Making stained glass is hard work and fun

If you can find a stained glass workshop or course nearby, it might go something like this:

Your nice teacher is supposed to offer you a choice of two VERY SIMPLE designs but allows the students to select more advanced designs. We are all thrilled. Each student received a mixed package of glass, and we traded among each other if certain colors were sought.

You are instructed to decide about colors for each part of your design and learn several techniques for cutting glass to approximate the shape you want. You make lots of novice errors, but your nice teacher encourages you. Then you learn how to grind the edges of the glass pieces so they fit well together. If you are not a perfectionist, you piece may be slightly lumpy.

Once all the pieces are cut, ground, and assembled, you learn how to wrap each piece with copper tape. There are more technical terms for all of this, but I didn’t take notes. I was busy wearing safety glasses over my regular glasses and wearing gloves!

At this point, the class time is done and you have to return another day to finish. The teacher’s boss says, “this is why newbies are supposed to do a simple project first!” Our incomplete designs are safely stored and I finished mine two days later. 

Next, you apply a special liquid to the copper tape. Finally, you get to solder! I was pretty nervous at first, but it got to be fun. I mean, holding a thin tube of metal to the soldering iron and watching drops of molten metal fall is cool! Well, hot. You know.

First, drops of solder are placed at each corner to keep the pieces together. Then, strips of melted metal are created between each piece of glass, either in smooth lines or by combining a bunch of drops. I like how mistakes can simply be melted together and it looks ok! Now, I am not working for Tiffany or anything. My heart came out a bit wobbly, but isn’t that what life is all about? Finally, an optional liquid is applied to make the bright solder look antique. That was fun!