Stained Glass Class! - Flower Panel

The next project in stained glass class was creating a glass panel.  I got to choose from various design options, and then took those designs to the stained glass store in Frederick to get supplies - glass for the piece, solder, and copper foil. Glass shopping becomes ridiculously absorbing as you ponder color, texture, and opacity, along with how the colors all look together.  

Armed with supplies, at the next class we set up our boards (wooden borders held in place with pushpins around the paper design) and started cutting and grinding.  I made what looked like good progress in that class - progress that ended up being deceiving. Many of my shapes were close-ish to correct, but you can't fudge the fit for a panel as much as you can in a suncatcher, as it all has to end up in that square space somehow.    

Progress!  Note original blue color
the top right corner

I did like the deep red I selected for the flower, and the texture of the green leaves.  I wasn't in love with the blue - it didn't quite fit - but I was at peace with that.  

What I hadn't counted upon was breaking the remaining blue glass, meaning I didn't have enough to fill in the background.  

The teacher saved the day by volunteering a piece of glass from her stash.  And so the tulip in the sun image became more a tulip in the rain.  

Checking out how the
new glass will look

The new blue and clear glass ended up working well.  And I managed to get all the pieces cut to more-or-less the right shapes.  But my tendency to err on leaving things too big showed in the lots and lots and lots of edge grinding to get all the pieces to actually fit in the frame.  

The teacher assisted with some expert cutting, and eventually, all the pieces fit and I got to take my board home, where at my leisure, I foiled each pieces. Copper foil comes in rolls with one side sticky, so you simply press it onto the piece, hoping to keep it as centered as possible, and then press the edges down.  The copper gives the solder something to stick to.  

Pieces fit into the frame and foiled!

During the last class, we all returned with our freshly foiled pieces and soldered our hearts out.  I managed, of course, to burn my finger once (the glass heats up in the process).  My piece has very thick solder lines because of some large gaps (filled first with extra foil), but solder covers a great many ills and it ended up being fine.  Once front and back were soldered, the teacher helped up add frames (mitreing the edges and sliding them on) and hanging hooks, and voila! I was able to take the finished piece home and hang it in my kitchen window. 

I have a new respect for how labor intensive stained glass work is.  Happily, sun through glass is always pretty, and distracts lumpy solder and other imperfections.  I'm pondering future projects and whether I should invest in a glass grinder of my very own -- but have resolved that first, I need to complete my other class I took this winter: Introduction to Woodworking.  More on those projects next.