Stained Glass- Download Free Glass Patterns

Stained glass is a wonderful creative hobby for people of all ages. If you become proficient at it you could even make a career change if you so desired. It is a fascinating hobby. Hundreds of people have become hooked on creating beautiful glass work. It is something where you can make small intricate objects or if the desire takes you to make beautiful colored windows, lampshades, skylights, and even atriums.

No matter what you want to try, I can assure you that you will become hooked on making more and more things. Do not be fooled though. It is not a cheap hobby. The colored glass is very expensive. You can of course scrounge glass from friends, old buildings, second hand places wherever you can. And free makes it better still.

With the right cutting equipment you can even use old colored bottles or stubbies and king brown beer bottles. The type of creation will dictate what types of glass you will use.

So if this has wetted your appetite then read on. You could learn at a Technical college or Tafe in your area. Or there may be other clubs in your area that will have places where you can learn the basics.

Required basic Tools and equipment

Like everything, you can start with just the basic equipment:

• Glass cutter
• Lead opener
• Glass Braking pliers
• Grozing pliers
• Lead knife
• Stanley knife
• Soldering iron and solder
• Work bench (not with carpet underneath as it will be too hard to pick up splinters of glass)
• Quantity of glass

As you progress you will need more tools although this would be enough to get you started.

If you would like to create stained glass items then this is what you need to know. You can buy many of the hundreds of books from your glass supplier or you can create your own patterns from your own sketches and drawings. Or download free patterns from a variety of stained glass companies

Children’s Books are a great source for pictures to trace from then you need to cutout cardboard templates, making sure you cut the templates to fit exactly to the shape. Hit and miss will not work when working with glass as it will not give or bend.

Internet downloads

Free patterns for stained glass - http://www.freepatternsforstainedglass.com/free3-Dpatterns.html

Type these names into Google to get their web addresses. Or you can type in free patterns for more ideas

Delphi Glass is very helpful. We have bought most of our equipment from them even though we live in Australia as it is cheaper to import the materials like solder, and other various items.

Darryl’s stained glass They also sell his book but have several free patterns for you to copy. I have shown one of these easier ones in here for you to have a look at. As most of them are straight lines you can draw them up yourself or enlarge them to the size you want and print them up. Then cut it out in cardboard to use as a template.

Experiment with your cutting on plain clear glass to begin with, that is not as expensive and will not matter if it breaks or you make mistakes. As you grow in confidence try out the colored glass, remember that this glass is not cheap so you will not want to waste any.

When you first start you will find it best to use patterns with straight edges until you get used to cutting curves. This will be more intricate although you will soon learn the art of cutting curves. For now stick to patterns with straight lines though.

You will also need to practice your soldering. There is a bit of an art to it. I have seen some in the markets that look terrible with bubbles and rough edges. You need to be careful with this as like the glass you can cut yourself on the pointy bits. Take care and produce good articles,  in the beginning, it will give you a better more professional finish in the end.

Stained glass looks so beautiful no matter where you see it. It will always attract attention whether it is a lamp, a window, or little sun catchers, eyes always turn to have one more look especially if done in beautiful vibrant colors.