The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

Another neat pattern in this book is for a little church made from stained glass and lighted from the inside.

I usually enter a pattern into Sketchup, but I did not do it for this project.  I just photocopied the patterns from the book and used them.

I bought the white glass from The Glass House in Decatur, Illinois.  I used my inventory for the other colored pieces needed.

I also got the bulb fixture from The Glass House.........and the bulb itself from my local Ace Hardware.

I got the brass rod from McMaster-Carr online in Chicago. I used it for the window bars..........and to make a mounting fixture for the light bulb socket.

I decided to go with a copper versus black patina..............because the little brass rods in the windows are brass colored.  The black patina does not work on the brass rods, except the areas with solder on them.

The first step was to make all the component parts for the church. Once you get all the components made, then you can start final assembly of the church.  There are 79 pieces of glass required to build this church. 

The book instructions say to wait until the church is assembled before installing the brass rods on the window.  I decided it would be easier to install the window rods on the flat pieces versus the 3D church.   I held the rods in place with needle nose pliers, until I soldered them in.

One of the challenges of 3D items versus flat panels, is that you must have the solder joint horizontal to solder it.  This means lots of tilting things to get each surface horizontal.  On previous 3D projects like jewelry boxes, I made a small wood 90 degree angle block, to assemble corners. This worked well.

I wanted to use the same size brass rods to make this fixture..........as I used on the window bars.  I came up with this design.

This was a fun project and I really like the look of the finished lighted church.

It took longer than I thought, but that is probably because there are 79 pieces of glass to cut, grind, and foil.

I also like the copper patina look, compared to a black patina.