How to draw an oval

Need to draw an oval for a panel? 


Here's how:
Calculate half the measurement of the longest line. Measuring from the end of the shortest line, mark off this amount on the longest line, top and bottom.

Insert a pin at both these points.

Place a piece of thread round one pin.Tie a knot in the thread at the far end of the longest line.

Put a pencil inside the loop. Pull the thread taut and begin to draw the oval.

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Which side of a piece of glass do you cut on?

A lot of new glass artists seem to get confused as to which side of a piece of glass is the front or back and which side do you cut on.  Well, luckily this answer is easy!  

A piece of glass doesn't really have a definite front or back side, it is up to the glass artist to decide which side they prefer.  If another glass artist tells you that glass does have a front or back side, well.... they are sadly mistaken.  It is all up to an artist's personal interpretation!  When using Dichroic glass in fusing, it is true that you cannot fuse a Dichroic side to another Dichrioc side but that is not exactly what we are talking about in this mini lesson.

Now having said that, there is a "right and wrong" side to cut your glass on.  I'm talking about cutting with a hand held glass cutter.  If you are going to use a band or ring saw, then it doesn't matter which side you cut on!  As for using a hand held cutter, you should always look for the smoothest, shiniest side to cut on.  You have to push the glass cutter's wheel along the surface of the piece of glass to score it.  For that reason you need the flattest side to cut on.  It's extremely difficult to push a cutting wheel along a pitted or rippled piece of glass.  Heavily textured glass typically has one side that is not as textured as the other.

So if you decided, when you were in the planning stage of your window (picking out the glass), that you really wanted a piece of stained glass that had it's heavily textured side to be facing the front on your window, that is still easily do-able.  First you need to cut out your paper pattern pieces, follow our tutorial on cutting out patterns HERE if needed.  Then when you get to the paper pattern piece that you want to adhere to the piece of glass that has a lot of texture on it's front side, flip the paper pattern piece over and glue the front side of the paper pattern to the back side (which will be the smoother side) of that textured piece of glass.  Be sure to still get the grain of the piece of glass correct or it will look wrong later!  

Once glued on to the back side of the glass, you should be able to hold that piece of glass up in the light, look through it (if it's transparent) and see the pattern piece looking the way it should look when the piece is finally cut out and laid in place ready to be soldered.  

Another sandblasting tutorial

	Sandblasting stained glass requires as much pre-planning as any other stained glass project. Select your glass and your pattern before starting. Sand carving glass is a great decorative method when you need more detail than is easy in conventional stained glass. Sign lettering is a good example.
	We prefer actual sand blasting, the chemical acid method is just too thin, it disappears in a humid environment. But actual sand blasting deep carves the glass, giving it deep texture as well as decoration. The first step, once your glass and pattern have been selected, is to cut a piece of resist rubber to the size of the glass.
	Peel the sticky back off of the resist.
	And set the glass on it. Make sure it's very clean before sticking it down. The rubber resist is thick so that it can withstand a lot of abrasion from the sand. And because it's rubbery, the sand bounces off of it. It's very similar to the resist they use when carving monuments and headstones.
	The back of the glass needs to be protected from stray flying sand while being blasted. Cut a piece of contact paper that is big enough to cover every exposed part.
	Then fold it over to cover the exposed glass. Notice that we lay the sticky sheet down on the table and then lay the glass over it, this let's us avoid wrinkles. You'll just have to use care, because static electricity will sometimes attract the sheet up from the table and then things really get misaligned.
	Next cut the pattern so it will fit on the glass.
	Lay down some scrap paper onto your work bench and lay the pattern down, upside down. Then spray adhesive on the pattern.
	Finally, place the pattern on the resist. You only get one shot, so use care to center things up before contact is made.
	Next, cut out the entire design. The whole pattern needs to be cut out because the lines will all get blasted away when sandblasting. (We find that a new knife blade is a good idea whenever we cut out a pattern. For some reason, if one has been used and left to sit out overnight, it will be dull the next day.) After it's cut, you can peel off the places to be blasted. Then burnish the resist down, using the back of your knife or a fid, so it won't lift up when sandblasting.
	Here's the design after being blasted. Only one blast was needed on this piece.
	Once the piece has been blasted, we're ready to peel off the resist.
	And here's the finished piece, it just needs to be cleaned and have a metal border put on it.
The finished piece is part of Jeanne's Mandala series which will go in a book of patterns. It's called, "Labyrinth," and you can see how the lines form a labyrinth. It's different from a maze which would only have one path to get through it, whereas, a labyrinth can have several openings. Much easier to walk through! We found another good tutorial for sandblasting glass, this one was found here at Better Stained Glass.com

Stained glass stepping stone tutorial

Garden art gives your garden or landscape a personality and stained glass stepping stones provide that personality a unique look all its own. This afternoon craft project is easy to create and will last for years of enjoyment. Let's get started on a stained glass stepping stone.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Draw A Stained Glass Pattern

     Draw your stained glass pattern and size it to fit into the stained glass stepping stone mold you are using. This wolf head will be used in a 14" round mold. Print out two copies of the stained glass pattern. One print out normal and one printed as a reversed image. If you can not print a reversed image then print out two normal patterns. Turn one pattern over and trace the pattern on the back. This will be used to assemble your stained glass pieces in Step #3.
   • 2
     Stained glass stepping stone glass pieces.

     Stained Glass Stepping Stone Pattern Pieces

     Number and color code each piece of your pattern and cut the pattern pieces out. Use these stained glass pattern pieces to cut your stained glass pieces. Number the pieces and grind as needed.
   • 3
     Stained glass pieces for stepping stone.

     Assembling Your Stained Glass Stepping Stone Pieces

     Take the reversed copy of your stepping stone pattern and tape it down to your work table. Cut a piece of clear contact paper the exact size of the stepping stone mold. Place the contact paper over your reversed pattern, stick side up, and use masking tape to tape it down. Match each stained glass piece with the corresponding number on the pattern and place it, upside down to fit the reversed pattern, on to the contact paper. This process will assemble your stained glass stepping stone pattern reversed and ready to transfer to the mold.
   • 4
     Stained glass stepping mold with cement mixture.

     Stained Glass Stepping Stone Mold Process

     Take petroleum jelly and put a light coating on the side of your mold. This will ensure the stepping stone will easily come when ready. Un tape the contact paper with the stained glass pieces on it and carefully transfer it to the mold. Press each piece of your stained glass down to ensure it is stuck tightly to the contact paper. Mix the Dura-Crete craft cement according to the directions on the box and pour the cement into the mold. Tap on the side of the mold for a minute or two to get all the bubbles to the top. Let sit for 20-30 minutes. As soon as the cement is hard to the touch carefully turn the mold over and let the stepping stone come out of the mold.
   • 5
     Stained glass stepping stone clean up.

     Clean Up Your New Stained Glass Stepping Stone

     Carefully remove the contact paper from the stepping stone and use a clothes pin, cut in half, to clean the cement off your stained glass pieces. This should be done quickly since the cement will dry fast when exposed to air. Let your new stained glass stepping stone sit for 15 - 20 days to ensure it cures thoroughly.

This great tutorial was created by braniac, who is an eHow User.         

Sandblasting resist types and sizes

One of the most important decisions to be made in glass etching is which resist to use for a specific job. What you are looking for is the least expensive resist that is adequate for the job at hand. Controlling costs is essential for making a profit, but you can go overboard.

In your zeal to keep costs low, if you use a resist that is too thin, you run the risk of ruining the project if the resist blasts off before the project is finished. This means you will have to start over after you put in all the time necessary to transfer the design to the resist and cut the design out for blasting. The wasted time will cost you much more than better resist would have in the first place.

If you always go for overkill and use only the heaviest resists available, you will not only be wasting money but it will be much harder to get the special effects you want. Since the heavier resists are thicker it is difficult cutting and blasting in fine detail. It is also more difficult to achieve subtle changes in depth when carving in small areas or subtle changes in gray scale when shading.

Consequently, it is best for the quality of your etching as well as the quantity on your bottom line to use the proper resist for the job. Know which resists are available and how to use each one of them to best advantage.

Resist Selection Table
Resist Type	Thickness	Uses	Characteristics
Clear Vinyl	4 mil	Shading to surface Etching	Adequate only for light Blasting, somewhat difficult to remove from large areas of glass without tearing.
Clear Vinyl	8 mil	Shading, surface etching, light carving	Good margin of safety for all types of blasting through light carving; does not tear when removed from large pieces of glass.
Clear Vinyl	11 mil	Light to medium heavy carving	Somewhat difficult to cut because of thickness, good for correcting mistakes in carved areas.
Opaque Vinyl	4 mil white	Shading to surface etching	Adequate for light blasting on smaller pieces. Difficult to remove from larger pieces without tearing out in strips.
Opaque Vinyl	6-8 mil white	Shading to light carving.	Inexpensive multi-purpose resist, easy to remove from glass in large or small areas.
Opaque Vinyl	10-15 mil white or black	Medium carving.	Thick, hard, difficult to cut. Good for medium carving.
Rubber	11 mil green	Surface etching to medium carving.	Very easy to cut, especially fine detail; very tough for its thickness. Can be stretched around curved objects.
Rubber	18 mil tan	Light to heavy carving.	Very easy to cut, good for fine detail; best overall for general carving. Can be used on metal or stone. Good on curved objects.
Rubber	30 mil tan	Medium to heavy carving.	Easy to cut, moderately good for fine detail, tough; can also be used on wood, stone or metal.
Rubber	45 mil green or tan	Heavy carving.	Easy to cut, difficult for fine detail, very tough; also used for wood, metal, stone.

 

Types of Resist
Clear resists can be used for surface etching when you want to avoid the step of tracing the pattern onto the resist on the glass prior to cutting out the pattern. Just place the pattern under the glass with the resist on it and cut the pattern, looking through the resist and the glass to see the pattern underneath. Although this technique can save a lot of time, many don't like it because it is difficult to see when your cut lines are properly aligned over the pattern. The reason it is not used for shading or carving is that in both of those techniques, you peel the resist in stages an blast each stage separately. By the time you get to teh third or fourth stage, the discoloration caused by the abrasive on the resist has partially obliterated the cut lines, making it very difficult to see just where the pattern has been cut. When you can't see the cut lines on the pattern, it is nearly impossible to peel the resist out properly. Opaque resist is much better for stage blasting because the trace lines show up much better after the blasting has been started.

The 4-mil clear resist is used frequently to protect the back of a sheet of glass from being scratched during handling. Thicker clear resist is used in correcting mistakes by re-applying it to a blasted area. Since you can see the blasted pattern through the resist, it is easy to see where to re-cut the pattern areas to be corrected and to blast the affected area again.

Rubber resists are more resilient and easier to cut than vinyl resists. They are also much more resistant to failure from excess heat generated by the friction of blasting. These factors make them better resists overall than vinyl materials. However, the rubber resists are considerably more expensive and are not available in the thinner sizes. Therefore, vinyl resists are used much more for blasting large areas and where the etching techniques don't involve very deep blasting. Any time are etching a particularly expensive piece of glass (such as crystal or thick plate glass), always use at least the 18-mil rubber resist to guarantee that the resist won't peel up during the blasting and ruin the glass.

About Contact Paper
Many people start out etching glass using contact paper as a resist. This is a 5-mil think vinyl which is used as a shelf liner for kitchen cabinets and it works acceptably well for shading or for surface etching except for one major drawback. It uses a permanent type of adhesive which stays on the glass when the contact paper itself is removed. The longer the material is on the glass before it is removed, the worse the problem is. On small pieces of glass, it is not too difficult to clean off after etching is done. On larger pieces, the cleaning process can take as long as the actual etching process. The benefit of contact paper is that it is very cheap. You may want to try it out if you are on a limited budget and if you can complete the entire process in one day or less.

Conclusions
When you are just starting out, you may not know what type of etching you will be doing most, and you may not know which resists to stock. Four types of resist will cover almost anything that comes up.

A 50 yard roll of 6-mil white is essential because it is an all around resist that can be used for shading, surface etching and light carving. It is very inexpensive and you will probably be using more of this resist than any other. A 10 yard roll of 11-mil green rubber resist will take care of most carving in 1/4" plate glass or wherever you need especially fine detail.

You will also need a 10 yard roll of 18-mil tan rubber resist for deep carving in 1/4" glass or most carving in 3/8", 1/2" or 3/4" glass. For very deep carving in 1/2" or 3/4" glass, you can double the layer the 18-mil resist. It is a little more expensive to do that than use the 30 or 45-mil resist, but you won't need to do it very often.

The last resist you will need is the 8 mil clear, which you will use for correcting mistakes and possibly for surface etching on small projects. About 10 yards is a good starting amount.

As you do more and more etching, you will develop your own favorite resists for your particular technique and for the type of jobs you are doing. Just remember, using the right resist for the job will always save you money and time and will give you much higher quality results.

This information was compiled by Norm Dobbins who was an expert glass sandblaster and teacher.