I used mine as a door for a cabinet for bar glasses see how, at right. I've also seen them used as shades hung from chains in front of bathroom. You could even secure a stained-glass panel in front of a fixed skylight with mounting brackets to create a colorful filter for sun and moonlight. Like my mom, I'm always conjuring up ways to recycle architectural artifacts.
But I prefer house parts to church parts. They tend to encourage conversation, rather than hush it. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.
Divining Uses for Stained Glass. By Amy R. This was largely due to changes within religious norms of the time — the church had been the supporter of the arts, and the new Protestants did not believe in fancy art work and decoration. By , stained glass was rare and only small panels featuring heraldry were used for homes and city halls. The English Parliament demanded all images of the Virgin Mary and the Trinity be removed from churches, so many stained glass windows were smashed by fanatic vandals.
The destruction only stopped because it was too costly to replace the windows. Stained glass window making became a lost art. Artists sought to recreate the lost technique of medieval stained glass windows. John La Farge and Louis Comfort Tiffany were makers of stained glass during the Art Nouveau period, and created opalescent, confetti, drapery, and ridged glass. In the last thirty years, interest in stained glass windows has again been revived.
Select fine art programs within colleges and universities teach the art of making stained glass and many individual artists have flourished. Stained glass making is also a very popular hobby. Stained Glass: Some basic information on stained glass and stained glass windows is presented in this article.
History of Stained Glass : Follow the history of stained glass from the accidental discovery of glass during ancient times to stained glass post World War II. Brief History on Stained Glass Windows: Read about some of the earliest examples of stained glass windows in this brief history.
Gothic Cathedrals: Characteristics of Gothic style stained glass windows are given, and several pictures of stained glass windows in Gothic cathedrals are featured. Glass : This article explains how stained glass was made in ancient times and includes a section on stained glass windows. Window Glass : Read a brief synopsis on how to make window panes and stained glass windows. Sacred Stained Glass: Stained glass windows were more than just windows and art; they contained symbolic messages and illustrated the Bible for lay people who could not read.
Stained glass also began to take on new forms, such as lampshades and other home products; this is known as the Arts and Crafts movement, bringing fine arts into the home of the middle-class. Art Deco in the early twentieth century made its way into stained glass using vibrant colors, geometry, and simple designs.
The movement had international popularity and appeared in many building across the world, especially in Spain. Today the use of stained glass is as varied as it has ever been, even being used in sculptural elements like Lightpainting by Stephen Knapp on the front of the Gordon Library at WPI. This window exemplifies the simplistic forms of the time, with all three of the figures lacking facial detail and the heavy use of leading.
A display of the coat of arms of the Dukes of Burgundy more characteristic of early stained glass windows. A 16th century grisaille panel with significantly less leading, and a non secular subject.
A Tiffany style lampshade in the Art Nouveau style [11]. The purpose of stained glass windows is closely tied to its history, and has evolved over time.
In the beginning, it was simply a way of letting daylight into buildings through small windows and keep the walls completely closed. As the windows became larger with larger individual pieces of glass, and higher quality was being produced in the medieval period, religious figures realized they could use the windows to educate the illiterate masses about the bible.
Religious education in the medieval ages was very important because the church was the highest authority in society, and to achieve salvation one must follow the word of God. The process of creating a stained glass window boils down to seven simple steps, but it can be altered based on the technique used and desired appearance of the window.
The first part of the process is to develop a design for the window, sketch out the basic shapes and colors of the window. The next step forward is to create a template, called the cartoon, from the basic design and solidify the finalized design. This step creates a guide for every piece of glass that needs to be cut, and how the cut pieces are then later assembled and attached to become a cohesive piece.
The cartoon is also important because if leading is being used it creates definitive lead lines and solder points. The third step is to gather all of the needed tools and materials, and to prep the work space. Tools needed for most projects include:. A major part the entire process is the fourth step, which is choosing the proper glass for the desired appearance.
A good basis for choosing glass is to pick from a slab or pieces that are flat and not too thick. Thickness is very important as it determines the majority of the weight of the window, and if it is too thick, the window could collapse and shatter under its own weight. A few typical glass choices are:. The next step is to cut and shape the glass. Cutting glass can be difficult for beginners because each cut must go to the edge of the glass making intricate cuts challenging.
To cut the glass it first must be scored along the desired line. Once scored, the glass is then carefully broken along the scored line using the pliers to firmly grip the glass. Copper and foil was popularized by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and is best known for the the use of copper and foil on a lampshade. The technique involves taking each piece of glass in the design and wrapping the edges in copper foil which is then soldered along the length of the seams. This method is similar to another called tinning which uses the same copper foil wrapping but lining the seam with flux, allowing blobs of solder to flow throughout the seam to create the bond.
Soldering two pieces can be done in two main ways the first of which is seam. The other option is bead, which builds upon a seam with more flux and then the solder is run above the joint until a raised line is formed to the desired height.
Though stained glass has traditionally been used in windows, its use has expanded to lamp shades, Christmas ornaments, and even simple objects a hobbyist can make. Stained glass has had various levels of popularity throughout history. However, during the Renaissance period, stained glass was replaced with painted glass, and by the 18th century it was rarely, if ever, used or made according to medieval methods.
During the second half of the 19th century, European artists rediscovered how to design and work glass according to medieval principles, and large quantities of stained glass windows were made. In America, the stained glass movement began with William Jay Bolton, who made his first window for a church in New York in But he was to be in the business for only six or seven years before returning to his native England.
No other American practiced the art professionally until Louis Comfort Tiffany and John La Farge began working with stained glass near the end of the 19th century.
In fact, the art of stained glass in the United States languished until the s, and did not undergo a true revival until the turn of the century. At this time, American architects and glassmen journeyed to Europe to study medieval glass windows, returning to create similar art forms and new designs in their own studios.
A leaded stained glass window or other object is made of pieces of glass, held together by lead. The entire window is secured in the opening at regular intervals by metal saddle bars tied with wire and soldered to the leads and reinforced at greater intervals by tee-bars fitted into the masonry. A faceted glass panel differs slightly from traditional leaded stained glass in that it is made up of pieces of slab dalle glass approximately 8 inches square, or in large rectangular sizes, varying in thickness from inches 2.
These slabs are not held together with lead; rather they are embedded in a matrix of concrete, epoxy, or plastic. Glass is made by fusing together some form of silica such as sand, an alkali such as potash or soda, and lime or lead oxide.
The color is produced by adding a metallic oxide to the raw materials. Copper oxide, under different conditions, produces ruby, blue, or green colors in glass. Cobalt is usually used to produce most shades of blues. Green shades can also be obtained from the addition of chromium and iron oxide. Golden glass is sometimes colored with uranium, cadmium sulfide, or titanium, and there are fine selenium yellows as well as vermilions.
Ruby colored glass is made by adding gold. Stained glass is still made the same way it was back in the Middle Ages and comes in various forms.
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