STAINED GLASS
The first step in creating a beautiful piece of stained glass art is coming up with a design. Using design software expedites this process and ensures precise lines and even symmetry. Once we have a physical copy of our design, we cut out each piece of our pattern, and use them as a stencil to transfer our design to our selected glass
Next, each piece of glass is carefully scored and broken to match our pattern as close as possible. Once all of our glass has been cut, we can grind all of our cut edges down until they are neat and smooth.
We now proceed to wrap each of our cut and ground pieces in copper foil tape. It is important to take care when taping and burnishing during this step as later on when we solder the piece together, the solder will stick to the copper foil drawing attention to any imperfections there may be.
Now that all of our prep work is complete, the soldering can begin! We start by tacking the piece together at the joints so nothing gets moved out of place by accident. Once tacking is complete we get to work running a nice, smooth bead of solder along all of our foiled edges.
Now that the piece has been soldered front and back, we can either leave the edges of our design "tinned" with solder, or we can add a zinc or lead frame for extra support.
Once no more soldering is required, we can move on to finishing the piece. The solder lines can either be left their natural silver, or we can add a black or copper patina. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, adding a patina can also help protect against unwanted oxidization in the future.
The final step for each of our pieces is to seal our work with a stained glass finishing compound. Using a microfiber cloth we spread a thin layer over all surfaces of out piece, waiting a few minutes until it dries. We then buff our piece to a high shine leaving a bright, durable finish that we can enjoy for years to come!
