How to sketch a stained glass window. How to make a stained glass window with your own hands at home from glass

Making real stained glass requires painstaking work and professional skills. Such stained-glass windows are very expensive, and it is not always possible to make them at home. According to the classical technology, figuratively cut multi-colored pieces of glass are placed in an openwork frame made of brass or lead. Using the Tiffany method - each element of the mosaic is edged along the contour with copper foil and soldered into a monolithic canvas.

There are several ways to create stained glass windows with your own hands with minimal material costs and not requiring special skill from you. The pouring method will require aluminum wire and stained glass paints. It is even easier to make stained glass by gluing a translucent self-adhesive film.

The stained-glass windows on the south-facing windows look especially impressive. Sunlight favorably shows the compositional color scheme of stained glass.

Sketch and preparatory work for the creation of stained glass

1. To create a sketch of a stained glass window, a photo can be found on the Internet, you will need a sheet of graph paper or tracing paper. An ornamental drawing of the future stained-glass window is applied to the paper with a thin pencil.
2. Choose a stained glass pattern that suits your taste and harmoniously fits into the interior. It can be a geometric pattern, flowers, an ornament of birds or insects. The scope for imagination is unlimited. Don't forget to label the colors on the template paper.
3. Ornamental grille can be made of aluminum wire at least 1.6 mm thick or a special lead tape on a self-adhesive basis. This tape is available in various thicknesses and is tinted to match the color of copper, brass or gray lead.

Get a special palette of stained glass or aniline paints. For the second option, a set of multi-colored self-adhesive film is purchased.

Production of a contour openwork lattice of a stained-glass window

For the contour, aluminum wire, adhesive-based lead tape or embossed stained glass paint are used.

1. The glass sheet to be processed is placed on a horizontal surface and degreased with acetone. Dividing contours are bent according to the pattern of the ornament with the help of round-nose pliers made of aluminum wire. The bent wire is beaten off a little with a hammer to make it more flat and securely adjoin the glass surface.
2. A life-size sketch of a stained-glass window is placed under a sheet of glass. The wire is abundantly lubricated with PVA glue, adjusted along the contours of the pattern and pressed down with a load. Before gluing, the wire can be painted with gold, bronze or, in the color of copper, acrylic paint.
3. A lead tape on a self-adhesive basis is bent and pressed against the glass in place, focusing on the contours of the sketch of the stained-glass window under the glass. Then the tape is rolled with a rubber roller.
4. You can also use special embossed paint for the contour. Tubes with such paint are equipped with nozzles of various diameters; when applied, it does not spread and hardens with an even rim.

Stained glass manufacturing process

This method is good in cases where the processed glass sheet can be positioned strictly horizontally.

1. Prepare aniline paints for work. Dry paints are diluted with distilled water, stirred and carefully filtered through gauze. Then mixed with PVA emulsion to the consistency of cream. In this form, the paints are well superimposed on the glass sheet and adhere well to it.
2. To check the saturation of the tone, a layer of paint is applied to a piece of glass and left to dry. The tone is lightened by adding an emulsion, and saturated with a pigment dye diluted in distilled water.
3. A solution of paints is applied from the edge of the contour to the middle of the fragment. When adding new strokes of paint with a brush, watch the thickness of the layer. The saturation of the stained glass picture depends on this. After applying the first layer, time is given for complete polymerization, then subsequent layers are applied until the desired saturation is reached.
4. Having covered the necessary parts of the stained-glass window with one color, the brush is thoroughly washed, degreased and wiped dry. The next color is poured after the adjacent areas have dried to prevent sagging and mixing paints of different colors.
5. Completely dried stained glass is covered with a transparent varnish. The varnish will additionally link the scattered stained glass elements and add shine to the canvas. A rubber seal is glued around the perimeter of the window or door opening. When installing stained glass in the opening, the rubber seal will smooth out irregularities and ensure a tight fit to the frame.

Technique of application stained glass from self-adhesive film

The bulk method is not suitable for installed windows. You can make a stained-glass window of a plastic window using the application method. This is the easiest way to make a stained glass window with your own hands.

To work with the film you will need:

• assembly knife and scissors;
• rubber roller;
• marker and pencil;
• degreaser;
• set of colored self-adhesive film.

The process of stained glass application with film:

1. Window glass is thoroughly washed and degreased. You can degrease with acetone or an alcohol solution. According to the full-size sketch, stained-glass details are cut out of a multi-colored film.
2. A sketch of the stained glass pattern is attached to the reverse side of the glass with double tape. A lead tape is glued along the outline of the contour lines and rolled with a rubber roller.
3. The intercontour space is carefully filled with colored parts cut out from the adhesive film according to the template and smoothed out with a rubber roller. Details are glued carefully, simultaneously smoothing and expelling air bubbles. Small air bubbles formed under the film are eliminated by puncturing them with a needle and smoothing with a roller. Details are made with a small tolerance along the contour and are adjusted by trimming with a knife in place.
4. A similar procedure can be performed on the reverse side of the glass. In this case, the throughput of light will decrease. Double-sided stained-glass windows are recommended to be installed on the south side of the room.

It is today that glazing technologies have reached such heights that a window can be of almost any size, shape and color, and our ancestors had to puzzle over filling window openings. This is how the stained-glass window appeared - a translucent panel made of pieces of colored glass or thin stone plates. In this article we will look at how to make stained-glass windows with our own hands, which are still relevant today. And not only as a form of art, but also as an opportunity to diversify almost any interior. Consider:

• what stained glass manufacturing techniques are used today;
• ways to create stained glass windows with your own hands;
• How to make a Tiffany stained glass with your own hands.

Stained glass window techniques

The popularity of mosaic pictures is largely due to the possibility of their self-production in various ways. Depending on the materials and technology, it can be not only stained-glass windows, but also various decorative elements. These are ceiling lamps, and designer flower pots, and door inserts, and furnishings, and framing of interior arches, and much more. Today, there are several common techniques for making stained glass windows with your own hands.

Soldering

Stained glass classic. The plot according to the sketch must be assembled from separate glass fragments (stained glass smalts), which are fixed together with lead, copper, tin or brass. Each smalt is wrapped in a forged or cast "lace" and soldered with the rest.

Now this method has been somewhat modified and a soft metal tape (folia) - copper or brass - is used for edging.

A striking example of modern soldering is the famous Tiffany stained-glass windows, this is almost a household name that has spread to the very technique of creating a stained-glass window using foil.

Plots from various small details are collected, soldered and framed, the technology allows you to create any form, not just flat panels.

facet

For stained-glass windows, thick glass, from 6 mm, is used, all sides of each element are chamfered at a small angle, which ensures the refraction of light. Faceted stained-glass windows are made of special types of glass - lead and potash, the first is heavier, but gives a strong optical effect, the second is lighter, but the rays do not play in it the same way. The most spectacular are the combined facet stained-glass windows of both types of glass. Due to the thickness and severity of the elements, such paintings are assembled only in an aluminum profile. Therefore, their second name is aluminum stained-glass windows.

fusing

A more complex technique, but stained-glass windows can also be made voluminous and more spectacular, it is possible to make multi-layered pictures or figures. Multi-colored glass elements are stacked according to the plot, baked and rolled, the boundaries of the fragments can remain clear or layered, showing the texture of the pattern, unattainable in other techniques.

Etching

The relief on the glass is formed in the process of surface treatment with special acids, stencils are used, along the contour of which the pattern is etched.

Application (film stained-glass windows)

This is not exactly a do-it-yourself technique for creating stained glass windows, although the result is something similar, it is a method of making an imitation using a glass or plastic base, multi-colored stained glass films and special metal tape. The pattern is gradually created on the base by gluing a layer of matte film, and the contours of the image are pasted over with adhesive tape to give a relief pattern.

Painting (fill)

It is also an imitation technique, only the drawing is not glued, but painted on glass with your own hands with special stained glass paints. The painting turns out to be more transparent, and the filling gives brighter, more saturated stained-glass windows. The contours in this case are first drawn with thicker lines with contour paste, to give texture, or also pasted over with tape / wire. Requires artistic skills.

DIY stained glass windows

Not all techniques are suitable for self-creation of stained-glass windows at home, since it is unlikely that everyone has forged or cast metal strips, bevel cutters with aluminum profiles or furnace equipment lying around in the pantry. Theoretically, you can get hydrofluoric acid, but you have to breathe in fumes, and it is difficult to guarantee a pattern, and not a burn. Therefore, home craftsmen are left with the Tiffany technique and two imitations to choose from.

Tiffany stained-glass windows require certain equipment, and the work is quite painstaking and time-consuming, while painting and pouring can be done by any novice stained-glass artist, and even with children. But if Tiffany is a full-fledged stained-glass window that can be inserted even into a window, even into a door, then the imitation of a classic stained-glass window still betrays itself, even if the pattern is mirrored on both sides.

stained glass tiffany

Consider soldering using foil, which you can buy at any art store, as a way to create a real Tiffany stained glass window.

Drawing - when choosing a drawing, you should avoid too complex lines, then not only cut them out of glass, but also process and connect them, it is better to focus on figures with smooth curves and, to begin with, from medium-sized parts. A sketch can be taken from the Internet, there are a lot of options for patterns in various techniques, taking into account the specifics of stained glass painting. You can draw on your own, provided that the desire is supported by at least minimal skills. If none are observed, it is better to use standard blanks.

cutting - the sketch is transferred to thick cardboard and cut into parts (numbered). To leave space for soldering, the contour of the smalt should be deeper than the contour of the template by 0.5-0.7 mm. The template is applied to the glass and outlined, and then the part is cut out of the glass.

More likely to cut a shape, rather than ruin the glass, on a hard, flat surface, using a quality diamond glass cutter (with a curved cutting edge) and not making sudden movements.

Sheet stained glass costs decently, to save money, you can use the old battle. Before taking on smalts, it is advisable to practice cutting ordinary glass with curved lines in order to fill your hand.

Treatment - the edges of each part must be processed with a glass grinder.

But this is an expensive pleasure and more often bars No. 220-240, 12-20 mm wide, are used for fine-tuning smalt, at least square and semicircular, triangular is needed for complex elements when there is a line curving inward.

The bars must be strong, corundum or garnet will do, sand powder will not take glass.

When grinding, the smalt and the bar are lowered into a suitable container with water. After grinding, each smalt is wrapped around the contour with foil, the edges are rolled up (the tape is leveled and pressed with a piece of wood or plastic). After the edges, the ends are smoothed and once again passed around the entire perimeter.

Assembly - professionals recommend cutting, processing and laying smalts one at a time, but this is a personal matter for everyone. Assembly is easier to do on a blueprint machine. For lack of it, you can put a transparent sheet of plastic or thick glass between the supports and highlight it with a table lamp. It is even easier if there is a coffee table with a glass top - thin fabric, tracing paper (stencil) and go. Illumination is necessary to prevent gaps between smalts; when laying them, they are tightly adjusted to each other or to the borders of the pattern. The stencil is fixed with two strips - on the left and above or on the right and above (for left-handed people), the layout starts from the corner, gradually filling the entire pattern.

Flusovka - the assembled stained-glass window is crimped with slats from the remaining sides, making sure that the parts do not protrude upwards or into a corner, if necessary, add edges, smooth and press. Ideally, the stained-glass window is sorted out again in order to evenly cover both the edges and the ends with the flux, but you can simplify the task by carefully going over the edges of each part with a richly moistened brush or cotton swab. The flux is chosen semi-active, with borax, the remnants of the active can corrode the binding over time.

Soldering - differs from the usual radio engineering both in equipment and in the method of execution.

To solder Tiffany, you need a special soldering iron, which has a bronze nickel-plated tip (short, white with a characteristic sheen).

The power of this tool is only 100 W, it heats the elements to the right temperature, but the solder does not stick to it. Ordinary, tin-lead solders are not recommended, because they can crack smalts. Therefore, for Tiffany it is better to use solders with cadmium additives (POSK-50-18, Avia-1). You can get by with POS-61/61M solder, but it is softer and not as strong.

Tiffany is soldered in a capillary way in two stages - first, along the contour of the smalt, they pierce with solder melt about a centimeter (the thread is as wide as a sting), without touching the parts with a soldering iron and solder. It is not recommended to go through a large area in one approach if the stained-glass window is large. They pass a fragment the size of a man's palm, let the stained-glass window cool down, and continue until every detail is dripped through. In the second pass, each seam is soldered, applying solder along the contour of each smalt and heating until it seeps through the seam and covers the joint from the inside.

framing - the finished stained-glass window is soldered to a profile frame, rectangular, if it is a flat panel, or figured, if it is a ceiling or other decorative element. The frame cleaned and degreased (with alcohol) is covered with flux from the inside, and the stained-glass window along the edge from the front and side. The frame is applied to the composition or the composition is inserted into the frame and soldered, like smalts, in fragments, if a gap remains, it is also fluxed and soldered.

flushing - part of the manufacture of stained glass, necessary to remove the remnants of the flux, no matter how hard you try, but it is collected not only in the seams, but also on the smalts. Today, the easiest way to get rid of these stains at this stage is to treat the stained glass window with a sponge dipped in dishwashing detergent, after which the product is washed and dried.

Patination - if you already take on Tiffany, you should fork out for a special colored glass, sheet or broken, since the film or paint still looks worse. But patination will not harm such a stained-glass window, but only emphasize its beauty. Careful application of the finished composition to the binding is carried out with gloves and a respirator, and the room should be well ventilated. If dirty - feel free to wash, wipe and in conclusion - gently polish with a soft cloth. If necessary, the metal frame is closed with a decorative frame made of wood or imitation.

Regardless of the chosen technique, a stained-glass window made by one's own hands will not only decorate the house, but also delight with the realization that you can handle the most ancient of arts.

Today we will talk about the creation of stained glass: how to choose a pattern for a stained glass window, how to transfer a pattern to stained glass, materials and tools for making a stained glass window yourself, two ways to create a painted stained glass window, making stained glass paint yourself, how to get a matte glass surface.

Among the many different ways of decorating rooms, stained-glass windows stand out for their special brightness and non-standard look. The play of sunlight or special lighting will give a special charm to the room where stained glass products are installed. By the way, if a classic stained-glass window is an ornament made of colored glass through which natural light is passed, then the modern concept of stained-glass windows is much broader. Artistic stained glass windows can be placed in any room - even in one where natural light is completely absent.

Traditionally, stained glass compositions were created from fragments of colored glass, fastened with lead gaskets (lead is quite soft). When creating stained-glass windows from colorless glass, painting on it was carried out with silicate-based paints.

Modern stained-glass windows are connected with lead and brass profiles (brass with a steel insert), they can be installed both in window openings and as ceiling lamps for internal lamps in a building, for installing suspended ceilings, forming internal partitions, creating showcase compositions and panels. Decorative items, such as Tiffany stained glass, are independent decorative elements.

Artistic stained glass windows - technology of creation

- is created according to the classical stained glass technique, with the only difference being that the edges of some (or all) stained glass elements are cut (the bevel is removed). Thanks to this operation, a great play of sunlight in the created faces is achieved, which increases the beauty of the stained glass composition.

- created by fusing multi-colored glasses in high-temperature furnaces. At the same time, the colored elements of the stained-glass window are carefully cut out and polished, after which they are placed on a sheet of glass (substrate), forming a complete composition. Next - processing in an oven, after which the substrate and colored elements are soldered into one. Another distinguishing feature of fusing stained glass windows is their wavy surface.

There is another technology for creating fusing stained-glass windows - gluing elements of a stained-glass pattern onto a tempered glass substrate using transparent adhesives, after subjecting the colored glass to high-temperature processing. The fact is that it is impossible to use a tempered glass substrate, which is necessary when creating all-glass doors and glazing large-area window openings, to create a fusing stained-glass window - it will become brittle during heat treatment. Gluing the elements will allow you to get a strong, highly artistic stained glass composition, and it can even be installed on the ceiling - if for some reason such a stained glass window breaks, it will not cut anyone, because there will be no fragments.

- a pattern is applied to the glass with silicate paints, then the glass is subjected to heat treatment in an oven. The drawn composition is done with a brush or airbrush.

– a stained glass composition is performed according to one of the above technologies, then a thin layer of titanium nitride is applied to its back side. In this case, the degree of reflection can be increased, reduced, or a one-sided transparent mirror can be obtained.

Engraved stained glass- the drawing is created only by hand, using engraving equipment or a hand tool. Colored glass - the basis for such stained-glass windows - is created by mixing glasses of different colors, which are heated to a liquid state, then several liquid glasses of different colors are poured onto the table and rolled out. The glass obtained in this way has a unique color and pattern - it is impossible to obtain two sheets of such stained glass with an identical pattern and color.

- a technique that is especially popular today. To obtain a frosted stained glass window, sandblasting technology is used: a jet of sand supplied under high pressure scratches the surface of transparent glass, knocking out microparticles and turning one side of the glass into a frosted one. To create a drawing using this technology, you need a stencil - it is fixed on glass and placed in a sandblasting chamber. After processing, the places covered with a stencil remain transparent, everything else becomes matte.

Of particular interest is the technique of creating stained-glass windows using the method of deep working - obtaining three-dimensional drawings on glass. For this, a sandblasting machine and a more complex, multilayer stencil are used. The creation technology is as follows: all layers of the stencil are laid on sheet glass and subjected to sandblasting (a glass layer of about 1 mm is removed), then one stencil layer is removed and a new sandblasting is carried out (a layer of 1.5 mm is removed), etc., until the desired composition is obtained. It is possible to create stained-glass windows in this way only on glass with a thickness of 6 mm, and the process itself is quite painstaking and time-consuming.

- outwardly similar to the classic, although it is created in a simpler way. Elements of a picture for a batch stained-glass window are cut out on a machine controlled by a computer program. The lead gaskets that fastened the fragments of the classical stained-glass window are replaced here by modern materials that look like lead. After the formation of the finished stained glass composition, it is glued onto a sheet of glass using a special transparent glue - the finished stained glass window made using this technology is lighter and stronger than the classic one. Often such a stained glass window is sandwiched between two sheets of transparent glass.

- the cheapest way to create a stained glass composition. On the market, a large assortment of films of different colors is presented, elements of a stained glass pattern are cut out of it manually or using a plotter and glued onto sheet glass. The stained-glass window obtained in this way will be short-lived, but it is easy to replace.

Drawings for stained glass

An important point in choosing the theme of the sketch for the stained glass composition will be the purpose of the room. If some abstraction is supposed, then it is better to perform it in a single color scheme with the room. You should attach importance to the meaning contained in the stained glass composition - this way it will look better in the overall design.

It is important to consider that stained glass drawings should not leave too much empty space on the glass, nor should it overload it too much. In the first case, you can make a stained-glass window from a small central pattern (pattern), complementing the picture with decorative elements at the corners of the glass, covering the rest of the free space with varnish.

Please note that correcting voids in a finished stained glass composition is much easier than correcting an overfilled stained glass pattern after it is completed (this desire often arises with a large number of small elements).

Carefully think over the sketch drawing of the stained-glass window, experiment with the sizes of the individual elements of the composition. It is best to introduce new details of the drawing gradually. The color palette of the stained glass pattern is equally important - try several color options.

How to make a stained glass window with your own hands

At home, the creation of stained-glass windows using industrial methods is impossible. For example, fusing stained glass requires a special glass furnace and a temperature of 900 °C.

What types of stained glass windows can be made at home? This is a Tiffany stained-glass window, a painted stained-glass window (firing is replaced by varnishing) and a film stained-glass window. Let's consider each of them separately.

Making your own Tiffany stained glass

You will need a separate room for work (rather painstaking).

From materials: colored glass, special copper foil (sold in rolls, its width is 4.7 mm), transparent glue (not silicate), soldering acid, solder for soldering stained glass elements (tin/lead content 50/50 or 60/40), any means for washing dishes, patina.

From tools: diamond glass cutter (preferably diamond), pliers, small wire cutters, a small machine for turning glass edges or a whetstone, a thin soldering iron.

We create a sketch of the future stained-glass window - first on plain paper (preferably in a cage), then we transfer the final version to a thicker paper (cardboard or whatman paper). You need to cut the sketch into elements, put them on colored glasses of a suitable color and circle around the contour with a marker.

Using a glass cutter, we cut out elements of the future Tiffany stained glass from glass. We carefully break off the glass along the cut line, the resulting irregularities need to be broken off with small wire cutters: for this we take a cardboard box of a suitable size, hold the glass element (without pinching it strongly!) With pliers, take small wire cutters in the other hand and break off (without a box, pieces of glass will scatter throughout the room ).

The next step is edging. If there is a special machine, we work on it, but if not, we need to draw water into a bowl (preferably metal), put a whetstone there (it must be drowned in water) and grind sharp protrusions on the glass against it. We check the quality on a general sketch, if all the glass elements are ideally suited to each other, then we can proceed to the next step - wrapping the edge with copper foil.

We use a special copper foil in the form of a tape with one adhesive side. We wrap the edge with it: placing the middle of the copper tape in the center of the edge, we bend it on both sides. It is important that the edges of the fold are the same on both sides of the Tiffany stained glass element. Carefully smooth the foil to the glass using a wooden spatula (not metal - it will scratch). When all the glass fragments of the stained glass window are wrapped in foil, fold them into a composition - check the fit again.

Next, you need to process the edge covered with copper foil with soldering acid - it will act as a flux when soldering. To apply soldering acid, use a cotton swab attached to a stick. Soldering queue: we warm up the soldering iron, collect drops of tin on it and solder the elements of the tiffany stained glass along the edges, connecting them together. The tin seam should be continuous and resemble a small roller - this will be beautiful and neat. Tin should completely cover the entire visible part of the copper foil - both between the stained glass elements and along their outer edges. You are unlikely to succeed right away, so practice. If the Tiffany stained glass you are making is going to be suspended, then solder a wire loop to it.

At the end of the soldering, it is the turn for washing the soldered stained-glass window - if this operation is skipped, then the remnants of the soldering acid will cause moss-like formations to appear on the tin seam. To clean a Tiffany stained glass window, ordinary dish detergent and a sponge are quite suitable.

Let the stained glass dry, then coat the pewter seams with a patina (black or copper, to your liking). The patina should be applied with a cotton swab: put a little patina on the swab, then rub it hard into the surface of the pewter seam. After completing this operation, you need to wash the stained glass window again. That's it, work is done!

Painted stained glass is one of the oldest techniques. We offer you two ways to create a painted stained-glass window: in the first of them, the drawing is formed by applying it with a brush and paints, in the second, the paint is poured onto the drawing.

First of all, you need to choose a drawing for a stained-glass window, prepare its sketch, proportionally enlarging the image (if necessary).

After preparing the stained glass for drawing, carefully wipe it with a cotton swab or a clean cloth, soaked in alcohol. This simple operation will have a great impact on the durability of future stained glass painting.

The queue for transferring the contours of the picture on the glass. By the way, you need to draw on glass when it is in a horizontal position - the paint will not spread. The easiest way to transfer a sketch of a drawing is to stick it with adhesive tape on the back of the glass and redraw its contour with thin lines - first with a marker, then with a special stained glass paint applied to a thin brush (see below how to make it).

Start painting the picture, first you need to paint the fragments that are separated from each other (i.e., not adjacent), in this case it will be possible to correct the paint going beyond the contour and it will not mix with the paint of a different color from the neighboring fragment of the picture.

There is another way to stain stained glass fragments. For its execution, you will need to cut out on a paper sketch only the fragment that you intend to paint this time. Align it along the contour with a similar area on the glass and paint over with a brush or spray. After the paint has dried, prepare a new fragment - and so on, until the stained glass pattern is completely painted.

It will take three days for the painted fragments to dry completely. After that, apply paint to the remaining areas and let it dry. Then apply a contour over the painted areas of the picture, using a thin squirrel brush and stained glass paint - this way you can give the image clarity, hide small gaps and streaks. Be careful and slow!

After three days, you need to perform the final operation - apply a layer of varnish on the stained-glass window using a wide brush or paint sprayer. Varnish the entire stained glass window, including those areas of glass that do not have a pattern. This time the drying time is a week. For the entire drying time, place the glass with a stained glass pattern in a clean, dry and well-ventilated area, do not touch it, exclude the possibility of access to it by children and pets. After seven days, the stained-glass window is ready, it can be inserted into a frame or, for example, into an interior door.

Drawn stained glass by pouring paint

The beginning of work on creating such a stained-glass window is in choosing a stained-glass pattern and transferring its outline to glass. Next, you need to make the contour convex (volumetric) to create boundaries that prevent the paint from spilling outside the area assigned to it.

Here you will need to make a special contour paint, for this you need:

• 50 ml of PVA glue, suitable for gluing porcelain and glass;
• black ink - 20-30 ml;
• silver (aluminum powder) - about 30-40 g.

The contour paint is created like this - we take a small glass jar, pour PVA glue into it, add black ink, mix and pour silver in the process of stirring. The consistency of the paint thus obtained should resemble lead-colored liquid sour cream.

We note right away - if the paint in the jar thickens during the process of applying a volumetric contour to the glass, then by adding a certain amount of warm water and a little black ink (for the desired color) to it, it will return to the state you need.

The contour formed by such homemade paint will stick steadily to the glass, outwardly it will look like lead gaskets connecting the elements of a classic stained glass window. Moreover, you can improvise with the width of the outline when applying it - this will give your stained glass originality. So, we arm ourselves with a squirrel or kolinsky brush and start drawing the outline - it should turn out to be sufficiently voluminous (convex), so don’t save too much on paint, but you need to apply it carefully and accurately. In the process of creating a volumetric contour, it is required to periodically stir the paint, since lighter silver particles will begin to accumulate on its surface. Do not delay with contour work - the longer the paint you have prepared will stand, the more its color will change, which means that the monotony of the contour lines will be lost.

After drawing the outline of the stained glass pattern, we wait 3 hours for the paint to dry completely.

How to make stained glass paints

The continuation of the material on creating a stained glass pattern using the paint pouring method will be below, but for now it's time to give here several ways to create stained glass paint at home.

First way. You will need NTs-218 nitrolac (you can use 222 or 2141), the 647th solvent and oil paints for artwork. Pour about a third of the nitro-varnish into a jar, add a solvent (up to about 40% of the amount of nitro-lacquer), mix until a composition similar to water is obtained. Then we introduce a drop (the size of a pea) of artistic paint, mix, add more paint if the color is not bright enough (up to 10% of the amount of nitro varnish will be needed). As a result, we get a well-flowing colored varnish, which is perfect for filling a stained-glass window pattern.

The second way. You will need light BF-2 glue, acetone, alcohol-soluble paint (you can use ballpoint pen paste). Pour glue into a glass jar, dilute it with acetone in a ratio of 1: 1, mix and add paint until the color of the desired saturation is obtained.

The third way. You will need gelatin, warm water, dry dyes for cotton, woolen or silk fabrics. About 6 g of gelatin should be diluted in 200 g of warm water, mixed. Separately, dilute dry paints in warm water. Pour a little solution of water with gelatin into a new glass jar, add the required amount of paint solution there, mix. After applying this paint to the stained-glass window and drying it, you will need to cover the drawing with a colorless nitro-lacquer on top.

Important: all the stained glass paint recipes below must be mixed exclusively in glassware (glass baby food jars are ideal).

We continue to create a stained glass window by pouring paint

So - the contour paint on the stained-glass window has dried, and the paint for pouring is ready. Before you start painting a stained glass window, make sure that the sheet of glass is in a strictly horizontal position - any, even a slight distortion, will cause the paint layer to run off and thicken at the lowest point of the fragment being painted.

We arm ourselves with a large round brush (squirrel or kolinsky), pick up a large amount of paint on it and apply it to the specified fragments of the stained glass window. In this case, the main thing is not to cross the border of the contour and completely fill each of the fragments with paint of a certain color. If you get paint on the contour itself - it's okay, on the contrary - it's even good, because it will completely exclude any unpainted areas near the contour. Fight the appearance of air bubbles - watch for them and quickly remove them with a brush stroke. Having completed the coloring, we maintain a pause of 3-4 hours - let the paint dry completely.

The next step is to re-draw the outline. Try to repeat the previous contour lines, apply paint as abundantly as you did when you first drew the contour. Now you can be sure of the complete elimination of any irregularities and flaws. The next stage of work is 2-3 hours after the applied contour has dried.

At the end of work on the stained-glass window, you need to apply 3-4 layers of transparent nitro-lacquer on it, covering the entire surface of the glass with a thin layer. This measure will protect the drawing from scratches and moisture, and extend its service life. It is best to apply nitro-lacquer not with a brush, but with a sprayer, keeping at least 10 minutes before each new layer to dry the previous layer.

The work on creating the stained-glass window is completed - you just need to insert it into the frame. Such a painted stained-glass window will serve you for at least 10 years.

Additional stained glass work

We consider it unnecessary here to give a detailed method for creating a film stained-glass window - the work here is the simplest, you need to prepare a sketch, apply it to the glass and to the tint film, cut out the necessary fragments and attach it to the glass. The film will stick to the glass itself.

In some cases, it is required that the stained glass in the doors be opaque, especially if these doors lead to a bathroom or bedroom. To solve this issue, it is necessary to give the side of the glass, the opposite of the stained glass pattern, a matte finish or stick a tint film on it. There are two ways to create a matte surface: using compositions based on liquid glass or using compositions based on hydrofluoric acid.

Compounds based on liquid glass:

1. It is necessary to slightly dilute the liquid glass with distilled water, then add a small amount of tooth powder to it and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix 10 parts of liquid glass with 15 parts of distilled water, add 8 parts of barium sulfate and 1 part of silicic acid to this solution. The last ingredient can be obtained by mixing liquid glass with a significant amount of sulfuric or hydrochloric acid - silicic acid will precipitate out, it must be isolated, dried and ground into powder.

Before applying any of these compounds, the glass must be thoroughly washed with soapy water and dried. For application, use an even roller - it is dipped into the composition, rolled and carefully covered with a solution of the entire surface of the glass. After drying, the glass should be rinsed under water.

It should be borne in mind that when working with solutions based on liquid glass, it is necessary to apply the coating as carefully as possible - the matte surface created by this composition will show all the defects.

Formulations based on hydrofluoric acid:

1. 12 parts of hydrofluoric acid, 10 parts of barium sulphate and 10 parts of ammonium fluoride are mixed together, then poured into a thin layer on the surface of the glass. After drying, the treated surface must be washed with a solution of soda (5%), then with water.
2. 50% hydrofluoric acid is applied in a thin layer on pre-prepared glass. The preparation is as follows - the glass is placed in a wooden frame, covered with two layers of pvc film on the reverse side, a plasticine rim is made along the edge of the glass (along the wooden frame). The layer of hydrofluoric acid is maintained on the glass surface for 10 s, the temperature of the acid solution should be 30-40 °C. After the exposure period, rinse the treated surface with a solution of baking soda 5%, then with water.

Unlike compositions on liquid glass, the use of hydrofluoric acid gives a more even matte surface, regardless of the mistakes made during application.

Reading time ≈ 3 minutes

A colorful stained-glass window can decorate a hall, a bedroom, and a corridor. Ordering such products is too expensive, but you can make a similar decor for your home yourself. A stained-glass window of any complexity is created with your own hands without any problems: the performer needs high-quality glass, paints, sealant. The step-by-step instructions below will tell you in detail about the rules for making stained glass.

Materials for creating a stained glass window with illumination

The basis of the work is glass, but its choice must be approached very carefully. The surface of the material must be perfectly flat, the presence of air bubbles or waves is unacceptable. The selection of other components for work should be approached no less responsibly: the result depends on their quality. In order to make a stained glass window on glass, you will need the following tools and materials:

• whatman paper (should correspond to the size of the decor being made);
• glass;
• stained glass paints;
• black silicone for aquariums (can be replaced with rubber sealant);
• wooden blocks (for the frame);
• corners;
• LED cord, mounts and power cord with adapter.

After purchasing all the elements, you can safely proceed to the manufacture of bright home decor.

How to make a stained glass window?

You should not do many elements, especially if such a task is performed for the first time. After receiving a beautiful sketch, the following work is carried out:

1. A pencil drawing is outlined with a thick marker for ease of subsequent transfer of the image.

2. Glass is laid on top of the paper, the drawing paper is fixed on the glass with adhesive tape.

3. Sealant is prepared: the sharp nose is cut off, as shown in the attached video tip. This will help to draw lines more accurately and more conveniently.

4. The pattern is transferred to the glass.

5. According to the prepared contours, the image is painted using stained glass paints.

To obtain the most beautiful and “live” stained-glass window, it is recommended to use additives when applying paints, dilute one color with another, and lighten areas. All these techniques are demonstrated in the master class on making stained glass at home. On the finished decor, you can see how original and bright the overflows and transitions of shades look.

Preparing a frame and decorating a room with a stained glass window

The dimensions of the frame are determined according to the dimensions of the glass itself: it will be glued directly to the wooden frame. For the reliability of the connection of the beam, you need to saw it in the corners in order to get a reliable lock between adjacent elements. Next, drill holes at the joints and hammer dowels into them.

After assembling the frame, it is polished and painted.

It is fastened along the inner side with the help of plastic fasteners duralight.

Upon completion of fixing, it is connected to a power cord with an adapter. Gluing to the glass frame is carried out, the glass is additionally fixed with metal corners in front, metal fasteners for dowels are installed on the frame at the back. At this stage, the stained-glass window will be completely ready for installation.

Stained glass is a welcome addition to any interior. But professionally made stained-glass windows are expensive. Meanwhile, there are different types of stained glass techniques, and some allow you to make stained glass windows with your own hands. The simplest ones make it possible to make, for example, a stained-glass ceiling window, very similar to a real one, if you do not look closely. And according to more complex, but accessible to a DIYer, a work is obtained that even a specialist without disassembly cannot distinguish from a “real-life” one.

The main secret of technology

The manufacturing technology of any stained-glass window does not require deep knowledge. But you definitely need an accurate eye, a faithful and firm hand and the utmost accuracy. The smallest errors, accumulating as they are made, eventually give the product a not quite attractive, or even just a sloppy look. So the main conditions for success are skill, ingenuity, training. If after three trial compositions the size of a large book you get a good real one, you are a nugget.

About sketches and scissors

The basis of any stained-glass window is an element-by-element sketch. Sketches of stained-glass windows are always made in two copies. If they are made on a computer and printed out, there is no problem: the printouts are absolutely identical.

However, for a large panel, the sketch has to be drawn by hand and then copied on a blueprinting machine. Despite such a serious name, the simplest blueprint machine is just a sheet of glass (which will then fit on the base), laid on two chairs, and a light bulb under it.

To make a stained-glass window without errors, you need to firmly remember: the assembly is carried out according to the PRIMARY, most accurate sketch, and a copy from it will go to the templates. Otherwise, inconsistencies are inevitable, and fitting fragments along the way complicates and spoils the work.

Scissors are needed not simple, but special template ones, with three blades. The third cuts a strip 1.76 mm wide. Before cutting, the secondary sketch is glued onto a sheet of thin but dense cardboard (the ideal case is 0.5 mm electric cardboard) and a paper-cardboard puff is already cut. Otherwise, when making fragments, it will be very difficult to outline the contour on soft paper.

When gluing, be careful - paper soaked from any glue stretches when smoothed, and you need to glue it over the entire plane. Each finished template is verified according to the primary sketch. By the way, the pieces of both sketches must be uniformly numbered even before cutting.

A classic or glass stained-glass window is a window made of many multi-colored glasses, transparent or milky; dairy in this case means - opaque dyed in mass. Frosted glass is “roughened” on one side, and is transparent at the break.

Fragments of a stained-glass window are sometimes called stained-glass smalts, so as not to be confused with smalts, from which glass is typed. The stained-glass window originated from the mosaic. Sometimes they even say just “smalta”, because. There are many more stained-glass windows than glass mosaics. Further in the text, smalt is stained glass smalt everywhere.

Each smalt is framed with a U-shaped profile made of lead, tin, copper or brass. Then the smalts are laid directly on the primary sketch, and the seams are soldered. It turns out a window bound from H-shaped profiles. A frame from a brass corner is immediately placed on it, for strength, and soldered already along the contour. The resulting picture is inserted into a window frame or into an opening with backlighting. In this case, smalts are taken matte or milky.

In the figure in the previous section - one of the world's greatest stained glass masterpieces, a stained glass window in the south window of the Cathedral of St. Vincent in Blois. In the picture above - modern stained-glass windows of the classical type. Both there and there, a combined technique with the use of fusing is used, see below. The classical stained-glass window is very difficult to work with, time-consuming and not particularly durable. They were not put in hinged windows - they could crumble from the cotton of the open sash.

From simple to complex

Film and ceiling

A film stained-glass window (the first on the left in the next figure below) refers to false stained-glass windows: on a glass base, transparent, matte or milky, in one way or another, a pattern is applied with imitation of borders between smalts. In this case, it's just a self-adhesive film; we will talk about imitation of contour borders below, it is not at all difficult.

Making a stained-glass window from a film is no more difficult than just pasting something with self-adhesive tape. The main thing is to degrease the glass well with a solution of dishwashing detergent in water 1:5-1:20 and then rinse with distilled water. Bubbles on the film are pierced with a needle and disappear without a trace in a day or two.

Modern films are quite durable, but close up you can immediately see that this is only an imitation. On the other hand, it doesn't look like it at all. Therefore, film stained-glass windows are most often installed on the ceiling. There they are just in their place - cheap and cheerful.

Previously, ceiling stained-glass windows were not very common: the base is heavy, fragile, and extremely traumatic in case of collapse. According to the properties of the material, the stained-glass window on the glass should not be hanging at all. Now the best basis for ceiling stained-glass windows is acrylic.

Try to bend or break the computer disk. This is the strength of acrylic plastic at a thickness of only about 1 mm. A person throws a sheet of acrylic 3x3 m with a thickness of 2-3 mm by hand, and under its own weight it does not sag for many years. And suddenly it falls out - it quietly plans, swaying. And the film on acrylic is very strong. True, acrylic is much more expensive than glass.

Jellied

Second pos. on the left - a stained-glass window with paints, or a jellied one. From the face, it is already very similar to the real one, but from the inside, a fake is still noticeable, even if it is arranged along with the face in a mirror image.

We will consider the stained-glass window technique in more detail below: from skillful hands, such compositions come out very spectacular from the face, but it is not so easy to get them. To complete the effect, you need a double passage of light rays through the base glass; hence the smooth or textured reflective surface underneath. Therefore, the most common application of pouring technique is a stained-glass window on a mirror.

The fact is that the paint, when filled correctly, forms a meniscus, see below. The rays, direct and reflected from the mirror film, pass through its sections with different curvature, and the stained glass plays with colors with might and main. Diffraction at the borders of the border also affects, so it is better to make it dark, but shiny, also see below. Particularly impressive is the “filler” on acrylic mirrors with a reflective tantalum-niobium substrate.

Tiffany

Tiffany stained glass (next left to right pos.) is already a real, full-fledged stained glass window made of glass smalts. The only difference from the classics is that the binding is not made of cast or forged grooves, but is formed right on the end of the smalt from soldered metal foil (folia), which in the Middle Ages was not yet known how to make.

When using brass foil, hard low-melting solders (which did not exist in the old days either) and semi-active tiffany fluxes, it turns out to be quite strong. It will also go as a stained-glass window on the window, incl. hinged or French, and at the door. The tiffany technique allows you to "stained glass" three-dimensional rectangular and curvilinear structures. To do this, the side faces of the smalt are made beveled at 45 degrees or at the angle required for curvature. Industrial equipment is not required for this. We will also analyze the Tiffany technique further.

facet

Faceted stained-glass window, penultimate pos. - an indispensable sign of a prestigious interior. Facet - a wide, at a small angle, optically accurate polished bevel on a thick, from 6 mm, glass plate. The angle of the facet must be exactly matched to the optical properties of the glass to obtain the so-called. diamond facet, giving the greatest light refraction.

Smalts of faceted stained-glass windows are made transparent, colorless or colored, from special types of glass - potash (light, with a lower refractive index) and lead (heavy, with a high refraction). Facet stained-glass windows made of skillfully selected combinations of both (kronflint facets) are especially effective.

Faceted smalts are assembled in special, piece-made profiles made of durable aluminum alloy, due to the large weight. In general, faceted stained glass requires high skill and industrial conditions for manufacturing. Most often, smalts are ordered in batches at optical-mechanical enterprises, and are already assembled in small / medium-sized production.

Fusion

Fusing stained glass, or stained glass fusion (from the English fuse - to melt, melt; the last position) is made from smalt heated to softening (300-1200 degrees, depending on the type of glass), laid out according to a stencil on a heat-resistant plane. The whole set is rolled, thanks to which smooth color transitions are obtained, which is unattainable in other stained glass techniques.

Fusion is the pinnacle of stained glass art. Even when manufactured by robots in an industrial environment, due to rolling, each product is unique. Large fusion stained glass windows cost a lot of money; however, with the development of robotization, prices are steadily falling, here, as they say, two laps ahead of the whole world is China. The fusion technique itself has been known since ancient times; it was according to it that smalts with faces, etc. were made and are being made. for classic stained glass windows.

Video: stained glass using fusing

Making a simple stained glass window

imitations

It has already been said about the film stained-glass window, and there is nothing complicated in it. But, before moving on to colorful, let's talk about the imitation of lead binding; it is common in both cases. A decent-looking imitation of a stained-glass window is largely determined by the similarity of the overlay border to a natural metal cover.

borders

There are three ways to imitate the binding of a classic stained glass window for both film and paint:

• Sticking the borders of the fragments with lead tape. Specially sold for stained glass cases;
• By forming contours from soft wire, see below;
• Guiding contours with contour paste.

First way

Lead tape is the real thing, without quotes, tape: a lead foil tape about 1/8 inch wide, an adhesive layer, the same as on ordinary tape, and a protective film. Unwinding the roll, lay it out along the contour, cut it off, remove the protective film, apply it, press it down - that's all. For film stained-glass windows - after gluing, for flooded windows - before pouring.

Second way

The contour is bent out of the wire and glued (film - after; pouring - before) PVA. But not simple, but dishware. It is a little more expensive than "paper", and the label says: "For gluing glass and porcelain." Reactive adhesives are not suitable, especially cyanoacrylate "Superglue". It is also unusually liquid, it flows everywhere where it is not needed.

The wire for this technique is traditionally used aluminum and then patinated, as for tiffany, see below. But the author of this article has repeatedly successfully used copper winding wire in high-strength enamel insulation (enamel wire). It bends more easily, and in radio shops and radio markets it can be found with insulation of literally all colors of the rainbow, see fig., with a diameter of 0.02 to 2.5 mm round and 1 to 16 mm flat (tire).

The tire is rare and expensive. But each contour curved from a round wire can be leveled and slightly flattened by strongly squeezing it in a bench vise between two even flat steel plates 8-12 mm thick. The insulation of even almost pre-war PEV does not deteriorate from this.

Especially good are copper-wire contours for stained-glass stained-glass windows on mirrors; this has already been discussed. If you need dullness and patina, it is enough to swipe over the finished one with sandpaper, and the exposed copper will soon be covered with the most real, not induced patina.

Third way

We prepare the contour paste according to the recipe:

1. Tableware PVA - 50 ml.
2. Natural black mascara (the best is Dutch) - 20-30 ml.
3. Aluminum powder (silver) - 30-40 gr.

We introduce mascara into PVA, mix thoroughly and add silver in small portions while stirring until a creamy paste is obtained. If you need a brass-like binding, we replace the silver with bronze powder. The "lead content" depends on the ratio of carcass with silver; it is checked with a test, completely dried drop.

Pasta is prepared as needed, it is not stored. When using, you need to stir all the time - the silverfish floats to the top. Apply along the contour with an artistic brush, picking up abundantly so that it lays down with a sausage of equal thickness, a good skill is needed here. More convenient for a beginner is a small confectionery syringe gun, but then, even after washing, it is unsuitable for its intended use.

Video: do-it-yourself English film stained glass window

"Jellied"

The stained-glass window is performed in the following sequence:

• We are preparing the assembly table: a flat shield covered with white calico, felt, flannel or flannel.
• We put a stencil on it - a numbered primary sketch.
• We degrease the glass - the base and put it on the stencil. We take the ends with our hands in new textile gloves; Do not use a suction cup and leave your fingers on your face.
• We bend, level and flatten the contours, one by one from the left (for left-handers - right) upper corner.
• We customize as needed and glue with PVA utensils. Dry for days.
• Fill with paint (see below). Adjacent cells of one color scheme are filled in turn as the previous ones dry out: suddenly it leaks, the dried drip can be easily removed with a safety razor blade.
• We dry for another day after pouring the last cell, insert it into a metal frame - ready for installation!

For the preparation of paints, see the following, but for now let's dwell on the fill; this is the most important procedure. Pour the paint with a richly impregnated brush or syringe from the inside along the contour, but in no case touching the border (see Fig.)! The paint should flow into the meniscus naturally! If the color came out watery, after drying, pour it again in the same way.

Pouring / topping up paint in the middle is unacceptable. If you need a thicker stain there, you need to contour it and pour more in there. In this case, two fills in the frame (along the outer and inner contours) are made without delay one after the other.

The fact is that the "blamba" in the middle will break the light refraction. There will be a “bokeh effect” known to photographers, and a single such element will violate the integrity of the perception of the composition. And if there are a lot of them, then the whole stained-glass window will turn out to be sloppy.

Paints

Homemade stained glass paints are known in four types:

1. On PVA and aniline - the easiest to prepare and the most unstable;
2. Soviet-rare - on BF-2 glue and ballpoint pen paste;
3. Gelatin-aniline - fragile and burn out in direct sunlight, but give an ideal meniscus;
4. Nitrooil - the most expensive, but have all the advantages without the disadvantages.

First. PVA-aniline paints are prepared simply: we dilute 50-100 ml of PVA dishware with distilled water twice or three times. Then, in hot distillate - aniline dye for fabric according to the instructions for the tablet, and filter through calico, gas or thin women's tights. We put a few drops into the PVA emulsion, stir, put a drop on the glass and check the color. Lightened - add a pigment solution; darkened - emulsions.

Second. BF-2 is diluted twice with acetone and hand paste is added dropwise to the solution with stirring. The color is checked with a test drop as above. Gives an excellent meniscus, stance, bright, but - alas! – the turnover of pure acetone is limited, because it is used in artisanal illegal drug production. And you can not replace the nitro solvent or alcohol.

Third. 6 gr. food gelatin is diluted in 200 ml. distillate at 40-50 degrees. An aniline dye solution, the same as for the first paint, is added dropwise after cooling to the same temperature and the color is also checked. Strength and resistance to fading can be slightly increased by coating with a transparent acrylic varnish after drying. Aniline with PVA - it is impossible, it will float.

Fourth. We are preparing a composition of 60% by volume of transparent furniture nitro-lacquer and 40% 647 solvent. Squeeze artistic oil paint directly from the tube with pea-sized balls, stir, check the color for a drop. Suitable for acrylic coating; at the same time, the strength is acrylic, and the durability is practically unlimited.

Notes:

1. Sometimes the paint does not stir, but curdles. This means - the manufacturer is a deceiver: it is not prepared with natural hemp oil.
2. Colors can be mixed as artists do, but following the rules for mixing mineral oil paints. Otherwise, it may turn out, as with Ozerov's paintings.

Video: stained-glass window master class

Tiffany

Tiffany stained glass is an order of magnitude or two more difficult to work with than those described above, so we will deal with them in stages. There are complexities and subtleties at all stages, except, perhaps, patination. And neglect of technique on any of them will spoil the work. In addition, you need to acquire some special tools and materials.

Tool

glass cutter

The main key to success when working on tiffany is a glass cutter, because you need to cut small curvilinear pieces of glass, and stained glass is very viscous. Therefore, only a diamond glass cutter is needed. Advisers are unlikely to manage with roller-coasters themselves through the window.

There are two types of diamond glass cutters: with a point (diamond pencils) and with a curvilinear cutting edge. The former are suitable only for straight cuts, and the latter for curved ones. The type of the cutting part and the method of cutting are indicated in the certificate for the tool, and in appearance - a glass cutter with a curved edge is necessarily massive, with a butt for tapping / breaking, see fig. After cutting with a pencil, the incised piece simply breaks off.

It is undesirable to buy from the hands - in 90% of cases they are sold because the diamond is punctured and does not give a ringing cut (see below). There are also glass files - thin steel strips with diamond coating. They make quite decent curved cuts of large parts (glasses for cabinets, etc.), but they are unsuitable for smalt - you cannot cut a small radius.

Notes:

1. Diamond, so you know, although the champion in hardness, it is fragile. The ancient myth of slaves who were promised freedom if they broke a diamond with a hammer on an anvil is just a myth. It pricks, even dropped on a stone floor. Therefore, the glass cutter must be stored in a regular case and handled with care.
2. Glass cutters from different manufacturers are very, very different in cut quality. A sign of good is a case made of genuine leather with a felt lining.

soldering iron

Tiffany soldering is done by the capillary method, so an electric / radio soldering iron with a long red-copper tip is unsuitable. You need a tool with a bronze nickel-plated sting; it serves only for heating, and the solder does not stick to it during the soldering process. You can recognize this one by the initially short white shiny sting (see below in the figure with soldering accessories), and they are sold under the Long Life brand. Power - 100 W, no more and no less.

Abrasive

To finish the smalt after cutting, it is desirable to have a glass grinder, see fig. But it costs a lot, and in any case, for fine-tuning, you need three grinding bars numbered 220-240 and 12-20 mm wide: square, semicircular and triangular. The latter is also necessary if there is a machine for sampling sharp internal corners; in drawings, say, with leaves, it is very difficult to do without them.

Notes:

1. For smalt voluminous stained-glass windows, a grinder is absolutely necessary. It is impossible to accurately maintain the required bevel angles of the side faces with hands.
2. It is also desirable to have a diamond file with a lenticular section - for finishing the same corners on very small fragments.

Bars should be looked for from natural garnet or corundum, heavy and very strong. The "sand" miracles of powder technologies do not sharpen glass, but grind it themselves. But turning smalts even on the best bar is necessary under a layer of water, for which, when turning, the bar is immersed in a bowl, baking sheet or some other suitable tray.

Spatula for patina

We make a spatula for applying patina ourselves - from a toothpick and a piece of dense foam rubber 5-6 mm wide and 3-4 mm thick. We put it on a toothpick and fix it with a thin soft wire.

materials

Glass

Tiffany length smalts can be made from ordinary glass by painting it, as for “filler”. But it is better to buy a special stained glass. Translucent, matte or milky. In sheets, it is expensive, but the same firms sell cheap battle (the material is valuable), but we don’t need much.

Notes:

1. It is not necessary to order immediately cutting into smalts according to the sketch. Expensive, and you will not adjust later. You need to cut the smalts yourself.
2. Since Tiffany is assembled on soldering, the temperature of which the paint does not hold, it must first be completely assembled from plain glass, and only then poured. It is possible on both sides with a different color scheme, which will give the overflow of the picture when viewed from different sides.

Folia

Foil for framing smalt - folia - is sold in art stores especially for stained glass along with lead tape. Unit of goods - a roll of ribbon 4-7 mm. It is undesirable to cut a sheet of foil into strips yourself: the stained-glass window will come out sloppy.

Soldering

Materials for soldering are shown in the figure, there is also a soldering iron. Pay attention to the inscription: "Without rosin." Thread-like solder with rosin inside (harpius) is unsuitable for soldering stained-glass windows. Soldering flux (this is a jar in the figure) is needed with borax or other semi-active, for soldering electronics. Residues of active flux (with phosphoric acid, etc.) cannot be removed from the binding, and it will eventually corrode.

Usually, POS-61 solder is recommended for soldering Tiffany due to its fusibility - 190 degrees. From ordinary tin-lead solders (240-280 degrees), smalts sometimes crack. But POS-61 is fragile, very soft. There is also POS-61M with a copper additive, 192 degrees, but it is only a little stronger.

The best solders for tiffany are with cadmium additives: POSK-50-18 (145 degrees, in the figure) and Avia-1 (200 degrees, strength - like duralumin). POSK-50-18 is weaker, but still much stronger than POS-61/61M. It is inexpensive, unlike Avia-1, it is easily accessible.

Patina

Now in art and construction stores they sell blacksmith's patina of various types. Buy better fluid, ready to use. It will be only slightly cheaper to prepare the powder composition yourself, but difficult, and the quality of the coating will be worse.

Stages of work

Sketch/stencil

Already when choosing a pattern, it is necessary to take into account the features of the technology and its weaknesses. S-, N- and deep U-shaped bends of the edges of the smalts are unacceptable: due to the difference in the TC of glass and metal, the smalts will eventually crawl out and fall out along them. An ideal smalt is an area bounded by convex smooth curves. If a non-monotonic bend is needed, it must be collected from pieces, even if of the same tone, see fig. Suddenly, the finished composition turns out to be flickering / clumsy due to the binding - nothing can be done, you need to change or refine the drawing.

Note: drawings for stained-glass windows are a separate area of ​​pictorial art. There are many on the Internet ready for different techniques, but if you want your own unique one, you need to turn to a stained glass artist or look for creative abilities in yourself.

Smalt cutting

First you need to make a base, the same as for stained glass. With the right cut, the residue breaks off from the slightest push, so you don’t need to immediately bring it to the overhang: after making an incision under the glass, a thin rail is slipped behind the cut, and lightly presses the residue with your finger. It didn’t break off - you can tap on weight.

Try cutting a piece of regular window glass. If the cut is creaky, a scratch is visible, and for a break you need to tap several times, it’s too early to take on smalts.

With the right cut, the glass makes a quiet, thin ringing, and the crack is not visible at all. For a break, light pressure is enough or lightly poking from below. To obtain such a cut, you need to maintain the angle of the tool in the direction of the cut (about 45 degrees, or according to the specification for the glass cutter) and keep it strictly perpendicular in the transverse direction.

The second condition is a strictly constant pressing force. The skill in angle and strength must be worked out to full automatism when cutting lines of any kind. It's called putting your hand up.

Note: the exact angle and pressure are individual for each diamond glass cutter. Therefore, aces glaziers do not use other people's tools and do not offer them for rent.

But that's not all. A curved cut by itself will never crack, even though you crack. It will leave the side and, according to Murphy's First Law, just where it will hurt the most. What to do?

Auxiliary cuts on a tangent, the thicker, the more curved, see fig. The general rule is that the deflection between two adjacent auxiliary cuts should not exceed two glass thicknesses. By the way, this circumstance must also be taken into account when developing a stencil. Therefore, if you order a drawing from an artist, then immediately determine the stencil. However, good masters attach a stencil to the drawing without any.

If there is an angle on the smalt, a tangent to the least convex side is required from its beak. An important conclusion follows from the foregoing: do not try to cut out a lot of one-color smalts at once from a large piece. Almost all expensive material will go to waste. In general, smalts are cut one at a time as the stencil is filled, see below.

Here the question arises: how to trace smalt templates? The glass cutter is not a razor blade or a utility knife, it is rather plump. And for this, stencil scissors are needed. The width of the third, middle, blade just takes into account the resulting indent.

Set to composition

Before starting to set the stained-glass window, the stencil on the assembly board is fixed with even rails on the left (for left-handers - on the right) and at the top. From the corresponding far upper corner, they are laying the smalt, see on the left in fig.

Smalts are cut out strictly one at a time, otherwise the whole set will spread before reaching half. Having cut out one, they bring it up and align it according to the stencil (you need an indent inward from the contour of 0.5-0.7 mm for soldering). Then they wrap it with foil and roll its edges with a round piece of wood or plastic (middle pos.) After rolling with the same trowel, iron the side face; for internal sharp corners, it is convenient to use a school plastic ruler with a wedge-shaped edge or a plastic knife from a set of disposable tableware, and add it.

Now the smalt is put in place before soldering, tightly pressed against the previous ones or the side, and the template for the next one is checked against the stencil. If necessary, cut the template with curved nail scissors, and only then return to the glass with a glass cutter. There should be no visible gaps between smalts on the filled part, right pos. in fig.

Note: The best stained-glass windows are obtained by typing on a blueprinting machine, covered with calico or baize. The smallest crack is immediately visible.

Crimping and fluxing

After laying all the smalts, the composition is carefully crimped horizontally with slats, now on the right (left) and bottom. If the smalts at the same time begin to stick out at an upward angle, they iron and finish the foil, press it down from above. After that, they start fluxing.

The used smalt templates are laid out next to the shield according to the composition and numbering. Special accuracy is not needed, as long as the pieces are not mixed up. Now fragments are transferred to this intermediate stencil, starting from the corner opposite the initial one, i.e. in reverse order of assembly. So it is necessary that the flux on the ends of the smalt does not dry out.

Next, the smalts are transferred one by one back to the working stencil in the same way as they were collected. At the same time, the foil frame is smeared with a thin layer of flux (it has the consistency of petroleum jelly) using a match or a toothpick. Having assembled the composition again in the old place, they are again crimped, but the right (left) and lower rails are now fixed with cloves. You can start soldering.

Soldering

The main condition for soldering is not to do a lot at once. Due to the difference in the TCR of glass and metal, when overheated, the entire composition can swell and fall apart. At a time, you need to solder the area in one or two male palms, then let it cool, and solder further. Conduct soldering in the order of laying.

Tiffany is soldered by capillary method. First, along the contour of the next smalt, pieces of a solder thread as wide as a soldering iron tip are dripped onto the seam with a step of 1-1.5 cm. The operation is carried out on weight, without touching the thread of the solder and the sting of the foil. This is painstaking, exhausting and responsible work, so take your time, take breaks for rest.

Then the seams are soldered. Each drop or sausage of solder on the seam is heated until it all at once goes into the seam and spreads over it inside. If the flux evaporates and burns out earlier, this may not happen, so flux generously, but without dirt. The missing flux during the soldering process can be added, then only after the soldered area cools down. It is not necessary to scatter the set, the flux can be applied on top and warmed up a little to flow into the seam.

Video: Tiffany stained glass technique (eng)

framing

The composition is also soldered into the frame. It is not necessary to glue on epoxy or acrylic: due to the difference in TKR, the stained-glass window will not last more than 5-7 years. Make a frame from a brass or bronze corner.

The frame must be solid; one solder joint is allowed in the overlay at the junction of the contour. Therefore, a U-shaped profile is not suitable: how can you put a stained-glass window into it? You can, however, slip it in pieces under the stained-glass window, but then you need soldered scarves in the corners, which will be visible on the finished product. However, again, it's a matter of taste. You can immediately coordinate the pattern with scarves.

The frame is cleaned from the inside with a school eraser to a shine (semi-active flux does not dissolve the oxide film on brass) and thoroughly washed with a cotton swab, richly moistened with alcohol. Then wipe with a new, unused, microfiber eyeglass cloth.

Now the frame from the inside, and the edge of the stained-glass window from the face and from the side, are smeared with flux, the frame is applied to the composition, and soldered, like smalts, piece by piece. Upon cooling, the stained-glass window is carefully turned over, a flux is applied to the wrong side gap between the edge of the composition and the frame, heated until it spreads, and the gap is soldered. It remains to rinse from the remnants of the flux and patinate.

flushing

It is no longer necessary to waste liters of alcohol to remove flux residues: dish detergents do an excellent job of removing them. A particularly gratifying circumstance for a non-drinker: from “him, darling” during alcohol washing, such a dukhan ...

Wash the stained-glass window (already a stained-glass window) in the bathroom under the shower with a foam sponge soaked in detergent. Particularly sticky flux residues are removed with a toothbrush. They do not lend themselves immediately, so a simple operation turns out to be painstaking: you cannot press hard or cut off. Often a stained-glass window has to be soaked for a day in a bath, in which a whole bottle of Fairy is thumped, until the flux deposits become limp and come off under the sponge.

Patination

The final stage is patination of the binding. The operation is simple: pour into a small consumable container, collect on a spatula and apply to the binding. Drying excess is washed off with the same dishwashing sponge under the shower without any difficulties.

There is only one nuance when patinating: this is a caustic and harmful thing, ready-to-eat blacksmith patina. Therefore, you need to work in a ventilated area, in protective gloves, goggles, and, preferably, in a petal respirator.

After washing from the remnants of the patina and drying, the stained-glass window is ready - you can insert it into the frame in place and admire it.

About matting

Film and flooded stained-glass windows, used with backlighting, look good if the underside of the base is matte. Do-it-yourselfers are sometimes offered recipes for chemical matting, but these recommenders, it seems, did not smell this chemistry themselves, since they are alive: deadly volatile components are used in chemical matting - hydrofluoric (hydrofluoric) acid and its compounds. Matting with silicic acid is no better: concentrated sulfuric acid is needed, and poisonous volatile products are also formed.

The easiest way to self-matte the inside of the base is to take and apply plastic tracing paper from the inside. Lasts over 10 years. If the matte base is visible from two sides, then there is a laborious, but completely harmless way:

• We buy 10-50 g, depending on the area, of corundum powder of the smallest fraction (0.05 mm).
• Scatter in small piles over the area of ​​\u200b\u200bglass.
• We drip linseed, rapeseed, palm oil or a spindle into each pile until a slurry is obtained; The list is in order of preference.
• We rub with light pressure with a polisher made of whole, not double, rawhide; a piece of old coarse wide waist belt will work well.
• The three front (smooth) side of the polished, alternating longitudinal-transverse and circular movements. With some skill, in this way it is even possible to obtain frosted glasses for photographic equipment.
• The remains of the abrasive are washed off with water with dishwashing detergent and a sponge.

Note: you need to flush it into the pan, not the bath, otherwise the plumbing died.

Video: Tiffany stained glass show

Finally, aluminum

Someone, after reading the article, will remember: wait, but the glazing of furniture? Why not stained glass? In standard duralumin profiles, cheap, beautiful, shiny. And you can bend them.

No, there is no stained glass. Stained-glass window is a separate transportable product in a solid frame, soldered or cast. Okay, let's sleep. Aluminum is brazed, and even without argon - there are special "scraping" solders (CSP, for example) and not very caustic fluxes based on oleic or palmitic acid.

Yes, but the temperature is needed 350-400 degrees, the glass does not hold this in close contact with the metal. If, however, the entire set is heated very slowly on a refractory shield, it swells and disintegrates from the difference in TCR. Give allowances for thermal expansion - it loosens and falls apart when cooled.

So "real", not on glue and resins, stained-glass windows in aluminum binding are not yet obtained. If someone figures out how to make them, it will certainly be a revolution in stained glass art: aluminum alloys are light and comparable in strength to steel.

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