Types Of Art Glass – Stained Glass Sheets
How To Choose The Right Art Glass For Your Projects
Stained glass sheets come in a huge array of colours, textures and transparencies. It can be hard to know which is best to use.
Here you can find out about all the different types of sheets available for glassart.
You can discover which sheets are best for each specific project and learn about the various ranges made by different manufacturers.
Stained Glass Sheets
What are you looking for?
Light
If your main concern is maximizing light and flooding your home with dancing colour, it’s Cathedral or German New Antique stained glass sheets you need. They are transparent and let light through.
Privacy
If you want to maintain privacy or don’t want too much light coming through, the best stained glass sheets for you are Opalescent or Semi-Opaque. That’s because light bounces off the surface and you can’t see through it directly.
Fusing
Fusing is a bit different. For this you will always need a special Fusible Glass, which can either be opaque or transparent.
To clear up a frequently asked question; you can use absolutely any sheets for making stained glassart, including Fusible sheets.
You can of course mix Opalescent and Cathedral in the same project with very exciting results.
Stained Glass Sheet Suppliers
Without question, it is always best to visit a supplier yourself and choose your own sheets if you can, as photos never, ever do the beauty of the individual sheets justice.
However, if there’s no stained glass suppliers near you, there are lots of stained glass suppliers who will ship glass to you.
It’s probably best to pick individually if you can, as there’s nothing worse than having too much of something that doesn’t excite you.
Cathedral and German New Antique Glass
Cathedral is an umbrella term used to describe a machine made glass (as opposed to Antique, which is mouth blown and consequently very beautiful and expensive).
It is transparent and comes in many textures and is usually, although not exclusively, made from a single colour.
Cathedral sheets are especially good for beginners as they are uniform and very easy to cut.
There are many different manufacturers who make this type of stained glass, each with their own textures and specialities.
It might be worth having a look at Kokomo to see if you like their particular collections.
Spectrum make a huge range of cathedrals that are very reasonably priced, consistent and simple to cut. They also have unique textures to suit every design:
Waterglass (pictured above) with a distinctive gentle texture
Baroque (pictured at top) with dramatic three-dimensional coloured swirls and the Artique, that copies Antique blownglass with it’s irregularities
German New Antique is a little less dense than the Spectrum Artique and comes in a wide range of colours.
It has delightful striations that give it the appearance of being handmade. These are deliberate and there to be used to good effect.
Because it is machine made it has an even thickness, making it one of the easiest to cut.
Opalescent and Semi-Opaque Glass
Opalescent or Opal is glass that you can’t see through.
Semi-Opaque is usually a colour mixed with white or another colour, which allows you to partially see through it.
These sheets are perfect for projects that don’t need to be transparent – lamps, fire screens, wall art, and boxes.
Opalescents can be amazing when put alongside Cathedrals, as the contrast between opacity and transparency seems to make the qualities of both glasses shout much louder.
Tiffany used a lot of this type of glass very, very skilfully in his stained glass windows and lampshades.
Uroboros produces some amazing premium handmade opalescents, with each sheet being an original work or art in itself.
If you can’t afford this, Spectrum’s machine-made range is excellent, covering single colour Opalescents to wispy and streaky Semi-Opaques (pictured above) that are shouting out to be used creatively.
Iridized and pearlescent sheets
These have a coating of metallic oxide bonded on to the surface, which make them shimmer and change colour depending on the viewing angle.
These sheets can lift a stained glass artwork, but are best not over-used as they can dominate a design.
Fusible Glass
The term Fusible Glass describes a range that has been specifically manufactured for compatibility so that it can successfully ‘fuse’ with other sheets during firing.
The measurement of this is the Coefficient of Expansion (CoE). If your glass is not compatible – or fusible – your stained glassart will contain stress and crack during or after firing.
Bullseye
Perhaps the most successful manufacturers of fusible glass are Bullseye Glass. Their glass has a CoE of 90, and is compatible with both dichroic and Uroboros sheets.
Each sheet is hand rolled and they have stringent compatibility checks in place.
Depending on your project, you can choose either opaque or transparent.
Before you choose, think about whether you want the light bouncing off (reflecting) or shining through (transmitting). And then choose away – what Bullseye don’t make isn’t worth having – you can have single colours, streakys, iridescent, textured, chopsticks, streamers… I could go on!
If you use this for stained rather than fused glass, the single-rolled version – as opposed to double-rolled – is cheaper and just as wonderful.
Spectrum
Spectrum also does a Fusible Glass range called System 96.
They don’t have the same number of variations as Bullseye, but they are expanding all the time. System 96 sheets are very reliable, easy to cut and visually interesting.
It’s also cheaper than Bullseye. Only use System 96 for fusing, as the other Spectrum glass is not compatible.
Helpful Resources
You might find this 3.5 minute video helpful for identifying the different types of stained glass sheets available. It always helps to see them for real:
Here are the company’s websites if you’d like to see the full range of sheets they sell.
A turkey baster works well for removing water from a grinder.
It is less expensive than the hydrolic pump.
Good thinking David, thanks for the tip.
Would love to receive the newsletter…I am a woodworker…and would like to explore stained glass in my work…
Hello Jett, what an exciting combination, I’m jealous! Never did get the hang of wood. I’ve signed you up to my newsletter so you should receive that soon. I hope you love stained glass!
I love, so much, all the notions you give us in the world of stained glass
That’s a lovely comment to read, thank you Sylvie. I love to think that my work is helpful and inspiring 🙂
“Everything Stained Glass” offers the most comprehensive tutorials on working with glass I have been able to find.
This website will help you with the fundamentals of stained glass construction and beyond.
You’re limited only by your imagination.
Aw sweet Birney, thanks so much for your vote of confidence! Milly
Do you have an address or cataloge
Hi Kathy, thanks for your enquiry. I don’t sell products, I have a range of online stained glass courses. Sorry I can’t be more help this time.
Where can I buy glass for lead glass I live in Humans drop in the Eastern CAPE nearest town Port Elizabeth but the art studio’s don’t sell glass
Thanks for your question Moreen. I’m afraid I don’t know who might supply glass in South Africa – I’m in the UK. You could try emailing other stained glass artists in SA and see where they get their glass – for example this one: https://www.classyglass.co.za/
Is there anyone out there in South Africa that can help?
Try Delphi Stained Glass in Lansing, Michigan, USA.
I’ think they ship internationally.
Good luck.
Thanks for taking the time to help out Birney, I appreciate that 🙂