How to Make Stained Glass

If you're interested in learning how to make stained glass, be prepared: this hobby, while creative and fulfilling, can get expensive quickly. The good news is, once you've purchased the basic tools for the trade, you'll have nearly everything you need to see you through hundreds of decorative stained glass projects to come.

Look for beginner stained glass kits to get started and if possible, sign up for an introductory class or workshop to ensure you learn the best and safest techniques for glass cutting.

Brief History of Stained Glass
Up until the 1500s, most stained glass was placed in churches, specifically Catholic churches. During the Reformation, the use of stained glass declined as designs, even religious designs, became less popular and during the French Revolution, much of the glass that belonged to the nobility was destroyed.

It wasn't until the 1800s that stained glass came back into favor and then the United States became a home to decorative stained glass art pieces. Designers such as John La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, of the jewelry family of the same name, created beautiful Art Nouveau stained glass art that is still highly prized today.

During the 20^th century, the building of new churches declined and with that decline came fewer traditional commissioned pieces. Craftsmen were more likely to design stained glass pieces for corporations which led to the rise of more modern and streamlined designs that we're familiar with today.

Choose a Project and Pattern
Although you'll need the same basic tools to make a stained glass window panel as you would a stained glass sun catcher, it's the design pattern you choose for your project that will drive the materials you need.

Beginners would do well to keep it simple-straight lines are easier to cut than curved-and consider a practice run with clear glass before cutting straight into sheets of colored glass intended for the project. Once you've found (or drawn) the pattern you'd like to use, you'll need to adjust to it to be an exact fit for the size of your project.

Make several copies of your pattern and, using colored pencils or an electronic scan and photo-editing software, experiment with different color combinations and pattern repeats before purchasing your glass. You'll get a better sense of what your initial color choices look like when they're applied to the design and make your mistakes on paper rather with your glass.

Choose Your Glass
You have three basic glass types to choose from when you go shopping for your supplies: cathedral, sheet antique and opalescent.

Cathedral glass. May be a single color or multicolored (called streaky cathedral glass) and semi-transparent or transparent. Sometimes has a textured surface.

Sheet antique. Sometimes called full antique, this glass is made the old-fashioned way-it's blown. The result is glass with varying thickness within a single sheet, which in turn, allows different levels of light to come through the glass. Available in a number of colors, sheet antique is transparent and has a fire-polished finish.

Opalescent glass. This glass has a "milky" appearance regardless of the color. Sometimes, several colors are swirled together within a sheet.

Get the Right Tools and Supplies
You'll need several tools to make your stained glass and assembling the lot of them can run you a significant amount of money. If you buy for quality however, your tools will last a long time and pay for themselves over the course of your projects.

There are stained glass kits available if you would like to have your supplies all ready for you. These kits range from the basic tools that you might need in a project to kits that include pre-cut glass.

Among the basic supplies that you will need are:

• Soldering iron
• Glass pliers
• Glass cutter
• Glass grinder
• Glass marking pens
• Glass pattern shears
• Working Board
• Lathekin
• Pins
• Copper foil tape
• Flux and brush
• Solder
• Gloves
• Safety glasses
• Glass

Prepare the Glass
Make two copies of your pattern design and number the pieces on both copies. Then, cut out the pieces from one of your patterns (use the other as a guide or failsafe if you happen to lose any of your cut pieces).

Next, you'll trace your pattern pieces onto your glass. Use a grease pencil to number the glass sections to correspond to your template.

The next step is to score the pieces along the traced lines with your glass cutter. Once all of the pieces have been scored, break them apart gently with gloved hands or a pair of glass pliers. Secure each piece into the pattern formation by placing pins around the edges to keep the pieces from moving.

When you've completed these steps, compare your work to your pattern. If you find any jagged edges of pieces that are larger than your pattern, mark them with the grease pencil and use a glass grinder to obtain smooth edges and the correct size.

Soldering and Finishing
Once your design is finalized and you're satisfied with your cuts, take care to clean each piece of glass before you begin soldering them together. Solder won't adhere to glass, so you'll use copper foil to wrap the edges of each piece of glass, making sure it overlaps evenly on each side of the glass. Use a lathekin to smooth the foil so it's completely flat, with no ridges or bunching. Pin each piece of glass back into place after foiling.

Next, you'll need to apply flux, which is a chemical formula that cleans the foil tape to prep it for soldering. Use a small brush to cover all of the foil seams, then place the tip of your soldering iron on the seam. Slowly feed more solder onto the foil as you fill in any gaps and cover the foil completely. Don't forget to solder the outer edges too.

Once you've soldered the first side of your design, turn your project over and repeat the process on the opposite side. If you like, you can use an antique patina to give your project a finer, more professional finish. Always follow the package directions exactly.