My Third Piece
The pictured piece is actually my second attempt at making this design. The first attempt came out so badly that I decided to chuck the whole thing and re-do it. In my first attempt, the circular bit was so out of kilter that it just killed the whole thing with its wrongness. Cutting circles freehand is hard!
I got the basic idea for this design while watching a documentary on TV about (of all things) the Kinsey sex researchers. One of the people being interviewed was sitting in front of a pair of stained glass doors that had a design similar to this one, and I re-created a tweaked version of the pattern in Adobe Illustrator to try for myself. I used 1/4 inch rounded lead came. The finished piece was about 28" x 18".
As you can see, the lines still aren't completely straight. Even using a cutting square, my cuts are still not coming out as even and consistent as I'd like.
My husband The Scotsman built a beautiful mahogany frame for the piece, and it made a huge difference in how finished it looked. He used miter joints in the corners, which came out looking fantastic. I gave this piece to my Mom and we hung it horizontally because it fit the window space better.
My Fourth Piece
Next up is the piece I gave to The Scotsman's Mum for Christmas. This was one of my own designs. For this one I used the copper foil technique, and I'm glad to say my soldering skills are getting a lot better. I found that I was having a much easier time and was a lot more confident running the lead bead along the copper foil. Unfortunately, as you can see, my straight edges are still not very straight!
This is another of my own designs. I gave this one to my sister. Still with the problematic non-straight edges!
Sixth Piece
This one was an adaptation of a free pattern I found on the interwebs. I gave it to some family friends.
I made one last Christmas present piece, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it before I gave it away. Curses!
In other news, for Christmas my darling husband gave me a Cutter's Mate, a Circle Pro, and a Beetle Bits cutting system.
Here are the Cutter's Mate and Circle Pro in action:
I am so excited to start using these tools! I think they will help me take my cutting skills to a whole new level.
I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season! Here's to a fantastic New Year.
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