There's nothing like the feeling when you wake up in the morning and brew up a cup of coffee at the kitchen table, and the early morning light shines through that beautiful stained glass panel you made for yourself. It makes for a special moment for sure, especially if you love art and things of beauty.

Stained glass has been around since the early middle ages, but it has never really gone out of style. All throughout Europe's magnificent cathedrals, artists were inspired by their faith to create works that depicted Christianity. The art form has since evolved into a verdant field of artists' communities and a dynamic fun pastime activity.

Now days, the fan of stained glass art works can buy stained glass art online, or make it themselves. You can find that Tiffany style lamp you were always looking for, or even have a custom stained glass panel commissioned from your own art work and have it exquisitely made.

You can learn the lead came technique of old, or make stain glass in the Tiffany style of copper foil. All you would need is a stained glass beginners kit, some instruction, and you are off.

Some Tips If You Want To Make Your Own

 The first thing you'll need, is a design. You can draw one up yourself, or find a stained glass pattern for free online. Simply google "free stained glass patterns". If you really end up getting into the hobby, you can even find a very good stained glass pattern designing software to get the job done.

    Once you have decided on the colors of the pattern, you have to decide which technique you will want to use. The copper foil technique is highly recommended by most stained glass artists.

 Next, You'll need these items, not necessarily in this order:

- A glass cutter, breaking pliers, running pliers, a glass grinder, a soldering iron with solder, copper foil, flux, and finishing compound.

  The first step, is to cut the pieces of glass. The way to do that is to first make paper templates of  each individual piece in the pattern. You trace the pattern into the glass and then use the glass cutter to make the cut. Be careful not to press too hard or you will shatter the glass.

  Make sure you grind the edges of the glass pieces so as to minimixe the danger of cutting your hands and to fit them into the pattern.

You then wrap the glass edges with copper foil. The foil will be what the solder will adhere to when putting all the peices together.

You then solder the peices together. To do that you need to apply flux to the solder as you solder. this takes some practice. You are almost done.

The finishing moves will be to frame the stained glass panel with a zinc frame. This is soldered at the corners. You will also need to apply patina on all the seams as the last finishing touch.

  It's really fun, and you can then enjoy the beautiful morning light as it shines through your kitchen window in the morning.