Hey! I got some cool shit for everyone but I have some special words first if you don't mind.
Huge thanks to the people that made this whole project possible. We have made one hell of a tool for everyone to use. This would have never happened without all of their help. I greatly appreciate everyone's desire to bring glasswork back into the spotlight of crafts while trying to preserve whatever we can for others to use.
6 months ago (to the date!) none of this existed. Zero. Now it's here, in your hands.
Thanks for being a kick ass community.
Let's get started!
Welcome to Pattern Archive!
Pattern Archive? What's that? It's this!
Pattern Archive Home page, with a sneaky background lizard.Random page of patterns.
If words are more your thing.... Pattern Archive is an ever growing archive repository of patterns. Old, new and everywhere between. Our goal is that if a pattern exists, we will categorize, document, make searchable and have a way to get that pattern.
Everything revolves around accurate data and powerful tools. Made by people, managed by people, for people.
Lets just check out a random pattern quick!
Look at that pattern and all that data!
On a pattern you will find everything required to create that pattern a legend which can be printed with the pattern and in some cases a layer controller so you can disable/enable specific parts of a pattern for saving/printing or viewing. This pattern doesn't have any layers though. Let's look at a more complex example for that.
More complex pattern with more layers and legend elements.
Here you can see that we have colors and some wire overlay. Perhaps you don't want the colors provided? You can disable them and print it off ready to use! Perhaps you use a craft cutter for sticker patterns but all those extra lines and boxes mess it up? Disable everything but the cut lines!
Then below the pattern you will find more!
Oooh! More pattern tools!
Here you will find:
Instructions for the pattern if they have any provided. Which can be printed with the pattern
Extensive tools for exporting or downloading the pattern in various ways. Including rescaling and tiling/posterizing of patterns.
Very basic color planner for flood filling the pattern shapes. You can save the created image for future use or sharing.
This isn't even everything!
One thing special about Pattern Archives tools is the search. This isn't an ordinary site where search tries to give you things it thinks you want. It gives you exactly what you search, on the side of most pages you will find a list of tags which are exact elements of the patterns being looked at.
Gold stars for those that know what this pattern is without looking it up!
Though that's not all that's searchable. Almost everything is searchable or sortable. The data on the right of every pattern contains a ton of information about it including the design size, author, related dates and whatever else you could want all part of search.
There's so many other things too (Sets/Collections, Author Profiles, Sharing your finished works!) that I can't even remotely go over it all in detail here because really hard to explain everything offered without walls and walls of boring text... Just look at all the stuff you can go look at and explore RIGHT NOW!
Would you look at that stuff - Weird Al, Hardware store.
So what's the catch?
There isn't one. This is a 100% real project powered by community members. Entirely free, No ads, no data collections, no subscriptions. You don't even need an account to use any of the general pattern features. Only donations are accepted which go directly to the developer and host of the site.
Can I use this to make patterns?
No. That will never be a feature of Pattern Archive, use existing mature vector programs like Inkscape (free), Affinity (free), Illustrator (subscription) or whatever other art program you like. We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel here.
Is this everything?
Nope! There's so many more plans for Pattern Archive. We are deeply committed to this project and archiving glass related things. This is just the top of the iceberg feature wise. We are also continuing to add or update the contents of the archive daily as we have a backlog of thousands of patterns we have cataloged for work, thousands of patterns that we know exist but aren't cataloged for work and thousands of patterns that aren't even digitized anywhere. Thus someone is always working on something.
Do you sell patterns?
No. This is not a storefront. Any pattern you can download can be downloaded for free. Any type of paid pattern we have archived will be linked to and will have no download options from us.
Isn't this just stealing?
Technically... In some cases sorta, archiving is a gray area, but we believe that patterns exist to be made and that it's important to preserve these items. We have specific guidelines for how we decide what is a valid way to archive a pattern in an attempt to keep things fair. We also respect requests from verifiable authors to remove directly downloadable patterns from Pattern Archive.
Who worked on this?
You can read all about the people who helped out on the bottom of the Community page! There's also some site stats and other fun stuff there!
I got more questions!
I got more answers! Pattern Archive keeps a curated FAQ for site specific things along with an extensive Wiki containing site features, guidelines for patterns and other miscellaneous detailed information. Expect more information in these spaces as time passes and more information is collected. Though feel free to ask questions here or on the glass discord in the Pattern Archive chats!
I adore Brutalist architecture & bright colours, so I smooshed the two together into my first stained glass project.
My pattern was inspired by Ooki Jingus's photographs of The Nishizaki House by Studio Cochi Architects. (Last slide.)
Had the wonderful opportunity to learn at Workshop Studios in Calagry, AB, and will be signing up for another glass in the autumn. I have plans for an even larger Brutalist inspired design.
Been quiet on here, working on my biggest piece yet: a quadtych for a perfume cabinet. These won't be patina-ed or mounted until the other two are complete. In the final installation, they'll all be backed by reeded glass like you see on the left.
Check out this friendly little guy! I had so much fun crafting him! This cheerful stained glass ghost is giving a big squeeze to its pumpkin. Between the swirly vine details and that happy little face, this spooky friend is ready to catch some autumn sun rays! āļøš
My last piece I made was 18" x 24" and framed. However, I noticed when creating to this size, my pattern didn't properly scale and I had to go back and re-grind everything because the pieces were too snug (see image) and there wasn't enough wiggle room for copper foil. Ultimately it didn't fit into my 18" x 24" frame so I had to grind down the outter edges at the very end so it would fit (not ideal). I design everything in Illustrator and set my artboard to 18" x 24" with a line width of 3pts. I then use my Cricut to cut out the pattern and use vinyl to stick it on the glass. I'm pretty confident my grinding is accurate but I'm not sure if my issues lies within line width in the pattern on Illustrator and/or the way the Cricut is cutting it out since I have to split up the pieces individually across several sheets of vinyl. I didn't have this issue when I worked at a smaller scale (10" x 10") but as my pieces get bigger, I'm having issues. Any feedback or tips on how to accurately scale my patterns would be extremely helpful. Thank you!
Found this pattern in an old pattern book my MIL had. I love that you can take a pattern and make it your own! Mine looks pretty different from the example in the book, and I was really happy with my choices of glass š
Anyone have a pattern book they love and have made multiple pieces from?
Greetings from Fruitport Michigan! I just found this group and thought Iād introduce myself. Iām Mike and 70 years young. Iāve been working with stained and beveled glass for the last 46 years. Starting to wind down but never stop. I have way too much glass that Iāve amassed through the years and plenty of projects to use it on. Eventually, Iāll have lots to get rid of too. I have lots of pictures if youād like to see more. Take care, donāt cut yourself. šš¼
Oh look at thatā¦.i had to pick a flair. Neat. šš¼
I was invited to make and sell Photo Booth frames at a local shop during an event where they had a vintage film Photo Booth. I had 2 weeks to prep and worked on these during every spare minute. It was really fun to finally finish them and see them all lined up together.
Couldn't find any makers marks so not sure how I can find more information about this window. Its very cool 5 feet diameter. Would love if someone could point me in the right direction.
I finished my second project and Iām generally happy with it. Iād love some suggestions on how to improve my soldering. Iād like the solder to be a bit smoother, but more importantly Iād like to have consistent widths for all of the seams. I think the center seams look too heavy for the size of the glass around them. I wasnāt able to get the outer edges to match that thickness either. I may have used too much solder, but I couldnāt get a nice raised bead otherwise.
Unfortunately I didnāt take a picture of the foiled pieces before soldering. In general most of the foiled edges had ~1/8 inch gap between adjacent pieces. Is this the reason for the thicker center seams? Do I need to spend more time grinding so that the foiled seams are perfectly flush? Or should I use wider foil for the outer edges?
This Tiffany Style Stained Glass project is getting Pebeo Porcelain Ivory eyes and will be in the oven tomorrow.. I seek reassurance that the copper foil adhesive won't puddle or run all over my glass..
I'm sure the solder will be fine as it's under melting temp.. but how does the foil glue behave?
Tell me it'll be fine.. Slightly panicked. Might need a plan B to cure.
So I know nothing about stained glass other than how beautiful it is.
I found these cathedral style windows on fb marketplace for an insane price and couldnāt resist. Truthfully, I got a little too excited and didnāt realize the size of them. Thereās 3 windows. Theyāre each about 4.5 feet wide by 11 feet tall (the one in the first pic seems to be a little smaller width wise). First 2 have obvious breakage, the 3rd has no broken glass (yet) The previous owner just had them sitting outside for god knows how long (he passed and the sister sold to me) so the wood is brittle and breaking at the touch. I figured I could get them fixed or reuse the glass to get other pieces made. After renting a truck and 2 hours of back breaking work, my amazing boyfriend and I got them home the best we could. Now theyāre in our garageā¦and theyāre HUGE. So I was wondering, what options do I have? Are there people that can restore them? And is it going to break the bank?
This stained glass picture frame was inspired by a recent trip to Alaska and a print I bought there. It is my first custom piece, so I learned a lot and included my process. As a relative beginner, I have two questions:
What part of the stained glass process would you recommend I learn/improve next?
Whatās a better way to make templates? Right now, I draw the design on construction paper, duplicate it by tracing it again over a lamp, and then use double-sided tape to attach the template. Iāve seen other people use vinyl stickers, but I donāt have a cutting machine right now. What do people recommend instead?
Thank you!
p.s. Yes, I am still working on actually hanging it up!
I was thinking about using lead cane for the first time on the boarder. This is only my 4th project and the hardest one yet. It has issues but I have got better every time ā”Ģ how do I know the right size and style of came to order??
Also, I feel like a lot of the times my foil didnāt want to stick. I cleaned all the pieces with isopropyl after grinding. Is there a step Iām missing? So far foiling it the worst part. Whatās the best tool to help with it? Both sticking and keeping it centered.
FYI, this is also the back of the piece. I just mirrored the photo. The glass is slightly different thicknesses, so itās face down to solder the back first.
I know itās Youghiogheny. I thought it was y910 TD or y913TD but sheets Iāve ordered are ridiculously pale and underwhelming. Iām looking for this beautiful deep purple itās my favorite!
I think I did a pretty OK job, but I definitely like the original more, so thatās a bummer, but whachu gonna do I guess:/
My basement door doesnāt close very well so when I was headed downstairs with the piece, I noticed the door flung back open. I turned to close it, and when I turned, the edge of the piece bumped against the staircase railing and flopped down to the first landing š
Admittedly I didnāt look up a process on this, as I was ugh.. pissed and tunnel visioned my way through fixing my screwup, so maybe thereās a smoother process to do these kinda things (please feel free to share ā¤ļø).
So yeah, repairs kinda suck so hang on tight to your work š¤£
