What Exactly is Stained Glass?

Stained glass is the material of colored glass, most widely known for being used for creating windows. The glass is usually colored using metallic salts while it is still in liquid form, and then poured into a frame that gives it the different colored sections that make up the picture as a whole. If you ever have the chance to watch a stained glass window in the making, don’t pass it up. It requires great skill on the part of the designers, and is definitely interesting to watch. Here are some more details on the process of the creation of stained glass.

Before any materials are used, the stained glass window maker will plan out the entire project. This includes the exact pattern that will be used on the window, the amount of materials that will be used, and so on. Then, the frame for the window will be made. This isn’t just the outside outline, but the metal that the glass sits between. It used to be made by creating a mold in the shape of the metal, then pouring it in and letting it dry. The metal goes in between each individual piece of colored glass, and is usually shaped in some sort of ornamental way on the edges.

Next, after the metal frame has solidified, the maker will create a sort of color by number based on his previous plans. Many times, a certain color will be used in more than one square, so he will want to be sure to get all of it the first time. He can create a little map that will help him know which colors go where. After this, he can melt down the glass he will be using, into several different buckets (as many buckets as there are colors in his window). Each bucket will have the coloring added, usually some sort of salt that has been mined. It is what gives the glass its stained color. After he has the colors prepared, he simply pours the glass in to the corresponding sectors of the frame.

This process is much more complicated when it actually occurs, but it should give you an idea for what all goes in to the making of a stained glass window. Usually months of planning and crafting go into it before the actual work described here starts.