TRY A NEW CRAFT: Stained Glass at Stallings in Swartz Creek

Posted by Crystal

So, I've been trying a lot more artisan crafts lately.  Blockprinting.  Glass mosaics.  And now, stained glass.

I fell in love with glass during my glass mosaics class at the Flint Institute of Arts.  I finished my glass mosaic tray and will post pictures of it very soon.

But first, I want to tell you about my new craft!  I signed up for a 4 week course at Stallings Stained Glass in Swartz Creek just west of Flint.  Our first project is a Victorian Suncatcher.

I used a lightbox to trace the pattern onto my glass.  A suncatcher pattern was provided for this class, but you could draw your own.  It's important think carefully about where you want to place your pattern under the glass because the color variations in the glass can be an integral part of the design.

I used cutters, braker/grozers and running pliers to cut the shapes out.  It's a good idea to cut the pieces into rectangles first and then cut out the shapes.

Starting at the top, pin the pieces into place as you work your way down.  The pattern is pinned to a work board to keep everything in place.  I know that this picture doesn't describe these steps exactly, but you get the idea.

If the pieces have jagged edges or don't fit together well, just grind them into shape.

Finally, all the pieces are pinned into place.  Next step: Soldering!  Stay tuned.... 

TRY A NEW CRAFT: Glass Mosaics at FIA Art School!

Posted by Crystal

For the next 8 weeks, I am taking a class at the FIA Art School on Glass Mosaics.  Our first class on June 8 was amazing!

I took various scraps of turquoise, green and white glass (shown around the edges in the picture above) and used the tools to cut small rectangular tiles (shown in the center of the picture above).

These are the tools we used: (l-r) glass cutter, running pliers, nippers, and pliers.  The glass cutter resembles and exacto knife and it used like a pencil to score the glass.  The running pliers are used to snap a piece of glass in half along a straight score line made by the glass cutter.  The nippers are used to nip irregular shaped pieces of glass from the edges of larger pieces of glass.  The pliers are used to break apart pieces of glass that have a non-linear score line or that aren't quite large enough to work with the running pliers.

I'm using the running pliers to snap a piece of glass in half that I already scored with the glass cutter that's sitting on the table. 

This is the grinder. If your glass doesn't break cleanly and there are some jagged edges, you can use the diamond bit grinder with water to sand down the sharp or uneven sides.

 

At the end of the 3 hour class, I had a ton of new knowledge from our instructor, Amy Black, as well as a small container of rectangular tiles and a bunch of pieces selected to cut next week.  At the last minute, I saw the red glass and thought about adding it to the turquoise, green and white for an extra pop of color.

So, what do you think, blog readers?  Should I use the red glass?  :)