Stained Glass

The last original single-paned window in the house is beside the fireplace in the living room. Having insulated and sealed so much during the renovation, we had added a plain plexiglass insert, but it seemed like it could use something more. So I decided to take a stained glass class at LexArt.

After taking a beginner class to create a suncatcher, it was time to start thinking about the window. Yes that was a bit ambitious.

Building the panels

First up was thinking about the design, and then the colors. For inspiration I used the idea of a celtic knot, and the pattern on the glass front of Mike’s grandfather’s barrister bookcase. Then I created a small prototype as practice.

This was really good practice for cutting straight lines and getting the pieces to fit. The design worked, but the colors completely clashed with the room. Clearly the window needed to be contrasting blues and greens instead of oranges and yellows.

It was very much a team effort. This was going to be much bigger than the suncatcher and prototype. I’d need a much bigger base to build the panels on. Mike created a nice base with a raised 90 degree corner built in from MDF for me to use.

Then I needed to print the pattern. I’d created the pattern at full size in Affinity (a free design program that I’m really liking), but I had no way to print it. Trying to print it on multiple letter pages that I could tape together was not going to work.

Luckily the Waltham main library has a lovely makerspace with a 24 inch plotter. The folks that work there were very nice and helpful. Soon I walked out with a pair of 3 ft prints! After visiting a couple of different art glass shops I had some lovely blue and green glass including these large diamond bevels that were exactly the right size for my design.