Light Up our Blog Series: Katalin Szabo

In Featured Artists By Delphi

Katalin Szabo completed a 9,000 piece jigsaw puzzle about a year ago, and found herself bored by completion. The puzzle lacked the creativity Szabo was seeking. Her husband suggested she learn the art of stained glass and now she's hooked! This was her first stained glass lampshade (we were impressed to say the least).

Szabo says she made all the mistakes possible in the process of making her lamp, but learned a lot in the process!

What did you learn in the process of making your first lamp? Tell us in the comments section below, and on Friday, May 11, we'll pick one person to receive Making Stained Glass Lamps book, complete with full-sized patterns!

Julie B. • May 14, 2012

@rebel62058 Congratulations! We randomly chose you to win the Making Stained Glass Lamps book. Thanks for commenting!

Patti L. • May 08, 2012

Make sure you have plenty of extra glass so that you can recut a piece if it just doesn't look right. And in the case of a really big project (I'm doing an 880 piece one right now!" number each piece after is it cut and ground in case you drop it or it gets bumped out of place. Sharpies work well for this because they wash off fairly easily.

Monique V. • May 07, 2012

The most important thing I learnt was patience - I wanted to cut everything and then grind and then fit but after the first few pieces I finally realised that I needed to cut and fit a maximum of three pieces at a time and it was best if they were consecutive pieces not the ones that I thought were most difficult or entertaining to cut. Mostly I learnt what fun you could have and how much building a lamp resembled building a puzzle but it was a puzzle that I could make endless variations of much more entertaining.

Elena W. • May 07, 2012

Cutting precision is of the most importance, secondly cut, grind, foil and tac solder no more than 3-4 pieces at a time. This allows you to quickly know how well pieces fit. If you cut everything at once, having a couple of pieces not cut correctly can throw everything out of alignment. There is also a chance that you will lose the markings and not know where each piece fits. Pieces this small start to look alike very quickly.

becky s. • May 07, 2012

You have to be totally precise on your cutting and grinding. And have the patience to keep going when you get tired over the long haul.

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Delphi

Meet the Delphi Bloggers - Experienced, Knowledgeable Associates who Love the Glass Art The people who write Delphi's blog, work in our store or answer our Project Helpline are artists in their own right. When you shop from Delphi you get experienced staff can help you select glass for projects, find the tools that are right for your budget and help you get started in a new art. That's why we're here, and why Delphi has been able to successfully help people around the world be creative since 1972. That's the Delphi difference! Delphi was founded in 1972 on the belief that making art glass projects should be enjoyable and rewarding for everyone, from beginner crafters to professional artists. We pride ourselves on customer service and expert knowledge about the crafts our customers enjoy. With 40 years of experience and retail, wholesale and educational divisions, Delphi is dedicated to our customer's satisfaction. Delphi is located in Lansing, MI. Photo: Leslie Sunderlin, Customer Service Lead, Glass Fuser

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