HOW DIY PLEXICRAFT KITS CAME TO BE….
Do you love stained glass art, but dislike cutting, grinding, dealing with messy stained glass shards, accidental glass cuts, and the time and expense involved with stained glass?
Do you love foiling, soldering, and assembling stained glass for yourself and as gifts for others, but wish you could just buy the pieces already cut and ready to assemble?
Do you dislike accidentally cracking perfectly cut stained glass pieces while soldering due to excess iron heat and having to recut and grind new pieces?
If so, you’re not alone…
Here’s how Ari Stone Art DIY PlexiCraft Kits give you “Stunning Stained Glass WITHOUT the Glass!”…
Hi my name is Ari Stone and I always LOVED designing and assembling stained glass, but I didn’t like cutting and grind stained glass. Not only was it constantly messy while working, but I also couldn’t let my toddler in my garage studio for concerns of glass shards and cuts. I was also unhappy if I accidentally cracked a perfectly cut stained glass pieces while soldering the pieces together. To top it off, I also disliked like using horseshoe nails on heavy wood boards to hold pieces in place. Eventually, I sold off my pricey stained glass cutting and grinding equipment, valued around $500 dollars, and had no alternate solutions for years.
I have always been good with computers and various Adobe programs and wished for years I could just have my stained glass pieces pre-cut, so I could focus on what I lived doing: designing and assembling.
November 2015 I found the GlowForge 3D laser printer’s Crowdfunding ad and was literally sold on it. I purchased one and waited over two and half years (April 2018) to finally get it!
With my new GlowForge in my home, I decided to experiment with the 1/8″ thick clear cast plexiglass acrylic to see if I could use it instead of stained glass. I designed my first stained glass artwork, converted it into an SVG laser cutable file and cut my first “DIY Plexiglass Kit”, “Big Cat.”
But, the real test was still yet to come. Would the plexiglass pieces be able to handle the hot iron and soldering heat or would it melt and be unusable? I took my foiled Plexiglass pieces to my new art studio garage and was delighted to discover the Plexiglass held up to the heat!
The next thing to resolve was how to assemble the lightweight plexiglass pieces without using horseshoe nails, as plexiglass pieces were far too light and push around easily. I first used ‘white no acid artist’s tape’ to tack the foiled plexiglass pieces together and worked the solder-tacking around the tape.
Later I discovered I could simply use blue painters’ tape on the bottom side to hold the pieces in place during soldering and the tape easily removed afterwards. The solder never stuck to the tape and the plexiglass looked good still.
While the plexiglass edges did ‘melt’ mildly under the hot soldered and foiled edges it actually made the plexiglass stronger as the heat annealed it and would prevent future cracking.
The next hurdle to resolve was what paints to use, so it’s actually look like stained glass. That’s when I discovered Pebeo Vitrail Paints and Julie Lafaille’s book “Stained Glass Painting” and learned different stained glass painting effects techniques.
Here’s how my Creativity, GlowForge and Plexiglass made Stunning Stained Glass possible WITHOUT the Glass…
I was delighted I could successfully have beautiful stained glass looking crafts without the cost, mess, and hassle of stained glass and got to do only the parts I loved and enjoyed, designing and assembling.
I decided I wanted others to also experience this freedom, so I packaged various DIY PlexiCraft designs into a original ‘Ari Stone Art DIY Stunning Stained Glass WITHOUT the Glass Plexiglass Kit’ !
I am currently working on a full DIY Video Course that customers will get to access for Free – in the Course I go over all the tools you’ll need to successfully DIY PlexiCraft, including a low cost surface board you can craft on without any solder heat worries, and I teach you how to safely assemble and clean plexiglass for optimal beauty!
Sign Up for DIY PlexiCraft Newsletter to be notified immediately when the Free Course is available! June 2022 Planned Release!