Swiss Alps Stained Glass Panel

Now, you are viewing the progress shots of the Swiss Alps Stained Glass panel.

The first photo shows all of the glass pieces which have been cut and placed on top of the pattern. This is a rough idea of what the finished piece will look like.

In the second photo you can see how each piece of glass is ground with a diamond-bit grinder in order to shave off the sharp edges and make each piece fit nicely with the other pieces of glass. In addition, grinding the edges of the glass allows the copper tape a better hold onto the sides of each piece.

Photo number three shows how the copper tape is carefully wound around all edges of each glass piece. By surrounding each piece of glass with copper tape - this allows the solder to adhere to the adjoining piece of glass. This panel required 24 feet of copper tape.

In the fourth photo - you can see that all of the pieces of glass are taped and fit nicely together on top of the initial pattern. Now solder is heated and floated on top of the copper tape which holds all of the pieces of glass together.

The last photo shows the completed piece. The silver-colored solder and zinc frame has been coated with a dark patina finish in order to show the lines within the mountain range. If you look closely you can see the tan, grey and blue tones within the glass.

Swiss Glass in Progress

So, the progress of the Swiss Glass piece is coming along nicely.

The first order of business is to print a copy of the photograph onto a sheet of white paper and copy the lines into shapes that can be cut in glass.

After printing a copy of Richard's photo onto a piece of plain paper (for color reference when shopping at the glass store) I take the three-mile trip down the road to my favorite place to shop.

The second photograph shows the aisles and aisles of different sized, shapes, textures and colors of glass that is available. This is one aisle of five so you can get an idea of exactly how much of a selection of glass is available.

The third photo was taken in the studio on top of the cutting table. Each piece of glass is cut based on color, texture and how the glass will fit visually into the final piece.

Stay tuned for additional photos. I'll finish cutting the glass and fitting it into the pattern which was drawn.

Swiss in Glass

This is a photograph of a beautiful little cottage sitting somewhere in the Swiss Alps.

It was sent to my by Richard Cruse who snapped the photo during a recent visit to Switzerland.

He has asked me to transform this photograph into a piece of stained glass artwork.

So far the challenge is developing nicely.

I'll update the progress by the end of the week. Then you can give me feedback on how I've done with his photograph.