Do you want to make your own Tiffany stained glass window, decorate glasses or make a glass pendant? Workshops and a story about the stained glass technique will help you. The content of the article
- Technique and types
- Fusing oven and glass pendant
- From film, colored paper and cardboard
- Tableware decoration
The word "stained glass" comes from the French vitre and means "window glass". This is an art form that helps transform glass by applying drawings to it or making paintings, ornaments, ornaments using glass elements.
Stained glass technique and its types
This type of decoration for window openings, glass roofs, interiors has experienced a rise and fall. Thanks to the advent of new technologies, many types of stained glass technology have appeared. Here is some of them:
- sandblasting;
- sintered (fusing);
- painted;
- mosaic;
- lead solder;
- etched;
- typesetting;
- faceted.
Let's take a closer look at the features of the varieties:
- Sandblasting stained glass is made from a group of glasses called panels. The work is carried out using sandblasting. At the same time, the panels are united by a common semantic and compositional idea.
- Sintered stained glass, in other words fusing, implies the use of a technique when a drawing is created by jointly baking fragments of colored glass or by baking other elements into the glass: metal, wire, etc.
- Painted the stained glass window lives up to its name. During the manufacture of its glasses, they are decorated with painting, sometimes they are decorated with faceted, pressed, faceted glasses.
- Mosaic the stained-glass window is assembled from glass fragments from which the ornament is laid out. Sometimes the elements that make up it are pre-molded and then used.
- Lead solder is a classic stained glass technique. It appeared earlier than others - back in the Middle Ages, and became the basis for other types of stained glass. As the name implies, the work is done from glass fragments, they are combined into a lead frame, which is sealed at the joints.
- Etched is created from a group of glasses that are made in a single technique and belong to the general etching technique. They are also united by a common semantic and compositional idea.
- Typesetting the stained glass window is created from pieces of cut glass that are not even painted. Therefore, this is one of the simplest types of stained glass.
- Faceted made of polished, ground, volumetric glass or from those that are cut. Since thick glass is used here, the finished parts must be assembled in a very strong frame (usually copper or brass). Often such a stained-glass window is used to arrange furniture doors, in interior doors.
There are many other techniques, but it's time to move on from theory to practice and try to make a stained glass window with your own hands.
Fusing oven and glass pendant using sintered stained glass technique
If you want to go into business, make and sell stained glass work done in this technique, then you need a fusing oven. If you do things in small quantities, then you can do without it.
But it's worth telling what kind of device it is. Such furnaces are designed for sintering glass products: volumetric, bent, flat. They are also used for casting, annealing, and fusing.
But you won't need it for your next job. See how to make stained glass with your own hands using the example of making a pendant.
For it you will need:
- tin;
- soldering iron;
- copper foil on a black base;
- glass drops with dichroic spraying;
- gloves;
- tweezers;
- lock, chain, rings;
- antioxidant;
- flux;
- metallate;
- patina black.
Tin is needed without lead, and with the addition of silver in the amount of 5%. Usually copper foil of the required width is not sold, so you need to cut the wide one in half lengthwise.
Take glass drops, each should be wrapped with a strip of copper foil.
Smooth out the foil with the cap of the felt-tip pen and this is what you get.
Before soldering these blanks, floss them. Then solder from the wrong side, and then from the front side.
Place one eyelet on one side and the other on the other. Solder them by melting the tin drops.
Wipe the workpiece with a rag, cover with patina so that the pendant does not oxidize, go over it with an antioxidant.
It remains to attach the chain and you can try on the jewelry.
DIY Tiffany stained glass
This stained glass technique is named after its creator, Louis Tiffany, an artist and designer. Briefly about this technology:
- A drawing is printed on paper in 2 copies (without small elements).
- One of them is cut into fragments, they are applied to glass of the corresponding color. Using a glass cutter, parts are cut out.
- The edges of the elements are machined to make them even. You can use a file for this, and then sandpaper.
- From the sides, the parts are wrapped in foil, they are laid according to the pattern tightly to each other.
- The foil is treated with acid, then the seams are soldered.
- The work is washed, the seams are treated with patina and washed again.
If you want to make these tiffany stained glass windows, you will need:
- tin;
- colored glass;
- glass cutter;
- soldering iron;
- tongs to break glass;
- glass cutter oil or kerosene or machine oil;
- Sander;
- soldering fat or flux;
- copper foil;
- patina - copper or black;
- U-shaped brass profile;
- protective glasses;
- scissors for metal and ordinary;
- brass bar;
- whatman;
- wide scotch tape and masking tape;
- paper;
- glue stick;
- wooden slats 1x2 cm;
- hammer;
- nails.
- Print the presented image of a maple leaf in 2 copies, cut one into elements, number them.
- Cover the main sketch with tape so that it does not get spoiled by accidental water.
- Place the sketch on a perfectly flat work surface, glue it here around the perimeter with masking tape.
- Nail wood slats around the edges of the stained glass window. Start stacking glass from the top corner.
- Place the template of the first element on the glass, cut it out with a glass cutter. Cut with a glass cutter without interruption - from one edge to the other. In this case, the cutting roller must be guided so that it is perpendicular to the glass surface.
- Sand the edges of the glass pieces with a sander, remembering to wear your glasses.
- Then wrap the glass pieces with copper foil called foil. To make it fit well, wipe the glass elements with a cloth, and if necessary, degrease them.
- Using a ballpoint pen, smooth out the foliage on all sides.
- Attach the finished element to its place and fix it by driving 3-4 nails along the edges.
- Treat all seams with flux, after which they need to be soldered. To do this, use tin (grade POS 61). Do not hold the soldering iron at one point for a long time, since then glass or folia can overheat in this place.
- Make a frame from the U-shaped profile to frame the Tiffany stained glass window. To do this, cut into pieces corresponding to the length of the sides of the work. Insert its edges into the profile, solder to it. Parts of the joint and profile are also soldered.
- Rinse the almost finished stained glass window with water and a dish soap and degreaser.
- When the work is dry, patina on the seams.
- It remains to wipe the tiffany stained-glass window with a sponge, on which a small layer of detergent intended for glass is applied.
If the two previous workshops seemed difficult to you, you can use simpler technologies.
How to make a stained glass window from film, colored paper and cardboard?
The following work can be done with the children by creating just such a rose.
For her you will need:
- flower pattern;
- cardboard;
- green and red paper;
- stationery knife;
- scissors;
- glue.
Use the provided template. Attach tracing paper to it, redraw.
You need to cut the template along the contour, and then cut through the indicated fragments on the flower, leaves. Transfer the resulting blank to cardboard or colored paper. Then cut openwork holes with a clerical knife.
Place red paper under these holes - for the bud, and green paper under the leaves.
Glue these colored parts with black tracery paper. You can make a hole in the upper part of the rose, thread a thread here and hang the stained glass window, or stick it on cardboard and leave it that way.
Stained glass can also help create a beautiful work. For this technique take:
- glass;
- a pattern drawn on paper according to the size of the selected glass;
- film and lead knives;
- backlit table;
- scissors;
- cork gaskets;
- rollers for film and lead;
- stained glass film;
- lead tape;
- glass cleaner;
- marker.
Clean the glass with glass cleaner. Put a drawing under it, on top, along the contour, lay a lead tape so that it follows the contours of the drawing. Roll it on with a roller.
To prevent the glass from bursting, put cork gaskets under it, wash it.
Cut out fragments from the stained-glass tape, apply them to the appropriate places on the glass. Do not forget to roll the film joints with a roller.
Then cut and glue the pieces using a different color of stained glass.
When you fill the drawing completely, take a roller and roll the lead well. The work has been completed.
Decorating dishes with painted stained glass
Stained glass technique will tell you how to paint the dishes so that such luxurious items appear in your house.
To decorate a plate, you will need:
- pencil, paper or finished drawing;
- transparent glass plate;
- stained glass paints;
- acrylic outline in black and pearl color;
- wooden stick or tassel;
- acetone or alcohol;
- double sided tape;
- rubber gloves.
Create a drawing yourself or redraw your favorite pattern from the Internet. Place this sheet of paper on the table, tape it to the plate on top.
Trace all the lines of the art with an acrylic outline.
To make the contour even, do not press hard on the tube, you need to press on it lightly, then the paint will flow out evenly. When it is applied to all the lines of the drawing, let the outline dry well. After that, the painting of the dishes with stained-glass paints begins - from the most delicate elements. In this case, these are tree branches. Apply brown paint with a stick or very fine brush.
Then we take alternately paints of different colors, paint the plate further.
If the plate is not flat, but convex, paint on its sides may leak out of the acrylic circuit, so apply very little paint here and tilt the plate. Having painted one flower, move on to the second, decorating glass using the stained glass technique.
Using a smooth transition from blue to blue paint the feathers of the birds. Make their heads yellow. Color in the rest of the plate as well. Here's how beautiful it will turn out.
In the same way, you can create stained glass windows by decorating a bottle of this material or, for example, a kitchen facade. If the pieces of this furniture have glass doors, then remove them, lay them horizontally and paint them using the technology described above.
If you want to decorate glasses using the same stained glass technique, then take:
- acrylic contour;
- glass paints;
- thin brush;
- cotton swabs or cotton pads;
- degreaser;
- a toothpick.
Then follow the instructions:
- First, the glasses must be degreased with a detergent or acetone, then rinsed and dried.
- As with the plate, draw or print a drawing on a piece of paper. It must be put inside the glass and attached with 2-sided tape.
- Further, the contour is applied, when it is completely dry, it is filled with paints.
- Air bubbles are removed by puncturing a toothpick, and excess paint with cotton pads.
Stained glass paints are fired and non-fired. If you have thermally resistant glass, you can use the former. Then, after painting, the dishes are placed in a cold oven for firing for 10 minutes. After this time, they turn it off, take out the glasses when they cool down. This is how the paint is fired.
If the glass is not designed for high temperatures, then paint it with non-fired stained glass paints. In this case, fix them with a clear acrylic coating.
If you liked the proposed topics, and you want to paint dishes, a glass door or make a decoration, then watch the video materials about stained glass technique:
