Cutting Very Thin, Irregular Stained Glass Pieces 

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Glass Artists Newsletter - November 2011 More Newsletters You can read our current newsletter here on-line each month, free of charge. We hope you will take the opportunity to let your stained glass artist friends know about the newsletter and if you have students, encourage them to read it. If you'd like a reminder when a new issue is published simply send us your e-mail address. In the meantime, we welcome your input and support. Let us know if you have tips and techniques or product information you'd like to share. It's November already, what happened to October? It just seemed to sail past. We had fun in October, building and creating stained glass pieces. Jeanne has had me drawing patterns nearly every day. And things seem to be heating up for the next months. It's great to have lots to do! We had to dress for Halloween.  We visited a show home that is designed to look like the house in the movie "Up".   This month we show a basic technique in glass cutting and just for fun, we've included a video of the same instruction, so once you're done reading the article, you can click here to view the video on youtube.  Please leave positive comments on you tube and "like" the video so that we get better search results. Cutting Very Thin, Irregular Stained Glass Pieces    I'm holding a scrap from a project that a student was working on. She kindly "let" me help cut out the thin irregular pieces. Here's the technique. Start with the most irregular side when cutting out the glass. The piece that is most likely to break wrong. This allows the cutting stresses to be done while the glass is most strong. I tap the glass until the sound changes, signaling the fact that the score has run and the glass is separating.  Then I can ease the pieces apart with pliers. I then score the long thin side, making sure that the surface I cut on is flat and clean. Then I begin tapping under the piece, holding the entire piece and tapping gently along the entire score. It takes a while. Take your time tapping along the entire score, very gently at the most thin parts. Here, I'm holding the top of the piece and I can feel that both sides are separated. Eventually the glass gives up and breaks right where you want it to, if you hold your mouth just right! The finished thin pieces are worth the effort, they make the window look very intricate. ARTICLES   VIDEOS  LINKS   Email:  david@gommstudios.com

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Long thin pieces aren't
so difficult that you
need to avoid them.