kaanch stained glass studio


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Become A
Stained Glass Artist

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General Information

Here are answers to questions that people generally ask Kaanch. If you have more, we would be happy to try and answer them.

What kind of colours does stained glass come in?

Stained glass comes in sheets of varying sizes. Every colour you see on a lamp, panel, box or whatever, once started out as a single sheet of glass. Basically, every colour, opacity, grain, texture, coating, etc., is a separate sheet of glass. There is an infinite amount of colours available. Plus if you layer glass on top of each other, there can be even more colours available. So a stained glass artist needs to have a well-stocked shop.

How long does it take you to do stained glass?

It could take anywhere from an hour to months per project. It really depends on you and the project.

Is stained glass hard to do?

Stained glass is not necessarily hard to do. It takes time and patience to learn how to do it, just like anything else. Some people give up easily, but if you really want to learn it you can. The rewards are more than worth the time and effort.

Is stained glass expensive to do?

Yes it can be. It depends on what kind of glass you like buying. The tools, in any case, are expensive.

Will I cut or burn myself if I take up this wonderful craft?

Yes, yes you will, most likely. So be careful. But after you do stained glass for a while, your fingers will toughen up, and before you know it, you'll cut yourself and not even know it, like a professional glass artist.

Do you have to be an artist or be creative to do stained glass?

Yes and no. As long as you can cut, foil, and solder, you can make a nice looking project. A lot of people get a great deal of pleasure from doing this and that's just great. If you want to call yourself an artist, you need a good sense of colour and a creative sense of design. Creativity does help.

You should have some common sense when picking out colours; the sky should be blue, pink, orange, red, gray etc., the usual sky colours. The ground can be any ground colour, and so on. You should try to place the "grain" of the glass, to get the maximum effect from it. For instance, placing the grain horizontally in the sky to show movement.

What is Came? What is Copper Foil? What are the advantages?

Came can come in different forms, lead, brass, zinc, copper. Generally came is lead. It's the easiest to work with (out of the came choices anyway). Glass doesn't really need grinding because the came doesn't need to stick to anything. Instead the came leans on the glass, and is later cemented in place.

Lead came is the traditional method when doing church windows, and other large windows. It can withstand the elements far better than foil, usually for about 100 years or so. Lead came is much neater than foil because less soldering is involved, and the bead always looks neat (providing a bead shaped came was chosen).

Zinc, copper and brass are special cames. There used for structural reinforcements and decorative items. Brass came is usually found in bevel windows. It's not that the brass is stronger, but because it's prettier, flashier.

Copper isn't used that much, but it's there because you might need it. And lastly, border came which is used around borders to help strengthen the window.

Foil is a very thin copper strip that's sticky on one side. Basically you wrap this tape around every edge of every piece of glass in a project. Foiling can take awhile to do, but you can get a much more intricate design than you can with came. Plus you can have decorative soldering done to a project. And 3-dimensional things can be made, with came it looks rather "clunky". However foil is flexible, which can be bad because it can allow a panel to flex, which means breakage. It's also not water proof, which means it's not a great idea to expose it to the elements, it may leak.

So which is better? Neither. Generally what you learn with is what you'll stay with. It's good to know both in case you need to use it. Generally if you’re going to build a window that will be exposed to the weather, use came and cement it. If your want to make a lamp, a box, or nice looking suncatchers, choose foil.

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