Granny Finally Revisits Her Craftiness

[Granny]

I am finally, finally able to take up my stained glass hobby after about 3 or so years. All my stained glass stuff has been stashed in my daughter's garage ever since I moved to TN.

I went to Richmond, VA last week. My beloved son has returned safely from Iraq and stopped at his sister's house for a few days before going on to GA to see his wife. When I heard his plane had landed in Germany for refueling I was finally able to exhale.

He and my son-in-law hoisted my crates of glass into the back of my car and home I came! It goes without saying the first thing I did was to unwrap all my sheets of glass ... held them up to the sun and reveled in their beauty. I still need to go through other boxes of stuff with my tools, other supplies, etc. NOW I can do something useful with my time.

I'm going to draw my first pattern in a long time. I've decided to do a frog/lily pad/dragonfly piece. And after going through all my glass ... *sigh* ... I ended up buying yet another piece of glass yesterday because I wanted a particular look in the sky portion of the piece.

'Tis good for Granny to be occupied again.

 

[Barb]

I'm not a crafty person Granny, but I'm glad you're getting back in your groove.

Even more glad that your son is home safely.

 

[Granny]

You probably have some talent that you just haven't explored yet.

Thanks for mentioning my son. He has about two years left before he can retire. I hope he will remain stateside.

 

[strollingbones]

great your son is home...

stained glass is great for forgetting things....when i am doing it i dont think...i am just into the glass...and yea i dont care how much glass you have...you always need that other color

 

[Granny]

great your son is home...

stained glass is great for forgetting things....when i am doing it i dont think...i am just into the glass...and yea i dont care how much glass you have...you always need that other color

Isn't that the truth!! I just laid out $27 for a 1.42 sf piece of glass that is about as close as I can get to the sky I want!! It was Kokomo glass which is apparently getting more expensive by the day. There was another piece of glass that was about $9/sf but it just didn't quite have the same "feeling" as the more expensive piece!

 

[strollingbones]

most people dont realize glass can run that much a sq foot....kokomo has been pricey for a while now...

i have to be careful....i got a glass you couldnt cut with a ring saw lol which i wished i had...

i would love a cutters mate and a tauras ring saw

 

[Granny]

Which explains (at least in part) why finished pieces are so expensive!! By the time you take into account the cost of glass, foil, lead, all the chemicals, etc. and your time and labor ... it gets pricey.

Have you used the unleaded "lead"? I've always used the 60/40. When the unleaded stuff came out my circumstances put me in a position to have to give up glass so I never got to try the stuff. If you've used it, is it any good?

There's just so much really neat, beautiful, stuff in stained glass shops - you'd like to walk in with about a $1M to spend so that you can get it all NOW!! That's the thing - if you see a piece of glass that really catches your eye/heart, you'd better buy it right now because an hour from now that piece of glass may be purchased by someone else! Thankfully, I found several pieces of glass in my stash that I brought home with me that I think will work really well in the design I want to get started on.

 

[strollingbones]

yea i have tried the unleaded stuff and the flux that goes with it....i never could make it work...

plus if you are not working in it daily ...lead should not be a problem....i think i still have the unleaded and the flux....do you want to try it?

 

[strollingbones]

people dont realize how many times you handle one single piece of glass....

draw out the pattern on the glass....cut....grind...foil....solder (both sides)...clean...wax...clean

now i use baking soda to clean the glass too

 

[strollingbones]

i have a foiling table that works well....i use the smallest foil i can and will mix foil sizes

 

[daveman]

Granny, bones, stained glass is truly an art form. Would love to see pictures of your work.

 

[Granny]

Well ... four days ago, Bones, I was in the process of composing a post ... and something came up that needed to be taken care of ASAP.

I do all my foiling by hand with one of those fid thingys. I tend to get several sizes of foil myself in case some glass is thicker than others, and I use black-baked foil if I'm working with clear glass.

I did get a small part of my new pattern done and have just sort of sketched in the rest of it. I haven't done any glass in so long I'm having to really think about how and where to lay out my cuts - such as not making cuts that look like Babar's crown!!

I don't see how you do it with drawing your patterns on glass. The first class I attended the instructor had us putting our patterns on the light table, then the glass, and we traced our patterns onto the glass. It was awful. I didn't learn a damned thing because the instructor just didn't know what the hell she was doing in the first place. I had to buy replacement glass for all the glass that was breaking and the lady at that glass shop said that she taught classes if I'd like to come to her and she said a lot of people came to her after taking the class I had taken and complained about the instructor. Even the others complaints about the same instructor.

The second instructor was absolutely awesome! Before we got through the first class we were all signing up for the next class.

I still go by her shop every time I go to Richmond ... she always has great glass and other stuff.

 

[Big Black Dog]

My cousin's wife made me a beagle out of stained glass that hangs in a window. It's beautiful. Great hobby.

 

[Granny]

I love beagles!!

 

[Granny]

Getting along ... slowly. I've completed my pattern and I'm going to have to make 213 cuts of glass. Now I have to get the pattern copied, find my scissors, and start having fun!

 

[Granny]

BONES!!!!! I've started my first cuts on my "frog glass." I had forgotten how thick and hateful Bullseye glass is - I'm using a green mottled ring glass for my frog. Damn! And, of course, I've already punctured my finger ... I'm not sure how ... but I have a wound.

This is ridiculous - it's like I have ants in my pants - I make a couple of cuts then grab a cig and do a little pacing around, then get on my Ancestry account and make myself crazy, then back to glass cutting. I'm glad I'm doing the thicker glass first - the rest will probably be a piece of cake to work with. I guess I'm just excited and nervous after being away from glass for so long.