Stained Glass is not for the faint of heart. A lot of blood sweat and tears go into making the perfect piece. First comes the pattern making, and if you want to do anything nerdy and nontraditional unfortunately you’re going to have to create that yourself. When I would do it I would take the base from a coloring book sheet and then draw in the lines that made the most sense shape and color wise. Because it never looks good to have a million cuts and lets face it, the less pieces you can get away with the better. Also less time consuming when it comes to grinding and copper foiling. For this beautiful creation Craig Kovatch was inspired by “St. Optimus of Prime”, a fan art by Timothy Lim.
From the image you can see he chose not to solder it completely but to use leading. Which would reinforce it and keep it together better. Sometimes if you do a much larger scale glass piece leading isn’t the right option because it can stretch over time, but for something like this it’s the perfect choice. And you don’t use so much solder. The only time you would want to completely solder a stained glass picture is if you are weather proofing it for window installation. Leading can get a bit drafty.
In the next image you can see him using flux. Flux is what you would use to get the solder to stick better.
And finally the finished product! Isn’t it just gorgeous? I would be curious to know how long this took him. It looks to be about 1.75 feet by 3 feet at least.
And the inspiration that he took from! Timothy Lim‘s St Optimus Prime.
What do you think of this? Would you want one in your home? Tell us in the comments if you like to collect stained glass!
