Using Decorative Glass In Your Home
Have you perused the terms commonly used for art glass? Most people find them numerous and perplexing, so much so that I threw in a ringer right in the title. For starters, as most of us learned in elementary science class, mica isn’t glass at all. Instead it’s a mineral. But mica flakes nicely into translucent sheets, making it ideal for use in lamp shades, such as the famous “coolie” shades made by Dirk van Erp.
Although you can’t go wrong using the term “art glass” to refer to most kinds of decorative glass in period lighting, windows, doors, or hand-blown vases, there are terms that are much more accurate and specific. First let’s start with a tough one: the difference between stained and leaded glass. In historical European cathedral windows and the like, this stained glass is colored glass that’s been painted with vitreous oxides and fired with or without silver nitrate. These examples of older stained glass are considered to be leaded. For those who have seen these glorious works of art in person, you would easily recognize the lead cames that hold the pieces of the composition in place: that rib-like dark matter seen between the bits of light-filled glass.
Fortunately, nowadays things are much simpler. Today, the term “stained glass” is considered to be any window with colored glass. If you have a clear glass window that’s leaded, you would simple call it “leaded.”
Artisans use minerals to give colored glass its tint. But not all stained glass is transparent. Translucent stained glassed are most often referred to as “opalescent.” Yet what is considered to be opalescent glass isn’t transparent; rather it’s milky. Further, it can have more than one color in a sheet. Tiffany windows are a great example of opalescent glass.
{Another notable example of this is the windows by Greene & Greene, who layered their glass the same way as Tiffany, but they used copper foil and lead overlay to enhance the dimensional quality of their compositions.} Greene & Greene’s glass is actually very common. Iridized on one surface so it has the appearance of a rainbow, it’s been used by Frank Lloyd Wright and Tiffany.
In 1894, Tiffany trademarked its version of this shimmering opalescent glass and called it Favrile. People really valued this iridescent glass, as its surface appeared to change colors when seen from different angles. Although many other companies made their own versions of this iridized glass, no one else used the term Favrile.
We’ve clarified what mica, stained glass, leaded glass, opalescent, iridescent, and Favrile all are. What exactly are slag and slumped? Slag glass refers to the sheets of opalescent glass used in Arts and Crafts light fixtures. (People used to believe that the glass got its color from the slag from iron smelting works—hence the term “slag.”) As for slumped glass, that’s glass that’s fired in the kiln so it will curve. Glass artisans will actually get into the kiln to manipulate the glass into shades, which are first “slumped” over a bowl. With this technique, artisans can achieve effects ranging from delicately folded glass in tulip-like shades to futuristic wild shapes.
Avo Barsoumian has been in the flooring and interior decorating industry for over 25 years. He owns and operates a home flooring company in Los Angeles. The carry the best in elegant hardwood flooring, beautiful laminate flooring and plush carpeting. So whether you’re looking for laminate floorings for your new town home or carpets discounter to makeover your older home then Carpet Wagon carries everything you need.
Chapter 13 – Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
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