Cordwood/blown glass window

Hey, wrap your imaginations around this- just got finished ripping out an old men's/women's bathroom in a former petting zoo. The new owners (glass blowers) are repurposing the building into a cedar sauna, and the whole firgging farm may just become my little giant pet project mwuhuhahahahdigress, etc. Anyway, the two windows on the south side are rotted to garbage, but the framing is good, so my idea is this- put down a chicken wire base and use smaller diameter cedar and castoff colored glass rodstock to make a tightly sealed, light-accessible "masonry window". Tell me why it won't work, or how I could royally noss this up; I wanna make it a pretty. I'm thinking of trying to incorporate the Hamsa bead design as well, so any creative input is appreciated. Thankee, thankee, it's nice to be hither.

http://www.google.com/search?q=turkish+blue+eye&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAWoVChMI0_Dsso-lxwIVi1mSCh046Qka&biw=768&bih=928

Ben : Second post, glad to have you here. Because I don't know if you have seen these links I am sending them, to help you navigate our site
and Connect with your Fellow Members

https://permies.com/t/43625/introductions/Universal
https://permies.com/t/34193/tnk/permies-works-links-threads

When using google to search for a topic I like to use a phrase like " Windows in cordwood pictures " Or ''Grey water plants images'' This is often
a more powerful way to find a site to click-on for more information

And this one just for fun ! When the shutters are lowered they are painted to look like a pile of wood, sneaky !

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8js6dFOT6Xc/S-ag_bdYRaI/AAAAAAAAACE/-aWNaTYnmQE/s1600/logcabin03.jpg
http://www.maisoncube.com/petite-maison-bois

Rob Roy a fellow Member here at Permies is an extensive builder of cordwood and partially buried (underground ) Cord wood houses and writes
extensively and gives workshops near here !

He uses glass cutters to cut around the fat part of the bottle -near the neck and uses regular flashing to wrap around the outside of two of them
so he ends up with a mostly class cylinder with solid ends this combination seems to pass through the largest amount of light !

Good Luck, be sure to come back here and share your results ( Pictures too if possible ) For the Crafts- Big AL

Cool, thanks, Allen. Since I posted this thread, I've started wondering about the expansion/contraction issue. If the sauna is sitting pretty at 100 degrees, and the Wisconsin winter outside is at a negative, call it neg 10 or so, will this pose problems? Cracks in the mortar must not be suffered to abide...

...my idea is this- put down a chicken wire base and use smaller diameter cedar and castoff colored glass rod stock to make a tightly sealed, light-accessible "masonry window". Tell me why it won't work, or how I could royally noss this up; I wanna make it a pretty. I'm thinking of trying to incorporate the Hamsa bead design as well, so any creative input is appreciated. Thankee, thankee, it's nice to be hither...

Hi Ben,

To the first part...I think it can be "made to work." I am not keen on "making things work," (per se) on most things that could work better another way.

However, when we get into the "creative stuff" and fenestration methods are chuck full of them...then that is another matter...

So I say...go for it!

Rob and I correspond ever so often usually these days about stone and other such things...so I would check out his work too.

What I would change about your concept...

No chicken wire...irons, thermal gradient changes and interstitial moisture (later rust jacking) all are an issue with metal inside any type of masonry. Its done all the time...and it is evident everywhere why it's not a good idea with spalling concrete, rust stains and the related...I do think a fiber additive could be indeed benefit the matrix...

I think you could even get away with just a straight cob mix on this, but without cross sectional blueprint elevation details of the opening, wall section, and other points of interest, I couldn't give better advice than I have thus far...The thermal extremes between inside and out could offer some challenges in the way of gaps and fissures...but nothing that couldn't be address in good order, and is part of "setting in" and "curing" for such features as this...A little oakum and flax oil would caulk thing good and tight...

Good luck and let us see some pictures...or please do ask more questions if you have them...

Regards,

j