When you are new to the art of stained glass it can be a major accomplishment to get things to fit together. It becomes easier with time, patience and a lot of practice, but there is something that's often overlooked when getting pieces to fit into place. Positioning is one thing but maintaining the shape of the piece is another thing entirely. I always tell people that you CAN fit a square block into a round hole (if the square is small enough) but that won't be the end effect we are aiming for. Look at the 'circle' in the center of the pieces below and you can see that although it fits into place it certainly isn't circular. There are both points and flat areas on that supposed 'circle'!
Here we see that things look MUCH better. The center circle is indeed circular and would never be mistaken for a triangle or a stop sign or a lumpy bump of glass.
If your pieces don't resemble the pattern your window will never look like your pattern. Next week we're going to delve a bit into the science of grinding. Come back next week and learn how to get those circles circular and those straight edges straight.
Paul
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