Here’s a sneak peak at my stained glass display for my 2013 summer market season. I’m excited to be selling this Saturday (May 11, 2013), just before Mother’s Day, at the Moss Street Market from 10am – 2pm. This is my favourite market to shop at for yummy food, little plant seedlings, organic veggies and handmade arts and crafts, so drop on by and say hi! I’ll be setting up at different markets this summer so check here for my next market dates and locations.
Thinking about kitten season right now, I designed up some new adorable little kitten stained glass window ornaments, ready for market this weekend (Saturday, May 11th). Lots of cute colours, but I especially like these black and white ones paired together, little kitty friends. I’ve been thinking about black kittens because that is the colour my son wants to get if an adoption works out for us this spring.
Happy May 1st! Here are some cheerful stained glass butterfly garden stakes for you. Please come visit me and my butterflies on Saturday, May 11th at the Moss St. Market!
Lots of stained glass dragonfly garden stakes getting ready to fly at my summer markets. Moss Street Market is coming up! I’ll be there on Saturday, May 11, 2013.
Today I had the pleasure of making bright red stained glass flowers for Josh from Brilliant Water Features He’s going to attach the flowers to one of his water fountain features and he asked me to take pictures of my stained glass process for a book he creates of the fountain being created. So I worked with the camera beside me today and here’s my journey.
How I Make Stained Glass:
I draw the shapes on the glass with a sharpie pen, then use the stained glass cutter to cut out my shapes. This sheet of red glass was quite stubborn and broke in all the wrong places, so I ended up with a bit larger of a scrap piece pile than normal. But I love taking pictures of scrap piles, so all is good.
I have all the pieces cut and ready for the grinder to take the little pointy edges off. The first time I used my grinder it really scared me – I thought it would take my finger off, but I’ve since learned that I can put my finger right up against it while it is spinning and nothing happens to my finger. So amazing that it grinds the glass and leaves me intact!
My glass is ground, and I’ve checked that my connect lines are pretty tight so that I won’t have gaps to fill in with crazy amounts of solder. Solder is quite expensive and big gaps look unprofessional so I am very aware of this. It’s time to wrap the glass in copper foil. The sun is out today and I’m crazing a dose of Vitamin D so I head out to the patio for this step.
Then it’s back inside to connect the pieces with solder. These flowers are getting attached to a wire stem at their destination so I also solder on wires that will wrap around the wire stem.
I wash up the soldered pieces (actually, I like to scrub them with really fine steel wool and a gentle soap, it makes the solder lines look so shiny and smooth) and it’s back outside for the final stage.
Applying Perfect Copper Patina:
The first few times I applied copper patina it was a disaster so I did a bunch of research and experimentation and I’ve found my favourite method of getting a perfect copper patina application.
First I polish the stained glass with a polish and shine it all up by rubbing it with a soft rag and then I apply the copper patina. I like to use a cutip. The patina may have black splotches as I apply it, but I try to remember not to get all stressed out because I know that later steps clean it up.
I wipe off any excess patina with a piece of paper towel, then apply another layer of polish. I know! Polish twice! It’s crazy but it works! When I rub the polish with the soft rag the copper patina shines right up and any black splotches come right out. Beautiful! My stained glass flowers are ready to go!
Yay! Pretty bright red flowers! What could be happier?
Here is the view from my work table, where I am just putting the finishing touches on a new tree window. Does the soul good to see my contented purr-box. Happy Friday!
Just sent this window out to be the main prize at the T Russell Millwork Ltd booth for the Victoria Home Expo at the Western Shore recreation centre this weekend. If you are at the Expo, stop by their table to say hello (you couldn’t find nicer, friendlier people anywhere!!), dream about your fantasy kitchen for a while, and enter to win!
New batch of wedding and party favor birds today! I’m really digging this teal green glass for spring and summer…
These beautiful favors as well as many others are available in my little glass shop. Do you have a specific color in mind? Let’s find a match for you!
As I walked into the grocery store last night, the new little spring geranium plants caught my eye (I know, so predictable…). There were no flowers yet, but the leaves were such interesting shapes and so lusciously layered on top of each other. I imagined the pop of flowers soon to come and decided that this is what my window sill needs: RIGHT NOW! I got right to ‘work’ and here is my stained glass version to cheer up the window while I wait for the real plants to do their growing.
How can you not giggle a little when you see a silly frog stained glass ornament? When I was a little younger I went through a phase of loving frogs. They are so goofy looking that I couldn’t help but smile whenever I’d see one. I have to admit, they still make me giggle, so here’s a creation for my silly side. I’m going to put one in my window right now!
