We make spectacular stained glass windows with our own hands.

Stained glass is a product that can not be replicated, because it is distinguished by its individuality and uniqueness. Old masters keep the secrets of this craft. At the present time, techniques are reviving and styles of stained glass compositions are developing. All this again gained importance, so you can often hear that one of your friends is interested in stained glass windows with their own hands, and they are asking questions about how to make a stained glass yourself. We will try to help you to make them stained at home as much as possible.

Composite elements of stained glass - a set of glasses framed with lead or brass. Each piece of glass performs an individual function in the overall composition. The lighting conditions significantly affect the expressiveness of the stained glass window. Much depends on the place where it is located - in the internal aperture and is equipped with a backlight or in an external window. Sunlight can show the full range of colors in full force, while electric light restricts and makes its spectrum more scarce.

In order to produce stained glass with your own hands you will need: different in color, but, preferably, similar in thickness pieces of glass; Quality, preferably, diamond glass cutter; Broaches, i.e. Narrow strips of lead with a cross-section, which can be obtained in art salons and clamps; Solders, rosin and soldering iron; Joinery knife and aluminum hammer.

It is important to purchase broaches, the groove width of which corresponds to the thickness of the glass used for stained glass. For better lighting, a number of stained glass makers make niches or openings in their walls in order to install luminous pictures. If you want to make stained-glass windows at home, you need to stock up not only materials, but not small patience, as well as knowledge about how to make a stained-glass window.

We perform stained glass windows with our own hands.

Let's start with transferring to the paper of the selected drawing, necessarily, in full size. Drawing is better to choose one where there are no complex configurations of parts, since it is necessary to work with a hard, but at the same time very fragile material. Draw two clear parallel lines to select the outlines along which colored glasses will be laid out. The first line is the outline of the picture. The second line will denote the width of the broach.

Next, decompose the resulting picture on your desktop, putting on top of the "conductor" made of wooden slats, securing all the clamps. Thanks to this, we marked the boundaries of the stained glass window. Next, parallel to the edges from the inside, we draw the lines along which the broaches for the lead frame will be placed.

We number the fragments of our drawing. Then we will put a piece of glass of the corresponding color on the fragments and plot its outlines, making allowances for the depth of the groove of the current broach. On each detail, we indicate the corresponding numbers. Then, with the help of a glass cutter, we outline the contours of our fragments and, tapping lightly with an aluminum hammer in the direction of the contour lines, divide the excess. The next step is to cut the broach into pieces so that we can lay out the internal perimeter of our frame without gaps. We insert the broaches into the "conductor" and weld them together with the most aesthetic and neat sutures, thus obtaining a lead frame.

We will insert into the corner the desired glass fragment, and then we will drown it in the groove of our broach to fix it securely. At the point where the contour of the glass fragment breaks sharply, cut the broach with a knife and fix it, soldering the end of the broach to the frame. Also, we squeeze a piece of glass on the other side of the broaching strip, we weld it with the previously placed broach and frame. Then leaving a margin of length to hold the glass fragment adjacent to it.

Gradually, according to such technology, any stained-glass windows are collected by their own hands. At painstaking work for a few days or weeks you can create a beautiful stained-glass window, because haste is not appropriate here.