Glass Stars for Christmas

 In an attempt to feel more festive I was back at West Dean this week for a one day course on copper foiling.

When I booked it there were several different classes to choose from but in the end the stars won.  If you know me, that probably didn't surprise you!

 

We were a group with mixed experience, some had done this and stain glass work before, some were complete novices.  I've never really been interesting in stain glass, past admiring it in passing but I'd been thinking about ways to use and display my glass leaves and the copper foiling looked like a possibiliy.  Then I found out and you can make 3D things this way and I had to have a go! 

 

Copper foiling and stain glass are very similar, but stain glass is more robust and can be used outdoors if finished correctly.  Copper foiling is more delicate which is just what I was looking for.

First we were shown how to cut glass.  I have cut glass before, but not much, so it was good to get a refresher and by the end of the day I was much more confident.

 

Preperation was everything, so we needed to make sure we cut our glass precisely.  Any lumps or bumps needed to be ground off and the glass had to be washed to make sure it was really clean, otherwise the foil won't stick.

We had 3 different sized star templates on paper to work from, which worked very well.  We also had 5 different types of glass, one for each point of our stars.

 

With all our bits cut and cleaned we then learnt how to apply the copper foil.  It's very important that this is stuck to your glass very well, otherwise it can come off when you start to solder!  This means lots of rubbing to make sure it is stuck fast.

Once all our parts were ready we could then solder everything together.  First we tacked them together so they wouldn't move around, then we covered the edges before doing the joints.  It was quite a fast process.

 

The class was for 3 stars, but we could make more if we had time.  I made 2 more, a medium and a small.  I rushed the last small one so it didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, but I learnt lots from the mistakes I made. 

This was a fab little class.  It's very different from working with hot or even warm glass, but another string to my glass bow that I am very happy to have added.  I've got lots of ideas now that I want to try out!