Friday, September 18, 2009

Old & New Stained Glass Comes Together

I restored the old medallions for the church and await the committee approval on my proposed drafts. Using windows from the soon to be demolished old church by inserting them in a newly constructed stained glass window is both challenging and rewarding.

Restorations included removing bulging, repairing a few pieces of glass, cleaning and re-weatherproofing or cementing the window. The original perimeter lead was also replaced with new 3/8" flat lead that matches the rest of the window. This new lead will accept the new surrounding pieces of glass and be easier to solder to. The small trick in replacing the old perimeter lead is to carefully cut it mid way on the outside glass segments and gently heat up the old solder joints to release the old lead.
Cutting the lead allows you to rock free the old lead without twisting the attaching lead you are keeping. Once the old lead is removed you now have a tinned area to attach the new lead. Without this tinned area soldering becomes nearly impossible due to the oxidation of the old window. In this case the windows are over 100 years old.
The original lead held up remarkably well for it's age and doesn't need replacing.

I am bidding on an eyebrow transom "Good Shepherd", two sidelites and matching half round panels. This will complete the entry way of the church.




Sidelite panel with top 1/2 round


Eyebrow Transom

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Free Halloween Stained Glass Patterns

It's that time again to gear up with spooky glass themes!

Here is a listing of free Halloween patterns I came across you may like. Be sure to check permissions from the artists as they differ in restrictions of use. Oh yeah... Don't forget to stock up on orange and black glass!
If you know of any other free Halloween patterns I missed, please comment below this post and I'll add it to the listing.
Thanks!

FREE Halloween e-Book!

(click to get yours instantly now!)



Jillian Sawyer's "Witchcraft" depicts a cauldron adorned by a black cat. Visit Jillians website.

Easy Witch Pattern- Offered by Warner.

Witch in Flight- Very well laid out and simple enough for any beginner. Pattern offered by Vit-Mar.

Scarecrow with Crow
Nice detailed instructions on how to make this project. Offered by The Kaleidoscope Stained Glass

Collection of Halloween Patterns by Tiffany Glaskunst. Site in German by graphically navigable.

Spider Web With Face Interesting pattern of a spooky face imbedded into a spiders web by The Larkins.

Large Skull and Grim Reaper Ghost by Fantasy in Glass

Pumpkin Download and Halloween Lamp Pattern by Delphi Glass

Set of Easy Halloween Patterns "Pumpkin, Ghost and Bat" offered by Alpine Stained Glass. They also offer free pattern where you can create your own pumpkin face for fusing projects. While your there be sure to grab these cute bat patterns. Free of course :)


Free Fusible Halloween Projects by Glass Art Patterns include...
Hoot Owl", "Halloween Witchy Pumpkin", "Fused Glass Pumpkin Plate", "Halloween Fused Glass Panel", "Fused Glass Spooky Light", and "Fused Glass Halloween Plate".
That all should keep you hot glass folks busy!

Updated 9/13/09
Found a really neat free spider pattern from Vit-Mar. Went looking around some more and stumbled across this spider panel set also from Vit-Mar.

Skull Pirate with Crossed Swords is offered free from "FreeStainedGlassDesign. com". The pattern along with all of the others they have are available in "eye" (GlassEye), "pdf" (Adobe Acrobat) and good ole "JPEG" (Joint Photographic Experts Group) formats.






And of course... Our free Halloween stained glass patterns.







If you have a website offering free Halloween stained glass patterns or know of any I missed please comment below. Thanks :)

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Celtic Knot Transom Panel

I recently finished this stained glass window using a simple but interesting Celtic knot design. These patterns are a bit tricky to layout initially but in time you get the overlapping right and it all looks good in the end.
Baroque clear glass was used for the main background. A medium green 50 mm faceted jewel for the center, a wispy green by Spectrum for the ribbon and a soft seeded amber by KOG for the inner background.
This panel is centered between two of the same size but contain a simple clear beveled star surrounded by again Baroque clear. The 3 panel set is very attractive overall.



Celtic Knot Stained Glass