glassdragon9

A Little Cleanup Goes a Long Way If you work with stained glass, your grinder is probably one of the hardest-working tools in your studio. And like any hardworking tool, it needs a little attention every now and then to keep it running smoothly. Stained glass grinders use a water-cooled, diamond-coated bit to shape and smooth the edges of glass. As you grind, fine glass dust collects in the water reservoir and eventually turns into a paste-like buildup. Over time, that buildup can interfere...

Last month, we explored how Stepping Out began, from the original concept and full-size pattern to selecting, cutting, and fitting hundreds of individual pieces of glass. Now it's time for those pieces to finally come together. The Puzzle Comes Together Once every piece has been cut and carefully ground for a perfect fit, the panel begins taking shape on the workbench. This stage is a bit like assembling a giant puzzle. Every piece has already been individually fitted, but seeing the full...

One of the questions we hear most often is, "How long does it take to make a stained glass panel?" The short answer? Quite a while. The better answer is that every finished piece begins long before the first piece of glass is ever cut. Over the next two months, we're taking you behind the scenes as we build one of our newest custom panels, Stepping Out. Rather than only showing you the finished piece, we wanted to share everything that happens along the way. The completed panel measures 28 ×...