Glass Painting Designs

Art in whatever shape or form is truly inspirational. Glass painting designs in particular, whether they are simply a rose on a hand painted glass or a magnificent colored pane in a church, with the combination of light and the color, produce a beauty that leaves people mesmerized and often silent in reflection.
This amazing and artistic way of designing is much easier to do than most people would think. The number of people painting craft is steadily increasing. Beginners learn this fascinating art by doing simple designs and soon progress to more advanced forms, Glass painting has been referred to affectionately as art on this material and this description is very appropriate items produced are highly valued and cherished for many years.
The beauty of this artistic work is its versatility. All that is required is something to paint on and something to paint on that article. Anything made from glass can be painted, and with so many choices of designs available, painted glass is an ideal gift for any occasion.

Leaded Glass

We recently repaired and replaced a leaded glass panel. This was a repair to a leaded window and we traditionally use the copper foil method developed by Tiffany studios in the early 1900's. So we were mixing two styles of glass construction. The results were perfect.
1. A client called and asked us to repair a window in their home. The window had a broken piece of glass and we would need to take it from their home, repair it at our shop and reinstall it in their entryway.
2. The window frame had been assembled with 45 degree miters in the wood, which required that the nails be removed in order to get the wood out. Fortunately, the nails used were very thin pin nails, similar to a staple in size, so I was able to break the fasteners with a sharp rap on a putty knife at each nail.

Fused Glass Plate Designs

Fused glass is the art of melting glass together in a planned (or random, if you wish) way to create something new out of the raw materials that you started with.  The idea is pretty basic - you melt glass together.  The options, though, that one has are limitless.  You can make jewelry, beads, plates, wall art, bowls, and a million other things.
In order to get started you need glass, a kiln, and molds.  Once the kiln is heated to the proper temperature, arrange the glass on top of the mold in the manner you wish and let it melt.  If the glass heats or cools too fast, it will break.  Monitoring the kiln during this process is extremely important.  As soon as the glass cools, you now have your newest creation!
Making jewelry such as pendants and beads is one of the most popular glass fusing techniques.  In order to create unique pendants, you must have unique molds.  Since molds are usually made from ceramic or metal, they can be difficult to create on your own, but there are many places around the web that carry many different options.  When the glass is in its molten state, you can reach in the kiln (carefully!) and swirl the molten glass to create new designs.

Fused Glass Wind Chimes

For many years fused glass has been explored in arts and crafts. It has been developed into numerous other types of items, for example, home decor, plates, bowls, and various types of jewelry. If jewelry making is your passion, you may want to make fused glass pendants by using your artistic ability.
Get these materials and tools:
- Kiln
- Glass in sheets in your choice of colors
- Glass cutter
- Glass cutter oil
- Glue
- Wire
- Bails
- Nippers
- Breaking pliers
- Running pliers
Using a glass cutter and nippers, cut sheets of glass into the desired shapes. Put the shapes together in a design you like with glue to hold them together for a little while. Keep it still for a bit.

Fused Glass Jewelry Ideas

Here are some great ideas for arts and crafts made from fused glass. Besides being a challenging material to work with, fused glass projects have given full rise to artists' creative fancies, and are also remarkably beautiful, with textures ranging from the opacity of high fire glazes to the clarity of water. Saw pins fashioned from glass are not difficult to make, but they do require the technique of using a glass saw to slice plates of glass. Saw pins can be themed to holidays like bats and pumpkins for Halloween or trees and Santas for Christmas.
Fused glass pins and pendants can also be formed with inclusions and there are many items which can be sealed in the fused glass piece of artwork. Inclusions can add unique details to any glass fusing project. Another pendant idea is a miniature ceramic picture frame designed to hold one small photo of the wearer's choice. These make unique jewelry pieces and are appreciated gifts. Picture frame pendants need not be square or rectangular, you can let your imagination fly. Bracelets made of fused glass stringers formed around ceramic cylinders can be a bit daunting to make at first since the technique requires working quickly inside of a hot kiln. However, the finished product is both stunning to behold and exciting to make since so many creative designs and fanciful ideas can be achieved with this technique. Vitrigraph technique is also an exciting technique not for the faint of heart: the flow of molten glass is pulled and maneuvered as it seeps in a continuous flow from the kiln brick. The possibilities of shaping pulled glass are endless in their variety and haunting in their beauty.

Stained Glass Panels

Stained glass panels are great ways to add color, style and atmosphere to your home. They also provide a relatively inexpensive means of dressing up a space or room without hiring expensive contractors to do a complete renovation, which can also be messy and time intensive.
Many people still associate old churches and cathedrals with stained glass with themes that depict biblical scenes. But stained glass have long ago moved into homes and used as decoration. Model themes can range from logos of your favor professional sport teams to replicas of famous Tiffany glass designs. Color glass panels comes in different designs, themes, and sizes that is sure to compliment and enhance any room or space in your home.
There are many opportunities to use stained glass panels inside your home. Here are a few suggestions on where to use stained glass for updating or remodeling your home

Stained Glass Windows Designs

Stained Glass window designs are architectural features that have been around for ages. In the past, they were usually found in churches and monasteries. They usually depicted biblical scenes or resembled flowers or other geometric shapes. Despite being a design from the Gothic times, it seems that the popularity of stained glass window designs have not died down yet.
The difference today however is that the stained glass window designs are brought into homes. For the richer and the financially stronger home owner, installing these at home adds a sense of grandeur to the home and sets it apart from the rest. Rather than being limited to biblical scenes, they nowadays can be customized to cater to the home owners demand.

Fused Glass Classes

With easily learned skills many people are making fused art glass jewelry at home.
Fused art glass jewelry has increased in popularity over recent years, fusing supplies, tools and classes have rapidly grown as more people have become aware of the beauty of fused glass art.
Fusing is done in an electrical warm glass fusing kiln where pieces of glass are heated until they soften and fuse together as one piece.
Glass is first cut to shape and arranged within the fusing kiln, the fusing temperature is then set and the pieces will fuse together as the kiln goes through its fusing and cooling cycle.
Glass may be simply fused side by side or stacked and fused or fused in other ways. Glass fusing molds can be used to produce lovely finished pieces.
To be able to fuse together and manipulate colored pieces of fusing glass in an electric kiln to your own personal design is extremely satisfying.

Dichroic Fused Glass

Wearable glass art is becoming one of the most popular fashion accessories today, with people surfing for these in the internet or looking for samples in galleries, malls and the like. 'Wearable' glass is actually fused glass - technically known as dichroic glass - which is glass to which various oxides or quartz is 'melded' onto the surface in varying layers or thickness to produce a multi-colored effect.
Dichroic glass is a NASA invention, originally produced for use in space suits and later used by various industries such as optical enterprises (dichroic lenses are used by various camcorders), scientific measuring instruments (especially those using lasers for measurement), and others.
The art community soon discovered dichroic glass and its use by glass artists began to grow. Part of its popularity comes from the amazing sheen or patina of fused glass, combined with the luminous depth and range of colors that can be created as well as the various textures that can be produced.

Fused Glass Earrings

If you are looking for fashion jewelry that is reasonably priced, modern and chic, and that looks good you may be interested in a dichroic glass necklace. Dichroic glass jewelry is a fairly new arrival on the fashion jewelry scene and it is really gaining in popularity.
The glass itself is very eye-catching. Made in such a way that fine metal oxides are actually vaporized and attached to the glass surface in layers, the final stone resembles a multi-colored gem. The more layers added to the glass, the more color changes you can see in the dichroic glass. It is this feature that has really captivated the imaginations of not just the artisans who carefully design and make dichroic jewelry, but has also captured the hearts of millions of fashion jewelry wearers.

 

Glass Art

Stained glass artists are talented and knowledgeable craftspeople who specialize in bringing all types of designs to life. To produce art that is sturdy and aesthetically pleasing, artists employ a number of tools and techniques of the trade. Here is a brief (and simplified) summary of the process stained glass artists use to create the colorful designs seen in churches, government buildings, and private residences.

Stained Glass

One evening in Autumn of 1967 some friends and I, sophomores at North Texas State University, adjourned to the Campus Theater on the courthouse square in Denton, Texas, to view the then-new Hollywood movie 'Bonnie and Clyde'. That minor but very popular opus had its world premier there a few days before, having been filmed in little towns all around Denton and Dallas Counties where many of the buildings housing the banks robbed by the original Bonnie and Clyde are still standing. The movie itself was a rather thin period fashion show, and neither Warren Beatty nor Faye Dunaway were especially convincing as the 1930s-era desperadoes Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The film's glamorizing and romanticizing of the outlaw ways of Barrow and Parker sort of complimented the rebellious 'hippie' counter-culture notions fashionable among a lot of late '60s American bourgeois college kids.