Hanging Stained Glass Panel. Square stained-glass panel with geometric design and a variety of blue hues. Has two hooks attached to top edge for hanging. 

Overall Size: 23 3/4 x 21 3/4 in. 

Sight Size: 21 x 19 in. 

#5113  

Stained glass is colored glass as a material or works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term “stained glass” to include domestic lead light and objets d’art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Stained glass gains its colors by adding metallic salts during its manufacture, and usually then further decorating it in various ways. The colored glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead, called cames or calms, and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design, as well as preserve them. The term stained glass is also applied to windows in enameled glass in which the colors have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln, although often this technique is only applied to parts of a window. 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. 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. Many large stained glass windows have withstood the test of time and remained substantially intact since the Late Middle Ages. In Western Europe, together with illuminated manuscripts, they constitute the major form of medieval pictorial art to have survived, making them an invaluable resource for historians. The design of a window may be abstract or figurative, and most of these early examples also serve a narrative purpose, incorporating scenes from the Bible, history, or literature. Although colored glass-making has been around for thousands of years, the oldest known surviving complete pieces of stained glass are the windows of the Augsburg Cathedral in Germany, consecrated in 1065, making them even older than the nation of England. It is likely that stained glass was created accidentally, as early glassmakers experimented with adding materials besides potash, soda, lead, lime, and the crucial silica to help stabilize and form the pieces, and it was not until the late Medieval period that the process proliferated extensively throughout Europe, with stained glass becoming a symbol of wealth, power, and national pride. Today the procedure is much more accessible, with stained glass found in public, commercial, and residential buildings around the world, and classes on making it offered in countless studios.