Where can I take a stained glass design class? Many glass wholesalers have basic design classes open to the public. The American inventor Thomas Edison once said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99...
The American inventor Thomas Edison once said, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
While you might not necessarily have to be a genius , an elusive notion at best , to make stained glass, you still need a lot of inspiration finding patterns and shaping designs. You need a lot of sweat too.
While you might not necessarily have to be a genius , an elusive notion at best , to make stained glass, you still need a lot of inspiration finding patterns and shaping designs. You need a lot of sweat too.
But, as with any art, you need to have the right tools, and the first tool you have to have, before buying grinders and cutters and snippers and pliers, is the knowledge of how to create stained glass designs.
Learning the art doesn't take much more than seeking out people who teach it. And that's not too hard to find.
"Lots of the wholesalers who sell the big glass supplies to the retailers every year have basic design classes," says David Dillon, the owner of Austin Cut Glass of Austin, Texas, where he has been in business for 25 years. "A lot of these retailer shops that sell you supplies have your basic design classes that you get when you do your stain glass classes."
A quick search on Google brings up links to wholesalers worldwide who offer classes not only in stained glass making but in other glass making arts such as beading.
Learning the art is, as one stained glass one aficionado says online, like a "form of self-meditation". Rlrouse.com says, "The steps you follow to arrive at your finished work of art will teach you self-discipline, and provide a tremendous sense of artistic achievement. And if you're like me, you simply won't be able to get enough of it! That's when you'll have a desire to expand and start doing projects for others"
And once you've found a class to suit your needs you don't even have to leave your home, he says. Finding a class is as simple as connecting to the internet and clicking the right link. "You can log onto the internet and take the design class over the internet," he says.
Retailers' web sites will usually provide information about what classes are available and where and when they meet, he says.
In Austin, Texas, the city's parks and recreation department offers a variety of arts classes through its Dougherty Arts School (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/dougherty/visual.htm), including a stained glass class. More information about the Dougherty Arts School is available from 512-397-1458 or dacschool@ci.austin.tx.us.
Outside of retail shops or the internet, Dillon says, there are other resources you can find and use to learn how to design stained glass. "There are basic design books you can buy that teach you how to design."
And of course, you can take the traditional route anyone takes to learn something , school, he says. "Some community colleges will provide stained glass classes occasionally and they have design and construction of the windows."
Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, offers a variety classes through its continuing education department, including classes on stained glass making. One recent class offered, for instance, was Holiday Ornaments in Stained Glass. More information is available at http://www.austincc.edu/.
