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Make a Medieval Stained Glass Window (easy with plastic, not real glass)
This is a tutorial on how to make a good looking stained glass window out of plastic and hot glue gun. It looks really good and is pretty easy to make. I did this tutorial as part of a stop motion animation set. It is one of four windows inside what I call The Dragon's Temple.
Note that I also have a video tutorial on this project. It is located at the bottom of this page.
This picture shows the stained glass window in place inside the temple.
And here is a closeup look at the completed window.
This project looks good and I have it installed in the temple with some backlighting. You don't need a lot of materials for this and you can use just about any kind of acrylic paints. Here is a tools and project list:
Hot glue gun
Black Glue Sticks ( you can use regular glue sticks but black looks much better)
A piece of Lexan, also called polycarbonate. Its sheet plastic and you can buy squares of it at any home improvement store like Lowes or Home Depot. It is commonly used for windows.
Acrylic paints
Start out with a drawing to the actual size you want the window. You might want to look at various stained glass windows to get a feel for how they look, Generally you keep it relatively simple without a whole lot of detail. They would make them by placing in pieces of glass so think about the various shapes in your drawing. You might want to add a border around it and add some kind of ornamental design at the top or around the edges. Mine is shaped like a cathedral window, arching to a point at the top.
Cut your lexan sheet to the size of the window. This material can crack or split so take your time with it. A jigsaw works great but most kinds of saws willl work. Note that there is a protective covering on both sides of the lexan. Leave this on for the cutting but you will remove both sheets before you start the design.
Ok, remove the two covering sheets of plastic off your lexan. Tape the window design on the bottom side of the lexan and grab your hot glue gun. Draw out the lines on the lexan. Try to make even beads of hot glue.
The design is now complete on my window. It's time to start the painting!
I used simple acrylic paints that I bought in an arts and crafts store.
Go ahead and have some fun with the painting. I did two coats to minimize brush strokes. But the brush strokes look good too.
I got a tip from a youtube visitor that says he uses Mod Podge mixed with a little bit of colored paint and it works really well for stained glass. I haven't tried that technique but if you have some mod podge you might want to give it a try and see.
And you can of course use these same techniques with even smaller windows. And you probably don't need the black glue sticks. You can just paint the pictures right onto pieces of plastic sheets just like shown in this medieval church.
There is a light inside the church to light up the windows.
Here is the video tutorial showing how to make this stained glass window.
How to Make a Stained Glass window
Stained glass is an art that almost died out. Good thing it didn't! It is beautiful and you can make it too. I show you how, step by step and I have a video to go with it. How to make a stained glass window.
This is the hot glue stick package that I bought for this project from amazon.com. This is for the larger hot glue guns. Make sure you have the right size glue stick for your glue gun.
Generally there are two sizes of glue guns the regular size and the mini size. These glue sticks are for the regular size.
Amazon.com has lots of the lexan polycarbonate sheets that I use. You can easily pick the various sizes. You can also purchase this stuff at Home Depot.
"Presents the fundamental techniques of working with stained glass....Excellent color photographs and diagrams show materials and tools, as well as the cutting, assembling, and soldering of glass items... includes hanging glass panels, boxes, and lamps.... All have pattern diagrams and technical tips for construction....This is a good book for use with classes of beginning glass crafters."- Library Journal.
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How to Make a Stained Glass window 
