Making stained glass jewelry is a beautiful form of art. You are creating and carving a design out of glass for someone to wear and show off to the world.
This process has many steps. This is just the first part of six where I will walk you through the different steps from conception to getting it listed on a site like Etsy.
So let's dive in...
What you need:
- Stained glass (my favorite sellers at tvsales1984 and the-crystal-rose but you can find some great variety deals on eBay from other sellers)
- Permanent markers
- Heavy duty glove that can withstand sharp glass
- Stencil/design to trace (optional)
A good place to start is do some research into other people's stained glass jewelry. A simple tip that I started with. From there you can start to get an idea of what designs and style you want to create.
***I highly recommend that you start with a basic shape like a square for your first project just so you can get a feel for each tool and step before putting together more complicated designs.
Once you are ready for a more complicated designs, one of the best tools I use is looking up outlines on google such as a heart, star, hot air balloon, etc. The outlines make it easy to print, cut out, and trace on glass.
So after you have printed and cut out a design, grab a permanent marker that will be visible on the glass and trace it. I like to use black, silver, and gold sharpies. You want to trace from a corner to conserve glass.
Once you have it traced, it's time to cut it out. You are going to take your glass cutter. I like to use mine which looks like this. You fill it up with cutting oil. You are best off making as straight of cuts as possible to lower the risk of the glass breaking wrong. You will know it's cutting when you hear a very light cracking sound as you go. It doesn't cut through the glass, but makes a line like an imprint kind of like when you fold a piece of paper to make it easier to tear.
Next you will take your glass breaker tool, which looks like this and place it over the line you made to cut and carefully snap the glass in two.
****Very important to where at least on heavy duty glove while doing this on the hand that is holding the glass steady.
Do this as many times as needed to cut around your design. Believe me, you want to get as close as you can and remove as much extra glass as possible because it will make the next step SO much easier and take A LOT less time.
Well that's all for this post. Check out my post tomorrow for part 2 where we talk about grinding glass. Be sure to like and subscribe. I hope this helps you. Have a blessed day.
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