The Omnifarium - Stained Glass

New Web Site Section

Category: Stained Glass
Mon, 31 Dec 2007, 11:39

I've taken some of the material on this blog to create a new fixed section of this web site. Check out Stained Glass.

Hans

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Crystal

Category: Stained Glass
Mon, 26 Nov 2007, 11:34

I'm getting to like doing 3D pieces. Here's my latest effort:

Assembly was similar to the Octahedron I did before, but just a little bit more complicated. This time, there are six triangular pieces. Note that the triangles cannot be equilateral triangles. To tape the pieces together, I started with the short edges lined up in a straight line. I then folded the top and botton corners together. During the soldering step, I found it useful to support the piece with my roll of duct tape.

I've been putting off completion of a votive candle holder. I suppose it's time I got back to that project. But I rather enjoy doing these geometric shapes.

Hans

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November Update

Category: Stained Glass
Tue, 20 Nov 2007, 14:55

Here's what my workbench looked like this morning. There are pieces for two different projects here. Foiling is rather boring, so it took me a while to finish that step. But that's done now, and it's now on to the soldering.

First, I'll finish a simple octahedron just to get something done. The octahedron project consists of four equilateral triangles which will be attached to each other at the corners. After foiling, the pieces are laid out as in the following photo, with three corners attached with duct tape:

The pieces are then folded up, and the three upper corners are taped:

Next, I carefully remove the tape for one corner and tack the two pieces together with my soldering iron. Then I repeat for the other five corners. This is what I had after this step:

What follows next is standard beading along the edges and finishing as with any other stained glass project. Here's the final result:

Nice, eh? This is a simple project I took on mainly to give me some practice in three dimensions. Now, I'll have to get back to the bigger project that I started before the octahedron, a votive holder consisting of 21 pieces of glass. Perhaps that was a bit too ambitious for this beginner, but what the heck. You've got to learn by doing, right? In the future, I'd like to try more 3D pieces. For example, I'd like to do a more ambitious piece where each of 12 pieces forms one edge in an octahdron. But Christmas is approaching and I need to make Christmas presents. Oops! Now my peeps know what they're getting!

Hans

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Butterfly

Category: Stained Glass
Thu, 25 Oct 2007, 09:52

I didn't get a lot done last week since I got hit with that cold that's running around. But I did finish my first stained glass project, a simple butterfly.

Hans

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Introduction

Category: Stained Glass
Thu, 11 Oct 2007, 14:11

For a while, I've been interested in stained glass as a creative hobby, but was always intimidated by the skills needed. But this year, Sylvana signed me up for a course, and so now I'm taking the plunge. This section of my blog is intended to document my efforts in learning about stained glass. I plan to write about the tips I learn, as well as current projects.

My class meets once a week at the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre in Scarborough. At first, there were seven students, but three got turned off by the cost involved and dropped out immediately. Cost is certainly an issue since you need a number of tools specific to the craft. These include a soldering iron and a glass cutter. A grinder is also needed and is the most expensive of all the tools, but before making that commitment, we can use the grinder at Cedar Ridge.

Courses are also available at the local stained glass store, Glass Images, which provides a 10% discount to anyone taking a course in stained glass, including courses held elsewhere. When I bought my tools and supplies there, the sales person was very helpful, and answered all my questions. She even filled my glass cutter with oil, and engraved my cutter with my initials!

At this weeks class, we practised cutting glass. Personally, I expected this to be the most difficult aspect of the craft, but I had little trouble, even with breaking apart pieces of glass with my hands. We started with clear window glass, which easily broke apart cleanly. It takes a bit of a knack, though. The action needed is a combination of flexing the glass and pulling it apart. Cutting colored glass was a little bit more difficult, but still not as bad as I had first expected. During the class, I don't think I made any mistakes, even with more difficult inside curves.

Next week we get to foiling and soldering the glass pieces. I decided to start with an easy project, a butterfly consisting of five pieces of glass. I'll post a photo when I'm done. Later, I hope to try my hand at three-dimensional pieces.

Hans

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