Sage

I've taken a beginner's stained glass class, and really enjoyed it alot!

As far as I can tell, the biggest expense would be a grinding bench- it's a wet grinder so you can grind down the sharp edges of the glass. Other than that, the other materials seemed pretty cheap.

Glass cutter can be bought an any hardware store- they look kinda funky but once you get the hang of it they're easy to use. Pliers you probably already have in your house. Paper for drawing the pattern on (it's special paper) and special scissors for cutting out patterns (it cuts the pattern a little small to allot for the leading). Wrapping foil for the edges, solder and soldering iron, flux (to get the solder to flow), and of course the glass.

I would HIGHLY recommend taking a class or a workshop before you spend a lot of money on materials. That way, you'll know what you're getting into and someone will show you exactly how to do things. I only had the one class where I spent an afternoon making a glass hanging, but I feel like if I had all the tools in front of me I could do it again no sweat. However, I don't think I could have learned all I did just from a book- having someone there showing me what to do helped A LOT, especialy when it came to actually cutting the glass. There's an art to it.

As to long learning curve, I learned how to do it in an afternoon. Getting the glass cut just right, the solder flowing not too thick or thin, and the spacing of the glass pieces right is where I had a problem, but my piece was totally presentable for an afternoon's worth of learning. I'd probably become really good at it if I did it every day for a week or two. I wish I had the space and money to take it up as a hobby!

__________________