Stained Glass Blob Blues

I went back to class with the same teacher to learn how to make a stained glass window. It's really not a huge leap from grout to soldering but it is more difficult. BTW, there is some discussion about if the word is soddering or soldering. I am guilty of saying soddering but I just have to remember this Urban Dictionary entry and I'll never forget. Ow!

Here is my first stained glass piece done in the Tiffany style:

I took off the frame to show you the edges so I can try my very best to explain this process. Unfortunately I don't have the equipment to show you what I had to do to make this but I can google an example.

To begin with I had to cut all these separate pieces and try to get them to match. The lower petals of the flower and the white pieces filling it in were a bitch to cut. They had to fit like a puzzle. A perfect puzzle. At least to my standards. When I was done using the glass grinder, I was almost in tears because my pieces looked like I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The teacher promised me the soldering would be kind but I know I could have done better. Someday I may be able to make stained glass church windows but not without many good cries inside the church itself.

Soldering looks like this: (This illustration is from Lancaster Stained Glass.)

Each piece of glass has been taped with a kind of copper foil amd then a flux was painted on. The blue tape here is just used to hold each piece together as the person soldering uses the hot soldering iron mixes the foil with the roll of wire. This part of the process is easy but mistakes can still happen. If you heat the glass to much it explodes. If you fret over the soldering to much it looks burnt. Hence the title of this post. I left giant blobs between my pieces of glass. I wish the blobs hadn't been so blobby but, again, like I said in my very first post in this blog, I suppose it's all in the eye of the beholder. It may look okay to some and could be a design choice but I would have chosen to thin out the blobs.


Here's where I cheated on this project and I'll admit to it. Once I was done soldering, it was all silver and shiny. I painted the patina on so it looked older. This design choice made it all come together nicely:



Here is my finished piece again catching some sun:


Blobby or not, I like it. Like someone said in class, it looks like an old fashioned quilt square. I love the colors I used. I can't wait until I get to try making another stained glass piece. I have one more to show you in a future blog and I hope there will be more to come.