Organized Stained Glass in the Studio

I believe I mentioned that I do some stained glass occasionally. Storage for the sheets of glass can be cumbersome. I had it stored in the basement of our home for awhile. It was just leaning against the wall under the staircase. We had water leak into the basement a couple of times and let me tell you, it is one serious workout moving all of that glass out of the way. I decided I wanted something I could move around in my studio and didn't want to leave the glass leaning in a corner and all grouped together.

I designed the cabinet shown here to hold my smaller pieces of glass. the dividers help me separate the various colors and make it much easier to find the glass I'm looking for. I convinced my son...begged my son...to make the stand for me. These photos were taken as I was setting up my studio. You can barely see on the photo below, on the right hand side, I have another stand to hold my full sheets. What can I say, I got a bargain at a garage sale for all this stained glass and just couldn't pass it up. Glass is extremely heavy and fragile, so to make it easier to move if necessary, the stands are on heavy casters.

I also have a glass grinder I found at a garage sale. When our huge old microwave finally broke down I salvaged the glass tray that was inside it and placed the glass tray under the grinder on top of this stand to catch any drips and glass dust. It works perfect! It has a small lip to keep water from running off and protects the surface of the stand. I don't believe I have any photos of that, but I'm sure it will show up in a future post.

I have said this before and I'm sure I will be saying it again, but portability is so nice in an art or craft studio. In another studio this stand could be moved into a closet when not in use or it can easily be moved from one work station to another. I keep thinking I should do some really large projects so I can use up a bunch of this glass, but I mostly do smaller things. A serious glass artist would need several of these cabinets, but for a glass hobbyist it works great.

I hope this gives you some ideas!