To make something like this, you’ll need some mould (statuette or styrofoam figurine, can be even plastic one – but you’ll probably ruin it in the process, so nothing that cannot handle high temperatures and washing, if the mould is precious to you).

A lot of pieces of white and brown sea glass need to be foiled (with copper foil for stained glass making) and burnised (to hold glass piece firm). For eyes I use blue sea glass or bottle glass, for ears pick two white pieces and color them from back side with nail polish. Also you will need solder, some stained glass flux, soldering iron at least 100 wt.

The idea is basically to create stained glass “shell” around our mould, combining pieces like in 3D puzzle. Cover the foil with flux (one piece at a time, or all of them beforehead – but remember that they all need to be covered with solder and then washed the same day, otherwise foil will get oxidized).

I usually allow some small holes between pieces (they will create beautiful shadows when the figurine is lighted inside), but for the face it’s better to solve our “puzzle” as tightly as we can – it will look better that way.

Important!!! Leave the seam over the figurine un-soldered, to be hold together only by 2-3 points. So you can un-solder those points and take the “shell” off the mould.

I attach glass pieces only by points at this time, but in the end all the foil should be nicely covered in solder – that will make our figurine strong. But first – take out the mould and solder all the inner seams:

Then re-assemble the figurine and work on outer seams. Bottom I leave open, but you can partially cover it with some glass or just wire. Leave small opening for possibility to put inside LED lights.

In the end – wash ready figurine very thoroughtly. Use paste made of Dawn soap (Fairy for Europe) and baking soda to neutralize the flux. Lots and lots of hot water. Voila!

Here’s little movie that shows how arduous the process is. So you can just order the one made by me 🙂