Stained glass projects are a fun way to make art for yourself, your friends, and your home. A stained glass piece can range in size from teeny to gargantuan (even 3-D!), and patterns are available for all skill levels. Making a stained glass piece consists of joining together colored and occasionally textured glass with caming or foil. Most larger art supply stores carry the basic tools required, and glass shops often have a hypnotizing array of glass options.
If you're like me, you can't draw a straight line with a gun to your head, and your attempts at photography look like Impressionist art (but not on purpose). While stained glass is by no means easy to do well, I have found that, with a small amount of skill, it is relatively easy to correct, fudge, or otherwise hide mistakes. This is big selling point for me, for obvious reasons. In addition, a finished stained glass piece is complete in and of itself, with no framing or additional manipulation required. Once you're done, you have a great gift for someone else (or for yourself). And, of course, stained glass pieces can be incredibly beautiful—the confluence of colors and light can make even the simplest project lovely to the eye.
After moving to Philly in September of '08, I had hoped to get back into stained glass. Since I do not have the money, space, or wherewithal to build a home studio, I had hoped to take classes locally, as I did in San Diego. To my chagrin, stained glass classes were not readily available in my area. I decided to create this page with a Philly emphasis as a way of aggregating all of the information I came across regarding stained glass in Philadelphia, for myself and others.