Sharing My Craft

Last week I had the pleasure of sharing my craft with Kristen. Kristen is the daughter of my husband’s childhood friend. Father and daughter did a road trip during Kristen’s college winter break. Part of that road trip included a visit to us.  Kristen wanted to learn all about stained glass, and I was thrilled to teach her.

Unfortunately, we had record cold temperatures the week they were here. My studio is in the garage. The unheated garage! We ran a heater and I turned on every light bulb I had in the garage. We spent three days in the studio; working for a few hours in the morning, taking  a break to thaw out, and then spent a few more hours in the afternoon.

Kristen was a quick study. She took to cutting glass very quickly, and was fearless. Often beginners are afraid of the glass, and that can slow down their progress. Not a problem for Kristen.  Soldering is always the most challenging part to teach someone. The key to getting nice solder lines is practice, practice, practice and more practice! If you have ever driven a car with a manual transmission, you know that you have to get a feel for the clutch. When you work with solder, you also have to get a feel for it. With practice you begin to feel the solder melting and know how quickly or slowly you need to move the soldering iron to get a nice even flow. Kristen was off to a really good start. It shouldn’t take her long to perfect her soldering skills. I look forward to seeing her future projects. Here is the stained glass panel she made while she was here.

And here is the heater her dad bought for us. That gave us two heaters! Fortunately, we didn’t trip any circuit breakers. It made a big difference in keep us warm. Thank you John!