Stained Glass Leprechaun House

 I was in the mood for some whimsy and after a peek of spring I aired out the garage and my stained-glass space and created this little house for my classroom. Of course the day I hung it we were back to winter and instead of clovers and fresh grass in the background there's snow!

Dresden Plate Inspired Flower Stained Glass

 I'm in the market for a longarm machine to professionally bind my quilts, so while visiting my mom we visited a friend of hers who has a quilting business to ask lots of questions and see one in action. To thank her for her time, I made her this stained glass artwork, inspired by a Dresden Plate quilt she had just finished and was donating to be auctioned off at the annual Agricultural Fair in a few weeks. I hope she likes it! I should've opened the blinds before photoing to get more light behind it, but oh well. It's nice! 

Before soldering:

And after:

Lighthouse Stained Glass Project

 My best friend's dad is a marvelous painter, and I asked him to make me a painting for my upstairs bathroom that was inspired from a beach trip I went on with their family in 2nd grade. We stayed in Cape Hatteras, N.C., and visited many lighthouses. He chose to paint a beautiful Ocracoke Island lighthouse for me, so I returned the favor be remaking his artwork in stained glass. 

This ended up being much bigger than I planned (14x20) but is so lovely. First, I made the pattern and cut the pieces. I cut out the design on my Cricut Venture using black vinyl to make it a little easier. 

Then, I put the pieces together like a puzzle on a second copy of my pattern I traced onto poster board using my Cricut Venture. 

Then, I carefully removed the vinyl and cleaned each piece, putting them back where they go. This was also where I could fix any errors, such as pieces that didn't quite fit, gaps that were a little too big, or colors that weren't quite what I wanted.

During this project, I was so excited to finally order some bins from Target that would make organizing my glass so much easier! Here is my garage workshop station set up with my supplies (mostly) neatly arranged. 

Then, I soldered it all together. So nice! I couldn't decide whether to leave it silver or use black patina, so I set it on the light board one of my sisters gifted me for my birthday. It makes a huge difference when picking out colors and seeing how the glass looks under different lights. 

I ended up going with the black. I love it! 

Mountain Stained Glass

 Inspired by a sticker I saw at school one day, I designed and created this stained glass art of a mountain range. There's a little tiny mistake but I won't tell if you won't! I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, hopefully someone in my family wants it! 

I started off making my design using Adobe Illustrator. I cut it out on my Cricut Venture. I didn't draw a second copy, which I regretted as I had to remake several pieces and struggled to remember their placement. 

Mermaid Stained Glass

Inspired by a trip to Puerto Rico, I made this mermaid stained glass. It's the first design I made completely by myself, so I'm pretty proud of it! It took me a bit, and I redid a few parts a couple times, but she makes me happy. I think I'll keep her in my kitchen. 

It's taken me ages to finish. I think I started in October. The first picture is the vinyl cutout from my Cricut Venture. I used a sharpie to label the pieces. 

Here is her hair being added. 

The staining process.

And, complete.

Stained Glass Ornament

 I'm trying to design a Stained Glass ornament decoration that I really like. I'm not there yet, but here's what I created while off on Christmas break. Also, shout-out to my little sister for the Silberschnitt Running Pliers to cut curves in my glass a little easier. There is a learning curve but I'm getting there! 

Leaf Stained Glass

I was playing around with some glass bits and made these cute little fall leaves. I like them a lot! I'd like to keep experimenting to see what I can come up with. I used a rough mockup of a leaf clipart I found online (imagine me holding a piece of paper up to my laptop screen and tracing with a pencil to get the shape of a leaf.) 

Frog and Toad Stained Glass

 If you've seen the background of many of the pictures from my craft room, you've noticed the wall of books. I am a big fan of children's literature and was inspired by a childhood favorite to make this. I'm not loving it, but I kept thinking about it way too much to not at least try to make it. I think if I try it again I'll stain the solder black instead of the copper color. Lots of mistakes, but I'm still learning! 

Pug Stained Glass

 I was commissioned by my sister to make a memorial stained glass artwork of her bf's dog who sadly passed away. This was the first time I bought glass online, which was interesting and it's just as hard as buying fabric online. I don't recommend it unless you can buy one of everything! 

I didn't take pictures of the whole process, but here he is cut out. I used a leaf inspiration for the background and traced a photo of him for his fur and face. 

Here is putting it together. I engraved his name and birth/death dates on the plaque at the bottom using my glowforge. 

The color was really hard to tell, and it's overall a lot darker, even in the sunlight, than I was hoping for, but it still turned out great. I didn't take a picture before packing it up to take with me on my trip to visit! 

Library Shelf Stained Glass

 My basement guest room has a deep window that is eye-level with our drive-way. When we moved in I decorated the room with a dark cottage core/Harry Potter universe vibe, and wanted to cover the window with more than a piece of black fabric. 

As my skills are continuing to grow I decided to branch out in using lead came to frame my work. This is the first piece I did and it fit perfectly! I was so nervous about that. If you know me, you know measuring is not something I'd call a strength. 

I found lots of great ideas on Pinterest, especially TerrazaStainedGlass on Etsy. They do incredible work! My quality is no where as good, but I was able to draw out what I wanted (and add a rubbery duck half-way through when my shapes got off a little) and I'm proud of what I created. 

Griffin Stained Glass

 I created this 12x18 panel for my nephew, who isn't old enough to appreciate it yet but hopefully will one day. I wanted to document the process so I tried to take tons of photos. I was really proud of this one, as I used this photo I saw online from a book to reach my vision. I think it's from a Fantastic Beasts book, but the search feature led me nowhere. 

First I traced the photo with Procreate on my iPad. I did this several times, simplifying over and over again until I had pieces that I was comfortable cutting out with glass. Not having too many intersecting angles and tiny bits that would get covered by solder are top priorities. After drawing it about 7-8 times, I had this image.

I added a background and printed it out full size on sticker paper. I should've printed out an additional copy to lay my pieces down on as I cut them, but hey, I'm still learning! I cut out each sticker by hand as a template for my glass sizes. This was a process. 

A lot of artists cut out all pieces and foil them first, but I tend to do bits at a time. I did the entire frame first, to make sure my size was good. 

Here is the process of stained glass with one of the trees. 

1. Cut out the pattern. I numbered the pieces to do different shades of green and then changed my mind. Also at that point my pieces weren't quite lining up so I traced what I had already foiled to make a somewhat new pattern. 

2. Lay out the pieces on the glass. I used sticker paper which is genius. I also like to add a straight line to I'll line up the direction of the glass correctly. 

3. Cut out the glass pieces. 

4. Grind each piece to remove rough edges. The better the cut, the less grinding there is. I'm definitely still learning this. 

5. Put it together.

6. Remove the sticker paper and lay it out to make sure it fits. You'll see that piece in the middle with the space didn't look like a big deal at this time. 

7. Add copper foil and pin down. Look for any inconsistencies. You'll see that little hole is bitter so I wanted to redo it. 

I put a piece of sticker paper down, traced, recut and ground down, and then re-foiled. 

And there you have it, a tree! 

After finishing the foiling, I soldered the panel and scrubbed clean. I also added two hooks at the top. 

I used a black patina to stain. And cleaned again! 

Then I added a nice polish. 

And here is the finished project.