This year I’ve met a bunch of really neat people through Sector67. One of the opportunities that they introduced me to is Build Madison. Build Madison is a great chance to meet a lot of smart, creative people who like to make things *and* get help on your project, if you need/want it. You get 24 hours to finish. Anything goes. And you get access to the tools at Sector. If you have a minute, check out their timelapse video of the whole 24 hour event.
I decided it was high time to finish one of the four glass panels for my kitchen cabinet. I didn’t really need any of the *stuff* they had at Sector to finish this but I needed the incentive to start & complete the darn thing (we’re going on year 6 of having a cabinet with clear glass instead of stained glass doors after all). Being competitive can be useful 
Stained glass basics go like this:
- Draw a pattern
- Choose your colors
- Cut the glass
- Grind down the edges of the glass so they’re no longer sharp
- Wrap each piece in copper foil
- Solder everything together
- Apply a patina and polish your work and DONE!
Confession: I was doing this whole thing without a written pattern. It would have ended up fitting together more nicely had I created an actual paper pattern first. But it turned out pretty good anyway, I think. Just don’t tell my students that a pattern isn’t always necessary
TOTAL TIME: somewhere between 10-12 hours.
TOTAL COST: TBD. I have a lot of these supplies just laying around at home and it’s easy to forget about sunk costs….
So here’s my progression in pictures. First, I roughed out the main colors:
Continue reading “Build Madison 2015 & a stained glass window”
