At the beginning of every beautiful stained glass piece is a carefully designed stained glass patterns. As crazy as it may seem, some artists just have no idea where to look for the right pattern to start their project. Fortunately, it's not hard to find and design and you can use practically anything for a little inspiriration. The only skills that it takes is an eye for things of beauty that you encounter on a daily basis, and a pen and paper. No more skills are needed or required.

Some people purchase pre-made stained glass designs from a craft store or online retailer, however, it is not necessary to go to this extra expense. You can find the motivation and inspiration you need through your daily encounters and from the beauty that surrounds you everyday. Anytime you need some inspiration, simple start taking notice of the different art and shapes that surround you everday and you will start seeing new ideas for your glass patterns. Try looking at other crafts and at their designs to see if you could get some new ideas for things you can do for a glass pattern. They can make for a great pattern and sometimes borrowing from another art form can give you something a little different then you get in the same glass pattern books. Maybe there is some artwork in your home that you would like to transform into stained glass art. The key to a great pattern is something that will be relatively easy to trace and does not have parts that are extremely intricate.

After you have decided what you want to make into a stained glass pattern, you need to transfer that onto paper. If the piece you are tracing has some opacity, a light table will make this job easy. If need be, just get real close to a window so you can trace properly. After the tracing is complete, have your image transferred onto two sheets of heavy paper (a card stock will work well). I would recommend that you save one of them in a folder so you can always access your previously made patterns. You might be able to give back to the art world by making your free stained glass patterns available to other people that are looking for ideas The remaining piece that's left, this will be the one that you will work with wen you begin your glass cutting.

And remember, you don't need to go far to find a pattern that you will inspire you, they are all over the place. It is very rewarding to be able to design your own pattern, then you know that the piece that you eventually will create will be truly unique. You need to keep in mind that a good glass pattern is just as important as all the stained glass supplies that you have in your shop.