1. Design and Trace
First thing to do is to select and cut up the pattern of the feather you want to make from the free starter guide. Or feel free to draw and design your own! Next, pick the glass you would like to use for each pattern. Simply trace the pattern over the glass using a marker. It’s better (and easier) to cut on the shinier, smoother side of the glass so trace over on that side of the glass. Label the number of the pattern on the glass to avoid confusion later on.
2. Cutting glass
Now we’re ready to cut the glass. You can go with a very basic cutting tool like this straight cutter I started with. Or an upgraded super cutter by Toyo with an oil chamber and an tougher tungsten carbide cutting wheel. The blade swivels as you score to correct the cutting angle and is far superior to the basic cutter. Another popular type of cutter is the pistol grip style cutter. You can’t go wrong with any of these cutters so choose whatever you like that's within your budget. Add a tiny bit of cutting oil to the wheel to make for smoother cutting and scoring. Kerosene and sewing machine oil are some other options. You can also add oil to the chamber instead if your cutter has one.
With some pressure, score the glass by running the cutting wheel on the surface of the glass along the line you want the glass to break. You’ll develop a feel for it with each and every score. Go from one edge of the glass to the other in one continuous motion. You should hear a zipping sound as you move the cutter along the glass surface. It doesn’t take much pressure, just enough for the cutting wheel to lightly break the glass surface. Look for a nice thin hairline and you’ve done it right.
To break the glass, use the running pliers and line up the score line you made to the etched line on the pliers. And give it a squeeze. You’ve just cut your first piece of glass!
The running pliers is a special type of pliers made just for breaking glass so do not use whatever old pliers you have laying around. Break the glass one line at a time, repeating the steps for all the feather pieces. You can also use the grozer/breaker pliers to nibble off jagged edges from the break to get closer to the pattern.
3. Grinding glass
The cuts may not be perfect and that’s okay. You can smooth the edges of each piece so they line up nicely to each other like the original pattern in two ways. One is with a carborundum stone. This grinding stone is used to file minor flawed glass edges but can’t really be used to shape glass that well. The best solution (and fastest way) to shaping glass is with a glass grinder. I bought mine used from Craigslist and it has changed my workflow completely. If you’re planning to make any more projects beyond this, I would absolutely recommend getting a glass grinder to do more precise work and save that time! When you’re happy with how the pieces line up, rinse and dry each piece for the next step.
4. Copper foiling
Use a 7/32″ silver backed copper foil tape to wrap the edges of each glass piece as evenly as possible. With a fid tool, smooth out the copper foil tape onto the glass. The smoother and cleaner the tape is on the glass, the better the soldering will be. You can also use a wooden stick or similar to burnish the foil onto the glass.
5. Soldering
This step is the most involved but not as hard as you might think. When I made this project, I used an older 65W soldering iron with a 3/16″ chiseled tip, with temperature control and it worked fine. The cheapest iron I’ve found and works well for small projects is from Hakko at ~$15USD. I’ve now upgraded to the best soldering iron for stained glass, IMO. Setting your work on a heat-resistant homasote board is a good idea. Otherwise, using a piece of plywood works just fine too. Think heat-resistant. With your flux brush, dab a bit of flux on the copper foil where you want to join the first two glass pieces.
With the soldering iron set at about 700F (400C, if you have temp control), melt a little bit of 60/40 solder onto the tip and add it right on the copper foil to join the pieces . Make this a quick dab on the glass and remove the iron (also known as tacking). Repeat and tack the other pieces to hold them together temporarily.
Now add more flux to this top surface and then more solder along the lines to make a nice smooth bead line. Do not stay in one spot too long; you may risk breaking the glass or delaminating the copper foil. Wait until things cool down and flip over and repeat for the other side. And add solder to the edges too.
To finish up the soldering work, use your grozer pliers to hold a jump ring in place and solder at the top of the feather to hang. A pair of bent needle nose pliers can be pretty helpful at this point.
6. Cleaning and Finishing
Let’s clean this thing, we’re getting close! Use a soft brush or an old tooth brush to clean with regular dish soap and warm water. Rinse and dry, then scrub lightly on the solder lines with fine steel wool to get rid of the last remaining flux. *Recently, the best way I’ve found to clean your project is to use CJ’s flux remover. It seems to work a lot better than regular soap and a little goes a long way. Plus, no more fine steel wool.* Lastly, use polish or wax to give your piece a really nice shine. Hang your feather however you like and be proud that you just made your first stained glass project! Congrats!
