Getting Crafty

It’s hard to believe but I’m nearly done with my stained glass project now. It’s been a really great class that I’ve very much enjoyed. One more class and we’ll be done!

This past week we finally started soldering our projects. First off we discussed some safety precautions.

1. Soldering irons run at about 700 degrees Fahrenheit and you can’t tell from looking at one whether it’s on or off, so always assume that it’s hot!
2. Solder is comprised of tin and lead, so no eating or drinking or smoking, while soldering
3. Always wear closed toe shoes and non-flammable trousers. Hot lead dropped on exposed body parts can be very painful!
4. Be sure that you have good ventilation. Those of you who are particularly sensitive to fumes, may want to purchase a flame trap
5. Flux, which is used to help stick your solder to the lead, is acid based. You do not want to get in on your skin and you do not want to leave it for prolonged periods of time, on your glass, or it will etch your glass. Work in small areas at a time and neutralize the acid when you’re done soldering.

Solder, as I mentioned before, is made up of tin & lead. It typically comes in:

The first number represents the percentage of tin and the second number represents the percentage of lead in your solder. The lower the amount of tin in your solder, the longer it will stay molten and the longer it will take to harden. 60/40 will fill gaps easier because hardens faster. 63/73 is most often used for decorative soldering.

You can also find solder that contains no lead. This is typically used for jewelry and other items that are worn next to the skin.

This week in stained glass class we finally started building our projects. To do this you need a board to build on. People use all sorts of things to build their projects on. My early copper foil projects were built on cork message type boards. However, since lead is heavier a stronger board is recommended. Our instructor, Jim, from Austin’s Blue Moon made each of us a special board to build our projects on. These boards are basically 24″ square and consist of a layer of 1/2″ think plywood and a layer of 1/2″ homasote. Homasote is a building material made from recycled paper. It’s sturdy and yet you can press the aluminum pushpins into it that stained glass crafter’s use to hold projects in place on the building boards.

In addition to your building board, you’ll need a set of layout strips. These strips will help hold your project in place while maintaining your 90 degree angle. First you place your bottom strip and then, with a t-square, you’ll place another strip on the left side, or if you’re a lefty, on the right side. Like this:

As you can see from the photo above, the layout strips are held in place by the aluminum pushpins. This is very sturdy. Your pattern goes on next. If your pattern has a caming line then you would cut it away and butt the pattern up against the layout strips. Next you’ll want to set your pieces into the pattern to ensure that all pieces fits snugly within the black lines of your pattern. If your pieces don’t fit properly, now is the time to grind them down to size or your pattern will get off kilter.

Next we’ll talk about lead caming and how to cut it and work it around your pieces.

Tip 2 - Dipping Your Sugar Cookies

This is one of the easiest and most fun techniques for children. It can be a little bit messy but what’s the fun of making cookies with kids if there is no mess at all?

One again your take some of your royal icing and thin it down. I like to do this with shallow disposable bowls. Trust me, you’ll thank me when you’re tired and it’s time for cleaning up. Take about a quarter cup to a third a cup of icing, add in your colors and then water, just a drop at a time until your icing is just a little thinner than corn syrup. I like to color all my icing before starting so you’re all ready to go and don’t have to keep stopping to color more icing. For Christmas cookies I recommend red, green & white at a minimum. If you’re doing snowflakes then pale blue is nice and for variety you may like yellow for stars and perhaps a darker blue.

Take your cookie and just dip it into your color. Lift it out, give it a little shake to get rid of the excess and then flip it over and give it another little shake to help it settle and smooth it out. Set it down, icing side up, on wax or parchment paper. At this point you can sprinkle it with sanding sugars, dragée, sprinkles or any other toppings you like and then leave them alone to dry. Here are some cookies I made using this method:

You can make cool swirly patterns by dropping tiny dots of colored icing onto other colors and gently swirling the colors together using a toothpick. This is a technique kids never get tired of and yet it still makes adults go ooooh and ahhh.

Tip 1 - Outlining and Flood Filling your cookies:

One of the very neatest things I learned from Penny McConell that I love to do is to outline my cookies with watered down, colored cookie dough before baking. What I love about this technique is that when the cookies cool you already have your flood dam in place for your royal icing and it adds a beautiful border without additional work or for that matter, additional sugar. Baked in cookie dams never break, either!

A little bit goes a long way with this and you’ll only need a fat dollop of dough for your batch. I did red & green for mine and that was plenty. The red was mostly for the candy canes and I used the green mostly for Christmas trees. Add your water just a little bit at a time until it’s thin enough to pipe through a piping bag. You can use a size 3 writing tip or just cut the end off of the piping bag like I did. This is what your cookies will look like with the dough piped on:

To flood fill your cookies you will also water down your icing. Adding just a tiny bit of water at a time, thin your icing down to where it is the consistency of corn syrup. If you’ve chosen to outline your cookies in your royal icing, use it full strength to outline, allow to dry, and then flood fill with your thinned icing.

Once you are ready to ice your cookies you’ll hold your bag at an angle and gently squeeze your bag, allowing the thinned icing to “flood” into the open areas and fill the space. Set your cookies aside and allow to dry thoroughly. I usually let mine dry overnight. The icing will be shiny and beautiful. Here is a look at a flood filled cookie with a cookie dough border:

Pretty, yes?

Obviously, you don’t have to ice your sugar cookies but they sure are pretty when you do and if you’re going to make them for gifts then I’d highly recommend you take the time to ice them.

Penny’s Royal Icing

6 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons meringue powder (half this in very hot weather)
3.5 Cups powdered sugar, sifted.

• Put water in mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients.
• Put the mixing speed on low. Mix ingredients untill they form a thick frosting. Depending on the freshness of the sugar, you may need to add additional water. The frosting at this point should resembel thick cookie glaze.
• When the icing is smooth, put the mixer on it’s highest setting an process until the icing goes from shiny to dull and will stand in stiff peaks.

Note: After you make the icing, keep it covered with a damp cloth at all times (including when you have tinted it and put it into the pastry bags) or it will crust over. This icing is not a “keeper”. It does not have a long shelf-life so make just as much as you need for the day of decorating.

There are many techniques for icing your cookies. Here are a few common ones:

* Flood filling, where you outline your cookie and then fill in the outlined areas.
* Dipping, where you dip cookies in thinned royal icing
* Painting, where you paint on your royal icing, or paint over dried royal icing.

Whichever method you use just remember to have fun and not put too much pressure on yourself. As I told my niece, no matter how messy your cookies come out they are still cookies and they will get eaten!