Does this scene look a little familiar? It
should if you have traveled from Gatlinburg, Tn
to Cherokee, NC on Highway 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains.
This photo of "The Chimneys" taken along that route while making a trip though
the National
Park and became the inspiration for a stained glass design.
What we hope to do on this page is show you most of the steps in
how this photo became a finished glass creation.
Getting Started - Developing an Idea and Drawing a Pattern Any beautiful
piece of art work always starts with inspiration. As
mentioned above, the Chimneys were my inspiration for a piece of stained glass. But, just having a good idea doesn't
make a piece of stained glass a reality. You have lots of decisions ahead of you. The first thing you need to determine is how "large"
your complete design will be and whether you will be constructing your design by using lead or copper foil. After you make those decisions, you are ready to develop that idea into a
pattern. The completed pattern serves many purposes: - It gives you a work surface upon which to "fit" your glass pieces.
- It gives you the opportunity to look over the pieces of your design to see
if your idea is actually viable.
- And by making a
"second" copy which you cut into pattern pieces, you can trace the outline of your pieces onto your glass as a guide
for "cutting" your glass.
Notice the piece of board that
this glass is sitting upon?
This is a jig that we built.
This panel is going to be 2 ft. by 2 ft. square and will be framed when it is complete so just like in construction of a building
or home, we want the piece to turn out "square". Therefore we havemade this jig and will be building
the piece of glass inside the confines of the jig.
After you get your jig set up and your pattern pieces cut
apart, you are ready to trace out your pattern on the glass. Take another look at the glass in the photo above.
This is a very patterned glass with lots of variations in color so we are going to choose sections of the glass that will
compliment the mountain design. Once the pattern is traced onto the glass, then you are ready to begin "cutting"or
to be completely accurate "breaking" of your glass.
Cutting...........Grinding
Well...........in all honesty, cutting is not really the correct term. You
actually score and "break" your glass. You will utilize a hand held cutter with a cutting wheel and
score your pattern lines. Then with a pair of "breaking pliers", you cause the score to run and
break the piece of glass out of the larger piece. To smooth out the edges and also to re-shape and fit the glass pieces to the design
we utilize a grinder. The grinder is...........sort of a "wet router". Using a diamond
coated bit, cooled by water and turning at very high rpms, the grinder takes off all of the little sharpe edges and fine tunes
the glass pieces. Time consuming and tedious? Yes, but necessary for a good fit. Oh yeah.........remember
to wear your safety glasses. Little pieces do sometimes go flying and it is better to be safe than lose your eyesight!
The
photo at left, shows the mountain pieces cut, ground and "rough fit" prior to starting the leading process.
The photo above "right" shows all pieces including the sky. Once we start assembling the pieces with
the lead channels, we will probably have to do a little more grinding to fine tune the fit of the pieces to the design.
Lead and Solder Once we "rough" fit all of the pattern
pieces, we are ready to start the actual construction of the design. We have designed this pattern to be put together
using lead came. Lead came for the interior of a stained glass panel is shaped like an "H" turned
on it's side. The glass will fit into each side of the "H" channel. You have to bend and
shape the lead to fit the shape of your glass pattern pieces. But before you can even start using the lead in your design
you have to "stretch" the lead to straighten it. After straightening your lead you can then begin to
cut the lead to go into your design. Special
care is always exercised in fitting the lead came to the pattern pieces of glass. Sometimes a little extra
persuasion, bending and pushing is required.
Tools of the trade!
If you look
really close at the photo, above and right, you will see some other "tools of the trade".
A glazing hammer, lead nippers and horseshoe nails are all utilized during the construction process.
This photo shows the "Chimney's" with all of the
mountain pieces in place. Of course I still need to fit in the sky but we are over half way finished with all of the
cutting and grinding. Once we get the sky in place, the joints where the lead comes together will be soldered.
After soldering the "front", the piece is very
carefully turned over and the soldering of all the joints is repeated on the back.
Cementing! How many of you remember the PopEye Club and the
ouey-gouey bag? Well, most of my friends from the Atlanta
area remember Officer Don and that game really well. And, if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, then puttying or "cementing" of a leaded
glass panel would be right up your alley! After soldering
the lead joints on both the front and back of a panel, it is time to secure the glass into those lead channels and to provide
some strength by applying a special stained glass "glazing" or cement into all of the lead lines. This
cement "locks" the glass into place once it dries. The actual idea here is to "force" the cement
under the edges of the lead channels. Needless to
say, this is not easy on the fingers. I know that I have tried numerous methods of applying the cement and nothing
truly works better, for me, than just taking your time and working your way around each piece of glass.
Cleaning Up and Finishing Up! Well, of course we are not going to leave all that cement on the glass.
It has to be removed from the glass before it gets too dry and therefore "more difficult" to remove.
The methods of removal vary depending on the type of cement you are using so I won't get into those details here.
Let me just say, this can be a very tedious and frustrating job just like cleaning the windows in your house.
Everytime you believe you have gotten them clean, you see another spot, etc. But you will get it I promise. After
the glass is cleaned, leave the glass is left "flat" overnight to allow the cement to cure and harden. The next day,
you are ready for, guess what? More cleaning! But
just think, the project is almost ready for display at this point. Here at AutumnView Studio do mill custom hardwood
and pine frames for most of our stained glass pieces. We believe this adds a "finished" look to
our work and also adds protection for the glass. So that would be the next step for us, but you can just add some
hanging hardware and display the panel. Well, here are The Chimneys framed in a beautiful
natural Cherry frame.
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