Three Categories of Glass

Three Categories of Glass

The luscious colors and dazzling textures of the glass itself is the reason many of us were drawn to stained glass in the first place. We are fortunate to have literally hundreds of glass types, styles, and surface textures to choose from. Manufacturers have developed unique varieties of glass textures and colors with their own special descriptive names, far too many to list here. However, to simplify the explanations, we can fit them all into three main categories.

Cathedral Glass: This glass is transparent or semi-transparent, and available in single or multi color mixtures. A combination of two or more colors is called a streaky cathedral. Often this glass is given a surface texture, which can range from rain drops to fern patterns or it can have small bubbles or large swirls within the glass.

Opalescent Glass: This glass is easily identified by a milky or opal-like appearance. It is available in a wide range of styles, from a solid single color to as many as 5 or 6 colors swirled and streaked throughout the sheet. When an opal color is mixed with a transparent cathedral color on the rolling table, the resulting glass is called wispy or streaky opal.

Full or Sheet Antique: Produced in the time honored mouth blown method, this glass features brilliant, transparent colors with a distinctive fire-polished finish. Typically irregular sheet thickness results in dark and light areas within a single sheet creating opportunities for shading and other subtle design possibilities.

Hope you enjoy working with the different types of glass.

Mike McDonough

Article Source: http://www.joannes-crafts.com