Stained Glass Courses for Beginners: Our 12 Week Experience

Summary

This blog post details our experience on a 12-week stained glass course for beginners offered by our local council. In it, we share our journey, from beginners to creating our own stained glass projects. We discuss the various techniques and skills we learned, including cutting, grinding, foiling and soldering, with interesting insights, such as the medieval origins of stained glass and how red glass is made. We then turn to the designing and executing of our own individual projects before concluding with our honest reflections of our experience.

Owen & Lorna x

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1. Our stained glass adventure

In October 2023, the quarterly booklet from Stockton Borough Council’s Learning & Skills Centre came through our letterbox. As I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to learn new skills, I made a point of reading it to see what courses and classes are on offer.

There’s usually a good selection of classes to choose from in this booklet, many of them funded by our local council, ranging from languages, accountancy and computing, to arts, crafts and personal fitness. In amongst the collage of courses, was an intriguing 12 week course on how to do stained glass art, something hubby and I have always wanted to try.

2. Is it expensive to start stained glass?

If you are looking to do a course, as we were, this depends on how strapped for cash your local authority is. You may find a free stained glass course in your area that’s subsidised by your local council. Some colleges, too, waive course fees for people on a low income, even providing free tools and materials. So it’s always worth checking around.

In our case, the course was totally free and promised an exciting journey into the art of glasswork, where you could transform raw materials into (hopefully) beautiful, finished works of art. From glass cutting and grinding to soldering and assembling, the course offered a hands-on approach, allowing you to explore each intricate step of the stained glass-making process.

Without further adieu, we enrolled on the course and, a few months later, on a cold January evening, we attended our first class.

3. Our first stained glass workshop

Despite growing interest in stained glass classes, the course seemed a bit under-subscribed to me, with only ourselves and a few other couples and individuals taking part. But there was still plenty of camaraderie as we all began to familiarise ourselves with the tools, equipment and materials (all provided free) laid out in front of us.

Our instructor, a South African lady called Mia (who was lovely) started the class (and every class thereafter) with a short instructional video focusing on some aspect of glasswork.

4. Introduction to stained glass

There are two types of stained glass art— lead and soldered. The main difference between them is in the materials and techniques used to assemble the pieces of glass.

Lead stained glass is mostly associated with medieval Christian artwork and often depicts biblical scenes. Soldered stained glass (copper foil method) is a product of the Art Nouveau movement and was developed for finer, more intricate work.

• Lead stained glass was first introduced during the medieval period and is mostly found in large elaborate windows of Gothic churches and catherdrals, often showing scenes from the bible.
• Solder stained glass was invented in the 1880s by American artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany, who used copper foiling and solder as a way to create more intricate and delicate stained glass designs, mostly for his now famous Tiffany lamps.

In other words, lead is used mostly for weight-bearing purposes in larger projects, whereas solder is more suited to light, intricate designs.

5. Is it easy to learn stained glass?

The type of stained glass art we were learning is known as the Tiffany method. Much easier to learn than leaded stained glass, it uses copper foil and solder to join multiple glass pieces together to form a single piece of art. It’s great for light and intricate designs that don’t carry much weight, unlike much heavier traditional stained glass windows.

It involves learning several skills that come together to form a single piece of stained glass art. These are, cutting, grinding, foiling and soldering.

• Cutting: Glass cutting is done by scoring a line on a glass surface with a glass cutter, which is a short, pen-like tool with a small, hardened wheel at the end. The glass is then snapped along the line, using grozer pliers or by hand. Curved cuts are more tricky and these are done by making several straight lines that together make the curve you want.
• Grinding: A glass grinder is essential when making stained glass. The grinder not only smooths the sharp edges of cut pieces (so they’re safer to handle) but allows you to give an individual piece of glass a more precise fit. For more on the grinder we used, see our post, Our Top 3 Portable Glass Grinders for Beginners.
• Foiling: This refers to applying copper foil to the edges of the glass pieces. The foil acts as an adhesive surface to which the solder can bond, allowing two or more pieces of glass to be joined together. This can be a delicate process that requires patience and precision.
• Soldering: This is where solder is applied to the foil using a soldering iron, joining two or more pieces together. Using flux to help the solder flow, you apply solder along the copper-foiled seams, gently guiding the molten solder, so it forms a smooth, even bead that binds the glass pieces together.

6. Making a stained glass heart

Working on large, spacious tables, we started by practising on a simple project—a glass heart. The heart was split into two halves (that we had to cut and grind) and our task was to foil and then solder the two halves together.

The soldering needed steady hands and careful attention to heat, ensuring the solder flows smoothly along the copper foil to create a strong bond. I took to this quickly, as I do a bit of soldering in my work as a silversmith, but hubby needed a bit more practice. However, by the time we’d finished this practice piece, we both felt confident enough to move on to the project.

7. Making a stained glass box

This project required us to cut several pieces of glass to specific dimensions, grind the edges, foil them, and then solder them together.

The process of making a box taught us about the importance of accuracy in cutting and grinding. Each piece had to fit perfectly with its neighbouring pieces, or the whole structure would be off. We also learned more advanced soldering techniques, as we had to solder not only flat seams but also corners and edges to create a sturdy, cohesive shape.

By the time the boxes were complete, we were more confident in our abilities and excited to move on to our own individual projects.

8. Stained glass project

We were about five weeks into the course by now and we were encouraged to plan and begin working on our own projects. This was the moment we’d been looking forward to—the chance to design something personal and unique that we could take home.

My husband decided on a bee resting on a honeycomb for his project. It was an ambitious design, with many small, intricate pieces that required precision cutting and grinding.

I chose to make a Christmas poinsettia, using vibrant red and green glass to bring the flower to life. The challenge in my project lay in cutting the glass petals and leaves accurately, ensuring they fit together seamlessly.

9. How red stained glass is made

Though everything on the course was free, red glass was in short supply and expensive to buy, mainly because making red glass involves using gold to achieve the red colour.

This centuries old technique, where gold is added to the molten glass during the manufacturing process, produces deep, rich red hues. Because of the precious gold involved in making red glass, it is often more expensive than other colours.

As red was an absolute must for my poinsettia, I decided to bite the bullet buy my own from an online glass supplier, at a cost of about £16.

10. Designing our stained glass projects

You can easily find and download stained glass templates online, offering a wide range of designs. Websites and craft communities provide both free and paid printable templates you can use as a guide for cutting your glass pieces.

Be careful, though, not to use a design that is copyrighted, as this can land you in trouble for copyright theft. We made a point of buying the templates we used (for about a fiver each), just so we were covered when it came to showing our designs on this blog.

11. Execution of our stained glass projects

The remaining weeks of the course were spent bringing our designs to life. For my husband, the bee and honeycomb proved to be a complex challenge. Each tiny piece had to be cut with precision and the bee’s intricate details meant using the glass grinder frequently to get the shapes just right. He also used different glass textures to add dimension to the wings and body of the bee.

My poinsettia presented its own set of challenges, as I had to cut and foil the delicate petals and leaves carefully to ensure they formed a cohesive whole. The bold red and green glass pieces came together beautifully, with the foiling and soldering adding depth and definition to the flower’s structure. I took great care in shaping each petal, wanting the final piece to reflect the elegance of the poinsettia plant.

12. Final week of our stained glass course

As the course came to an end, we focused on the finishing touches of our projects. This included cleaning up the glass, ensuring all the solder joints were smooth and secure, and applying a patina to the solder lines (if desired). Patina is a chemical solution used to darken the solder for a more antiquated look, which worked really well on my husband’s honeycomb. For my piece, however, I preferred the solder’s natural silver look, which went well with the Christmas theme of my poinsettia design.

Seeing everyone’s final projects displayed at the end of the course was amazing. The variety of designs and multi-colored creations showed just how much we had all come on over the 12 weeks.

13. Reflections on our stained glass course

We learned valuable skills on this course and gained a deep appreciation for the art of stained glass. But the most rewarding part of the course was the opportunity to create our own projects that we could take home.

My poinsettia was well worth the money I spent on the red glass and it now hangs in our living room, catching the light beautifully, while my husband’s bee on honeycomb display is a testament to his hard work and dedication.

14. Conclusion

Ultimately, this course was brilliant and one of the most fulfilling and creative endeavors we’ve undertaken. So much so that we have already bought a grinder and tools, with a view to making more stained glass pieces..