How To Make Stained Glass: The Complete Beginner's Guide All in One Place
In the order you'd actually do it, with the full deep-dive on each step of the process if you need it!
Hello Friends :)
This is me finally sitting down and putting the whole thing in one spot (all the blog posts in one place), in the actual order you'd do it, with links out to the full deep-dive post for every single step. Bookmark it then send it to your friend who keeps saying they want to try this! Or come back to it when you get stuck on some step of the process at 11pm and can't remember what you need to do next.
A quick note before we start: stained glass is not a hard art medium. It is time and labor intensive - it takes lots of patience. Almost nobody quits because the skill requirement is too advanced. People quit because they bought a cheap frustrating beginner kit, or nobody told them how to grind their glass strategically so they weren't grinding endlessly, or their first project was a 90-piece Tiffany lampshade and they lost the will to continue around piece 30. Every single one of those is preventable, and that's basically what this page is for!
Stained Glass quickly...The 30-second version
You draw a pattern → you transfer it onto glass → you cut the glass along those lines → you grind/sand the edges so the pieces fit together → you wrap each piece in copper tape → you solder over that tape so it all becomes one solid thing → you clean, patina (optional), and hang it + enjoy.
That's it! How to do stained glass in 7 steps. Everything below is just me being in-depth about the details of each one :
Draw the pattern
This is where the whole thing lives or dies, and it's the step people are most tempted to skip because they think they can't do it.
A stained glass pattern is not just a drawing. It's a drawing where every single line has to be a line you can physically cut, and every shape has to be a shape you can physically cut out*. That means no crazy deep inside curves, no shapes that come to a needle-thin point, no tiny slivers that will snap the second you go to break them out. Glass has a way it likes to break (takes the path of least resistance) and your pattern needs to respect that law for the most part.
*there are tools that exist to help make impossible cuts so it is possible sometimes :)
My general rules when I'm designing:
- Ideally no inside curve tighter than a soup can lid if I plan to hand cut. Crazy inside curves can be a killer to glass.
- Nothing thinner than about a pencil width ideally at its narrowest point. Slivers break. They break while you're cutting them, then again while you're grinding them, then a third time out of spite while you're foiling.
- Limit the amount of places pieces meet. A more lines that meet in one place the bigger pool of solder/the harder it is to solder smoothly. Try to have no more than 2 to 3 maybe 4 lines intersect in one place.
- Count your pieces before you commit. Seriously. Sit there and count them. If your "simple beginner project" has 60 pieces, it is not a simple beginner project. Reduce, practice, then go wild later!
And if drawing is just not your thing at all, that's genuinely fine and very normal. Plenty of wonderful glass artists have never designed a pattern from scratch. I add new patterns to the library on my Patreon every month so you can skip straight to the creating part or check out Etsy for other artists selling patterns.
Transfer the pattern to your glass
Okay so you have a pattern. Now you need those lines to exist ON the glass so you know where to cut.
There are honestly many ways to do this and people get weirdly passionate about which one is correct. You can trace directly through the glass on a light table. You can cut the paper pattern into pieces and trace around each one. You can use pattern shears that remove a strip of paper to account for the foil. You can glue the pattern down and cut around the glued paper.
Do I have a favorite? Yes (sharpie on glass these days). Is my favorite the objectively correct one? Absolutely not, and anyone who tells you their method is the only method is someone who has only ever tried one method - live it up try a few see what you like.
What actually matters is that you're consistent, and that you're accounting for the thickness of your lines. This is the thing that gets beginners: if your marker line is fat and you cut on a different side of that line for each piece, you've just introduced a gap or too much glass. Ideally cut on the inside of your lines to account for copper foil/lead channel growth.
Keep readingHow To Transfer Your Pattern To Your GlassThere are about a million ways to do this and people get weirdly passionate about it. Here's every method so you can find the one that clicks for your brain.Read the full post →Cut the glass
The step everyone's scared of and the step that's genuinely the most fun once it clicks.
You are not cutting the glass. You are scoring it and then breaking it. There is an art to both those actions
You run the cutter once on the surface of the glass, in one continuous confident motion, with even pressure, it makes a sound like crackling. Then you stop right before the edge of the glass and you break it.
Things I wish someone had told me on day one:
- One score. Do not go back over your line ever if you can help it. Going over a score line is how you get a jagged break and also how you destroy your cutter wheel head.
- The sound is your feedback. A good score sounds like a zipper or tearing paper. A bad score sounds crunchy and grindy. If it sounds crunchy you're pressing WAY too hard. If you can't hear or see your score it was too light.
- Run your score off both edges. Start at the far edge and pull the cutter toward yourself or push away, right to the edge of the glass, lift up right before you fall off the side.
- Break it immediately. A score line "heals": the glass relaxes and the break gets less predictable the longer you wait. Score it, break it, move on.
- Oil your cutter. It helps protect your cutter over time.
Grind
Your pieces are cut. They're close. They are not, however, actually fitting together, and this is where the grinder comes in.
Grinding is the step that turns "eh, close enough" into "oh THAT'S why professional pieces look like that." It's also the step where I see the most people accidentally ruin their project, because it's very easy to over-grind and you cannot add glass back on if you do.
- Water. WATER. Your grinder has a sponge and a reservoir and both need to be wet. Grinding dry destroys the bit, throws glass dust into the air (which you should not be breathing), and chips your edges. If you hear a dry screech or see thick glass goop or dust building up at the grinder bit, stop. Water keeps things safe and collects that dust so its not in the air so add water!
- Gentle and steady beats hard and fast. You're letting the bit remove a little at a time. Pressing hard just chips the edge and doesn't make things go faster. Have patience and a bit off guess and check to get it right
- Grind to your pattern line, not past it. Every piece you over-grind makes a gap that solder has to fill later, and solder-filled gaps make your project look less professional. Respect your pattern lines.
- Dry-fit constantly. Lay your pieces onto the pattern as you go - start from a corner and work up. Do not grind all your pieces and THEN check. That is endlessly frustrating and do a little of all then having to go back is the worst feeling. Get one piece fully prefect then move on!
Foil
MY FAVORITE!! I have said this in basically every post I've ever written and I stand by it. Foiling is the cozy step. This is the sit-on-the-couch-with-a-tv-show-on step.
Copper foil tape wraps around the edge of every piece and gives the solder something to actually stick to. Solder will not bond to glass. It bonds to the copper foil tape. So this step is doing way more structural work than it looks like it is.
What separates good foiling from bad foiling:
- Wash and dry your pieces first. Grinding leaves a slurry of glass dust on everything and tape does not stick to that. You don't want your tape to fall off so clean diligently.
- Center the tape. Equal overhang on both sides so your solder lines look even from the front AND the back. Uneven foil is the thing that makes a piece look homemade in the bad way.
- Burnish well. Press that foil down with a fid until there are no bubbles or lifted edges.
- The right width matters. Too narrow and it won't hold/tiny solder line. Too wide and your solder lines get chunky and your pattern gets swallowed. My favorite is Edco black backed 1/4th inch - it accounts for textured glass the best!
Solder
And here's the one I'll be honest with you about: soldering was for a long time my weakest skill and the step I actively dreaded. It went from the thing I hated to something I genuinely enjoy, and the turnaround was almost entirely about equipment and temperature rather than some secret hand technique.
Soldering is melting a tin/lead alloy over your copper foil so all those separate pieces become one solid panel. Without it you just have a very pretty pile of taped glass.
- Your iron is the whole ballgame. This is the one place I'd tell a beginner to spend real money. A cheap iron that can't hold temperature will make you think you're bad at soldering when actually your tool is bad at soldering. Hakko FX-601 is the one and the only iron you want to work with. 1000% worth the price.
- Flux is not optional. Flux lets the solder flow instead of blobbing. No flux, no bead, just sad lumps.
- Keep the iron MOVING but slowly. Solder wants to be perfect move slowly (like half as fast as you are going) and drive that solder into the tip of your iron. This is how you get a beautiful puffed lines.
- Tin first, then bead. Little tack points at your intersections or add a light layer of solder to your project to lock everything in place, then go back and run your full lines.
- Ventilate, and wash your hands. You're working with lead (not fumes) and flux fumes. Vent for the flux fumes and don't put your hands in your mouth/face to be safe with lead exposure. Not scary if you're sensible about it, but be sensible about it - I treat lead like germs - careful where/what I touch and wash my hands before eating etc, once I am finished with working.
Finish and protect it
You're basically done!! But this last step is the difference between a project that looks alright and a project that looks PRISTINE.
- Clean thoroughly. Flux left on solder goes cloudy and gross over time. Cleaning well is not optional, it's a necessary step if you want a pretty final project.
- Patina is a choice, not a requirement. Black makes lines recede and colors pop. Copper is warmer or leave it silver! It's your piece, match it with the vibe you are going for.
- Wax it. A finishing wax protects the solder and makes everything shine. Liva is my current favorite finishing compound.
- Plan your hanging hardware BEFORE you solder, ideally. Rings added as an afterthought sit weirdly and can pull. Think about where the weight is before you get started for a nice professional look when picking where the jump rings go.
What tools do you actually need to start?
Okay so this is the other question I get constantly, usually phrased as "what's the cheapest way to try this without committing."
The genuinely honest answer: there's a short list of things you cannot go without/sub, and a longer list of things you can absolutely put off. A cutter, running pliers, grozing pliers, a grinder, foil, flux, solder, and an iron will get you to a finished piece. Almost everything else is a nice-to-have.
The one thing I'd steer you away from
The $100 all-in-one kits on the big marketplaces. I know. I KNOW they're tempting. But they're where beginners go to get discouraged. The cutter won't last, the iron won't hold temp, and you end up concluding you're not good at this when really you were handed tools that don't work. It's the single most common reason I see people quit before they've started.
Read my full necessary-vs-optional breakdown →
If you'd rather just have someone hand you the right stuff in one box, that's genuinely what our beginner kits exist for. We put them together specifically with the best tools you can use so nobody has to learn the cheap-kit lesson the way. They are intended to be a one time by so you aren't replacing tools later down the road, you have the best to start. Or you can browse everything individually over in tools & supplies. We sell all you need to get going!
Where to buy glass (and how not to overspend)
Glass is the fun part and also the part where a hobby quietly turns into a addiction. Ask literally anyone who has seriously gotten into making stained glass! Here is a guide on the different appearances of glass:
| Cathedral: transparent. Light passes through, you can see shapes behind it. |
| Opalescent: opaque. It glows but you can't see through it. |
| Wispy / streaky: mixes both, and where a lot of the magic lives. Especially for anything organic like leaves, water, or sky. |
| Textured: does interesting things to light and hides fingerprints, which is a genuine selling point. |
And honestly the biggest tip: buy less than you think, at first. Beginners buy eight gorgeous sheets and then are too intimidated to cut into any of them and you end up with a whole bunch of glass you don't have a project for. But do buy small, cut into it immediately, make something imperfect. That's the whole point :) have fun and make glass art!
Read: How To Shop For Stained Glass Like A Pro →
BONUS! We carry sheet glass from 13+ manufacturers and restock constantly, plus bevels and jewels if you want to add something looking fancy to your projects. Free US shipping over $100 anywhere in the US. And when your collection inevitably outgrows your space, we make a real wood storage shelf for it all.
What should your first project actually be?
Small. Flat. Under 12 pieces. Mostly straight or gently curved lines.
That's it, that's the formula because a little geometric sun-catcher will teach you every single skill on this page in an afternoon or two, and you'll finish it, which matters more than almost anything else. Finishing something badly beats abandoning something ambitious. You learn the whole process, you find out which step you love and which step you hate, and then your second project can be the ambitious one.
Things that are NOT good first projects, no matter how much you want them to be: lampshades, anything with a face, anything with more than about 20 pieces, anything with a lot of tight inside curves, anything you've promised as a gift for a specific date :) don't start off with deadlines!!
If you get stuck (and you will, and that's completely normal)
Genuinely, every single person who makes glass got stuck constantly at the beginning. The people who kept going aren't more talented, they just had someone to ask or have DYI'd it to learn.
- In-person classes here in Boulder. Come visit us in Boulder, CO we make a fun weekend trip and are in the heart of one of most special places in Colorado. Watching someone do glass in person does in ten seconds what a blog post does in a thousand words.
- Online beginner class, if you're not local, we have online classes from beginner to advanced techniques. They never expire and you always have access.
- Open studio In-person: Most Tuesdays 5-7pm MT for $20 and you get access to the tools, the space, and someone to ask help when you get stuck.
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My Patreon. Monthly one-on-one video calls, which is honestly the closest thing to me standing at your shoulder. Plus a growing pattern library and advanced technique videos on copper foil overlay, framing with hobby came, and pressing flowers into glass, and MORE like 50+ help videos at your finger tips.
The actual last thing
Your first piece is going to have wobbly solder lines and at least one gap you'll be embarrassed about. My first project did and everyones does! Every single person selling glass professionally right now has a crooked funky first sun-catcher in their house somewhere.
Make it anyway and LEARN. Hang it in a window where the morning light hits it and have it be a reminder where you started. Then make a better one again and again, soon you will be an accomplished glass maker!
<3 Meggy