![small stained glass design small stained glass design](https://www.delphiglass.com/syscat/image_add/221865_10.jpg)
With the soldering iron set at about 700F (400C, if you have temp control), melt a little bit of 60/40 solder on to the tip and add it right on the copper foil to join the pieces. With your flux brush, dab a bit of flux on the copper foil where you want to join the first two glass pieces. Otherwise, using a piece of plywood works just fine too. Setting your work on a heat-resistant homasote board is a good idea. I’ve now upgraded to the best soldering iron for stained glass, IMO. The cheapest iron I’ve found and works well for small projects is from Hakko at ~$15USD. When I made this project, I used an older 65W soldering iron with a 3/16″ chiseled tip, with temperature control and it worked fine.
![small stained glass design small stained glass design](https://img.staticmb.com/mbcontent/images/uploads/2021/2/stained-glass-pattern.jpg)
This step is the most involved but not as hard as you might think. You can also use a wooden stick or similar to burnish the foil onto the glass. The smoother and cleaner the tape is on the glass, the better the soldering will be. With a fid tool, smooth out the copper foil tape onto the glass. Use a 7/32″ silver backed copper foil tape to wrap the edges of each glass piece as evenly as possible. If you’re planning to make any more projects beyond this, I would absolutely recommend getting a glass grinder to do more precise work and save that time! When you’re happy with how the pieces line up, rinse and dry each piece for the next step. I bought mine used from Craigslist and it has changed my workflow completely. The best solution (and fastest way) to shaping glass is with a glass grinder.
![small stained glass design small stained glass design](http://www.karalstudio.com/glass/glass-designs/patterns-for-sale/whale-in-circle-small-stained-glass-design-pattern.jpg)
This grinding stone is used to file minor flawed glass edges but can’t really be used to shape glass that well. You can smooth the edges of each piece so they line up nicely to each other like the original pattern in two ways. The cuts may not be perfect and that’s okay. You can also use the grozer/breaker pliers to nibble off jagged edges from the break to get closer to the pattern. The running pliers is a special type of pliers made just for breaking glass so do not use whatever old pliers you have laying around! Break the glass one line at a time, repeating the steps for all the feather pieces. You’ve just cut your first piece of glass! To break the glass, use the running pliers and line up the score line you made to the etched line on the pliers. Look for a nice thin hairline and you’ve done it right.
It doesn’t take much pressure, just enough for the cutting wheel to lightly break the glass surface. You should hear a zipping sound as you move the cutter along the glass surface. Go from one edge of the glass to the other in one continuous motion. You’ll develop a feel for it with each and every score. With some pressure, score the glass by running the cutting wheel on the surface of the glass along the line you want the glass to break. You can also add oil to the chamber instead if your cutter has one. Kerosene and sewing machine oil are some other options. Add a tiny bit of cutting oil to the wheel to make for smoother cutting and scoring. You can’t go wrong with any of these as you’re starting out so choose whatever you like. Another popular type of cutter is a pistol grip style cutter. The blade swivels as you score to correct the cutting angle and is far superior than the basic cutter. Or an upgraded super cutter by TOYO with an oil chamber and an excellent tungsten carbide cutting wheel. You can go with a very basic cutting tool like this straight cutter I started with. Label the number of the pattern on the glass to avoid confusion later on. It’s better (and easier) to cut on the shinier, smoother side of the glass so trace over on that side of the glass. Simply trace the pattern over the glass using a marker.
#SMALL STAINED GLASS DESIGN FREE#
Or feel free to draw and design your own! Next, pick the glass you would like to use for each pattern. First thing to do is to select and cut up the pattern of the feather you want to make from the free starter guide.