Last week I attempted a new skill – crafting stained glass into pretty objects. My friend Sara is a master craftsman and when she offered to teach me, I was most delighted. The bonus of learning with Sara is that she feeds you all kinds of goodies too.

We started with a visit to a stained glass factory, where they import glass from the US and make their own objects to order.

Sara has a neat little workshop at home with every tool you could possibly need for this activity. Zoey supervises.

I had to start with something simple and 2-dimensional, so sun catcher it was.

First, drafting the design on paper.

Next, transferring the sections on glass as per the colours I wanted.

Cutting glass and grinding to smooth the edges followed, to have them fit on the design.

Copper foil on the glass edges.

The individual pieces were joined to one another by soldering.

A wire looped around the edge to make it easy to hang, and some copper patina later, we had one sun catcher:

Now it hangs in my window with by a wire, to catch the early morning sun.

If only I would wake up early enough to catch the rising sun!

Don’t know if you can spot it but there’s a kitty perched on the glass.

I did wake up early enough one day!