This is a stained glass mirror that I made at my stained glass evening class. It was my first major lead work piece, which is the more traditional technique for joining glass, as seen in cathedral windows and the like. I wanted the mirror to look like a group of koi fish swimming through the mirror, as if it were a pond.

I drew the pattern myself on 3 pieces of A3 paper stuck together lengthways. I wanted the joins in the glass to look like ripples in the water, and for them to help accentuate the “movement” of the koi fish. I also added some lily pads to help add to the pod aesthetic, and to give more colour to the mirror. I left the centre of the mirror relatively clear, and composed of large pieces of mirror, to ensure it was still somewhat functional.

Each piece of glass was cut by hand. I used a cheap multipack of mirrors from IKEA for the mirrored glass. In hindsight, I would use a more quality mirror, as the IKEA mirrors were awful to work with. Once each piece of glass was cut, I had to shape lead cane around the edges to hold it in place. Special care was taken around the joins to make sure it all met smoothly. A small steel cane was placed inside the external lead cane that runs around the outside of the mirror. This was to just help increase the strength of the mirror and make it more resistant to breaking and bending.

Once all the lead was assembled, the joints were soldered together. A tallow candle was rubbed on each of the soldering locations as it acts like a flux and helps the solder run better. Any large gaps between joins were filled with lead offcuts and extra solder.

Finally, the mirror was filled with joining compound. This waterproofs the mirror by filling the gaps with cement. This also helps increase the strength of the mirror. Finally, a patina was applied to the metal of the mirror. This speeds up the “ageing” of the metal, and gives a nice dark colour to all the lead in the mirror.