Put down the Brush and pick up the Sharpie

My stained glass experience continues. This time I’m learning how to do stained glass using the traditional method – lead came. 

Why “came”? I used to think it was called lead CANE, but no.  According to the dictionary, “came” is a slender, grooved bar of lead for holding together the pieces of glass in windows of latticework or stained glass. Ah ha!

So far we have chosen our pattern and glass, cut the glass by scoring it with a cutter (and, in my case, a ruler since most of my pieces are straight instead of curved) then used special pliers to help it break. After sanding the edges we began the exciting part of actually building our piece.

We use horseshoe nails to hold the pieces in place while we fit the glass and cut the came for the next row.  Think of it like a big puzzle. You start at one end, and hopefully by the time you get to the opposite end all your lines are straight, and the pieces all match.

It’s a game of precision for sure. If the pieces are cut too small, you have to either add a spacer in the came so they fit, or else recut. If the pieces are too large, you need to sand them down – a time consuming process. 

glass cutter and horseshoe nails

glass edges are sharp - don't ask.

I thought I was clever to chose a pattern with straight lines.  What I didn’t realize (until last class) was that my straight lines also resulted in (the dreaded) angles.   Cutting the came so that the various intersections fit is challenging for sure.

lead came

It’s a fun class – there are 10 of us – 5 women and 5 men (including one engineer who seems to get the angles better than the rest of us). Next week the “leading” continues, then the last class is soldering.  Best part of all – no homework!