A stained glass window is a work of decorative art, made of colored glass. A stained glass window can be with an ornament (it is called ornamental) or it can depict scenes of everyday life, then it is called art stained glass.

Tiffany (full name — Louis Comfort Tiffany, 18/02/1848-17/01/1933) — is the name of the American artist and designer who invented the method of joining small pieces of glass with copper foil. The Louis Comfort Tiffany's invention, together with the creation of new types of glass has revolutionized the art glass industry. The technique of soldering stained glass was named in honor of the inventor — Tiffany technique, and became the most common technique for creating stained glass in the whole world.

So, here is what we need to create a stained glass window in Tiffany technique:

1. Multi-colored glass. Preferably transparent or translucent.

2. Diamond glass cutter.

3. A shatterer.

4. Cutters.

5. A grinding machine.

6. Copper foil, solder alloy.

7. Soldering acid.

8. Patina.

9. A soldering iron.

10. A marker, 2 brushes, scissors, a chopstick.

The work on a stained glass window starts with selecting a sketch. We will need two identical copies on paper in full size. You need to number all the details of the future stained glass window (the same on both copies).

We connect one of them with glue or transparent duck tape to a flat surface. The second copy is cut with scissors into individual parts. It would be perfect if you use special scissors for cutting templates — they have three blades, the middle blade removes the stripe with a width of 1.27 mm. This distance is calculated for the thickness of copper tape.

Apply blank pieces cut from the second copy of the sketch on the selected glass colors, outline them with a marker and number in accordance with the numbering on the sketch.

Next, using a glass cutter and a shatterer cut of glass all the elements of the future stained glass window.

If while breaking the glass bumps appeared, they can be cut with a wire cutter. After that, all the details are turned on a grinding machine until every detail is identical in form and size with the detail of the sketch.

Then we start to wind elements of a stained glass window with copper foil. It looks like a tape with one adhesive side. Apply tape with an adhesive side to the edge of the glass. In this case the glass must be at the center of the tape. Typically, the tape width is selected in such a way that it is a little more than the thickness of the glass. Wrap the whole blank with tape, now you have bends on both sides of the glass. The edge of the bends must be of the same size on both sides — for the strength and beauty of the future seam.

After that, the tape must be smoothened. Smoothen the end of the glass and bends from two sides with a chopstick.

Now put all our details of the sketch into a single pattern. All the elements must lie freely with a small gap. This gap is left to prevent overheating of the glass during the soldering process.

All seams are treated with flux (soldering acid). It is better to do that with a brush and in gloves. Next, take a soldering iron (well-heated, with a fine tip) and solder alloy and "put on a spot" or put some drops of solder alloy in the seams to lock the details into a single fixed pattern.

After that, all the elements of stained glass are soldered at the inner and outer edges, first from one side, then from the other one. The seam must be continuous and cover the visible part of the copper tape. On the front side of the stained glass window the seam can be slightly more convex than on the "wrong side". This is achieved through the use of more solder alloy.

After soldering you need to thoroughly clean all the seams, removing flux excess. This can be done using a conventional detergent or liquid for glass cleaning.

The final stage of making a Tiffany stained glass window is application of patina on seams. Black or copper patina is used more often. Remove the excess with detergent.

Voila! Our stained glass window is ready!

To stiffen the structure, a stained glass window can be inserted into a frame or a metal profile.

Author: Tatyana Zubkova

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