| | Featured Article
The Art of Stained Glas
Stained glass - also known as art glass, is the art of cutting colored glass into different shapes and joining them together with lead strips to create a pictorial window design. The glass has been colored or stained through different processes. The pieces are joined together into a composition using a lead strip, copper or cement. The end-product of the aesthetic design of shape and colour can be functional or decorative, or both.
Commonly, colored glass is fused with white glass in some cases painted with silver stain, or an assortment of other pigments mixed into the batch. The process may also involve the fusion of colored metallic oxides onto the glass, or by painting with liquid enamel/glaze and then the surface is fired or baked.
What actually gives color to the glass are certain elements some call them metallic salts, such as chromium for green, cobalt for blue, or cerium for yellow. Most typically, the golden haloes depicted in church windows appeared because of the thick glass producing a gold/yellow/brown color.
As an art-form, stained glass has been practiced in Britain for at least thirteen hundred years now. The common association with stained glass is in traditional depictions of religious and biblical scenes predominant in churches around the world. In the 19th century, there was a surge of decorative stained glass, most notably with William Morris in Britain. Even, for many centuries some have claimed that stained glass has enriched their places of worship.
Small and remote towns and villages in the British Isles have countless examples of fine stained glass Victorian windows but these communities receive few visitors. Some churches with fine stained glasses in their altar windows generally are locked when services are not being held and this renders casual visiting impossible. These predicaments, sadly, makes stained glass one of the least accessible art forms.
Copyright © 2005 Great Art Articles. All rights reserved. |
| |