I Made 3 Stained Glass Pieces Today 我今天做了3个彩色玻璃作品！

Today I went to a stained glass class. I made two fish and one clam — three projects! They were kind of tiny, but it was really, really fun.

Before I tell you about how I made them, I want to share the two most important things I learned today. If you ever try stained glass, please remember these.

⚠️ Important Thing #1: The Soldering Iron Is REALLY Hot

When you are using the soldering iron — it’s like a metal pen that melts metal — you need to be very, very careful. It is very, very hot.

My mom accidentally touched one of the little dribbles of melted metal before it cooled down, and she got burned. I think the iron was around 400 degrees or something. So even after the metal drips onto the table and looks like it’s done, it is still super hot. Don’t touch it. Wait a long time before you touch anything.

This is the most important rule. Seriously.

🔬 Important Thing #2: The Metal Doesn’t Actually Stick to Glass

This is the part that really surprised me.

The melted metal (it’s called solder) does NOT stick to glass. It only sticks to copper. So before you can solder anything, you have to wrap copper tape around the edges of every single piece of glass first.

And here’s another thing — the solder doesn’t even stick to the copper directly. You also have to put something called flux on the copper first. Flux is this yellow liquid you paint on with a little brush. Without flux, the solder just rolls off like water on a leaf. With flux, it sticks perfectly.

So the order is:

Glass → Copper Tape → Flux → Solder

If you skip a step, nothing works.

🎨 How I Made My Three Pieces

Okay, now let me tell you about the whole process!

Step 1 — Tracing. First, we used a marker to trace the shapes onto the glass. The studio had really nice glass — all different colors, kind of swirly and shiny. I picked light blue for my clam because it looked like the ocean.

Step 2 — Cutting. Then I cut the glass into pieces. We didn’t use scissors — we used a special tool that scores a line on the glass, and then you snap the glass along the line. Snap! It was kind of scary the first time, but after a few tries I got the hang of it.

Step 3 — Grinding. After cutting, I had to grind the rough edges down on a little grinding wheel.

Step 4 — Washing & Copper Taping. Then wash the pieces, dry them, and wrap every edge with copper tape. The copper tape part took FOREVER. My fingers were tired.

Step 5 — Flux & Solder. Then came the fun part — the hot pen (the soldering iron). I painted flux on the copper, then melted solder along all the lines. The solder turned silvery and shiny when it cooled. It looked like the glass had a metal skeleton holding it together.

💎 The Finished Pieces

I made:

• 🐚 One clam
• 🐠 Two small fish

They were tiny, but I was really happy. I was so tired when I finished — I think I worked for like 3 hours. But when I held them up to the light and saw them shine, it was 100% worth it.

I was very happy after I had done it.

🧠 My Advice If You Want to Try It

1. Don’t be scared of the hot pen — just respect it.
2. Be patient with the copper tape — it’s the most annoying step but the most important.
3. Trust the flux — even when it looks like the solder isn’t sticking, the flux will fix it.

I think I want to make a whale next time. 🐋

📍 Where I Took the Class

If you want to try stained glass too, here’s where I went:

Studio: Softland Studio Instructor: FeiFei Address: 27 Mauchly, Suite 204, Irvine, CA Booking: softlandstudio.com

Big thank you to FeiFei for teaching me — she was super patient and made sure I didn’t burn myself (only my mom got burned 😅). If you go, tell her Yunze sent you!

Thanks for reading! If you’ve ever tried stained glass, what did you make? Tell me in the comments!