Stained Glass Business Card Holders - Stained Glass Transom

This glass is from the Kokomo Opalescent Glass factory in Kokomo, Indiana, the oldest glass manufacturing plant in the US. Glass is made in huge kilns , ladled out and then hand rolled flat. After cooling, the rounded edges are cut off and the glass is sold in rectangular sheets. The "cut off" rounded edges are then usually sold off as "scrap". The 2' long piece at the right is one of the cut off pieces.... note the rolled uneven edges. Although not very useful in typical stained glass work, they are perfect for a project such as this .... where the uneven edges add variety and interest.

A year ago, on a stained glass Facebook forum, I spotted a business card holder made from stained glass. I thought this was a really great idea ..... and took a photo for "when I get time". Unfortunately, I didn't record the artist's name, so I can't properly credit the designer. To the right is a photo of this artist's work.

For those stained glass artists that want to shortcut the learning curve, let me give you some dimensions and tips that may help. The back piece is 4" wide x about 2.5" high. The front piece is 4" wide x about 1.25" high. The center base is 4" wide x .75" deep. The end pieces are angular, are opposites of each other and measure as follows.....1" wide at base, about 1.25" on front side, about 2" on back side and about 1.75" at an angle front to back. To build, the end pieces are added from each side to the 3 center pieces and tacked from the side. Once squared and fitted correctly....use copious quantities of solder to hold together. I used 1/4" copper foil to get maximum solder area. Having more than 2 hands helps .... as well as using gloves. Cleaning and antiquing is challenging. I always wax to give the patina a nice even look. Once you build one..... might as well build 14 !

I was lucky enough to have a number of the cut off pieces picked up at the Kokomo plant. Above is my first attempt at building a business card holder. Once I had perfected a prototype, the obsessive/compulsive side of me went into production. 14 card holders later.... the results are pictured on the right. The finished dimensions are 4 1/4" wide x 2 1/2" high x about 1 1/2" deep.

I found some more glass edge pieces that I could use to build more card holders. Never content to build 1, in January of 2019, I went ahead and built another 16 card holders .....pictured on the right.