These Two Hands

This is what I chose to replicate for my first stained glass project ever. I love poppies. I love Arts & Crafts-style stuff. Perfect!

Except that it was way, way, too advanced. Look at all those curves! Look at those tiny fiddly bits! I know that now.

So… this is what it came out looking like when I had all the pieces cut. -sigh-

Like usual, I couldn’t wait a whole week for the class to meet again and for me to get a little more experience under my belt. (Patience, I have learned over the years, is definitely not one of my virtues.) I had my first class on how to cut glass, then immediately ran out to the stained glass store. I bought all my own tools and glass, took the next day off, sweated, cursed, bled, and created the jiggly composition you see before you.

The teacher laughed when I came in the next Saturday with my crooked creation. I’d like to think it was at least partly because he was delighted with my enthusiasm… but probably more likely because, as he put it, I’d bitten off more than I could chew. I think he said something like that, anyway. I was busy swimming in humility, and acoustics aren’t too good in the Sea of Self Flagellation.

All is not lost, however. Apparently it’s quite normal to have to use a grinder to smooth out the curvy bits and get things to fit. And then you can always smooth out edges by laying the copper foil creatively, and fill in small gaps with solder, sooooooo…. hopefully when all is said and done, it will look more like a stained glass window and less like a crayon drawing made by a child unable to color within the lines.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Crafts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.