The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-10-08
GLASS STAINING.
How Church Windows are Made to GLOW
With Color.
fFron, Chalmers Journal.]

From Chalmers Journal H-ft
Nearly contemporary with the revival oi
Gothic architecture applied both to eccleeiass
teal ard secular buildings, the taste for the.
enrichment of such edifces by the intro
duction of celored and painted glass has rel
vived and fourished. The secret of commuj
nicating to glass the exquisite and glowing
colors SO richly and tremendously blended in
the few uninjured specimens that remained
in the medieval churches of Great Britain!
if not absolutely lost, was long buried in OBJ
security. Another most serious impediment
was the difficulty of producing pigment
which should possess sufficient atm
ity with the glass to be readily
incorporated with it, and yet be capa-
BILE of a reduction to a consistency favorable
to its use az and an ordinary kind of painting
material to be laid on, and variously treated.
according to the necessities of the manipula-
tor. But these and minor other obstacles
gradually disappeared before the searching
investigation of enthusiasts in an art that had
SO long been neg lected.
Let us now follow the art of glass-staining
through its chief stages The design of the
window being determined upon, and the car
toon or full-sized drawing prepared, kind
of skeleton drawing is made, showing only
the lines which indicate the shape Of each
separate piece of glass. 1t is apparently not
generally understood that window is not
one piece of glass, to which are applied the
various colors displayed, but a number of
small pieces; which are united by grooved
lead, witch incloses each individual fragment,
and that each different color we see is the
color of that particular piece of glass, the
only painting material used being the dark
brown pigment used to define the more deli
cate and minute details. This skeleton or
. working drawing then passes to the cutting
room where sheets of glass of every imagin-
able shade are arranged in racks, each
! bearing a number by which a particular
tint is known. The drawing being numbered
on each separate piece Of glass by means. of
frame containing all pieces of every shade,
and each numbered according to the rack
containing the glass of that color, the use of
this frame renders unnecessary the tedious
process of visiting each rack in search of the
particular shade required; the glass is laid
bit by bit upon the drawing, and each piece
is then cut to the required shape by means of
q diamond.
After the glass is cut it passes to the paint
er, who, laying 1T over the drawing, traces
upon it with his brush all the details of feat
ures, folds of drapery. foliage, ETC.. as design
ed by the artist. But as the action of the
weather and continually varying conditions
of the atmosphere would speedily remove
every vestige of paint if left in this state, it ia
necessary to subject the painted glass to the
action of heat by placing it for several hours
{, in kiln, under the influence of which the
paint is fused into absolute affinity with the
glass, and becomes absolutely incorporated
with its substance. After this burning pro-
cess, it only remains for the different pieces
to be united with the grooved leaden frame
work which binds the whole together. The
pieces where the leads join are then carefully
soldered together, and nothing remains but
to thoroughly work over the whole surface
with thick kind of cement, which fills up
any interstices between the glass and lead,
and renders the whole panel perfectly water
tight and weather-proof.