trying something new: lead lighting

A few weeks a go when I was going to teach a writing class I stumbled over a lead lighting class in the same building. I’ve always been fascinated with lead lighting. It looks amazing and as a kid I had those kids which come with the metal frame and your pour in the glass/plastic pieces and bake in the oven.

Here was a chance to actually try lead lighting properly with glass and actual led and soldering and…I’m sure there’s other bits to it but I’m not up to it yet.

This week was my first class and while I had an idea for the piece, I had to turn it into a lead light design (like making sure the lead parts connect to the edge). With that done is was time to rummage through the beginner boxes of glass to find the colors and start cutting.

Now would be a good time to point out I hate broken glass. I cut my foot open as a kid at the beach and even now I won’t take my shoes off outside (If I were a heroine in a romance novel lead lighting would be me confronting my fears of broken glass in a non-threatening way).

The glass pieces rubbing against each other as I looked for blues and red was grating and I kept expecting shard to break off, none did. The cutting however was a challenge. Score the glass and snap it (that was fine) but then tiny slivers littered the work bench. Getting a glass splinter was a real risk.

I survived class one with only a small cut and no splinters. Next week it’s more cutting then somehow getting the pieces into the frame. I’ll share the finished product when it’s done.