How Much Glass Do You Need For Your Stained Glass Design?

 

If you found a good pattern or you designed one by yourself the next thing you must do is buying glass. Before doing that you need to know how much glass you need. To determine the amount of glass you must buy there are a few things that you must think about.

 

The glass grain must be executed vertically in a glass sheet. The glass grain differs depending on their visibility. It is recommended to establish the grass grains by marking their orientation on the glass sheet. You can do that by using a marker to draw arrows on the sheet of glass. These arrows will facilitate the positioning of the pattern pieces. The most important rule says that you must carry out grains with the longest side of your glass. So, if the glass sheet is 30 inches high / 15 inches wide you must carry out the grains upright. If the glass is 15 inches high/ 30 inches wide you must carry out the grains horizontally.

 

Here is a link we have included about tips for storing stained glass.

 

You can find glass pattern on a glass with a different color striation. You must decide how would you like this striation to look like in your design and draw the pattern consequently.

 

The glass positioning must also be considered if you decide to use a color striation glass for your background. The background should match with your design. Therefore, you need to position your pattern pieces on the glass to see if it goes with your background. This is essential to check if the striation will fit or they’ll come out chaotically.

 

The shapes of the pieces are very important in determining the amount of glass that you must buy. If the pieces are square or rectangular they will require less glass than those that are curved or asymmetrical.

 

To correctly approximate the glass needs, you must calculate the total surface of your design and add an extra 50 %. For a better approximation you must cut all the pattern pieces than label each one with its direction and color. Sort the glass pieces according to the required type of glass. Then, place the pieces of the same color on a paper sheet that imitates a glass sheet (12x12). Repeat this step for every different glass that you must buy.

 

This way, you will know what kind of glass and how many sheets of each kind you must acquire. To make sure you will have enough glass add an extra 25 % in case of bad brake. It is always better to have more glass than to notice that you don’t have enough and stop working. The glass you need may not be available any more and you will have to wait until you will find that glass again.