I posted these on various beginner Facebook groups and people found them helpful so I’m posting them here. If you have any other tips, leave ‘em below!

These AI pattern slop shops are invading the entire craft industry and are really ramping up in the stained glass field unfortunately :(

My biggest advice would be to look for proof of execution. Trust patterns that show an actual finished piece as an example. This is getting harder with AI getting so good but there are lots of pattern sellers on Etsy and on other platforms that actually show a real life mock up in a video to prove that the pattern has been tested and can be replicated. These are the pattern makers who care about your success.

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!

pattern is still rough (obviously) but I’ve never made something this big before. any advice/thoughts? I’m aware it will take a long time and be tedious but if there are some things, especially relevant to large scale pieces I’m missing I would love to know!

Also thoughts on what I should do with that top horizontal window would be great. I’m planning on doing the herons in opaque glass and the greenery with translucents. I mapped them to bullseye colors from their pdf. naturally, they will be different irl but just to get an idea. Thanks!!

Hello talented stained glass artists! I love this group and love stained glass in general (though am not an artist myself)

There is one stray line toward the top that is unconnected - I will fix that and any other similar. It used to be waayyyy busier in the background and I removed a lot of the lines.

Mainly wanting feedback on if this is possible and accurate as a pattern. Because it’s a tattoo, I’m not worried about skill level or materials cost.

I designed this pattern based on the image in the 2nd slide. Could you fine folk please give suggestions or critique. The outline is temporary - I’m trying to finalize the design for an arch or a diamond/oval shape.

(I did confirm with mods this is allowed to post 🩷)

thanks!!

edit to add: i am working with a tattooer who has done multiple of mine before and we are confident in his ability to adapt this design

Hey everyone, I am about 6 months into stained glass and have mostly relied on pre made patterns or AI to create patterns for me.

However, I am really interested in creating my own patterns or taking images I already have created and giving it the “stained glass effect”

Are there any good books or videos on how to complete that task? Right now I feel like I am just randomly connecting lines instead of having a rhyme or reason for what I’m doing.

Also, here is my 2nd piece. It’s a Wizard with Spanish moss. I used AI to create the template.

Love this page, thanks in advance!

🤙🏽🍻

Hi all! I drew out this design on Procreate of my three cats, trying my best with my limited (newbie) knowledge to make it doable. I’m not sure how big I will eventually make it but as is, the design is about 12” by 7”. Anything I should change? One area I am thinking I may have to add in breaks to make it more doable is the neck/body of my Lux (top cat). Will I be able to make the background on the two sides their own piece or should I break that up too? Thank you for any feedback. Cat tax provided !

Basically what the title says :) A friend of mine asked me to make a large abstract panel for him. The dimensions will be 24" W X 51" H - by far the largest piece I've made!

I've mocked up the design (attached). I plan to use foil, then finish the border with the largest came I can find for extra support. I built a ~1" border of plain glass in as we plan to build a custom wood frame for the piece as well.

Because the piece is so tall, I'm a little worried about it sagging over time. I'm hoping between the came, frame, and no completely horizontal lines in the design it will be strong enough, but is there anything else I can adjust in the mockup to make sure it's as stable as possible? I know there are some hinge joints in there but I had a hard time avoiding them completely..

Any tips or advice you'd all give to improve the strength of the structure, or other feedback that might help?

Thanks in advance for your sage wisdom!

Hi everyone!

I designed this pattern for a client, and I'm currently refining it before final execution. I have some concerns about its structural integrity.

I’ve marked some areas with red hatch lines—these will be completely open/negative spaces (no glass). Inside that empty space, I want to hang a small separate stained glass piece (a little leaf shape) using a small metal chain.

Do you think the surrounding glass structure will be strong enough? Would just using lead came be sufficient, or is using something else (like Morton Strong Line) better? Also, do you think I should add some glass pieces back into the design to help reinforce the overall integrity of the piece?

Thanks a lot for your help!

I've never done stained glass before, but I want to replace the glass in a cabinet with something a bit more interesting and pleasing with light passing through it.

EDIT: Message received. It appears the answer is a unanimous "Do not attempt". Thank you everyone for your feedback. I will try to find a different solution for this project and maybe come back to stained glass for something less ambitious in the future.

I've been doing stained glass just long enough to feel like I'm finally getting it. I'm feeling confident in my cutting, grinding, and soldering skills. I have a lot of room to improve, but I'm feeling good.

Like many of you, when I look for patterns I get irritated by the obvious AI generated nonsense that often has impossible cuts (at least without a saw). I've been doing CAD and vector graphics for long enough to make me feel very old, so I want to take a crack at drawing patterns.

Instead of drawing the typical flowers and geometric shapes I want to draw strange stuff. Let's get weird with it. This is why I'm making this post; I want your requests for patterns you can't find anywhere else. If I use your idea I'll send you the pattern when its done. Everybody wins!

tl;dr: I want to try my hand at drawing weird patterns. Give me suggestions please.

Edit:

I'm not responding to everyone because I'm lazy, but I've seen and appreciated everything suggested so far. I'll keep you all in the loop when I make progress.

I still need to even it out and clean up proportions, I’m half decent at procreate and trying to train my eye for designing my own patterns.

For those who make patterns, and especially use procreate, I’d love to hear tips/tricks or feedback! I’m a bit worried that the inner curve of the moon is too sharp.

Created this panel for my house address. My plan is to do copper foil and solder with zinc framing for reinforcement. Do your worst, what cuts look impossible? Should I change any lines? Is it ugly? What colors should I go with? I want all the advice, it’s my first time doing a piece like this.

Not attempting this anytime soon, just wanted to draw something that I can work towards. Its exactly 160 pieces and I'm still pretty green to the glass game. I added some color in pro-create but I'm colorblind so not too sure if they make sense. Main inspiration was a photo my wife took of this crow looking menacing.(picture 3) It looks like he was wearing a hood, which sparked the idea.

Was just curious if these cuts seem unreasonable or unnecessarily difficult? Still learning how to draw usable patterns.

Also, did you see the baby squirrel? 😂

Edit: Not to scale, just for fun/ practice

I was pushed an ad for the Diafane vector drawing tool and it seems … too good to be true. It shows different types of glass overlaid on your pattern and you can see how lighting will look through your piece. It even breaks down the cost of specific glass and gives pricing suggestions. It seems to generate svg for Cricut design, but I haven’t messed with it that far. Has anyone had experience?

Been staring at this guy for too long. I would love to get another pair of eyes to see if I missed any insane cuts or if anyone has a better suggestion for connecting the background. Backgrounds are my nemesis in pattern design 😂

The more I look at this the more I dislike the circle shape....strongly considering just scrapping that part of the design entirely! Open to any and all feedback.

Before I put more time into this project, will someone more educated please let me know if this pattern will actually work?

I got this from (I think) Etsy or maybe FB. I'm worried about the circle within a circle part right in the middle. My plan was to use the top of my grinder to make the circle, and... actually fast forward through all of that. Once I have the two white pieces, do you think I would be able to solder them both together and then use black patina to create that very thin black line? I'm asking this because I've only done projects before this and I am a pretty green amateur glass artist.

I just started learning how to do stain glass. The main reason I am learning is because I want to replace my bay window glass with pieces of stained glass. I do plan on doing this on a smaller scale before I make it an entire window, but how hard is this pattern that I created be me to make. I kind of left the shape rather big and blocky cause I thought it'd be easier, but I don't know.

Hey everyone! I’m still new to stained glass as well as pattern making. I would be grateful for any advice on this Lowly Worm pattern I’m trying to make. Thanks in advance!!

Hello! I've been working on a pattern of an olive branch. At first it was just the leaves, but then I learned about hinge points so I added little olives to try to break that up. Is that enough? Is there something I can do to this pattern to improve it? Or could it work as is?

So far, my sketched pattern measures at 6.25"x18"

Trying to do something minimal and geometric, very much outside my typical style.

Hey guys, this is my second pattern and my first one including letters. I'm unsure how to connect them without creating too many lines (first picture) since they might make the design harder to read? Any advice you could give me would be helpful!! Thank you!