Cheap Stained Glass?

 

Cheap stained glass is very difficult to find and has been for the better part of the last two millennia. Though the discovery of glass is virtually unrecorded many writers have come to the conclusion that one single moment of eureka in the discovery of glass was disseminated throughout the known world.

 

 

Another theory that has arisen in these regards is based in the fact that glass is very simple and easy to produce and requires rudimentary technology to do so. This theory is that several cultures aquired the knowledge of glass making at similar times and in similar instances.

 

The earliest man made glass appeared in the form of glass beads around 2700 B.C. They were made by Egyptian artisans winding molten glass around a clay core forming a crude glass bead. An early version of cheap stained glass was found in the remains of Pompeii in the wealthy Roman villas of first century A.D.

 

Learning glass making was a staple of New World industry in the British colonies and was present in Jamestown in 1607. In 1637 a Dutchman came to New Amsterdam, present day New York, as a glass maker and began making small house windows using stains and enamels to create a cheap stained glass that was still beautiful and timeless reminiscent of the cathedrals of Europe in beauty.

 

The colored stained glass known today as cathedral stained glass was clear glass applied with a stain to filter out unwanted colors of light creating a feast for the eyes and encouragement of the soul. While religious paintings of the day reflected the damnation of a fiery pit below these stained glass portraits showed what was to become of the faithful living in devine bliss at the right hand of God.

 

As quality and technique improved so did theory and alchemy and with these tools artisans begin mixing elements with molten glass to change its properties and create a colored glass. During the construction of the monumental cathedrals of Europe from the 1400’s through the 1700’s stained glass dominated medieval design bringing light and a sense of lightness into the dark cold cathedrals of the day. Because of the wide religious use of stained glass it has instilled spiritual associations in most of the world.

 

Glass is a strange substance, sharing the qualities of gas, liquid, and solid in one substance. A super-cooled liquid, it has a parallel with diamonds, in that the diamond is a common element, carbon, transformed into something amazing while cheap stained glass is a transformation of the common silica found in quartz and sand.

 

Out of the common then came an amazing rare beauty. The addition of metals to glass, caused it to capture brilliant colors of the light spectrum with Gold producing brilliant reds, the element cobalt generating blue, silver created golden yellows, and copper creating amazing greens.

 

The stunning spectrum of colors set in lead frames produced spiritual images to be experienced as underscored images. The churches became places of amazement and beauty, enhanced by the reality of the stained glass in large dimensions.