has anyone worked with stained glass?

[demoneyes]

(sorry if this is in the wrong spot) i've been thinking it would be really cool to do a big mega man scene in stained glass. but i'm not really sure where to start. has anyone ever made anything? how hard is it to work with?

[LilMissFirefly]

Hi, I haven't worked with it myself but saw a tv show about people learning to work with stained glass a feIt looked like a pretty difficult skill to master, but very rewarding when it's done well. Some of the things people struggled with were getting the lead joins to meet nicely, and cutting the glass accurately so it had no gaps.

It's one of those things that I'd recommend trying to do a course in to master the basics, then you can adapt it to geeky coolness =)

[Holly]

You'll definitely want to start out with a smaller project. It can be tough to catch on to, and very expensive if you make a mistake! I would agree that one of the more difficult parts is getting the pieces to fit together. The metal lining you sandwich in between each part can only compensate so much.

[faewren]

I know I read somewhere that there's a sort of 'cheater' way to do projects that look like stained glass but isn't. I'll have to go looking for it again, but the basic idea is having a pane of glass and you put the separation material for the piece outlines directly on the glass, and then paint in the pieces. Sorry for the non-information, I read that stuff a long time ago!

[nintendophile]

I know I read somewhere that there's a sort of 'cheater' way to do projects that look like stained glass but isn't. I'll have to go looking for it again, but the basic idea is having a pane of glass and you put the separation material for the piece outlines directly on the glass, and then paint in the pieces. Sorry for the non-information, I read that stuff a long time ago!

I remember seeing a special paint at Michael's Craft Store for doing just such a technique. The two things needed are:

A roll of Self-Adhesive Lead Strip:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/pebeo ... ead-strip/
And Pebeo Vitrail glass paints:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/pebeo-vitrail/

I'm sure this method would be cheaper in the long run, but in the end it's just a reasonable facsimile, and probably wouldn't be as "impressive" as the real deal. (Though, if given the choice, I'd probably use the paints, as you'd be able to achieve a wide range of colors, and would probably be able to pull off some interesting effects that wouldn't be doable with real stained glass. Just my two cents. ^_^)

[faewren]

Right - that was it!

But it would look halfway-decent don't you think? Even for a facsimile.

[Yurtle]

I made a bunch of Christmas ornaments last year using that paint and the lead strips. It's "okay". It doesn't give the best effect and if you don't spread it on completely evenly which is almost impossible to do, it will show up when it dries. It looks quite lumpy and you have to make sure that you don't have any bubbles either because those will also show up. The effect was still kind of neat in the end but they do look very homemade, instead of the professional look that real stain glass always gives.

[Eliste]

When I was growing up, I remember being given a kit to do where there was already metal in various shapes and you mixed up this stuff and put it in the various places, and then baked it. I remember my first attempt didn't work so well, but the second came out well enough that my mom has it kicking around somewhere.

The issue would probably be being able to make the frame of the piece. If you had enough skill to manipulate wire or metal, then I'd imagine the glass part would be easy enough to sort out.

[Semsem]

I have worked with stained glass and it can be an expensive hobby. You also have to be prepared to cut yourself a fair amount. Taking a class first is definitely the way to go. I stopped doing it because i did not have a proper place in my house to do it (little glass pieces everywhere). Here's one that I made while I was doing it.

[Eliste]

Wow that looks awesome!