Stained Glass Class Update
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.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:23 am
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