Contrary to what it might seem like online, I didn't become a stained glass artist overnight. But I did move FAST. Right now, I'm just a few months into my art journey and I still have a lot more to learn.
Come take a look behind the scenes to see how I went from not even knowing how to solder to creating a tiny hoard of treasures all in one month.
Move Fast, Break Things 👩🎨
When I started learning how to make stained glass art, I wanted to get as good as I could, as quickly as possible to 1) not waste too much glass with practice pieces that weren’t any good and 2) make BIG pieces. Like, right away.
I also knew my days of having space for an art studio in my own house were probably limited. I moved to Salt Lake City from San Francisco last year and the difference in the amount of space we could get there was comical.
We went from being locked into a 400 sq ft box in the sky to spreading out in a 2 bedroom HOUSE with a 400 sq ft basement. That’s right, my studio is as big as my last apartment, which I shared with 4 reptiles, a dog, and my partner. It was a tight squeeze and we just happened to be sheltering in place there... But that’s a story for another day...
Basically, I’ve never had this much space in my adult life, so I wanted to make the most of it.
Learn Or Burn 🔥
That first month was BUSY. I finished 15 pieces (not even counting the other dozen I started and finished later on). But one thing I’ve learned in my 28 years of life is that nothing great is created casually. A bit of mania is generally needed to push us into doing MORE.
I went into this with a process I call “learn or burn.” It became more literal than I intended once I realized I was ruining my soldering iron tips with nearly every piece. But you either learn the right way to do something or you fuck up completely and start over. Either way, you don’t stop making.
I had learned the very basics of making stained glass at a friend's house a few months before buying the equipment to start mastering the skill at home. My friend showed me how to cut and grind glass, foil it, and solder it together. As soon as I made my first piece it was all I could think about. For years I had wondered if it was worth investing in all of the equipment to make glass art from home, but I hadn’t had the space to actually consider it. Suddenly I had not only the space but a free intro class. The stars were aligning. I had to chase the green light.
I challenged myself to learn lead-free from the start, partially because I didn’t trust myself not to get lead poisoning and partially because I work from my house with animals and an asthmatic partner. I’ve already lost my cat and bearded dragon to cancer, so if I was going to do this I decided I needed to be as safe as possible.
Very First Attempts 🫣
I started small with a simple, hand-drawn UFO. 5 pieces of glass. It turned out okay, but the edges were sharp enough to slice open a finger. But not bad for my very first attempt at soldering alone. I ended up destroying the UFO completely when I added a patina without doing any prep work. (iykyk)
I used the Procreate app to draw out a nicer-looking pattern for my second piece: a mushroom! Besides the top piece breaking, this one turned out pretty good. One piece split in half but I didn’t bother redoing it since I didn’t want to waste more glass. The solder was a little bumpy and I never added a jump ring to hang it up, but I’m proud of how this one turned out.
My third piece was a wonky little candy corn. It was October so of course I had to do something to celebrate. Is candy corn a creative idea? Absolutely not. Did I follow this one up with six more, increasingly less wonky candy corns? Absolutely. 
This turned into my first “big project” with 6 identical pieces. I even added plant stakes to them to turn them into garden decor. I might not have noticed that I swapped the orange and yellows from traditional candy corns, but I felt like a legit wizard with my glass candy corn wands!
They definitely weren’t made to survive outside. They were CRUSTY after sitting outside for a month, but after giving them a good scrub with steel wool they look new again. 
Building Confidence 🎁
After making the candy corn bouquet, I was feeling confident enough to start making a few gifts to send out to friends. The first gift was a green and purple iridescent monstera leaf for a friend who had recently downsized and moved across the country and had to re-home a lot of beloved house plants. I wanted to give her a plant that didn’t need sunlight or take up any space. It is her favorite plant and her favorite colors! 
Next up was another attempt at the mushroom, this time in candy corn colors for a Halloween-loving friend. Not only did I manage to cut out the glass without any breaks, but the solder lines turned out much smoother on my second try. 
The next piece ended up being a memorial piece for a friend who lost their family turtle. I wanted to make something beautiful for them to remember Rocky by.
Rest in peace, Rocky.
My next monstera was meant to be a gift for the friend who taught me how to make stained glass, but sadly I wrecked it with another failed patina attempt.
This was my second attempt at adding a patina and while I did prep the piece this time, I didn’t realize copper patinas are hard to use on lead-free pieces. If I had used a black patina it might have worked! But the patina not only wrecked the solder, but I was so rough on the piece while scrubbing it that I broke a piece of glass in half.
Devastating, but a good learning moment. I haven’t made that mistake since!
The next gift, which I ended up redoing completely because I decided I hated the colors I picked, was my biggest piece so far. With over 20 pieces of glass! It was a pattern I drew out in Procreate and it was not an easy pattern for a beginner. I gave up on the “stars” and just left some kind of interesting holes instead. (The second attempt turned out WAY better for those wondering).
The Finale ⚡️
The final piece I managed to finish my first month making stained glass art was just for me. A simple David Bowie lightning bolt with a clear, textured backdrop. This was the piece that suddenly made me feel like a real stained glass artist. Making a simple suncatcher that gave off a gorgeous refraction and was made for the sun. Most of my early pieces were opaque or iridescent and not really made for sunshine. But this piece, this piece is all about the light.
David Bowie has always been a major inspiration in my life. While I could’ve been more creative, and I definitely will be making a cool Bowie piece in the future, I’m happy I made this simple design as one of my very first pieces. 
This piece was also a huge turning point in my process because I finally realized I needed a special type of flux for lead-free solder. Once I switched from the gel flux to paste flux my solder was flowing and no longer constantly burning onto the iron tip. I also realized I needed a thicker, wetter sponge to keep the tip clean. These two changes meant that I was no longer needing to replace the tips after 3 or 4 pieces!
This gave me the confidence to attempt bigger and more complex designs during my second month of practicing. By month three I already felt confident enough in the quality of my pieces to start Funky Fractals shop and start selling art for the first time in my life.
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Summary 💖
If you made it this far, thanks for reading along! I hope my process of “learning or burning” can inspire you to keep going with their creative journeys and not be afraid of making mistakes along the way. I didn’t get good overnight, and you probably won't either. There will be a lot of broken glass and hearts along the way. And that’s okay! As the great Bob Ross always said, “There are no mistakes, just happy little accidents.”