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How to make stained glass?

Stained glass is a very old type of decoration, but thanks to its charm, it is also a universal and cunning solution to ornament your house. Stained glasses have ceased to be associated only with old churches. Partially thanks to Secession, stained glass has become so popular and it settled for good in town houses. It has been even used as an element of glass cases or lamps. If we are art lovers and like climatic decorations in our house, we may make it by ourselves.

First of all, we need to draw a proper shape of our stained glass. It is best to do this with a thick marker in order to see the outline clearly. Next, we put the sheet of paper with our outline on the glass and with the help of special glass knife, we need to cut out the appropriate shape. The remaining glass should be delicately broken off by means of tongs.

The edges should be carefully evened and ground, preferably using special grinder for stained glass. Whetstone may also be used, that needs to be steered along the edges.

When our edges are even, we need to wrap them with self-adhesive foil. Remember to leave some foil to stick out beyond the edges. Later it needs to be turned for both sides of the stained glass.

Combine all the elements and check if they fit. Brush each foiled surface with the flux and solder them - apply small dots of tin on the soldering tool and join the part of stained glass with the help of solder points. Apply melted tin with the help of tip on the points of contact so that they form a slight roll. Perform the same soldering on the other side. It is best to put your stained glass on a wet wiper, which will secure the solders already made from warming up.

When our stained glass is in one piece, we need to clean it up with a soft brush and dish soap. Put patina on the solders, which will prevent graying and oxidation of tin. After drying up, polish your stained glass with a soft brush to make it shiny.

Paper stained glass

We may also make beautiful stained glass out of colorful paper. Choose a few types of paper - texture which will combine all the elements and will be in a neutral color (preferably black), tissue paper to obtain the effect of light permeability and decorative paper, which could also imitate glass, e.g. with metallic gloss. You only need to cut out a proper shape in the dark texture and put proper colors of papers on it. Transparent paper will provide the effect of stained glass and will show permeating light. Metallic paper will resemble the effect of patina. It is a much easier way to ornament our apartment in an effective way. Paper stained glass may also be made by children, without any worries that they will harm themselves with glass.

Such stained glass will be a great decoration of the window or window frame. It may also replace a painting (when we hang it on the wall), adding class to the interior. A way to decorate the interior is very often a stained glass figure or picture frame, which not only serve as decoration elements, but will be also incredibly practical.


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