Why stained glass

For my design, I took my ideal design above and dramatically simplified the lines and colors. The final design ended up looking like a basic mountain sunset. The main historical influence on my design was the modern do-it-yourself movement, because I preferred the freedom to create any possible design rather than staying within a limited historical style.

After creating my cartoon it became time to chose and cut the colored glass. The type of glass we used was standard antique glass, and was mainly the leftover pieces from commissioned art works. I picked pieces with a smooth texture for the sunset sky because I didn't want my sky to be too complicated, and the glass I chose had beautiful striations that helped me to achieve my desired sunset effect.

For the hills and trees I chose to use four different shades of green to add depth to the piece and in an attempt to keep the image more realistic.

I also chose to experiment with texture on two of the four pieces, further creating definition between each of the green pieces. Lastly, for the sun I picked a textured yellow piece because I like the more mellow refraction effect it had in the light. After I had accurately cut each of my pieces, I began to cut and shape the lead. This was the most difficult part of the process because it required an incredible amount of precision.

The first step was creating a corner of the frame, from which all other pieces would line up with. This was the most challenging part because nailing the wood guide to the table would often cause the cartoon to shift and to have to begin the process all over again.

After that had passed I began the tedious task of cutting and shaping thin pieces of lead to the curves of my glass pieces. This was the only moment where I regretted my design choice because the lead would not hold the curved shapes very well. Once all of the lead was in place it was time for me to solder all of the joints, and using my prior experience I finished soldering rather quickly.

Once I was finished soldering, the only step left was to polish my window. After looking into the history, purpose, and techniques of stained glass windows I applied my knowledge to create my own window. Creating a stained glass window is a tedious process of endlessly cutting glass and lead, hoping that in the end the pieces will fit together. It would be interesting to see how the art form will continue to evolve over time and what the purpose of it will be.

Here is the website for the studio where I made my window: Deko Studio. Londonhua WIKI. A strong example of Gothic stained glass, with its heavy use of reds and blues. An example of the painted style of stained glass, the centerpiece is all painted. An example of a grisaille panel that uses significantly lighter colors. This panel has donors praying to patron saints in the bottom two scenes. An example of crowned glass [18].

An diagram of the copper and foil technique. This illustration shows how the copper is used as a base for the solder [23]. An example of the leading technique [25]. Stained Glass: history, technology and practice, etc 1st ed.

Leonard Hill: London. 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. Faceted windows are made from slabs of glass ranging anywhere from one-half inch to three or four inches in thickness.

The legend recounts shipwrecked sailors who set their cooking pots on blocks of natron soda from their cargo then built a fire under it on the beach. The resultant mass had cooled and hardened into glass. Today, though, it is thought that Pliny — though energetic in collecting material — was not very scientifically reliable.

It is more likely that Egyptian or Mesopotamian potters accidentally discovered glass when firing their vessels. The earliest known manmade glass is in the form of Egyptian beads from between and BC. Artisans made these beads by winding a thin string of molten glass around a removable clay core. This glass is opaque and very precious.

A varied thickness adds to their nuances. Several pieces showed a right angle and traces of a grozer on the edge. In the first century AD, the Romans glazed glass into windows.

They cast glass slabs and employed blowing techniques to spin discs and made cylinder glass. The glass was irregular and not very transparent. One of the oldest known examples of multiple pieces of colored glass used in a window were unearthed at St. The oldest complete European windows found in situ are thought to be five relatively sophisticated figures in Augsburg Cathedral. These five windows are no longer in their original setting.

They have recently been moved into a museum and replaced with copies. These five windows show fired glass painting which utilizes line and tonal shading and they are made of bright, varied colors of glass.

Where are the children who are father to these men? Where are the earlier windows? Stained Glass. Authorities believe that Arabian glass windows appeared in the second half of the thirteenth century. Lewis F. Pieces of glass were either inserted into intricate pierced marble or stone, or glazed in plaster before the plaster had set hard. Ribs of iron were often used to strengthen the plaster. Arabian filigree windows moved into Europe when the Moors entered Spain.

As the fashion moved farther north into areas of more inclement weather, covering became more necessary. This covering usually came in the form of slices of alabaster. In Europe, plates of pierced lead replaced the plaster grillwork. The first of these had no glass in the decorative openings, but later small pieces of glass were attached using strings of lead.

Traces of cold paint on glass have been found in the mid-east indicating that windows probably stood up better than those windows in damper climates. In at Saint Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, the archaeologist Cecchelli dug up three glass fragments showing Christ with a cruciform nimbus standing between an alpha and omega painted with grisaille.

The word grisaille applies equally to vitrifiable glass paint, as well as a style of lightly toned window that has been painted and stained in a decorative pattern. It is assumed these fragments date from approximately AD, the time of the construction of the building. In at a dig in a cemetery abandoned about AD at Sery les Mezieres, Aisne, France, Jules Pilloy found about 30 pieces of glass which had suffered from an apparent fire, a lead strip with two channels and a small slab of bone among some charred wood.

The bone which might have been a holy relic pre-dated Charlemagne. Edmond Socard arranged the glass into a small, simple window. A cross patee, from which hung an alpha and omega, were painted and fired on it. This symbol was very popular from the sixth to ninth centuries. Unfortunately, this treasure was destroyed in during World War I. Fragments of a very early head of Christ were excavated in at Lorsch Abbey in Germany. The latter has more advanced glass painting with both trace line and wash.

Because of their size and their aspect — that is, with the heads forward like the icon called the Panto crater, as well as the lack of any fragments showing bodies — Catherine Brisac thinks these heads were displayed as icons in the middle of windows in which they would have been the only painted elements.

Christian iconography developed from pagan illustrations found in the catacombs. A beardless Greek hero and son of a muse, Orpheus, was transformed into a youthful Christ the Good Shepherd. From the fourth century forward, He had a beard. The pagan phoenix and peacock were used for resurrection symbols. Wall paintings gave way to mosaics of ceramic tiles, stones and glass bits. Moving from the catacombs, the earliest Christians worshiped in their homes; then, when they became politically secure enough, the Christians built churches.

The first churches housed the relics of saints. Architecturally, they were based on the basilica, the Roman law court. The cruciform floor plan developed from the Byzantine square floor plan with a dome added. European kings and bishops sent to Jerusalem and the east for holy relics. Their emissaries brought back small works of art such as cloisonne , damascene and carved ivory set with jewels and precious glass. Oriental and African craftsmen and glassmakers found their way to Europe as early as the third century.

Its traditions do not extend back beyond the great times of Gothic architecture. Romanesque architecture is more uniform than the stained glass that adorns it.

The walls are thick and the window openings small with rounded tops. Because the glass was set in small openings, it had to let in considerable light. Today Romanesque windows seem darker because of corrosion.

Some figures in Romanesque stained glass stand or sit staring straight ahead. Some are involved in action as witnessed by their billowing garments. Some windows are made up of a series of events enclosed in medallions.

The earlier windows of this style are more simple, primitive and rare. They depict well-known saints or stories from the Bible. Reverence for the Virgin Mary is prevalent at this time and she is often depicted as a queen. The windows use stylized vegetal ornament and decorative beading around the scenes and figures.

The predominant colors are red and blue. This style of stained glass seems to have developed from cloisonne enamels and miniature paintings. Few Romanesque windows remain.

Those that do remain are frequently found as illustrations in books; thus, they often seem familiar. Some examples of the Romanesque style are the Augsburg figures mentioned previously, c.

The medieval Church was the most important patron of the arts. Having made that statement, the name of the single person who most personifies this concept must immediately follow: Abbot Suger of Saint Denis, the royal abbey located just outside Paris. His writings show him to have been a shrewd businessman, a politician with a genius for detail, and a devoted servant to his king.

Suger reformed and rebuilt the abbey and augmented its wealth. As its treasures increased, many pilgrims told stories of it and its influence spread. Suger was guided by a philosophy including the mysticism of light; this philosophy compelled him to enlarge the windows and beautify them with colored glass. Window subject treatment grew during the Gothic period, expanding from simple figures to a complex iconography fully understood by only a few experts today.

Today, scholars study these windows to learn about the daily life of the time. Guilds of workmen donated windows that included likenesses of themselves engaged in their businesses. The appearance of heraldry in the windows demonstrates the increasing importance of secular families. This time saw the formation of new religious orders that needed new buildings.

Many cathedrals and churches were built. The relationship between Saint Denis and Chartres is well established through a similarity of style and iconography. Stained glass historians today re-trace the work of traveling studios. A Jesse Tree window was soon after installed in Chartres. As the studios traveled from job site to job site, they took sketches and models along with their tools.

The windows in Laon Cathedral show the influence of the Ingebourg Psalter. Although the cathedral is a contemporary of Chartres, the windows of Bourges are more archaic. The Gothic style was also developing outside France. The stained glass in the cathedral of Lausanne, Switzerland shows a marked French influence. Stained glass craftsmen from France are known to have worked at Canterbury in England, as did the French architect, William of Sens.

French influence can be seen in Spanish stained glass of this time, especially in Aragon, Toledo and Castille. The windows in Leon Cathedral are significant although greatly restored.

In Germany, the Romanesque style endured longer than in other areas. The international Gothic style came late to Vienna and Prague. The earliest remaining glass in Italy, in Assisi, is the work of German glaziers. The window is a circle with a metal grid structure, rather than stone mullions, dividing it into petals.

By the end of the medieval period, the second quarter of the fourteenth century , perspective and volume were becoming evident. Subject was more pictorial and not subservient to the architecture. Renaissance stained glass is very different from that of the previous period. The themes are still principally biblical. Because subjects in renaissance stained glass are shown dressed in period clothing, a knowledge of the history of costume helps date windows.

Allegorical themes are even more elaborate than medieval iconography. Figures represent abstract ideas. There are secular scenes in church windows. Stained glass was used in secular buildings during the renaissance period. Historic scenes or heraldry were placed in town halls and small panels usually silver stain and paint on white glass were incorporated into clear glass windows in homes.

The labors of the seasons are a favorite theme during this period. In large church windows, the scenes extended over the whole, ignoring the mullions. Buildings portrayed in the windows are solid, in classical style, shown with correct perspective. Some action takes place far back from the picture plane with vistas in the distance. Faces have individuality and show emotion.

The way stained glass craftsmen worked also changed. Artists drew cartoons on paper and were able to carry those cartoons to different clients. Sample books of patterns were also transported. Workshops stayed in one place through several generations, often attached to a cathedral that constituted their major employer. Finished windows were shipped to secondary customers at a distance. Studios joined together in corporations or guilds.

Silver stain, flashed glass abraded rather than acid etched, and colored enamels were widely used. The diamond cutter was used, making possible larger, more complicated pieces of glass. Leads became thinner and less important to the design. In the fifteenth century, the city of Bruges, Belgium had 80 stained glass operations. The glass painting style of this area shows the influence of woodcuts. Although Gothic stained glass came late to Italy, the Renaissance style flourished early.

Flemish stained glass designs in the Renaissance are akin to the oil paintings of the Van Eycks; that is, they often show energetic forms and contrasting colors. A characteristic crisp fold in garments is evident in this period. The drapery used on all of the figures is white, set against colored backgrounds.

Wouter Crabeth did windows in Gouda and then went to England to work. The cities of York and Norwich were very prosperous and have many parish churches with fine traditions of Renaissance stained glass.

Spain had no early tradition of stained glass because Moorish occupation limited Christian church building. The Renaissance is its golden age. Italian, Flemish and French glaziers established the craft after the Moors left. Two brothers, Arnao de Vergara and Arnao de Flandres who worked on the Seville Cathedral, are particularly noteworthy. Experts agree that stained glass reached a low ebb sometime between the late medieval age and the nineteenth century.

Why did stained glass fall from favor? The reasons were religious, political and aesthetic. The Church had been the principal patron of the arts. The new Protestants were hostile to elaborate art and decoration.

Even in the Roman Catholic countries, the Counter-Reformation called for simpler religious buildings. Their destruction saw an end to the glass workshops that centered in the area. By colored glass was very scarce. This necessitated painting on white glass with enamels. The little decorative glass that was produced was mostly small heraldic panels for city halls and private homes.

Stained glass that had been so popular just a few years before was no longer in demand. The glass craftsmen were in great misery, pushing their barrows from place to place in search of work.

The Puritan principles of the Commonwealth inspired English adherents to smash stained glass windows with vigor. Some fragments of early glass remain in traceries, as they were too high to easily reach. The cost of replacing stained glass with clear glass finally stopped the destruction. Sometimes shattered pieces, left behind by the vandals, were reassembled into windows with no regard for subject.

In Brittany, a congregation covered a window with dung and mud and whitewashed over to avoid spending money to replace it. In England, church buildings remained churches. This was not always the case in France, where, as a result of the French Revolution, they were often turned to secular uses. For example, Strasbourg Cathedral became a Temple of Reason.

Some became museums, but many became stables, arsenals or storerooms. Several factors turned fashion toward the classic style. Even before the French Revolution, the baroque style was associated with vapid royalty. Ancient Rome became a symbol for a republican, rather than a monarchical government.

Europeans became excited by antiquities. During this period, some windows were made in Oxford. Abraham and Bernard van Linge painted in enamels. William Peckett of York provided figures in enamels for the south transept of the York cathedral.

Thus in the event of it being proved that it the art had been lost and that it had been rediscovered, people would not know what use to make of it. Glass making was the first industry set up in America in Jamestown, settled in The English were running out of wood to fuel their furnaces.

The endless forests and sand in the New World dictated the choice. To reassure his English investors, Captain John Smith wrote that the glass-making venture was a success, but the operation was very short lived. Bottles and window glass were the primary glass products of this venture. The sort of small house windows he made can be seen in Dutch paintings: a small round, square or oval panel set in a background of clear glass quarries.

The subjects, often a family coat of arms, were applied with enamels and silver stain. In , Duyckingh took on Cornelius Jansen as an apprentice. Duyckingh also made a window for the City Hall showing the coat of arms of New Amsterdam. He wrote complaining he had not been paid. Labadist missionaries arrived on a ship in on which Evert Duyckingh Jr. Their new church window was made by Evert Sr. In , the Duyckingh operation passed on to Jacob Melyer.

In , Jan Smeedes set up glass works in lower Manhattan to make roundels. At first, the outer part of the roundel was in greater demand for glazing windows. The center with the punty mark was cheaper. Churches in early America were simple meeting houses of wood or brick and white woodwork.

Stained glass was out of fashion or economically impractical. Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia, when it opened, had no glass in the windows, only shutters. Small shutters inside the larger outside ones were used in cold weather. In the nineteenth century, William Gibson began the earliest known glass business in America around in New York City. Robert Bolton, elder of one of the most interesting families in American stained glass history, came from England when he inherited property in Savannah, Georgia.

After a time, the family returned to New York and built a home in Pelham. William was a talented artist and studied with Samuel F.

They made some small stained glass windows for their home and followed them in with the first-known American-made figural window, the Nativity for Christ Church at Pelham, New York. After this job, William Bolton returned to England and opened a stained glass studio in Cambridge where he worked restoring the windows of Kings College. Another window by him was recently rediscovered at West Lynne in Norfolk, England.

When he went to Cambridge, William attended classes that were not available in America. While a student, he married, but his wife soon fell ill and died.

This so upset him that he studied for holy orders and became an ordained clergyman. He married a second time and had several children. Meanwhile, his brother John continued to make stained glass in America long enough to do windows for the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan.

While there, he made the decorative aisle windows. The chancel window in that church is by La Farge and is a memorial to members of the Bolton family. The story so excited her she arose from her bed and traveled from England to the United States to see the windows. Upjohn contributed to the design that was probably produced by Thomas F. They were fabricated by Abner Stephenson.

In the s several important studios were established that would survive and promote the industry. Despite these advances, the industry was still delicately balanced; it was growing slowly, which was a reflection of individual dedication and struggle. The quality of materials was limited compared to what it would be only a few decades later; further, the window artistry was largely derivative of foreign trends in the trade and decorative furnishings industry.

By the s, the economic prospects for the industry were improving. The wealthy built castles for themselves modeled on those described in the Gothic novels. As early as the s, Horace Walpole collected medieval stained glass and employed one of the few stained glass craftsmen left in England, William Price, to restore it and install it in his fashionable Gothic mansion, Strawberry Hill.

Many windows were sent to England from the continent. A few enthusiasts kept their interest in medieval stained glass and assiduously collected pieces being discarded that would otherwise have been lost.

Some of these panels are in museums today, in better shape than if they had remained in situ. In , an exhibition held in London consisted of glass that was saved from the French Revolution.

Since colored glass had gone out of fashion, little was made and the quality was generally poor. When the British studios became interested in restoring antique glass and providing new stained glass for Neo-Gothic churches, there was almost no appropriate glass. The panels could then be mounted in the window space. Complex patterns of different coloured glasses could be produced to stunning effect. However, if stories were to be told human images were required, including details such as hands, faces and the folds of drapery.

These were added to the surface of the coloured glass sheets using a black enamel pigment based on copper or iron oxide. This mixture was painted onto the glass with different thickness and textures to give different shading effects, allowing control of light and providing artistic detail. After painting, the pieces were fired to fuse the paint to the surface of the glass. From the 13th century a second pigment in the form of a "stain" of silver chloride or sulphide was painted onto the glass.

Traditionally, this would have been the only true "stain" in stained glass. After painting the stain onto the glass it was heat-treated in a furnace. During the treatment the silver ions migrated into the glass and were suspended within the glass network, rather than sitting on the surface like glass paints and enamels.

Silver stain can give colours ranging from pale yellow to a deep red, depending on glass composition, stain composition, the number of applications, the temperature of the furnace, and colour of the background glass. It was the perfect way to depict yellow hair, halos and crowns along with faces on the same piece of glass, so reducing the amount of light-blocking lead.

The stain could also be applied to blue glass to give green, making possible depictions of blue sky and green fields. The variety of colours and effects that ancient glaziers could achieve with these simple facilities was incredible, but in the midth century different coloured enamels began to be used. Like glazes for pottery, these used either ground-up coloured glass or clear glass with a metallic oxide in a binder, which was painted onto the glass then fired.

Methods such as these continued to be used in the 17th to early 19th centuries as they allowed windows to be painted like easel pictures on clear rectangular glass.

This reduced lead usage with the metal often being used merely to hold the large panes together, the designer's aim being to conceal the lead rather than integrate it. However, it has been said that the emergence of enamelling was the death of the great stained glass window artists. I'm not sure if this is true, but I do know that to stand in front of a great leaded stained glass window is a magical experience. Next time you are in a soaring cathedral take a moment to contemplate them.

Notice the aesthetic beauty of the biblical stories depicted in vivid simplicity. As you get closer, see the amazing use of lead and coloured glass to form these images. Closer still and the individual colours, staining and shading start to come into focus. Can you see the cobalt blues and the yellow silver stain? Then, as you get really close, you can see the way the uneven handmade glass distorts the light, giving a natural organic quality with bubbles trapped forever in the heart of the glass — bubbles that were frozen in as the hot liquid cooled.

Stay awhile in that shaded garden and marvel at the conjoining of ancient stories, art and science.