After moving to Shropshire, Jane’s work was spotted by members of the Guild of St. Winefride who had been saving profits from the Shrewsbury Abbey Gift Shop to provide some sort of beautification for the Abbey.

Gray says: “When they saw my display they decided to commission a window dedicated to St. Winefride. The window was installed in 1992. It is quite a large one, six lights on two levels and it is in the north aisle of the Abbey.”

In 1990, Jane Gray had a commission for a window in St. Peter’s Church on Monkmoor Road, Shrewsbury, and went on to complete a memorial window for Sir David Offley Wakeman at St. Peter and Paul’s Church at Fitz in Shropshire and a window marking the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings in St Mary’s in Chirk.

Jane has written Playing with Rainbows, a book starting with her enrolling as a student at the Kingston School of Art in 1949 and ending in 2010 with Jane still creating windows, as she says “while I still have my health and strength I will carry on working in the medium I love”.

The book, published by Ellingham Press in Much Wenlock, is available now from Amazon UK, and will soon be available from Amazon.com.

Even newly made Tiffany style lamps can be expensive due to the need for manual labor hours and skill that go into making the lamps, and the material costs to make a stained glass lamp.  Stained glass is a very labor intensive art form, which means that it is expensive to buy even before you start to take into account the value of a rare antique.

Some of the most popular designs by Tiffany, like the Wisteria pattern, are highly coveted and treasured by Tiffany lamp collectors.  Part of the cost involved is for the style of manufacture that Tiffany used, copper foil soldering.  Copper foil is expensive and adds to the overall cost of making stained glass.

When weighing your decision on what to buy, think about where the lamp will be in your home or office, and how likely it is to be maintained in excellent condition.  Then you also need to consider whether you will be unhappy with a reproduction.

If it is just the look you want, I would recommend a reproduction, but if you want the genuine item, then hold out for a real Tiffany lamp.

Many of the materials that you need to create small to medium sized stained glass pieces can be bought second hand or built yourself, and then all you need is the actual stained glass, soldering equipment, and cutters and a grinder.

Setting up your home stained glass workshop and studio:

There are really only a few key features that you need to work with stained glass at home.

• A good solid table, wood is best, that you don’t mind messing up.  Most people like to buy wood from the hardware store or lumberyard and built it themselves.  It needs to be flat, and sturdy enough to take some pressure during cutting.
• A light table, or this can be built into your regular table.  This means a section of the table needs to have a plexiglass top with a fluorescent light underneath to shine through the glass.
• Room to work away from young children and animals for safety sake.

The rest of the items are tools that you can buy in a beginning stained glass kit like the one shown above or separately as needed.  This particular kit is sold by Delphi Glass, and is quite reasonable in price.  Sometimes it will go on sale.  The kit includes stained glass essentials:

And before you say that coloring books are for kids, I can tell you now that this coloring book is for adults, maybe a talented teenager.  Mandalas Stained Glass Coloring Book is just one of a huge selection of stained glass coloring books for adults that Dover carries.  You can research them on Amazon by just clicking the link above, and you will be amazed at the broad spectrum of stained glass ideas.

This is a great way to research stained glass patterns for your home, or just create an enjoyable outlet for anyone you know who loves color, glass, or mandalas.

If you are not familiar with mandalas, they are known to be both physically and spiritually soothing for the psyche.  And even if that belief is not for you, they are just fun to look at and color.  Most mandalas are made from extremely intricate designs, geometric, floral, fantasy, animal, or abstract.  Part of the attraction of mandalas are the round shape, and the repeating patterns.

Coloring can be not only a fun activity, but a therapy of sorts for many types of troubled minds.  Coloring mandalas is a good exercise for the elderly, or the unruly teenager.  Another use for these books is to decide on color schemes for your actual stained glass designs or patterns.

For more stained glass coloring books, go here.

There is something incongruous about this mix of romantic Gothic architecture interspersed with a touch of industry, regardless how old. But then, that fascinating mix is the story of Murano glass.

The glass industry has not changed much since its beginning.  Glass is made by heating piles of fine sand into its molten form, glass.  Depending on the chemical composition of the glass, it can be made into a wide spectrum of unbelievable colors.

In the studio, glassmakers still use ancient techniques alongside new technology to make glass.  Intense heat allows glassmakers to shape globs of fiery, molten, glass into objects of unique artistic beauty.  Using blow pipes, hands, and their strength, they shape the molten glass in the glory hole, heating it over and over, until their work is done.

Making glass is an art that requires very special training, determination, and perseverance.  Murano glassmakers have been passing this passion for more than eight hundred years, from one family member to another.  In past times, it was forbidden for glass craftsman to leave Murano, in order to preserve the secret of Murano glass. The secrets made Murano, Italy glasswork famous, only affordable to the wealthy.  Many objects of breathtaking beauty came from the glassmakers’ furnaces in Murano that now decorate museums and palaces.

Today, Murano glass is accessible to the rest of the world. Small pieces of glass art, or glass jewelry, find their way from Murano, Italy furnaces to shops and galleries, and to the hearts of those who appreciate the beauty of glass.

Image credit: Glen MacLarty

There are no more imaginative stained glass lamp bases than those created by Tiffany. Tiffany lamp base designs accent lamps in a variety of animal shapes, for example, cats, butterflies, turtles, snails, roosters, frogs, swans, lions, and peacocks.  Some of the lamp bases are constructed in whimsical shapes, fans, teapots, Christmas trees, fairies, and churches.

The stained glass lamp bases are made with particular color schemes that carry through the rest of the lamp design.   The colored glass is set between thick, black metal which gives the lamp base a mosaic look.

The shape of the lamp bases also vary.  If you compare two lamps by the same manufacturer side by side, right away you can see subtle variations in the color or hue of the glass.   Lamps with stained glass bases are handmade one of a kind designs.  Each one is a unique, functional piece of art.

Lamp bases made from stained glass are easy to maintain, and increase in value over time, making them a great investment for your home.  Stained glass lamp bases require just a soft cloth and some glass cleaner to clean.  To clean, just unplug the lamp and use the cloth to gently wipe off the stained glass lamp base.  Turning the lamp off first will ensure that the lamp is cool to the touch, and free from electrical current.

Likewise, magazines and home decor stores are filling up with familiar springtime subjects like butterflies, flowers, eggs, bunnies and chicks. Each of these Easter symbols has a special meaning which can be displayed with glass.

Butterflies

Butterflies are a popular spring subject in home decor, fashion and art.

The butterfly represents change, resurrection, transformation and celebration. A butterfly brings a sense of freedom and joy to any project.

Easter Lilies

Easter Lilies are arguably the most popular Easter flower. The white blossoms represent purity and new life. Daffodils and tulips are also popular spring flowers. Their colorful blooms are a welcome change from the snowy winter landscape.

Easter Eggs

Easter Eggs became a popular Easter symbol in Medieval Europe. Eggs were forbidden during lent and thus were a cherished Easter gift for children. Eggs also symbolize new life and fertility. Chicks, born from eggs, are also a symbol of new life.

The Easter Rabbit

In legend, the Easter Rabbit brings baskets filled with treats to children on the night before Easter. Rabbits or hares became well-known symbols of the season because they give birth to large litters in early spring.They have come to represent fertility and new life. For more great ideas, project guides, patterns and supply lists, visit Delphi’s Easter Center.

Artist credit: Top left butterfly project, William Bond; Lily project, Lisle Sager

Just by adding a stained glass window or window decoration in your home, you can add to the decor, and value of your home.  There are several ways that you can add stained glass to a home.

Stained glass transom windows can be added to a front entrance to welcome visitors with color and beauty. These windows are timeless and will bring warmth and charm to your house throughout the year. They can be placed above or on either side of the front door and come in many different styles and sizes. Adding a colorful transom stained glass window array to your front entry will  make it one of a kind.

Stained glass is also a creative way of bringing art into your bathroom spaces. Placing a window in your shower or over your bathtub creates a relaxing ambiance as well as maintaining privacy. Privacy is one thing people do not usually think about when they are considering stained glass, but it is a valuable aspect in a bathroom setting.

Most kitchens are on the exterior of a house where there are a lot of windows.  This makes a kitchen a natural for stained glass windows or hangings.  Homeowners love bright, colorful kitchens and including a stained glass window is clearly a way to enhance that.   In addition, stained glass can be included in cabinetry to replace or instead of wooden cabinets.  Skylights are another possibility for stained glass in a kitchen.

Placing a stained glass window in a child’s bedroom can encourage playful imagination.  Bright animal or floral themed stained glass panels are perfect choices to blend into a child’s bedroom theme.  The vivid color, and brightness of the light shining through the glass will enhance the decor of the bedroom.

There are so many stylistic choices of stained glass windows including Victorian, floral, and nature, finding a look for your home is just a matter of searching.  Glass is timeless, and it wears well, so that with some basic maintenance, it will improve the look and atmosphere of your home for a long time.

Image credit: clairity

Before you apply any patina, be sure all flux residue is removed. This can be done using a commercial flux remover or washing the stained glass piece with dish soap and baking soda.

Steps for Applying a Patina

• Use a brush, rag or cotton ball to dab patina onto the zinc frame. Do not use a brushing action, as this can leave streaking or patchy coverage.

• Next, apply patina to solder lines. Be sure all edges of solder lines have been covered.

• Then, turn project over and repeat the process on the second side.

• Lastly, thoroughly rinse the patina off the stained glass piece. After it is completely dry, no less than a minimum of 24hours, finishing compound can be applied.

Tips and techniques for Applying a Patina

• Safety – Always wear rubber gloves when applying a patina to protect your hands from the chemicals.

• If the patina appears spotty, use super fine steel wool to clean the area, and then reapply the patina.

• To avoid oxidation, clean and apply patina immediately after project is soldered.

While patinas will mask some inconsistencies in solder lines, others will still be noticeable and take away from the professional look of your Stained glass piece. With patience, practice and the correct tools and supplies, you can have professional solder lines.

Most patinas come in an 8 oz bottle. Avoid contaminating the liquid in the bottle by never dipping your applicator back into the bottle. Pour out a lid full of patina, and use this as your dipping tray.

You may experience different end results with the use of different brands of patinas. One common brand is Novacan. It is available in different formulas for different metals.  As you experiment with different brands, you will notice that the varying brands will give you different results, and some will be more to your favor than others.

Most patinas can be removed by using steel wool, if you feel that you do not like the look, or the result of applying the patina.  With experience and time, using patinas will become a natural part of making stained glass, and will enhance the look of every piece that you make.

Image credit: kww048

This darling Irish Angel Sun Catcher is made of stained glass featuring kelly green as the main color, is only 4 inches x 2 inches in size, and has a small shamrock hanging from her belt.  Really, Irish or not, who can resist this cute stained glass sun catcher to add color to the sun’s rays this spring.

While this angel would look perfect in your kitchen or entry way window, she would also fit in your car, or as a key fob due to the small size.  We never really do have enough Irish in our lives, especially in the spring. More Suncatchers available on Amazon.