Davis Square

Most squares in Massachusetts do not have four sides. This one has six streets intersecting. The graphic from this sign has been adopted as a sort of logo for the neighborhood.

Make your own stained-glass Davis Square logo

I made this pattern based on a picture of the sign. It is appropriate for beginners in the art of stained glass, since it has no curved pieces, though some of the angles are rather acute.

Cutting the glass

I used a $3 glass cutter from Home Depot and a metal ruler, along with specialized glass breaking piers.

The pieces

I used mirrored glass for the parts of the sign that represent streets, and a wavy textured blue glass for the background.

Foiled

Then, I applied copper foil tape to the edges of the glass. This is critical, because lead solder does not stick to plain glass by itself.

Ready to solder

At this point, you can pretty much tell what the finished stained glass will look like. The solder will cover the foiled edges and also fill in any gaps between the pieces.

A big soldering iron

It's a lot like an electronics soldering iron, but much larger.

Installation

I always forget that things are much smaller when you take them outside. Both my mirrors (the glass one and the paper one) are rather tiny once installed. But, it's a high pedestrian traffic area, and something at eye level should be noticed.

Brave soul

Here you can see one of the large Davis Square signs above where I installed my stained-glass version. Possibly, some of the folks who stopped to read the sign but didn't enter were wary of leaving their contact info. Yet, a few people took the risk that I might be a nutcase who wanted to send them spam email.

Another entrant

Yay, more people doing it

One bicyclist

Another bicyclist

And the winner is selected

I had my friend Moussie assist with drawing a winner from the small pile of cards. I contacted the winner and dropped off the stained glass at his house (no pictures of that part). His email reply to being notified was "Yay! And thank YOU for making it and giving it away! I feel totally lucky. :)"