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Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. The pleasing symmetrical lines and ability to withstand changing weather conditions make it ideal for large windows and doors.The term stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material and to works created from it. During the Victorian Era it found its way into the home and has remained popular ever since. Leaded glass windows and dark.Outside-view of a stained glass of the Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk from Ostend (Belgium), built between 18Lead came construction was the original stained glass technique used throughout history in church cathedrals.

In Western Europe, together with illuminated manuscripts, they constitute the major form of medieval pictorial art to have survived. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the Late Middle Ages. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, and also, especially in the larger windows, must support its own weight. The diameter is 8 + 3⁄ 4 in (22 cm), and the piece was designed to be placed low, close to the viewer, very possibly not in a church.Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, and the engineering skills to assemble the piece. The local bishop-saint Lambrecht of Maastricht stands in an extensive landscape, 1510–20.

1.5 Modern production of traditional glass Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church – episodes from the life of Christ within a parliament building – shields of the constituencies within a college hall – figures representing the arts and sciences or within a home – flora, fauna, or landscape. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as 'illuminated wall decorations'.The design of a window may be abstract or figurative may incorporate narratives drawn from the Bible, history, or literature may represent saints or patrons, or use symbolic motifs, in particular armorial.

Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. 6 Buildings incorporating stained glass windowsThis section does not cite any sources. 5.11 Combining ancient and modern traditions

Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network and make the glass more stable. Such materials as potash, soda, and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Silica requires a very high temperature to melt, something not all glass factories were able to achieve. ( April 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)During the late medieval period, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential material for glass manufacture.

Using metal tools, molds of wood that have been soaking in water, and gravity, the gather is manipulated to form a long, cylindrical shape. The gather is formed to the correct shape and a bubble of air blown into it. Glass coloured while in the clay pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass, as opposed to flashed glass.Using a blow-pipe, a 'gather' (glob) of molten glass is taken from the pot heating in the furnace. Much of modern red glass is produced using copper, which is less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, and gold produces wine red and violet glass.

It is put into another oven to quickly heat and flatten it, and then placed in an annealer to cool at a controlled rate, making the material more stable. One side of the cylinder is opened. Once brought to the desired size it is left to cool. During the process, the bottom of the cylinder is removed.

Concentric, curving waves are characteristic of the process. Glass formed this way can be either coloured and used for stained-glass windows, or uncoloured as seen in small paned windows in 16th- and 17th-century houses. It can then be cut into small sheets. The centrifugal force causes the molten bubble to open up and flatten. Stained glass windows were normally in churches and chapels as well as many more well respected buildings.This hand-blown glass is created by blowing a bubble of air into a gather of molten glass and then spinning it, either by hand or on a table that revolves rapidly like a potter's wheel.

The glass is then annealed. Glass can be 'double rolled', which means it is passed through two cylinders at once (similar to the clothes wringers on older washing machines) to yield glass of a specified thickness (typically about 1/8' or 3mm). The rolling can be done by hand or by machine. Crown glass is still made today, but not on a large scale.Rolled glass (sometimes called 'table glass') is produced by pouring molten glass onto a metal or graphite table and immediately rolling it into a sheet using a large metal cylinder, similar to rolling out a pie crust. This lumpy, refractive quality means the bulls-eyes are less transparent, but they have still been used for windows, both domestic and ecclesiastical. It also has the pontil mark, a distinctive lump of glass left by the 'pontil' rod, which holds the glass as it is spun out.

A great advantage is that the double-layered glass can be engraved or abraded to reveal the clear or tinted glass below. Once this method was found for making red glass, other colours were made this way as well. The method employed is to laminate a thin layer of red glass to a thicker body of glass that is clear or lightly tinted, forming ' flashed glass'.A lightly coloured molten gather is dipped into a pot of molten red glass, which is then blown into a sheet of laminated glass using either the cylinder (muff) or the crown technique described above. This results in a colour so intense that at the thickness of 1 / 8 inch (3 mm), the red glass transmits little light and appears black. However, in the creation of red glass, the colouring ingredients must be of a certain concentration, or the colour will not develop. It is often called cathedral glass, but this has nothing to do with medieval cathedrals, where the glass used was hand-blown.Architectural glass must be at least 1 / 8 of an inch (3 mm) thick to survive the push and pull of typical wind loads.

In the medieval period the glass was abraded later, hydrofluoric acid was used to remove the flash in a chemical reaction (a very dangerous technique), and in the 19th century sandblasting started to be used for this purpose. For instance, 16th-century heraldic windows relied heavily on a variety of flashed colours for their intricate crests and creatures. A number of artists have embraced the possibilities flashed glass gives them.

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