The Process of Making Stained Glass Jewelry

What Goes Into Making Stained Glass Jewelry?
I love making stained glass jewelry. There is something about the process with its many many steps done in a certain order that I find comforting. I usually make a "batch" a setting. A "batch" usually consist of 20-30 pieces. I try to finish the batch in one day...but sometimes I break it into two days. I would love to share the steps with y'all.

The Process of Making Stained Glass Jewelry

1. I pick my glass, hold it up to the light to see what piece I want to cut.
2. I clean the glass (this in one of tons of cleanings the glass gets).
3. I score the glass with a glass cutter that has a carbide wheel.
4. I break the glass running pliers (sometime I use a grozier, which are flat nosed, soft metal pliers).
5. I grind the glass with a diamond bit on a grinder that grinds at a high speed. Grinding does two things, it take the sharp edge off and it is used to obtain the desired shape.
6. Clean glass which is covered in residue and glass bits.
7. Wrap the edges of the glass with copper foil.
8. Apply flux (which is what makes the solder stick to the foil).
9. Apply the lead free solder on one side.
10. I let cool, that is why working in a batch is good because I can continue to work while they cool
11. Repeat process to other side, including appling more flux
12. Solder the bail/ hoop on
13. Clean
14. I polish with silver polish to remove flux residue and make it shiny and pretty
15. I clean it Yet Again.

As you can see
it is a time consuming and very detailed process. In the future I will photograph the steps to maybe break it down for those of you who might want to know more.
Thanks for leting me share part of my passion with you.

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