Stained Glass Day 2

So, on day two we began the copper foiling process. This was the easiest part of the whole process. Simply wrap a thin copper tape all around the edges of each peice of glass and make sure they fit back in your work board. I zoomed through this part which was good because I was behind after taking forever to grind. There were a lot of more experienced people in our class so I felt quite accomplished being one of the first ones done with this part!



Once all the peices were foiled you get to start using the soldering iron! Whoohoo! This is one part I really remembered and was excited about. I'm totally a pyromaniac.

Here you can see Chris dragging the iron like a pen along the edge of the foil joints between the glass and melting a long, thick, wire along the seam to join them. It was pretty awesome. Toxic chemicals are involved ("flux") and it's just plain entertaining to melt metal with a 700 degress pen.

Chris getting a little advice from our AWESOME instructor. Seriously, she was amazing. So skilled at all kinds of glass work, super easy to talk to, very good at teaching, and extrememly knowledgable. I was super impressed.

Our little home for the weekend and some of our classmates.

Post soldering we attached the frame, cleaned and waxed the glass and then we were done! Here's Chris' finished project! It's about 8x10. Kind of abstract-we're going to hang it in the window in his office :-)You can't imagine how proud we are! It took every minute of both days to finish these projects!

And here's mine! This will probably go over the kitchen window. Not sure when we'll get to use our new skill again but it was so much fun and I'm SO thankful for a sweet, thoughtful husband!!!

Stained Glass Day 1

**Life has been insane for the last couple weeks but that means I only have more to blog about now that I'm trying to catch up. So be prepared for a flurry of blog posts!**

So, back in 7th grade at Bryn Mawr I got to take an elective class in stained glass. I LOVED it! I loved Mr.Nelson, my earth science teacher, who taught it. I loved getting to cut, break, and grind glass and then use a 700 degree soldering iron to melt lead. It was AWESOME. So, I've been talking about it since then. So, being the sweetest husband ever, Chris paid attention and after probably a year since I'd last mentioned it, gave me a weekend workshop at a Stained Glass Studio for my birthday!! Not only did he give it to me, but he knows me well enough to know I would much rather do it with him. He also arranged the childcare for Ella (thanks Nancy!) So, a couple weeks ago the two of us set out for two 7 hr days of creating stained glass!


Our first step was learning different ways to break glass. This is a video of the table break-SO fun!

Next we learned to cut all of these shapes on this practice sheet. For some reason I could not get the arch shape very well but my first circle was decent. Chris did well with all of them :-)

Next we picked a pattern for our peice we'd work on all weekend and the glass to go in it. This took me HOURS. I'm not very decisive.

Then we lay out and number each peice of the "puzzle" that completes our pattern. Then you glue them to the right color glass and start cutting.


Then you have to create a work board and makes sure the peices you cut fit back in it and are square.

Chris hard at work on Day one. We got to the point of all of our peices being cut, grinding them to fit (this took me FOREVER because all my peices were curved which was a challenge), and getting them back into the "puzzle" on our workboard. Then home for the day! We got 3 cuts between us on day one but all were minor. Day two involves molten metal so y'all come back now, hear?