Saturday, February 9

Our Shot at Stained Glass

We love stained glass lamps.  Don't even ask how many we have right now.  Everytime my husband and I go to a furniture store, our eyes just bulge out when we see stained glass lamps.  Like what I said in another blog entry, DH and I have been studying the stained glass craft.  In the beginner's class, we learn the copper-foil way.





The first step is choosing the pattern, and cutting it.  That is easy.  Next comes cutting glass.  It was really a relief to learn how to do this part.  People often think that glass is so delicate to handle.  I figured that would be the culminating point of the study.  When I broke my first glass the right way, I was happy.  But then, along the way you realize that there are quite a few things to consider when cutting glass - from the type of glass, the thickness, the cutter you are using, the way you hold the cutter, how you apply pressure, and more.  After cutting comes the grinding to smoothen the sides.  That wasn't so bad.  The tricky part is making sure that the glass almost exactly takes the shape of a particular pattern piece.  Then you put the foil around each piece of glass, which you will see in the photo in this blog.  That's actually Duane's project.  I haven't foiled mine, yet.  Hehehe...

Next class, we'll learn how to put together each piece by soldering. 

I have no idea what happens after that.

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