52 Weeks of Art: Week 10

Week 10: Stained Glass

Welcome to week 10 of 52 weeks of art! What are we doing this week?

     I really don't know what I was thinking with this one. Tiny stained glass? Ugh. I'm sure you've seen some beautiful stained glass works of art. If you haven't, here's some amazing examples of stained glass. Also, how have you not seen stained glass? It's beautiful and it's everywhere!

This beauty is in Church of Notre-Dame au Sablon, Brussels, Belgium. Found this photo here.

Tiffany lamps. Found these here.

     So, stained glass is just pieces of glass that are cut into shapes and soldered together. I know, that sounds so simple, right? Well, let me tell you, it. Is. NOT.

     I have dabbled in the art of stained glass a time or two. Made a few things. NOTHING quite like the examples above. Oh no, that takes some real talent.

     Stained glass isn't something you can just decide to do on a whim. You absolutely have to have all the right equipment. Luckily, I already had most of the things I needed. Phew. If I would have had to purchase everything, stained glass would not be a part of this art adventure - it's expensive! 

      There's a whole list of things you need just to get started:

• Glass (obviously)
• Soldering Iron
• Solder
• Flux
• Flux Brush
• Copper Foil
• Glass Cutter
• Pliers
• Glass Grinder/File
• Gloves (I did not use any. I should have.)
• Patience
• First Aid Kit

     I think I got everything that should be on the list. I may or may not have left something out. Who knows. I recommend using some gloves. I sliced my finger open pretty good. Then my thumb. And then my thumb again. And I still didn't wear gloves. After I asked The Oldest for the second band aide she just brought me the whole first aid kit. Kids are the best, right?

     Okay, first thing I needed to do was come up with a design. I wanted to do something simple. Something abstract. Lots of straight lines and not too difficult. The Oldest told me that I needed to push myself, make something a little more. Ugh. I listened to her. 

Here's what I came up with:

That's a tree, in case you can't tell.

     So, after I designed my tree, I traced it onto some tracing paper. That way I could cut out pieces of the tracing paper to use as a template for the glass. And here is the last photo I took of the glass cutting process. I got a little too involved in the whole thing. Also, you know, cutting myself, band aides, etc.

Cutting one piece at a time.

    And here we have all the pieces cut out and wrapped in copper foil. I don't know if you noticed here or not, but this looks nothing like what I had drawn originally. It wasn't turning out as square as I would have liked, so I improvised and had the tree branches extending out. I also added a piece of wire to the top so that I could hang it, or something. That was the plan. Until the wire came out and it did not work for me at all. 

Getting ready to solder the whole thing together.

Here we have the front side of the piece soldered together.

     And here is the finished piece! The wire came out. So, I stole  borrowed a tiny little easel from the Little One to display it.

Done! All cleaned up and looking good.

     I put it in my kitchen window so you could see the light shining through it. You can see my neighbors house and my car. Just ignore those things and look at the stained glass tree.

Light shining through the tree.

     

On to rating stained glass ..

     Just a reminder on the criteria for rating each medium.

Ease of use: How easy was this medium to use.

Affordability: How affordable supplies are for each medium.

Accessibility: How easily accessible supplies are for each medium. Example, are specific tools required that are hard to find?

Fun to Use: How much enjoyment I got out of using this medium

     So, for stained glass, my rating is: 9

Ease of use: 2

    Stained glass is not an easy medium. It's also pretty dangerous if you're not careful. Remember, glass is sharp!

Affordability: 2

     Glass is not cheap. And you also need so many other things to make stained glass.

Accessibility: 2

     Thank you Amazon! You can get pretty much everything you need there. I would recommend going to a stained glass studio to buy glass, though. Unless you're going to be using tiny pieces, buying online probably isn't the best way to get your glass.

Fun to Use: 3

     Stained glass is fun. It's also frustrating and time consuming. Cutting out all my glass pieces took 5 hours. Soldering took me almost another hour. Trying to get your pieces to be the exact size you need can be frustrating. But, seeing the overall finished piece is exciting.

     If you would like to go on this epic art adventure with me, next week we will be doing...

     If you choose to follow along, please post your work using #52weekartadventure!