Making the Glass

• Stained glass windows are made from colored and clear glass. Today, most colored glass is machine made; however, older stained glass windows used handmade glass. Metal salts or minerals are added to the glass during manufacture to add color and determine the final transparency. Other treatments may be done as the glass is being made to alter the finished appearance of the glass by adding iridescence.
  
  

Creating the Pattern

• A stained glass window pattern can be geometric or figural. The rose windows of European cathedrals in the Middle Ages are an excellent example of a geometric stained glass pattern. The initial drawing is divided into sections by color and cut apart to form a pattern for each individual piece of glass.
  
  

Cutting the Glass

• Each piece of stained glass for the window is typically cut by scoring the pattern piece into the surface of a larger piece of glass using a glass cutter. The glass is then cleanly broken away from the score lines in the case of straight scores. This is most commonly done by hand. When curved lines are needed, the glass is gently tapped before breaking to increase the likelihood of a clean break along the score lines in your stained glass.
  
  

Assembling the Stained Glass Window

• The edges of each piece of glass will need to be foiled. Stained glass foil is self adhesive and easily wraps around the edges of the glass. Once the piece is foiled, it is set into a jig, or temporary frame, to hold all of the foiled pieces together and in position. Flux is applied along each of the foiling lines using a small brush. Using 60/40 lead solder, drops of solder are applied along each intersection and then evenly covering each foil line. The stained glass window is then removed from the jig and the soldering process repeated on the other side.