Glass Projects From Other Stained Glass Artists

We went searching the web for glass projects to share. Being a stained glass artist always has you thinking, working on creativity, and trying to find new ways to use your passion.

Below are a couple of great example projects that show you how this wonderful art is truly limitless when you let your mind run wild!

Read how Susan and her husband used a simple home project and turned it into an amazing glass project:

My husband is taking apart our deck in preparation of building a screened in porch.

The railings of the deck are made of cedar and have many years left in them. We are going to box in the ends of the railings and reuse them in the garden.

One of them will be a trellis on the end of the house to help hide the gas meter. The other will be the top of an arbor. The project I’m most excited about is the one that I’m turning into a craft project.

Once it is complete, the railing will be turned lengthwise so that the railing slats will be horizontal. It will be affixed to the house with screws so we can take it down when we paint.

This trellis will have colorful art glass wired on the slats in a random, mosaic style pattern- kind of flowing like a stream. Eventually, it will have a flowering vine going up on one side. The art glass will help add color, pattern and height to the shade garden.

Another wonderful story from another Sue about restoring your stained glass projects:

I’ve had a number of repair/restoration projects come into the studio. I want to discuss a project I recently completed. This was a panel approximately 27”x47” from the former high school in a nearby town.

The building was built in 1902 and is now used as the municipal annex. The panel is one of many that were installed in the upper part of the windows on the third story of the building. There were a few broken pieces of glass that needed to be replaced and the client wanted the outside lead replaced with zinc.

Once finished, the panel was installed in a conference room on the second floor with another of its mates. The panel was well constructed originally and I wanted to disturb as little of the original work as possible, especially the star patterns on the outer border.

While the lead was oxidized, for the age of the panel it was in quite good condition. Matching the glass to replace the larger squares was not possible. I got as close as I could.

I consulted with Dave, one of the principals at Kokomo Opalescent Glass Company about the glass. It wasn’t one of theirs and he believed it was made by a company no longer in existence, perhaps Mississippi Glass.

The first thing I did was clean the panel. A weak solution of Simple Green worked very well for this. It was amazing to see how shiny the glass was after being cleaned.

After removing part of the border motif and replacing the broken interior pieces and some interior lead, I resoldered the joints. Doing this required cleaning the joints with an abrasive buff on my Dremel.

I could have cleaned them sufficiently with a lead knife, but the Dremel made the job a whole lot faster. The coarser (brown) buff worked the best. The gray one isn’t as course so it wasn’t quite enough to get through the oxidation. (They come in a 2 pack with one each).

After all this I cemented the panel. I make my own cement using whiting, plaster, linseed oil and turpentine. This really helped strengthen the panel.

With the cement in place and the zinc on the outside, I was able to turn the panel. I couldn’t do that in its original condition.

Some of the wires for the iron reinforcement bars came off while I was cementing, so I resoldered them afterward using the same cleaning process I’ve already described.

These are two examples of how others create their glass projects and stained glass designs.

We'll continue to look for other articles, tips, and more that will allow you to learn and become the best artist possible.

Don't ever hesitate to share your stories, tips, and tricks as well!!