Guides for anyone who wants to understand stained glass or try making it. They are written in plain language, from the first question, “is this for me?”, through the tools, the skills and the history.
Getting started
- Is Stained Glass Right for You?: what the craft involves, how long it takes and roughly what it costs.
- Tools and Equipment: the basic kit for cutting and joining glass.
- Working Safely With Glass: sharp glass, lead, fumes and chemicals.
- Common Beginner Mistakes: what goes wrong most often, and how to avoid it.
Skills
- How to Cut Glass: scoring and breaking straight lines and curves.
- How to Cut Lead Came: stretching, measuring and cutting came for a leaded panel.
- How to Solder: joining lead came or copper foil neatly.
- How to Grind Glass and Apply Copper Foil: shaping edges and wrapping them for soldering.
- How to Make a Leaded Panel: building a panel in lead came, from cartoon to cement.
- Copper Foil Stained Glass: the Tiffany method, how it is made and how it compares with lead came.
Materials
- How Coloured Glass Is Made: what goes into coloured glass, and why gold makes red.
- How Lead Came and Overlay Lead Are Made: casting, milling and extrusion, plus coated overlay lead.
- Overlay Colour Films, UV Protection and Durability: colour films, UV filters, durability and double glazed units.
- How Bevelled Glass Is Made: grinding, polishing, clusters and the thin edge for came and overlay lead.
- Roundels and Bullseyes in Leaded Lights: where they come from and how they are made and set.
- How Painted and Silver Stained Glass Is Fired: paint, silver stain and enamel temperatures and schedules.
- Firing Temperatures and Schedules for Fused and Kiln Formed Glass: 90 COE and 96 COE fusing glass, float and Murano glass.
Care
- How to Clean Decorative Glass Safely: every glass type, and what to avoid.
- Does Coloured Stained Glass Fade?: what changes colour and what only looks faded.
History
- A Short History of Stained Glass: from the first windows to today.
- Medieval Stained Glass and the Origins of Leaded Lights: how the first leaded windows were made.
- How Window Glass Was Made: Crown, Cylinder, Plate and Float: crown, cylinder, plate, float and toughened glass.
- Stained Glass from the Gothic Revival to the Twentieth Century: the Victorian revival, Arts and Crafts and the twentieth century.
- Opalescent Glass, Tiffany and the Copper Foil Method: the American developments of the 1880s.
- The History of Brilliant Cut and Bevelled Glass: cut and bevelled glass from Victorian workshops to bonded bevels.
- The History of Acid Etched Glass: frosted and embossed glass from the 1850s.
- The History of Sandblasted and Deep Carved Glass: from the 1870 patent to carved glass today.
- The History of Fused and Kiln Formed Glass: from ancient casting to modern studio glass.
- Where Overlay Stained Glass Came From: how a modern single-sheet look developed.
Reading and understanding windows
- How to Read a Church Window: saints, symbols, colours and heraldry.
- Types of Stained Glass Sheet: antique, cathedral, flashed, opalescent and more.
- Stained Glass Styles by Period: how to tell the age of a window.
- Famous British Workshops and Makers: short profiles of the main firms.
- Stained Glass Tour of the UK: where to see the best windows.
Not sure what a word means? The glass glossary explains over 250 terms used in stained glass, decorative glass and glass making.
Choosing glass for a home or business: glass for a front door, etched glass for homes, bevelled glass for homes, decorative glass for kitchens, bathrooms and stairs and decorative glass for pubs, shops and restaurants. Curious about history? Read where the oldest stained glass is.
See also Stained Glass in the USA: Places to See.
See also The History of Stained Glass in the USA.
For a quick overview of how decorative glass developed, see the timeline of decorative glass.