Making Leaded Windows......I Have Had a Go At Last!

After lots of very useful advice and much encouragement from fellow bloggers I have had a go at making the leaded windows for The Leaky Cauldron. 

I read lots of very helpful tutorials on the subject including Glenda's, who shows how to make all sorts of shaped windows using cotton thread. This is a fabulous tutorial creating very delicate frames. I was also directed to a wonderful blog by Victoria which showed how to use lead strips but I can't find the link anywhere. Lots of bloggers suggested using golf lead tape as a cheap and readily available resource.

I started by cutting individual templates for all the window panes on graph paper. Sounds easy but as all the windows are a different size and definitely not regular shapes. Took a bit longer than I expected!

Now I do like a quick fix and with this in mind I bought this product from Hobbyland that I thought was going to be the answer to my prayers. It is meant for creating stained glass for crafting.
I drew out two different designs and cut out the acetate. To prevent the acetate from slipping I used a little bit of double-sided sticky tape.
The idea is you simply draw on nice lines allow the Cerne Relief to dry and you have a leaded effect ready for glass paint.

 Well all I can say is I tried......It was all a bit to blobby for me. You have to have a very steady hand and keep a fine flow of the Cerne otherwise it is either too thick or too thin or there are air bubbles.
Plus it takes time to dry.

Complete disaster!! But I did use the best panel to try out different colours of glass paint. Always the optimist.
My next attempt involved the use of lead strip. I didn't buy golfer's lead because I saw a roll of sticky lead in a craft shop, again for stained glass work, which looked much the same thing and was about the same sort of price.

 As you can see the roll is huge, I have enough lead now for all my houses!! Same process as before with the graph paper, then I cut thin strips of the of the lead ready to stick to the acetate.
It was very easy to cut I only used normal scissors. I cut free hand and trimmed down to size.

First one complete!! The strips are not all the same size and may not all be straight but they add character!! I will remove the graph paper after I have aged the lead a bit.

This is the design I chose for the larger windows as I still want to be able to see inside the main house after the leading, the aging and the glass painting.
I have ordered some Liver of Sulphur Gel which apparently oxidises metal. I just hope they don't disintegrate on me!
Put in a good shift today and just have the bottom window left to finish, whoo hoo!