Weekend Workshop Sept 30 - Oct 1st
After a few test runs to make sure that the projects we had picked out could be completed in 2 days we decided it was time for the real deal. We had our first REAL class with 3 students make 3 windows over the span of 2 days. How did it go? I’m relieved to say, “Wonderfullyâ€!
We had JoAnn, Ric and Jack all arrive here at the house/shop shortly before 11am on Saturday morning. We all talked a bit getting to know each other and then headed out to the shop to get some work done.
JoAnn had decided to do Geometric Pattern #2 but with an alternate set of colors. Ric picked Geometric Pattern #3 and Jack had picked out a custom pattern (since this was his second time through the class). Here are the Photoshopped patterns to give you an idea of what we want these to resemble.
We started with a half hour long lesson involving how to use a glass cutter and then revisited our youths by tracing out a second copy of our patterns with poster board and carbon paper. They all got a pair of scissors, cut up all their pieces and laid them out on the patterns used to re-assemble all the glass that will be cut throughout this two day process. And then the fun began as the glass cutters came out and they all started cutting glass.
We decided that the best place for JoAnn to begin would be in the center of her pattern. I like working from the inside out because you can really see how things are looking right away. It also helps to show that you’re accomplishing something when you see the center of the window cut out rather than the boring outside edges. JoAnn decided to alter the color combination a bit by substituting different shades of blue in the pattern. Here you can see all of her center is cut out with only the background and borders left to complete.
After the background was cut in clear Gluechip we had Joann grind everything to ensure a perfect fit before she foiled the pieces. As with the cutting, JoAnn took right to the grinder and was able to get everything to fit together perfectly with little effort.
Even after cutting and grinding for most of the afternoon JoAnn managed to get most of her window wrapped before calling it a day. Here you can see the window is all ground and mostly wrapped. (The wrapped pieces have a gold/copper edge around them.)
Ric was the second of 3 people who worked from the inside out. (I must confess that I always work in that direction when cutting out a window.) Working one color at a time he cut out all his pattern pieces until there was nothing left but the clear Gluechip background. I think Ric may have been a little unsure of his glass cutting skills at first, but by the time he got this far he was more than confident! Confidence is always an issue when someone is undertaking a full sized window and they’ve never cut glass before. 
Once Ric had a few pieces cut successfully he was just fine. Here you can see Ric’s window with only 4 pieces left to cut before he started grinding it all.
Ric got in front of a grinder and proceeded to smooth all the rough edges of his glass and shape any sections that didn’t match the pattern perfectly. We all used a method of grinding where you make adjustments after you have ground the piece that rests next to it. It’s almost like taking a step backwards after every 2 steps forward, but it ensures that everything will fit together the best possible way and takes into account any cutting errors. Here’s Ric’s window all cut, ground, and mostly wrapped. After he had finished wrapping all his pieces he, like JoAnn, called it a day.
Meanwhile, Jack was working up a storm on another table. Since he had gone through this class just 2 weeks earlier he was practically an pro at this. He decided to alternate the colors in his lettering rather than using just one color. He liked the way it looked in the colored in pattern I’d emailed him and decided to use the same color scheme. Like everyone else he was working inside out by cutting all his letters out and then grinding them to fit the pattern.
Once all the letters were ground Jack wrapped them and tacked them together. He then cut a piece of clear rough rolled glass the size of the bacground and traced the glass letters he had cut on top of the background glass. It was then a simple matter of cutting out the sections of clear that would rest between the colored letters. Since they were traced onto the glass from the glass letters themselves rather than a paper pattern, they would all fit together with a minimal amount of grinding. Still, the pieces were narrow and the cuts made to form the letters were small and curvy so it wasn’t exactly as easy as it might sound . He wrapped each piece as it came off of the grinder and when his background was finished he tacked it all together. In the end, it still took a good deal of time (cutting is the longest past of the process) but Jack managed a great fit with his pieces and all his letters are completely legible. Here’s what he ended up with at the end of the day.
At this point we ate, watched some TV, talked about how the projects were going and how the day matched or didn’t match the idea that were in everyone’s head about what it took to make a stained glass window. We all hit the sack and woke up Sunday morning which brings us to our final day of the Workshop– Day 2. They all got in the shop a little past 10 am and resumed working on their windows.
When Jack went to cut the clear rough rolled strips for the top and bottom of the letters we realized that we didn’t have a single piece left that was long enough to span the length of the window. Not a problem though– we just split the glass into 4 pieces and then tacked them on. We could have split it once in the center but it wouldn’t have looked as aesthetically pleasing that way.
All that was left at this point was to attach a blue border and channel. That would be the easy part — Soldering it would take longer. By noon time Jack had the rest of the border cut, tacked and ground. The brass channel was put on and Jack set about soldered the front. Here’s a picture of the back side before it gets soldered.
At around 3 o’clock the window was finished and we hung it outside to take some pictures. All in all, Jack made great time in getting this finished and he also did a great job getting it all together. Here is his finished work and the colored pattern to the right of it. Not bad at all!
While all that was going on Ric was working on his window as well. We realized right away that one of the corner pieces would have to be recut because it didn’t fit well. To insure a perfect fit he tacked together what he had wrapped and the re-cut the corner piece using the actual window as a pattern by laying it on top of the glue chip and tracing it out.
When it was re-cut and ground it was perfect. Having to re-cut a piece is nothing out of the ordinary in the stained glass world. We could have easily used the piece that Ric had originally cut for the last corner but I would have known it could have been a better fit and Ric would have known it also. Sure, it took an extra 15 or 20 minutes to replace it but in the end it was very much worth the extra time.
Ric got his borders cut, attached them and then soldered his window. By the time he was finished washing everything the sun was low in the sky but we still managed two shots of the window with the sun on it in varying degrees. Here are 2 shots of Ric’s finished window along with the original pattern to the far right. Great job, Ric!!
And don’t think that JoAnn was just lounging around all day while everyone else worked. She was as busy as could be. When we last saw her window she had begun wrapping all the glass but still had a way to go before it was finished. The first thing she did on Sunday was to finish all her wrapping. Once that was complete she tacked it together and then cut her border pieces.
She decided on a dark blue border with the lighter blue that she used in the center part of the window as accent pieces in the corners. She got it all cut, wrapped and tacked and then added the final brass channel to it. This is what she had just before she started to apply the finishing solder to it.
After soldering her window we were losing sunlight fast. It was clearly daylight outside but by the time JoAnn had washed, patina’ed, re-washed and then waxed her window the sun was low in the sky making it difficult to take a nice clear picture outside. But that’s not to say that the window doesn’t look great in this picture (which was taken inside the shop). JoAnn, like Ric and Jack, did a great job making this window. I hope she’s proud because she should be! Here’s the finished window on the left and the pattern on the right.
All in all I think everyone had a good time. Thanks to JoAnn we had a table of food that resembled the desert table at a buffet! Everyone walked away with a great stained glass window along with the knowledge and skill to do it again if they chose to. And I have to say that I couldn’t have spent two days with a better group of people if I’d tried!
So here are all the finished windows all in a row: JoAnn’s on the left, Ric’s in the center, and Jack’s on the right.
Paul
PS– For those of you who are still wondering what the letters in Jacks window stand for, well, let’s just say it stands for “I Love You So Freaking Much I Could Just Scream!â€