Egyptian beads dated between 2750 and 2625 BC are the earliest examples of man-made glass that have been found. These beads were created by artisans by wrapping a thin thread of molten glass around a detachable clay core. This glass is priceless and opaque.
There are still several windows in early Christian churches from the fourth and fifth century that are decorated with elaborate designs made of thin pieces of a soft rock placed in frames, which creates the allusion of stained glass.
How is it done?
A piece's general design would first be sketched out. These sketches are called "cartoons" in the industry and lay out the detailed such as glass type, color, etc. that will be used for the art.
A glass cutter is a toool used to "score" the surface of glass. A tool called a grozer plier is then used help pull apart or break the glass you want to cut. The grozer encourages the glass to break along the mark that you made.
Once all the pieces are cut, the edges must be cleaned up to ensure that they all fit together as intended. Draw corrective lines on the different glass pieces as needed and use a grinding wheel to lightly remove rough edges from your pieces.
Wrap copper foil around all the pieces. Once you have done that, remove the protective wrapping off after determining the ideal thickness wanted for the glass. After, firmly push it around all the edges of the glass pieces.
Flux should be added before any soldering is done. The order of soldering should be: (1) tack your pieces, (2) tin the seams, and (3) add the bead.
You may use a lead channel and cut around the edges, solder them together, and solder at every intersection. However, there are a variety of ways to achieve framing that can be found online.
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