With a little bit of care, stained glass art can last, well, longer than any of us. So what’s the best way to care for & clean stained glass you ask?
Well, we’ll tell ya!
How To Clean Stained Glass
Our completely informal, made up survey shows that four people in the whole world like cleaning.
If you’re one of the 7.43 billion (minus four) other people, you should definitely purchase stained glass art because not only is it lovely, it’s very easy to clean.
- Use a cloth made of soft fabric, like microfiber, to dust your glass.
- Then, if your glass becomes spotty or covered in the tears you shed about all of the other things you have to clean, you can use an ammonia-free glass cleaner.
- But, our very favorite thing with which to clean stained glass (and regular windows too) is The Ultimate Cloth. It’s a chemical free cloth that renders every glass it touches clean, shiny, & most importantly, streak-free. You simply lightly dampen the cloth, wipe, & voila! I’m pretty sure The Ultimate Cloth is woven with the fibers of perfection & happiness.
**We do receive a small commission via Amazon Affiliates at no cost to you if you choose to purchase items through these links. We only link to items we truly love. Our integrity cannot be bought.**
Cars & Stained Glass Art: Same Thing
Stained glass art is exactly like a car.
Except for that you can’t drive art. And you don’t have to make a monthly payment on it. Or insure it. Or pay for your mechanic’s vacation home via surprise repair bills after it left you stranded on the side of the turnpike, again.
You’re starting to rethink that car purchase aren’t ya?
You should probably just sell your car & buy a crap ton of Mountain Woman Products stained glass instead. It’s way less maintenance & clearly the only practical alternative available to the stress of vehicle ownership.
Why You Need To Wax Stained Glass
Waxing is the only maintenance you’ll likely do with your stained glass art.
‘Why the the heck would I want to wax stained glass?’, you ask.
Since my ability to think of creative analogies is suspect at the moment, we’re going back to the vehicle thing.
Cars & stained glass are both made of glass & metal. And metal oxidizes over time.
In the automotive world, oxidized metal is called scrap yard.
In the stained glass world, oxidation is called white mold. Stained glass white mold isn’t a fungi. 🙂 But, it will cause the solder lines, which are the framework that hold your piece together, to eventually fall apart.
So wax on.
What is Patina?
In the stained glass world, patina is a chemical used to turn silver colored solder lines either black or copper.
If your piece has black or copper solder lines, you can still wax it from time to time. Just make sure to follow the waxing steps below (no using polish…it can scratch the patina off).
Back to cars. If you’ve ever waxed one, waxing stained glass is the same process…on a considerably smaller scale. If you’ve never waxed anything before, don’t worry. It’s super simple.
How To Wax Stained Glass
- First, go dig in your garage and find some pure carnauba wax. Don’t have any? Go bug your neighbor. Don’t feel bad…remember when he blew up your weed whacker? Time to pay up buddy.
- Next, get a soft cloth like microfiber, an old t-shirt, or a cotton baby diaper (hopefully I don’t have to mention the word clean here).
- Then add a little dollop of wax to your stained glass piece & rub it about gently until you have a light coating on both glass and solder.
- Let the wax get hazy.
- Lastly, buff off (rub vigorously) all of the wax with a clean portion of the cloth.
- Congrats! You now know how to wax stained glass.
**We do receive a small commission via Amazon Affiliates at no cost to you if you choose to purchase items through these links. We only link to items we truly love. Our integrity cannot be bought.**
At Mountain Woman Products, we use lead-free solder in our stained glass because it’s both people and earth friendly. Lead-free solder has a relatively high silver content so we include a silver polishing cloth for light cleaning with your purchase.
We wax each stained glass piece prior to sending it to you, so you’ll likely only need to wax your glass once in a blue moon. Permission to lay around and stare at your pretty new glass granted.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us!
