On a sunny afternoon, it’s a treat to stand just inside the sanctuary doors of the chapel at the Quigley Seminary at Rush and Pearson Streets in Chicago. The sun dances behind the glass in the West Rose window, its brilliant light streaming down in mystical rays of emerald, ruby, topaz and sapphire. Looking at the other 14 nave and seven sanctuary windows bathing the chapel in a prism of breathtaking pyrotechnics, you get a sense of why stained glass has been used to depict holy images almost since man figured out how to melt sand.
Stained glass isn’t just for churches, though. It can be just as beautiful in your own home. And you’re in the right city for it, too. Chicago is one of the world’s centers of stained glass, according to E.B. Smith, who founded the recently opened Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier.
Museum curator Rolf Achilles adds that many bungalows built in Chicago between 1910 and 1940 had 6 to 12 art windows.
The bungalow windows are generally Prairie-style, geometric: “The long sliver of glass with a gold square set in lead is the staple of bungalows,” Achilles explains.
Stained glass in your home can be as simple as a single piece of textured colored glass or a complex design of glass in a matrix of lead holding together the individual mosaic pieces.
Sidelights and transoms, skylights, decorative screens that separate living spaces, cabinetry, every type of light fixture, and of course, windows are ideal for stained glass, which adds a striking decorative accent to any home. Even light bulbs are getting into the act. General Electric Co. recently introduced the Stained Glass Bulb, which is hand-painted with at least 25 random blocks of color.
The design projects a multicolored image through translucent white or ivory lampshades to mimic the look of stained glass.
Stained glass windows for homes run the gamut from simple repeated patterns of squares or diamonds called gauge work to complex, ornate designs.
Simple or not, the principles of stained glass are the same. The design is created by color, combinations of colors, variances in thickness of glass, texture, placement, and the use of lead.
The latter is an art unto itself, since the lead came (the track used to hold the pieces of glass together) forms the separations that create a pattern.
The glass comes from all over the world–England, Germany, France, Spain, the United States, and lately, China and Mexico. . The Kokomo Opalescent Glass Co. in Kokomo, Ind., produced a lot of glass for Tiffany, which made a name by incorporating stained glass into the designs of lampshades.
Jim Edbrooke, an artisan at the Botti Studio of Architectural Arts in Evanston, notes that the elevation of the window and the angle at which it will be viewed affects how colors appear.
For instance, in selecting colors for stained glass windows in a church, he says, “We use more vibrant and deeper colors for the south and west sides because otherwise the color will get washed out. On a north elevation, we don’t go too deep.”
The Botti Studio dates back to 1684, when it started out as an ecclesiastical studio in Agropli, Italy. Today there are Botti Studios in Evanston, San Diego and Sarasota, Fla. Chris Botti, fifth-generation-grandson of the founding Botti, says the most popular colors this year are cool tones, blues and greens. Glass can be ordered in any color though, since “the purest color in nature is color coming through glass.”
From high school chemistry, you may remember that glass is made of silica sand, minerals and oxides. It’s the combinations of those and temperature that gives the glass color. “You get variances depending on the company and how they process the glass. Some companies mouth-blow or hand-roll the glass. The more consistent colors come in machine-manufactured or machine-rolled glass,” Botti says.
The most expensive colors are reds and “flash” glass, multiple layers of glass where the top layer is blasted away in a pattern. Stained glass that looks painted is actually glazed; the glaze is heated and melted in a kiln just like pottery, so it bonds like fine chinaware.
Botti says materials for most windows average $50 to 70 per square foot. The cost of creating the window depends entirely on the complexity of the design. A simple window with lead panes starts at around $50 per square foot. It takes about six to eight weeks for the studio to do a residential job.
Edbrooke learned how to cut glass on his own and had done art shows with friends, making small windows and terrariums. His interest firmly hooked, he joined Botti Studio as an apprentice at age 23.
The apprenticeship took about five years, “but you never stop learning,” Edbrooke says. Today he works about half the time on new work, the other half on conservation and restoration.
Transforming glass into a work of art
Stained glass windows are made up of cut pieces of glass, metal cames that hold the glass in place, putty or glazier’s compound that fills the gaps in the came, and in some windows, support or saddle bars that span the window to brace large panels.
The term, stained glass, is really a misnomer because in most cases the glass pieces are not stained but colored. The term stained glass applies to a technique for painting on the surface of the glass with enamels. The glass and the enamel coating are heated to fuse the paint into the glass.
Windows that most people call stained glass are actually made up of pieces of colored glass. Various metallic oxides–iron, cobalt, copper or magnesium–are added to the glass while it is molten. The color is more than a surface treatment; it actually becomes part of the molecular structure of the glass.
The individual pieces of glass are cut and pieced together to form a design. They are held together in grooved lead or zinc strips called cames. Windows made with this technique are properly called leaded-glass windows, whether or not they have colored, stained or clear glass in them.
The cames and glass in large or very elaborate windows can be very heavy, and the entire window would sag without additional support. This is provided with braces in the form of 1 1/4-inch-wide steel bars that span the window and fit in notches cut into the sides of the sash. The cames are wired to the bars at strategic intervals so the weight is transferred to the bars and sashes.
–New York Times News Service
