What are the different types and qualities of stained glass?

Many times we come across people who are interested in stained glass, but haven’t learned enough about it to really know if a piece of glass is a true work of art or just a nice piece. I once heard a woman gush about a piece of glass that had been painted with fake glass paints, the kind that craft stores sell. “Oh look at that, I love stained glass, that’s just exquisite!” Her comments were nice since she appreciated glass art, but they were also ridiculous because painted faux glass is simply not in the same class as other techniques and certainly should never be described as “exquisite.”

So that incident prompted me to write this short description of what are the different types and qualities of stained glass. After reading the following paragraphs, you will be more qualified and better able to tell the difference between good glass and great glass than most people you know. You will be well on your way to becoming a “Stained Glass Expert”.

1. Brass and glass – Made of preformed brass (or brass-coated lead), called a “cam”. The stained glass is encased in the preformed metal and then the joints where the metal meets are soldered. After the panel is completed and soldered, the joints are colored with a brass-colored paint to make them look like brass.

Advantages: Brass windows match the brass hardware of many houses. Brass windows are almost always mass produced, so the cost is often lower than other styles of stained glass.

Disadvantages: Brass windows generally don’t cement the glass and metal together, so they’re not as strong and tend to rattle more often than any other stained glass. If the panel is sandwiched between sheets of tempered glass, the lack of strength isn’t a big deal.

Quality: This is the lowest quality of stained glass available and is usually found in cheap furniture and mass-produced door frames. It hasn’t been around very long and is often associated with the cheap waterbeds of the 1960s.

2. Leaded glass – refers to both beveled glass and colored glass surrounded by preformed lead, called a “cam”. The stained glass is plated with lead and then the joints where the metal meets are soldered. Solder and lead look very similar, so no special treatments are needed at the joints like with brass. After the panel is completed and welded, the windows are cemented by forcing the cement under the metal and glass. The exposed glass is then thoroughly cleaned.

Advantages: Lead construction is the most common type of stained glass found. If cemented well, the window is quite strong. The LED method is quick to build, making it very popular in commercial installations.

Disadvantages: If the window is not cemented, the lead will easily stretch over time, and the glass shapes will warp quite easily. Windows that are placed in insulated units cannot be cemented because the cement reacts with the desiccant in the foam tape used to create insulated units.

Quality: This is the mid-range of stained glass quality. It’s not bad, just not the best. There are very good details available in this type of panel and it is quite good for many styles of glass design. If it wasn’t good enough, it wouldn’t be found in so many highly respected facilities.

3. Copper laminated or “Tiffany style” glass – refers to the construction of stained glass windows in which each piece of glass is individually wrapped in copper foil tape and the spaces between the panes are soldered with lead-tin based solder, usually a 50/50 mix or a mix 60/40. Once the panel is complete it is very strong and often watertight. Chemicals are then added to color the lead lines, either copper, bronze, or black. The lines can also be left gray like pewter or polished to a brilliant bright silver. It is often called the “Tiffany style” because the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany are credited with creating the method in the late 19th century.

Advantages: Copper sheet windows are very strong and allow the artist most of the detailing of either construction method. It also allows for most of the patina ranges of the methods discussed. The copper foil method allows an artist to follow contours, so lampshades and other 3D construction are almost always built using this method.

Disadvantages: It is labor intensive and more time consuming to hand solder each and every solder line on a stained glass window, so these panels often cost more than LED type panels. Also, because the resulting windows are very strong, they can develop very slight cracks as the glass expands and contracts in the heat of the day and the cool of the night. These cracks usually develop in the first year after a panel is installed and are minor.

Quality: This is the highest quality of stained glass, but there are different ranges of quality in this style. Imports will often have very thin lead lines, not as a design element, but as a way to save money on the amount of lead used to build the panel. Lamps constructed of the highest quality copper foil will feature a built in lead line that will often be the same height as an extruded lead line. The best quality solder will have very consistent lead lines and few or no areas where the lead has shrunk after cooling.

4. Faceted glass glued with epoxy – refers to a technique in which thick slabs of glass are broken into rough pieces and glued together with epoxy glue to form the joint between the various pieces of glass. It is very rare and only available in the most unusual commercial builds.

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