Hi! There I am Phillip Curtis McKee, III, founder of the McKee Stained Glass and today, I am going to show you how to make a stained glass suncatcher using the copper foil method. In fact, you will be making this suncatcher. To start off, I am going to telling you about various types of glass and tools. Then we will move on how to properly cut glass and break it not just for straight lines but also the more difficult curves. We will grind our glass down so that we have nice smooth edges and foil it, so that can we apply our solder.
Once we solder it together, we are going to applying a pettiness, so that we achieve that rich black finish on the soldered line that people associate with stained glass. Finally, we will frame it and polish it so that it's ready for display in your home or office window. I wasn’t always making stained glass but it is my true love. I did my undergraduate work at Yale University followed by graduate studies at Harvard. I held a research fellowship at Princeton as well. And finally before I was ready to go into the world as an artist, I intensively studied under an established stained glass artist.
I am here to show you how to make these wonderful works of art in your own home but before we can begin, we have to go over some basic tools and also some basic safety tips. In terms of tools, you will need a glass cutter, several different types of pliers, scissors and specialty shears, as well as Homasote board, a grid surface for cutting either a grinding stone or grinder to grind your glass, and a soldering iron. Basic versions of all of these tools can be purchased for a combined total of less than a $100.00.
There are many timesaving and labor saving devices out there that you can purchase, should you desire them and they will only increase your enjoyment of making stained glass. In terms of safety, there are few simple rules that you need to follow. First, always whenever breaking glass or performing any step where something could fly into the air, wear safety glasses. Safety glasses are different from regular glasses even if you wear prescription glasses. You need to wear safety glasses because in addition to protecting from the front, they provide side and top and bottom protection when worn properly.
Second is the clothing you will wear. Always wear a closed neck shirt. A sweat shirt or a sweater works wonderfully. The tie is not really necessarily but you want to make sure that you don’t have flying particles falling inside your clothing. In addition, wear closed toed shoes. You really don’t want to have a piece of glass or worse a 700 degree ball of molten solder falling between your toes. It's also a good idea to wear clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty or to cover them with an apron or other safety smock of some sort.
It's not just protecting your clothes you need to worry about but also protecting your inside. Never eat, drink, or smoke when working on stained glass. You will be working with some chemicals as well as lead, and glass pieces. You don’t want any of that going inside your mouth because of that also when grinding, be certain to keep your mouth closed. I may have to speak during the grinding section of this video but you shouldn’t. That will keep small glass pieces out of your mouth.
Speaking of lead, all soldered types have some degree of lead in them, some more than others. The only exceptions are certain types of lead free solder. I you are a pregnant women or nursing, consider either not working on stained glass during those times or using a lead free solder so that you can limit the exposure of your new born to lead, since it is a non-environmental hazard for children.
Finally, a few points about soldering safety that may seem like commonsense but that can cause a serious problem for you if you get distracted. Your soldering iron will be heated up to a point where it can melt solder, depending on the solder you use, that will be anywhere from 600 to 800 degrees. That will cause a serious burn if it is touches your skin even momentarily. So always hold your soldering iron only by the insulated handle. The hot end of an iron is shaped like a pencil. If you are distracted, you can easily make a mistake of grabbing your iron like a pencil and causing serious burns to your hands that will require medical attention. For that same reason, do not walk with a hot soldering iron or wave the hot soldering around especially if there are others in the room. Waving an iron can cause small solder droplets to fly off the end and injure others or damage property.
When you are not using your iron, always put it in its metal iron holder, never lay it down on your work surface. It can cause damage to furniture or even start a fire. Finally, if you will not be using your iron for any length of time, turn it off. Yes it may cool down and you will have to heat it up back again when you are ready to start soldering once more but it will extend the life of your iron, of your iron tips and avoid the risk of your iron overheating and causing damage.
Now that we have gone through the basic tools that you will need and some safety tips, why don’t we jump right in and get started on this stained glass project because I really want you to have this hanging in your window.