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I was thinking of taking classes for stained glass. I want to be able to make my own stained glass windows in my home. I am a little nervous about getting cut and curious about the expense. My goal would be to eventualy have a workshop in my basment, but it would depend how much it would cost me and if it would be cheaper just top have custom glass made for my home.
I had my own glass studio for years and it's a great hobby. In the big scheme of things, it's not cheap. Most everything you need is expensive and you also must have excellent ventilation. Lead fumes can be a health hazard. Many of those beautiful colors are created using gold or other minerals that make the glass very expensive.
If you are afraid of getting cut, glass is not for you. I am an excellent cutter and my hands are always full of cuts whenever I am working on a project. You will always be getting small cuts from slivers on your bench or grinder. It's unavoidable. Band aids are a must have shop supply.
I also do hot glass and that's lots of fun and a great challenge. Over the years, I have taught classes in both hot and cold. It's a tough field to make a profit in right now. People don't have money to spend on purely aesthetic, luxury, items.
I would suggest you start by taking some type of Community College class. They supply all the materials and equipment. You get to find out if you like it without making a big investment.
Houston's Leisure Learning Classes offer stained-glass lessons for a very reasonable price. (They even have a FREE class in which you can learn whatall is involved in the art of stained glass.) Check your city's adult education classes; they may offer lessons there, as well.
Maybe somebody could point me in the right direction here for what i'm looking for. I'm looking for one of two things, each a custom made stained glass picture. I was thinking about either an electric lighted wall mounted "window box" not big, maybe about a 14 incheswide by about 10 inches high or thereabouts. You'd light it and it would have a dimmer switch or even LED lights to simulate daylight to dusk or a sunset.
The cheaper( but probably still expensive) route would be to have a stained glass insert put inside on an existing window about 18 inches wide by about 8 inches high. Pretty much a standard older style window pane. I kind of like this because it gets afternoon and evening sun already. The picture would be unique, taken from a particular stained glass window seen in a favorite movie.
I'm not looking for expensive stained glass, just typical glass you'd find in suncatchers.
Any artists out there that do this kind of work and what would be the price I'd be looking at?
I was thinking of taking classes for stained glass. I want to be able to make my own stained glass windows in my home. I am a little nervous about getting cut and curious about the expense. My goal would be to eventualy have a workshop in my basment, but it would depend how much it would cost me and if it would be cheaper just top have custom glass made for my home.
I spent about $250 for a public continuing ed. class held at a local school. This amount includes tuition, tools, and glass for three 12x18 projects...and a lot of leftover glass.
One can get cut, it's glass afterall, but I only got pricked by small sharp shards...as did the other 15 adults in our class. I'm a woodworker so I kept forgetting to not brush away the debris...I know, stupid.
It's not easy cutting glass with accuracy. Nor is it easy to chip away at the edges with a "plier". Inside curves can be difficult to snap. However, as glass-aphobic as I was I ended up with three pretty decent pieces.
I priced locally made stained glass projects. They are all about 5x-10x the cost of materials....if not more for the really complicated or big pieces. I'd recommend you do it even if you end up making nothing more than sun catchers.
If you have a vendors license you can buy wholesale stained glass supplies much cheaper than if you buy from a small shop.
There are 3 main types of stained glass construction; leaded, copper foil, and dalle de verre. Copper foiling requires much more precise cutting, but you can buy glass saws that make perfectly smooth edges. Leaded glass, which is used in traditional windows, uses lead channel (came) which hides a lot of imperfections. Dalle de verre is not for the do it yourselfer.
As yellowsnow said, lead is highly toxic, so you need to be carefull not to touch your mouth (eat or smoke) without washing you hands. Where we lived, many old churches have closed down and fabulous stained glass has flooded the market, so that it is hardly worth anything anymore.
It is a fun craft, though, and in only a few classes you could have enough of the basics to be able to make a window or two for your home. One of the things you must keep in mind is there are construction rules about how the window must be constructed and supported which a teacher can help you with.
Last edited by gentlearts; 10-03-2011 at 01:37 PM..
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