Decorative Glass

Churches, offices, restaurants, pubs, libraries, mosques - all very different places, used for very different purposes – but there is one type of glass which you may well find in all of them – decorated glass.

You may have seen stained glass in a church, retelling a bible story in pictures, or a decorated glass screen in a restaurant giving privacy to individual tables. The most common type of decorated glass though is found in all our homes – you probably looked in one this morning – the mirror.

Mirrors – have been made for centuries. Now it is a sophisticated manufacturing process but in Venice in the 14th Century when mirror making began, it was not only dangerous work because it used mercury – but also very delicate – in fact none of the workmen were allowed to move or speak while the mercury was being put on the glass.

Now, mirrors are made by first applying a layer of silver solution to the glass, and then a copper solution to prevent the silver oxidising. Finally, a protective layer of enamel is painted on and then heated to make it permanent.

Another form of decorated glass, which you probably have in your home, is patterned glass. The pattern on the glass gives privacy, without stopping light entering a room – which is why it is used so much for bathrooms. The pattern is made by passing semi-molten glass between two rollers, one of which has a pattern formed on it.

Not all decorative glass is made by machines though – there are many traditional craft skills, like making stained glass. The colours in stained glass are introduced during manufacture, except for yellow. Yellow glass is made by one surface of the glass being treated with sulphide of silver which stains the glass yellow – the shade depends on the amount of chemical and the heat of the kiln.

To make a stained glass window, the panes of coloured glass are fitted together with strips of lead called ‘cames’, often the glass may be painted as well to bring out details in the overall picture.

Decorating glass by acid embossing or sand blasting are other intricate and traditional skills, acid embossing gives a frosted white surface, while sand blasting sculpts the surface forming contours in the surface of the glass.

Glass can also be curved for revolving doors, balustrades, lifts or for shop windows, or even for surveillance mirrors. Panes of glass are fitted onto special moulds in a kiln and heated until the glass assumes the shape of the mould, before being cooled or annealed.

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