Over the summer, I was given glass by a friend's dad. He did stained glass in the 90s and started this panel. The glass he gave me was extremely beautiful and would be super expensive nowadays.
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I was asked to finish this panel that he began about 30 years ago, but never completed. I agreed to do it.
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I put the panel off for a long time because it is very large and daunting! I finally bit the bullet in November and decided that it would be my January project, after the Christmas season/after all my craft fairs were over, and I had nothing else on my plate. This is the main reason why I am not taking custom orders again until February.
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Here was the panel before I did anything to it:
I plan to provide updates as I work on the panel, as it is my main project this month. I spent two and a half hours today getting started. Here is what I did today.
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I could tell that the original intention was to assemble this panel with lead came, which is common for a large panel. I deduced this from the original spacing of the pieces and by how many of the pieces' edges were not ground. I do not feel comfortable with the lead came process, as I have only made two panels this way, so I decided to set it up to assemble with the copper foil method, which I use all the time.
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However, because I decided to assemble the panel in a different way, that meant I had to go and grind every single piece, and even cut some again that were not the right shape as the pieces started to fit closer together. When you do lead came, you leave a gap between the pieces, and I needed to get rid of that extra space, essentially changing some of the aspects of the pattern.
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Once that was done, I made some executive decisions. I decided to get rid of some lines and adjusted the pattern to revamp a few parts into simpler shapes or fewer pieces. I also brought the left side of the panel in more, to make it slightly smaller. This panel is truly very large, and I have never done something this big before, so I wanted to make it as doable as possible.
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I then finished cutting all of the green pieces and all of the clear pieces. The next steps, for next time, is to cut and assemble the poppies.
After I make the poppies, I need to wrap every single piece in copper foil tape. There are a ton of pieces, so this is going to take a long time. Once all the edges are taped, then I can work on soldering the piece, which I probably will not do all in one sitting.
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I also have to learn how to reinforce the panel. With it being so large, I know that I need to provide some extra support along some solder lines and that is something I have not had to do before.
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The third picture (below) is of the panel on the book that the pattern came from. It took a little bit of work to find the picture online, but it's neat to see what the author intended and how the person who started the panel took it in their own beautiful direction. I hope I do the panel justice as I continue to work on it!!
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More updates to follow!
