There are few art forms in the world that have the mystique of stained glass. No matter if you are traveling around the world or right there in your own backyard, the examples of fine craftsmanship are all around. It doesn't matter if you are in an old victorian home, a school, or a religious building, you can see wonderful examples of this spectacular art no matter where you go and where you are. Fortunately, this art form has stood the test of time as many artists continue to tradition of creating spectacular art pieces. Most folks are very intimidated when getting started in stained glass. After all, there is sharp glass and cutting involved, but its really not that difficult, even for a beginner. Here are some of the tools needed to get started with a basic project.
The first, and one of the most important things you will need in order to begin, is obviously the stained glass itself. Fortunately, there are many options available, I prefer to use a certain brand though. Spectrum Glass is the standard in the glass industry. Spectrum has a well deserved reputation of being very simple to work with, quality products, and their glass is very easy to get your hands on. Spectrum Glass is very good about putting out quality products in a wide array of colors and textures. Not only that, they are continually adding new products and lines of products to their catalog. The other advantage to using Spectrum is that most pattern software programs that you can work with have spectrum glass loaded in, so you can design your pattern using the available colors from Spectrum.
The next tool you'll likely need is a quality stained glass cutting tool. The name is somewhat misleading because the tool doesn't do the actual cutting, it only scores the glass which you will break eventually. The amount of money you can spend on stained glass cutters varies widely, you can spend a little for a basic one or a lot for a more specialized cutting tools. The traditional cutters will be ok for basically any job, but there are speciality ones for glass strips, to cut circles, or to trace stained glass designs.
A stained glass grinder is another lifesaver that most artists will invest in relatively quickly after they've started their first project and determined they are in it for the long haul. There are a number of grinders available for beginners that start at around fifty dollars or so. The purpose of the grinder is to smooth out any rough edges right after you've broke the glass with a rough cut. A glass grinder is likely something that you will put some money into early on, by no mean is it necessary to getting started. It just happens to be the tool that will often greatly speed up your work, and you can get it at a reasonable price.
Other than those tools, there are some minor supplies that you probably want to pickup when you progress. The best recommendation I can make is to purchase a beginners stained glass kit and that will give you all the small tools you need to get started. Once you start getting a little farther down the road, you can check out some cool tools like the ones that are put out by Morton Glass Works. They have a number of tools that make the glass artists life a little easier. So there you go.Sometimes when you look up at all the amazing glass produced by stained glass artists it's easy to get intimidated, always remember though that every needs to start at the beginning and as long as you keep practicing, then you will improve!
