businesses that restore and renovate period homes in Scotland
Stained Glass
Technically, "staining" should refer to glass that has been painted while coloured glass held in lead cames should simply be termed leaded glass. Glass can be painted without being leaded, but the glass that is "stained" is usually coloured glass and usually it is leaded with other pieces of glass into a composite picture. Not surprisingly, in common parlance all coloured glass is generally called stained glass. Alas, general ignorance extends to using the name for hateful double-glazed units with their stick-on plastic gels and stick-on lead. If you cannot tell the difference, I must ask you to please leave this website.
There are many types of decorative glass and different processes to produce similar effects. For instance, etched glass can be etched either by blasting sand at exposed surfaces or by painting with hydroflouric acid). The glass itself can be hand made in different ways, machine made, machine textured (hot glass was run through shaped rollers to create surface patterns) and coloured glass comes in transparent, semi-transparent, opaque. Today, the choice of glass is restricted to what is available from manufacturers and often this is down to what the retailers will import. Click here for a list of retailers. Most of the artists and companies listed here will make leaded glass panels for you, a few will not paint the glass, fewer still will etch the glass. Acid etching is undertaken by only a very select few (it produces a much deeper and almost sensual etch). Sandblasting can be done by almost any really big glass firm, such as Forsyths in Glasgow. However, you will have to supply the actual template, not just a small drawing or photograph, and be prepared to spend perhaps four times as much as one of the artists listed here!
Leaded glass
Coloured or stained glass is put together using a framework manufactured from lead "cames", which comes with an H-shaped cross section. Glass slips into both sides of the lead. Lead cames come with flat sides or slightly rounded. The window is built up ontop of a full-scale drawing of the window, called a cartoon. The glass is cut to fit the shapes and lead is put along the lines. The jigsaw is built up starting from one corner until the window shape is complete. The lead joints are then soldered together and putty is then forced into the gaps where the glass goes into the channel in the lead cames. Large glass panels regularly have horizontal supports called saddle bars. These help prevent the windows from sagging or buckling, which can happen since lead is so soft.
Costs
Some artists have no more than a guesstimation system for pricing. Some use a rough price per square foot. For instance, you can pay as much as £200 a square foot for painted glass. A few use a more exact formula, which is a price per piece of the leaded glass "jigsaw", say £6, with a supplementary price per square foot, perhaps £8. However, using this formula a 2-by-4-foot window would cost a mere £64 plus £24 if it were made of four pieces of glass while a Tiffany-style 300-piece panel would cost £64 plus £1800! In real life the simpler window would actually be priced higher and the complex window probably lower. In practice, the formula usually works well. And, if nothing else, helps customer and artist both see that simplifying designs should make the window more affordable.
new glass
Examples of glass by some of the businesses listed here.
Some websites to visit:
www.cannon-macinnes.co.uk
www.verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk
www.authenticstainedglass.co.uk
www.glassco.co.uk
www.edinburghstainedglasshouse.co.uk
www.stainedglass-isleofarran.co.uk
www.stephenweir.co.uk
www.rainbowglass.biz
www.pmstainedglass.co.uk
www.schumacher-stained-glass.co.uk
www.smashinglass.com
www.illuminatedstainedglass.co.uk
www.jennifer-jane.com
Repairs and restoration
What it involves. When is it necessary. What are the bars for? What is strapping? Blah, blah, blah.
Historical styles
Victorian, Gothic, pre-raphaelite, Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco . . .
Examples, history, reference books.
This will be a separate page.
Stained glass businesses in our directory
Graeme and Linda Cannon
Mr Graeme Cannon, 561 Crow Road, Jordanhill, Glasgow G13 1NY
0141 954 9731 / linda@cannon-macinnes.co.uk
www.cannon-macinnes.co.uk
Scottish Glass Studios
Unit 14, Broad Street, Glasgow G40 2QR
0141 554 3346
Verrier Scotland
Wasps Studio, 77 Hanson Street, Glasgow G31 2HF
0771 883 1117
www.verrier-scotland.demon.co.uk
Authentic Stained Glass
17 Claddens Place, Lenzie G66 5NN
0845 074 2757
www.authenticstainedglass.co.uk
Christian Shaw Stained Glass
Mr Christian Shaw, 63 Frederick Street, Edinburgh EH2 1LH
0131 225 2169 / 0131 337 3070 / christian@glassco.co.uk
www.glassco.co.uk
Edinburgh Stained Glass House
46 Balcarres Street, Morningside, Edinburgh, EH10 5JQ
0131 452 8062 / mw@stained-glass.biz
www.edinburghstainedglasshouse.co.uk
Richard Leclerc
Cladach, Brodick, Isle of Arran
01770 302781
www.stainedglass-isleofarran.co.uk
Hunter Stained Glass
9 Tarfside Avenue, Glasgow G52 3DQ
0141 883 1658 / 07810 810853
Stephen Weir Stained Glass
15 Garrioch Quadrant, Glasgow G20 8RT
0845 491 0215 / 07786 273 736
www.stephenweir.co.uk
Rainbow Glass Studio
82 Berelands Road, Prestwick, KA9 1ER
01292 474279 / info@rainbowglass.biz
www.rainbowglass.biz
P. M. Stained Glass
Phil Melville, 56 Manchester Drive, Glasgow G12 0NQ
0141 334 6768
www.pmstainedglass.co.uk
Blaise Schumacher Stained Glass
Unit 51, Northpark Street, Glasgow G20 7AA
0141 945 5766 / 07986 337543
www.schumacher-stained-glass.co.uk
Glasworks Glasgow
3-5 Airds Lane, Glasgow G1 5HU
0141 553 1678
Rob MacInnes
26 Kelvinside Gardens, Glasgow G21 6BB
0141 946 5330
Smashing Glass
Alistair McMillan, 126 Muirend Road, Glasgow G44 3HN
0141 637 9357 / 07803 927687
www.smashinglass.com
Jennifer - Jane Stained Glass
AbbeyStudio, Fintray, Aberdeen AB21 0JB
01224 791363 / web@jennifer-jane.com
www.jennifer-jane.com
Stevenson Stained Glass
Unit 26a, 8/10 Glasgow Road, Kirkintilloch G66 1SH
0141 776 8398 / 07976 904885
Samsons Joinery
Ross Samson, 53a Corrour Road, Glasgow G43 2ED
0141 632 8681 / 07985 046827 / ross.samson@virgin.net
www.samsonsjoinery.co.uk
Kate Henderson Glass
Braemar, 8 Lydgait, Haddington, East Lothian EH41 3LG
01620 824130
Illuminated Stained Glass LLP
Mr Dugald McIntosh, 3 Sunnybank Place, Edinburgh, EH7 5TJ
0131 652 2673 / illuminatesg@yahoo.co.uk
www.illuminatedstainedglass.co.uk
Mark Bambrough Stained Glass
51 Camphill Avenue, Glasgow, G41 3AX
0141 331 5533 / bambrough@aol.com
Roland Mitton Stained Glass
Mr Roland Mitton, 14 Mansefield Court, Livingston Village, West Lothian, Lothian EH54 7BJ
01506 415702 / rm.stainglass@virgin.net
Phoenix Glass Company
Mr Michael Fenton, 42 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SX
0131 5576132
Ross Smith Stained Glass
Burkle, Fair Isle, Shetland ZE2 9JU
01595 760 208
Stained Glass Design Partnership
Mr Paul Lucky, Glencairn Studio, 31 Fenwick Road, Kilmaurs, Kilmarnock, Strathclyde KA3 2TE
01563 538 189