1. STAINED GLASS Basics  Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece.

2. History  Colored glass has been produced since ancient times. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at the manufacture of small colored glass objects.  During the late Medieval Ages, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential material for glass manufacture.  Stained glass, as an art form, reached its height in the Middle Ages when it became a major pictorial form used to illustrate the narratives of the Bible to a largely illiterate populace.

3. Tools  Glass Cutter:

4. Tools Breaker-grozer Pliers: “Must-have" tool Their primary function is to grasp the glass securely on one side of a score when breaking it apart. Both jaws have serrated teeth to assist in their other duty, called grozing, which involves removing small bits of glass from an irregular edge.

5. Tools  Glass Grinder: Diamond embedded grinding head, which rotates in a reservoir of coolant (water). The coolant reduces chipping and helps eliminate harmful glass dust. The use of a grinder will instantly increase the quality of your work while reducing the frustration.

6. Tools  Fid: This tool is used to burnish (flatten) the foil to the glass edges, among other uses.

7. Materials  Copper Foil Tape: This is very thin sheet-copper with a sticky-tape back. It is wrapped around the outside edges of the glass pieces as a soldering base. The width of the foil used must be matched to the thickness of the glass being wrapped, to allow a minimum 1/32" overhang that is folded down onto both the top and bottom glass surfaces.

8. Materials  Solder: Solder is an alloy (mixture) of metals. It melts at relatively low heat and readily fastens one metal to another. The common Tin/Lead alloys used in glass crafting are 60/40 (60% tin / 40% lead) and 50/50 (50% tin / 50% lead).

9. Materials  Flux: Flux is a chemical used to deoxidize and clean the copper foil tape. "think about safety" and exercise great care when using flux, as it is a corrosive chemical.

10. What Skills Do You Already Have?  Designing  Cutting  Arranging What Skills Will You Have To Continue To Practice?  Designing a pattern and using it  Cutting organic shapes  Arranging ON the pattern  Designing, Cutting, and Arranging for PERFECT FIT What Skills Will You Have To Develop?  Grinding  Foiling  Soldering

11. Steps Pattern Making: After you are confident with your glass scoring and breaking skills, choose a novice skill level pattern for your first project. We will be using a feather (but you can find thousands of stained glass designs available in books as full- size patterns, complete and ready to use online). After designing, number each piece to keep track of your pattern pieces and indicate the color and line/texture direction of the glass for each piece. Then simply make two copies of the original design. The final step is to cut one copy of the pattern into the actual templates for glass cutting.

12. Steps SCORING THE GLASS

13. Steps BREAK OUT THE SCORE

15. Steps  Fitting and Shaping: Using the pattern you have tacked down on your soldering board and your cut out pattern pieces, mark all areas that are over the line with your marker, then take that piece to the grinder and selectively remove the extra glass.  Place the piece back into the pins on your board, position an adjacent piece, and repeat until all pieces fit as accurately as possible.

17. Steps Foil Wrapping: Before starting the foil wrapping process, each piece of glass (and your hands) must be clean. Pull a length of foil tape from the roll and peel back a bit of the protective paper backing (but leave it attached – don’t tear off). Press the sticky end of the foil firmly onto the glass edge, leaving exactly the same amount of overhang on either side. Peel slightly more backing, move further along the piece and press the foil to the edge, peel more backing and press firmly as you continue around the glass. When you get back to the starting point, cut or tear the foil, leaving enough length to overlap the two ends at least 1/4".

19. Steps Foil Wrapping: Crimp (fold) the foil down over the glass edges with your thumb and index finger by pinching and pressing toward the center. Wrap and crimp all glass pieces in the project. Finally, burnish the foil tightly against the glass on both front and back sides using the rounded edge of your fid to ensure that the foil does not pull away from the glass. When all pieces have been foiled and burnished smooth, place them back into the assembly jig where they should be snug but not bulging. Do a final quality check and make any last minute adjustments.

22. Steps Soldering: All foiled joints must be completely soldered (not just at the corners) to create the metal web which will hold the project together. Soldering begins by brushing flux on the foil seams. Now, with the hot soldering iron in one hand and solder in the other, place the iron tip directly on a foil seam and touch the solder to the top surface of the iron tip. The solder will immediately melt and coat the foil under the iron tip.

24. Steps Soldering: Move the iron slowly along the seam, continuously adding more solder, filling gaps and covering the foil as you go. The idea is to build up solder on the seams until it forms a rounded bead. When you have finished one side, remove the assembly jig, turn the project over and completely solder the back side. All exposed foil must be coated with solder, including the outer edge.

26. Steps Cleaning: Thoroughly clean your project with soap and water, and carefully dry. Handling: ALWAYS wash your hands after handling any stained glass work. (Lead solder anyone?)

27. Stained Glass Feathers

33. What Skills Do You Already Have?  Designing  Cutting  Arranging What Skills Will You Have To Continue To Practice?  Designing a pattern and using it  Cutting organic shapes  Arranging ON the pattern  Designing, Cutting, and Arranging for PERFECT FIT What Skills Will You Have To Develop?  Grinding  Foiling  Soldering

34. Basic Steps: 1. Choose an existing feather pattern 2. Number and label each piece with color and line direction 3. Labels both copies identically (or make a photocopy) 4. Pin one copy to your soldering board 5. Cut the individual pattern pieces out of the other copy 6. Trace each pattern piece onto the correct glass, check for lines going the right direction 7. Cut out each piece (remember with organic shapes especially, you may have to make may cuts per edge) 8. Use the pattern and redraw to find any extra that has to be ground off 9. Use the glass grinder to perfect pieces 10. Clean all pieces 11. Foil pieces 12. Fit together on board again 13. Solder 14. Clean 15. Hang