about stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture.

more on stained glass

As a material stained glass is glass that has been coloured by adding
metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together
(traditionally) by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. The term
stained glass is also applied to windows in which the colours have been
painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln.

 Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an
appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the
piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist
wind and rain, and also, especially in the larger windows, must support its own
weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained
substantially intact since the late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the major form of
pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass
window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even
primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass
windows have been described as 'illuminated wall decorations'.