Today we have many different types of stained glass available for our use

I've been working with stained glass & teaching the copper-foil technique for over 20 years. I also sell stained glass and glass supplies at my studio in Westfield-MA and here on eBay. I have had the opportunity to use, or at least see, just about all glass manufactured today. I'll use my knowledge & experience to try to help you learn all about stained glass. Most people new to the craft have a very difficult time understanding all the glass options (& prices!) available today. Truthfully, even some experienced stained glass artists really don't understand the glass medium as well as they should. The goal of this guide is to provide more information about stained glass that can help you purchase the right glass for your projects at the best possible price. Today we have many different types of stained glass available for our use. Some of these glass types have been around for 1000's of years, while many others have only been part of our palette for the last 125 years or less (in some cases, much less!). Since glass is the main component of stained glass work, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you become familiar with as much information about glass as you can. With this information at your fingertips, you are in a much better position to use glass effectively when creating your stained glass art. Make no mistake, stained glass work is an art form and unfortunately, there are NO hard and fast rules that can be applied in all instances to create fabulous art pieces every time. However, the more you know about your main ingredient, GLASS, the better you can effectively use currently available glass to help your stained glass creations be their best. Stained glass types are also always evolving, so ensuring you have a good understanding of today's glass types will allow you to better keep up with the inevitable changes. Today's stained glass provides a full rainbow of colors and an interesting set of glass types and textures to give you an outstanding palette for use in creating your stained glass art. In this guide we'll look at stained glass in a bit more detail and I'll provide some definitions and a road-map to help you better understand and effectively use glass in your projects. I'll finish up with a quick discussion about glass purchasing options and how to get the best glass at the best prices. STAINED GLASS BASICS Let's start with a few basics. The two primary characteristics of stained glass that give it artistic qualities are COLOR & TEXTURE. These are not the only glass aspects that provide artistic possibilities (we'll talk more about this in a bit) but they provide a good starting point. COLOR is introduced by adding various metallic oxide trace elements to the glass mixture as it is heated in the furnace. Some colorants include Cobalt (BLUE), Copper (BLUE, GREEN, and RED), Gold (PINK, PURPLE), Manganese (PURPLE), and Selenium (RED, YELLOW, ORANGE). The higher cost of some of these elements affect the cost of associated colored glass, that's why REDs, YELLOWs, ORANGEs, PINKs, & PURPLEs generally have higher price tags than other colors. Our ability to color glass has greatly improved over the years and the colors available today are quite amazing. Glass artists use COLOR artistically to help them create works of art that bring their visions to life. Stained glass thickness is typically around 1/8”, which provides a reasonable dimension for stability & durability during manufacturing, transportation, and glass project work. There are some thicker & thinner types available, but 1/8” is the standard for traditional stained glass work. TEXTURE refers to changes in the surface of the glass that produce something other than a consistent flat sheet. There are many different types of TEXTUREs available, from very slight surface changes to wild folds of glass. Texturing is generally done by manipulating or stamping the glass with formed patterns while it is going through its cooling process. Textured sheets have thicknesses that vary quite radically from the standard 1/8" which can provide quite a challenge to effective glass cutting. However, the resulting surface changes can be quite dramatic and provide a great tool for enhancing the depth and reality you can give your stained glass art. Glass manufacturing has 2 main production methods: hand-made glass & machine-made glass. To many, hand-made glass produces the most artistic and colorful medium for stained glass work. Hand-made glass has greater variability in color & texture and, within bounds, each sheet is unique. However, this beauty comes at a cost, namely $$$, and some of this glass can be so expensive that almost nobody can afford to use it. As with most everything in our society, automation is the key to financial success and this has been applied to glass manufacturing as well. Most manufacturers today use some type of machine automation to allow them to create a more affordable stained glass product. Some level of automation is used even in hand-made glass today, just not in areas of production that affect the visual aspects of the glass produced. The upside for machine-made glass is that the glass produced is less costly and more consistent (sheet-to-sheet) which means we can actually afford to use it. The consistency also makes it easier to cut which can really help beginners. Machine manufacturing can even provide some artistic looks that are not possible with purely hand-made glass. The downside is that machine-made glass can sometimes be less exciting (i.e. bland color blends, flat feature-less surfaces, etc.) and almost too consistent for highly artistic works to show the variability of their subjects. Later, we'll look at the glass available today from many different manufacturers and I'll provide some guidance on which ones represent the best artistic and monetary value for stained glass work. STAINED GLASS TYPES There is quite a plethora of glass types available today and the associated terminology is far from standardized. It certainly would make our lives much simpler if all glass manufacturers could agree on a standard set of glass terminology definitions and produce & market their glass accordingly. Unfortunately, marketing departments will never let that happen, so we need to reduce the problem down to something that will give us the ability to understand glass as efficiently as possible. My approach is to give you a general set of glass type categories that will help you better understand today's glass. My glass categories are BASIC GLASS, SPECIAL GLASS, and MANUFACTURER-SPECIFIC GLASS. BASIC GLASS represents the major glass types available from most glass manufacturers today and is generally made up of glass that has been around for the longest time (i.e. Cathedral, Opalescent & Opaque). SPECIAL GLASS represents very specialized glass types that have a very artistic flavor and are typically based on original specialized glass types created by Tiffany in the 1890's (i.e. Fracture/Streamer & Mottled). MANUFACTURER-SPECIFIC GLASS is unique to a specific manufacturer and are newer glass types that provide very specific artistic qualities that can greatly enhance your stained glass creations. Some examples include Spectrum Waterglass, Spectrum Pearl Opal, Spectrum Baroque, Wissmach Mystic, Wissmach Victorian Mottle, Kokomo Opalumes, and Armstrong Shadowglass. I'll provide more information on manufacturer-specific glass a bit later. One additional consideration to look at when evaluating glass types for your projects is how the glass will look in Reflected and/or Transmitted light. The Reflected Light view of glass is what you see when light is just reflecting off the face of the glass, not through it. Generally, mosaics tend to work almost exclusively in Reflected Light. The Transmitted Light view of glass is defined by what you see when light is transmitted through the glass. Stained glass pieces viewed in a window with daylight streaming through and lamps illuminated with bulbs are examples of items viewed in Transmitted Light. Think about how your glass project will be viewed with respect to light, Transmitted or Reflected, to help you make good decisions about your glass selections..