Hey Blog! I seem to be making a habit of writing about different types of making, because this is on the subject of stained glass. Not something I’ve done before, but something I have now tried and found is rather beautiful!
Stained glass is just that – glass, stained different colours, and arranged into a pretty pattern. Simple in theory, but difficult in practice. Rather like a mosaic. And it isn’t just like your normal window glass, this is specially prepared in all sorts of colours, some of it with patterns on the surface to refract the light. While it all used to be very difficult to make by hand – and still is – this is all done by machine now, allowing those who use it to concentrate on arranging and decorating with it.
The trick is to cut the glass and then stick the bits together, which is tricky, because while glass can melt and fuse – if you’ve ever seen a melted bottle from where a fire was you’ll know – it needs a lot of heat and that is not very practical. Looking at church windows, you’ll see little grey lines, like crazy paving, from the outside. These are between the pieces of glass to stick them together, and are made of lead. Pb, atomic number 82. Poisonous if ingested. Nowadays, we use solder, which is a mixture of tin and lead; they’re both in the same group (column) of the periodic table, so share properties, which makes them ideal to use together. The thing about lead or solder is that it melts at a low temperature, and sticks to other metals, though not aluminium – might need to investigate that. But it does stick to copper, and it is copper that I used for the pieces I made.
The steps to make stained glass are as follows: come up with a design, then find which pieces of glass suit it and score along the lines you want to cut. Use a funky tool which bends the glass along the score line to snap the piece into shape, and then round the sharp edges produced by the snap with abrasive pads. Make sure to do this in water or you will produce glass dust, which is like fibreglass and will stick in your lungs, causing long term harm if inhaled over a long period. Clean the glass with soap and keep your fingers off the edges, which need to be very clean to stick. Prepare a length of copper tape – like the stuff used to keep slugs off the garden – and stick it round the glass. Do this to two or three pieces, and you’re ready to attach them.
Soldering is the riskiest and hardest part. Hot soldering irons are good at melting solder to stick to the copper tape, but can also melt fingers if held too near. Be sure to add plenty of flux – a mixture that removes impurities from metal – on the soldering iron, and the copper tape. Simply pick up a bead of solder and dab it on to the join between two pieces of glass, then leave it for a second until it’s cooled and fused. Repeat and run the iron along to make a smooth join. Keep going as many times as necessary to make the design you want. It’s rather complicated.
Remember I said that you see the grey lines from the outside? That’s because from the inside, your attention is captured by the colours seen through the glass. It’s still transparent, and therefore should be hung in front of a light source – preferably a window – to show best effect. And there’s another little craft that I’ve had some experience in. Wonder which one’s next?
