Sun Catcher Repair

Just as I was finishing up a sun catcher, the glass cracked...

What to do?
Throw it away?
No, I worked too hard on it and liked it too much. Time to learn how to repair a copper foil stained glass piece!

I removed the solder and broke out the offending glass.

With the soldering iron and tweezers, I removed the foil that had surrounded the cracked piece. This was a tough job and I almost gave up here!

The edge finally cleaned up, I cut and foiled a new piece.

I soldered it together again (being careful not to get the glass too hot this time) and added a ring.

Voila!

Oh yeah - the agave bloom? Guess what happened to it.

Bloomin' Hairy Agave and The Latest Sun Catcher

I was out in the yard today photographing my latest stained glass sun catcher when I caught sight of this agave in bloom:

Agave multifilifera

I call it a 'Hairy Agave' since it has woody thread-like hairs coming off the leaves.

Agave multifilifera bloom

I'm going to keep an eye on this and be sure to get pictures when the flowers come out.

The sun catcher:

Stained glass is a real challenge to photograph. I'm happy with my progress on learning stained glass, though. My solder lines are getting better and smoother with each project.

The color of the agave bloom matches the colors of my sun catcher!

Latest Stained Glass Experiments

Practicing, practicing... trying to get smooth lines with solder.

At first I was using lead-free solder, but it gunked up my soldering iron really bad.

I had to stop making stained glass for a week while I waited for lead solder and a new soldering tip to arrive in the mail. I'm back in business now and the lead solder is much cleaner and easier to work with. This is my first project using beveled glass: