quickly done I have noticed it's kinda rough round the edges

[Horus]

Nothing wrong with that Kiya, remember that they all turn out a bit different each time. You could try what I said about cutting it from the background (as explained near the bottom) and dont allow your 'Selection to have any 'Feather' to it, that way it stays sharp. Alternatively you can use your 'select' options to reduce your selection by a couple of pixels before making your 'cut' or 'copy' that will always sharpen up a blurry edge on your selection, but to be honest it looks OK to me.

[Kiya]

At last I've got back to this tutorial, the first one is a butterfly & changing background in all four corners

NO 1


The second one using a peachy coloured tulip & adding a gradient to background

NO 2


The third one is a photo/mistake with my camera, I think I showed it in recent months ? & using Layers/gradient

NO 3

[Horus]

All very impressive Kiya, looking good I especially like the Butterfly
Just one observation, are you deliberately resizing the image afterwards to get the eliptical shape? in other words is it intentional? I only mention it because you may have forgotten that in order to draw a perfect circle you must Hold Down your 'Shift' key (upwards pointing arrow) while you pull out your circle, otherwise it becomes an elipse and they do not always work out.

[Kiya]

I followed your tutorial to the end, the only thing I did was to crop NO 3 slightly because the green was over lapping the edge.

I used the " shift " key when I pulled out to get a square then worked from there.

Now I'm stuck where in the tutorial am I to pull out a " circle "

[Horus]

Sorry Kiya, that was a typo and I should have said 'square' although it does also work the same if you want a perfect circle as well as a perfect square.

[Kiya]

Sorry Kiya, that was a typo and I should have said 'square' although it does also work the same if you want a perfect circle as well as a perfect square.

OK all is forgiven I will try again with other photos