Stained glass

Stained glass is glass with some metals added to create a wide variety of colors. Almost any imaginable color is available or can be produced.

These colored glasses are often available in many different textures -- smooth, wavy, rippled, hammered, pebbled, or very rough. These different textures cause the glass to have light and color transmission characteristics that, even for the same color, can provide surprising results.

Stained glass in Buckfast Abbey, Devon, England. The panel is about 8 metres (26 feet) across. It was designed by the monks who built the abbey.

Example of a stained glass window depicting Mr. Punch. Created by Steve Ignorant

Non-figurative stained glass in the Montreal metro by Marcelle Ferron

Most often these colored glasses are cut into pieces, shaped by grinding and then assembled using lead, zinc, lead cames or copper foil and then soldered together to create windows, panels and/or lamps shades in brilliant patterns and are colorful pictures and designs.

Stained glass is an Art and a Craft that requires the artistic skills necessary to conceive of the design and the engineering skills necessary to assemble the piece so that it is capable of standing up to its own weight and the environmental elements of wind and rain where it may be placed.

Art glass
Beveled glass
Cathedral glass
Float glass
Painted glass
Tiffany glass
Venetian glass
Stained glass windows
- Churches - Stained glass windows are often used in more traditional church architectures, especially in the nave, to depict various saints and scenes from the Bible. This was especially important when the bulk of the population was illiterate. See also icon.
  - Important examples of stained glass windows include:
    - Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, France
    - Cathedral of Chartres, in Chartres, France
- Prairie style homes
  - Frank Lloyd Wright
Stained glass lamp / Lamp Shades
- Prairie lamp
  - Frank Lloyd Wright
- Tiffany lamp
  - Louis Comfort Tiffany