How I Made A Faux Stain Glass "GlowLight"

Fig 21

27. I placed the cardboard inside the wall of the design and measured it so I got some overlap. This was not critical as the overlap would be going away eventually. I removed the cardboard for ease of handling and taped it together roughly just to hold it into place for the next step and cut it. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

Fig 22

28. I placed the cardboard into the design again, traced around the lip of the wall, marked where the two ends overlapped and removed the cardboard again for ease of handling. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

Fig 23

29.  Then I removed the tape and cut the cardboard so it would be below the lip of the wall and the ends would snugly abut against one another. I wanted to be sure to leave enough space between the edge of the cardboard and the edge of the wall for the light cage. Next I placed the cardboard back into the design again for a last bit of measuring and snugged it up to the wall. I abutted the two ends together and secured it temporarily with a small piece of Scotch TapeŽ packing tape. I removed the cardboard one last time. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

Fig 24

30. I used Scotch TapeŽ packing tape to secure the ends by wrapping it around a time or two and set the cardboard aside. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

Fig 25

31. Now I needed something to hold the lights in place. For this I made a very simple cage using 16 gauge copper wire. I placed the end of the wire inside the design wall and then bent the wire so the height of the wire was just barely under the lip of the wall (See Fig 26). I held the wire over just 1/3 of the circle (See Fig 27) and then bent the wire again just OUTSIDE the wall. I snipped it so the bent section outside the wall was as long as the other end and then tucked it inside the wall to check my measuring. Using the first wire as a template, I then bent and snipped two more pieces of wire and arranged them inside the design wall as shown in Fig 26 withOUT placing the cardboard. (Click on the thumbnails for a closer look.)

Fig 26

32. Once the wires were in place, I secured them to the back of the design and to the wall with wads pulled off the mud pile. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.) I placed it all on the tile and gave it a final bake for 20 minutes at the manufacturer recommended temperature.

Fig 27

33. When the design cooled, I placed the cardboard in under the wiring, taking care not to pop the legs out of the mud pile wads. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

(Note 2008: I have since learned putting an eye loop or a squiggly design at the end of a piece of wire will hold it very securely in the clay.)

Fig 28

34. I finally stuffed a string of a 35 bulb long set of holiday lights into the back and secured it with twist ties. The GlowLight was now complete and ready to be plugged in!! The string of lights I used had a handful of flashing lights, so some remained static while others blinked at different intervals.  I also did not extend the plug out any further than the first bulb, choosing to keep all of them inside the wall of the design. (Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.)

Since this design was round, I now needed to make a base for it to keep it from rolling. Please continue to Page 4 for my last component.