I've always admired stained glass whether it was in a church or a decorative piece in a home decorating store. Even though I have played around with a variety of arts and crafts, I had never attempted to work with stained glass until last weekend.
We recently remodeled our kitchen and were finished all but the backsplash. We had seen mosaic tiles online and in home improvement stores and thought they were lovely. But instead of using a pre-made design, my husband came up with an idea for a backsplash that would give our kitchen a personal and artistic touch. We would create our own backsplash using stained glass. This sounded doable to me so we went to the hobby store and found a large variety of beautifully colored 12-inch by 12-inch sheets of glass.
We were like kids in a candy store.
"Oh, look at this one!"
"Ooh, let's get this one, and this one. And, how about this one?"
We selected about thirty tiles since they were on sale. We had no idea what tools we needed to work with the glass but we would obviously need something to cut the tiles. We bought a quality cutter for about $20 and headed home to get started.
My husband had seen a friend work with stained glass years ago. To break an even cut, his friend had sandwiched the scored piece of glass between two smooth planks of wood about one inch thick by four inches wide, and at least as long as the glass. We easily found two pieces of wood that would work for this purpose. My husband scored the first cut, put on his gloves, and placed the glass between the two boards. While holding the boards steady on the countertop, he applied even pressure on the glass and the glass popped evenly along the scored line. So far, so good, we thought.
We didn't have a pattern in mind so we didn't know what sizes we needed. That was our first mistake-not having a design template. We wanted to vary our pattern rather than having every piece the same size, so we cut some 4x12-inch strips and some 3x12-inch strips. That was our second mistake-assuming that these pieces would be cohesive. We didn't realize that some of the 12-inch sheets were actually 11.75 inches and some were 12.25 inches, thus our third mistake-not measuring the squares. They were also not square.
After cutting for hours, we were ready to create our design and place the stained glass on the wall. That's when we found that our 3-inch tiles did not square up with the 4-inch ones. Putting the tiles on the walls was also a challenge because vertical surfaces and stained glass adhesive are not compatible. The adhesive we purchased for stained glass would not dry for hours. After holding one piece in place for five minutes only to have it slide down, down, down, I decided to use another type of adhesive-every woman and artisan's best friend. Hot glue to the rescue! I stuck those mothers up there quick and easy using my trusty hot glue gun.
We didn't get very far in our design before my husband decided he didn't like the design or the tiles. It just didn't go with the rest of the kitchen. In fact, it looked like a kindergarten art project and completely insulted the elegant look we had achieved through hard work in our kitchen remodel. The tiles would have to come down, but we were too tired by then to do anything about it. We put up our supplies and went to bed.
The next day we purchased real glass tiles online. We are picking off the remaining hot glue and repairing the wall while we wait for the shipment to arrive. I must say it was fun working with the stained glass even if it didn't turn out as we had hoped. I have a few cuts and a nice burn scar from the hot glue adventure.
Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and the owner of Write On! Creative Writing Services based in Nashville, Tennessee. She and her team of ghostwriters and editors service clients by offering quality writing on a variety of topics at an affordable price.
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