Stepping Out: A Stained Glass Journey (Part 1)
- Jul 23
- 2 min read
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 × 36 inches and is made from approximately 320 individually cut pieces of glass. It requires hundreds of dollars in materials and more than 180 hours of craftsmanship, so none of that happens overnight.
Every Piece Starts with an Idea
The first step is developing the concept.
Using inspiration images and sketches, we begin creating the overall look and feel of the panel before committing anything to glass. Once the design starts taking shape, it's drawn full size, creating what's known as the cartoon. This becomes the roadmap for everything that follows.
Even at this stage, the design continues to evolve as details are refined and adjusted.
Choosing the Glass
This is one of our favorite parts of the process.
Selecting glass isn't simply choosing colors. Every sheet has its own texture, movement, transparency, and personality. Finding just the right combination is what gives a stained glass piece depth and life.
Sometimes a single sheet of glass completely changes the direction of a design.
From Paper to Glass
Once the design is finalized, every pattern piece is individually numbered and becomes its own cutting template.
Each piece is traced onto glass, cut by hand, and then carefully ground until it fits perfectly with its neighboring pieces. This stage takes patience, precision, and lots of test fitting before anything can be assembled.
By the end of this stage, hundreds of individual pieces are ready for the next step.
Coming Next Month
In August, we'll continue the journey as Stepping Out begins to come together. We'll show you how every piece is wrapped in copper foil, soldered together, framed, and transformed into the finished panel.
We hope you'll join us for Part 2.
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