diy stained glass blog

Stained glass should be a must for all homeowners because it becomes an asset and keeps appreciating in value. stained glass can cut down the damage that comes from direct sunlight. Now, not all stained glass is of high enough quality to fit this category. Look for real lead, good theme, even lead lines and properly soldered joints (nice,even,uniform and proper joint coverage for strength). Don’t overlook old and damaged windows they can be restored good as new, using proper techniques you would never know it was broken and it usually can be done for penny on the dollar according to their value.

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The rules are easy,#1 if the window goes in a door add bars or build it out of zinc.#2 if the window is to cumbersome in size for you to pick up easily barr it. Better safe then sorry just do your best to shape or solder them so they don’t interfere with the appearance.

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Restoring and repairing stained glass are 2 different critters. I spoke earlier about repairing this is about proper restoration. First you have to be able to identify your glass, because this can take months if you don’t know exactly what your looking for. Some instances you can make it by fusing it and trying to manipulate it for texture or adding frit (powdered or crushed glass) but its best to get it identified that way you can look for it easier either online or by phone, but this only works if your know what your looking for. I have had to hunt for glass that hasn’t been made in over 200 years. Next is the lead most of it is still made somewhere but some old English profiles you might have to have custom made And some applied pieces you can mold and make yourself. Now you have to be able to match the mudd used to seal the glass into the lead, to me it’s important to match as exact as possible to 99 percent of most people they would never know what you used but I would and I believe that if you have to restore part of a larger set of windows you would want them to all react the same over time. Time that’s one more thing you need, take your time to disassemble properly so you don’t cause more work for yourself or further damage someones asset. Also do your best to make it look like the rest of the piece, blend it in properly the piece should look as if it was never repaired not just matching color and fixing a hole.

Have fun!

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There are several methods, the best is starting with a good design. Your structure should have proper corners and a basket weave done in your lead so as to reinforce each other also resist leaving points at the bottoms, the weight held above it tends to crack the glasses below them. Try and run them to a side lead or a lead that meets and runs below the point. The next method is using zinc to replace some or all of your lead, zinc is not as pliable as lead but can be formed with some special tools. Zinc comes in many forms to include the basic leads plus some with extra profiles to make it interesting. One more method to strengthen is to use a steel in a flat or round bar, this gives you great reinforcement but do not like to form well ( try and design these in from the beginning or you’ll hate yourself later) also there is a more pliable zinc coated flat bar out there DO NOT USE THIS, I have found that through time it expands and contracts much faster than the lead and break the solder joints loose which in my case is unbelievable I love to use my solder I load every joint to capacity and they still broke loose. some it was their coatings others they just pulled my window apart. Good luck and think ahead.

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Light boxes have many uses for stained glass. I cut my stained glass right over my pattern it keeps me from having to cut out and trace the pattern on top of the glass and then cut it out but there are some glasses that won’t let you see through them well enough and you have to cut the pattern, if you have a bright enough light there wont be many you have to do this with.
A light box helps with tracing if you have to do multiples of something and with copying,mimicking or mirroring an opposite side so you only have to draw half of a drawing.
My main box is 5ft by 8ft with a tempered glass top that if frosted on the bottom side to disperse light evenly and hinged doors both ends to change and maneuver lights for my needs

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To start with you can replace the broken pieces but unless you are very good at knowing the product it will look bad most of the time.
You should now your glass 1st of all because you need to get as close as possible to the original and what they make today isn’t what was made yesterday even if it is the same company batch they can look very different so do your best by eye try to get a look that is as close as possible. Next is getting it apart there are a number of ways to do this, I like a dremel tool with a small diamond impregnated disc. You have to take great care in your cut you need to know what and where you are cutting because you have to be able to get it apart without doing further damage and you need to be able to tell how it was built in order to make as few cuts as possible or you will turn it into junk with one slip or wrong cut. Now that it’s apart cut and shape your missing or broken piece to fit. Now you have to clean your joints to be soldered and you can’t clean them to much especially if the window was exposed to the outside on one side. I have found that the carbon from vehicles has saturated all of the windows now days and carbon is almost impossible to solder over well this is why you can’t clean them to much and also be careful of contaminating the next joint that you just cleaned or it’s a mess again. So if you reading this and not a professional do not do it, seek out a good long standing pro and give them the headache. Do not expect it to be cheap this usually takes longer than building a new window. Good luck to all you diys out there.

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I have to say lead is my choice I say this because I was trained in this art field (lead) first. I found it has a stable structure and a great look when finished properly. Lead is much more involved and difficult to master compared to Foil . Foil is very forgiving and helps hide mistakes and that’s the real problem the foil is not structural it is held together by adhering solder to the edges of the foil 1st by tinning the foil and then by joining them with the solder and ultimately stand a proud profile of solder along all of the joints to simulate lead. This configuration is not structural do not put it in as a standard window it will fail. The foil should only be used for small hobby projects.

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Bevels are a nice enhancement to any window and you have 2 ways to do it, the cheapest way is buying a mass produced cluster or premade design which to me are not the best of quality. The other is custom and if you can find a good deal it would still be at least .95 cents per inch of bevel needed. I love to do my own. If you learn this skill it opens a whole new direction for your art and optical illusions galore.

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You can fuse certain types of stained glasses the effects you get from the different textures are amazing and if you bevel your own pieces it’s a great addition to your window. The only rule is what ever glass you use make sure that it all comes from the same Mfg. This is because they all have different densities and there recipes are slightly different so if you mix them they will eventually crack.This is because they will expand and contract at slightly different rates and will make little fissures in the glass. Now having said that there are times when you might want that for design purposes. You should experiment and keep good accurate records so you can repeat your best performers.

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Cutting stained glass is relatively easy if you have the proper equipment and set it up properly. Now having said that relatively means from my perspective which will be different from yours as well as any other artist, everyone cuts different its just like writing everyone does it differently but usually we can all read what each other wrote. I use a table that is really a 4′x6′ light box with 6 double bulb florescent lights and the box is painted white on the inside. The top is a piece of 1/2″ thick tempered glass that’s been etched of frosted completely on the bottom or the part that faces down with the clear side up. The table height is 36″ . Now mine is a hand made product but you can get by a hundred different ways; the idea is to be able to have the light be able to penetrate your drawing and your stained glass and be able to see your lines to cut your glass. I cut this way to save time instead of drawing or cutting out patterns and tracing around them and then cutting the glass. I found this method to be the most accurate; also the table gives me a good look a at truer color shade and number my parts correctly because when you build on a plywood table the dark glasses can get mixed up and cause a time loss to correct if you don’t notice soon enough. I have my pattern on the table my choice of glass for the part to cut on top of my pattern (Note: Make sure you cut the right side of your glass, not all glass is smooth many have texture on both sides but if you compare them you’ll see that one side is usually smoother cut on this side unless your piece calls for the texture up then you just flip thee drawing and still cut smooth side up) I am ready to cut I cut using the slimmest narrowest cutter I can find that is brass with the ball at the end and a foam extra grip over the center These cost 35.00 or more no notches in it like traditional ones. I cut with holding the cutter basically across my palm with my first finger just behind the cutting wheel my thumb loose and my remaining fingers holding the shaft . I apply light but firm pressure and follow my pattern under the glass using my forefinger to navigate forward pushing my forefinger forward and along the pattern line just inside the line of what needs to be cut, making sure to stay right at the distance of half the width of the side of your cutter where the wheel attaches. Practice cutting by learning to keep your cutting wheel straight up and don’t lean and listen to the sound it makes it should be smooth scratching an even volume steady sound and that’s a proper score they break the best if you studder in any way you might have a problem and never rescore any line it usually wont work out either and break wrong. Breaking the glass is easy with a pair of rubber coated wide pliers that has a raised center line in the bottom arm of the pliers, place raised line under bottom side of score line and gently squeeze slowly until the glass breaks by the crack running up the line you scored. You cane break a wide enough piece like a cracker just slowly and evenly if you do it right it will take very little effort and you can see the crack run the score line. BEEEE PATIENT it will take some time to grasp but when your do it right it will seam effortless smooth and easy you’ll wonder why everyone doesn’t do their own glass work. Good luck oh yes one more thing, expect to get cut they usually  are very shallow and if your start to drop a piece Let it go don’t try and catch it,its a lot cheaper than stitches from a puncture and nothing is sharper. Now you need to practice straight lines until you can cut straight without a ruler beside your cutter. there is a feel to a cut and sooner or later you will be able to feel a straight line, the cutter wants to do this naturally after you do this for a while and can hand break without getting cut to bad. I seem to get cut on every window somehow all you have to do is gently try and snap your glass with the score line up and gently break like snapping a cracker in half  upwards. You can start curves, gentle curves  at first its not scoring that counts here it’s also getting the glass to break where you scored it one method is by scoring release cuts to the outside of your curve so you don’t have to break out such a drastic curve at once. Now in cutting a sharp curve you need to break the score line by gently tapping that little brass ball at the top of your cutter   from the bottom of your glass under the score line and watch it break and follow your score line. Then you cut relief cuts outward of your curve now gently tap these lines and finish breaking by hand. You can get to cutting out circles pretty quick it’s when you get into the compound curves to cut the mustard. Start with the deepest curve of your cut first and make sure you have extra glass room to over cut your corners so they break and leave a straight corner.

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