How to Lay Out Glass Pieces for Stained Glass Art

In the highly creative art of stained glass work, it's important to plan out each step as you go. By laying our your cut pattern pieces, you finally get the satisfaction of seeing how your project will look in glass.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Large work surface
• Cut stained glass pattern pieces
• Coded sketch

1. Lay out all of the cut pattern pieces of stained glass on a large work surface. Group together all of the pieces of each color.

2. Begin laying out each of pieces of one color using trial and error until you find the piece that best fits the space according to your pattern. Refer to your color-coded sketch often to check for proper placement of each color.

3. Follow your pattern as closely as possible to make sure your pieces fit as they were cut. Disregard any traces of marker on the glass because they can be easily cleaned off in a later stage.

4. Stop working every few minutes and take a look at your project as a whole. This gives you a sense of how it is shaping up.

5. Finish this stage of your stained glass project by laying out each of the groups of colors in turn. You are now ready to apply the foil backing to the edges of your stained glass pieces.

Tips & Warnings

• Handle pieces of glass carefully by wearing gloves or learning not to slide your hands while picking up the pieces.
• Brush off your work surface when it's not in use. This will prevent injuries from any small splinters of glass.