The magical qualities of stained glass have an enduring appeal, but church windows tend to be ignored as a form of creative and artistic expression. How to Look at Stained Glass is a fresh, unstuffy guide, which explores the medium by themes, patterns, designs, and effects. Using an A-Z format to reveal a multitude of fascinating details - all the way from apples to zig-zags - it makes looking at gloriously colourful, artistically important windows entertaining and rewarding. This layman's guide requires no previous historical, artistic or religious knowledge and the A-Z miscellany is in keeping with the pot-luck mix of windows to be found in most churches. It covers all the major periods and styles from medieval to modern, Victorian to post-war, eighteenth century to Arts and Crafts, figurative to abstract, and examines the fascinating and evolving iconography of stained glass. Illustrated in black & white and colour and with a list of the top 30 places to see outstanding examples, How to Look at Stained Glass is all that is needed to make sense of and enjoy the array of stained glass windows in the churches of England.

The great artists of cathedral windows began it. Louis Comfort Tiffany perfected it And now you can explore it -- the look of stained glass. Almost any glass surface can glow with brilliant color. With glass paint -- not real stained glass -- these simple instructions and imaginative designs turn any window in your home into a work of art. Or paint a glass art border to frame an outdoor view. You can paint a piece of glass or plastic and hang it in a window for amazingly versatile moods, for holidays, for parties, or simply for your own pleasure. Besides these vertical techniques, you'll find complete instructions for three-dimensional projects, ranging from jars and display plates to self-adhering sun-catchers for windows or patio doors. The materials you need are inexpensive, and you get dozens of patterns, many full-sized, appropriate for every type of project. Best of all, the photo gallery of finished designs will stir your imagination and show you all the places in your home where glass art can charm and inspire.

Basic principles, techniques of stained glass design. Topics include design sources, enlarging and reworking, flat and three-dimensional projects, drawing techniques, computer technology, more. 84 projects included. 209 illustrations.

DIVStunning patterns of ovals, rectangles, triangles, circles and many more for a variety of stained glass projects in the elegant Art Deco style. 136 b/w line illus. /div

Strangest genius

An insightful corrective demonstrating the Arts and Crafts Movement's indelible impact on British and American stained glass Beautifully illustrated and based on more than three decades of research, Arts & Crafts Stained Glass is the first study of how the late-19th-century Arts and Crafts Movement transformed the aesthetics and production of stained glass in Britain and America. A progressive school of artists, committed to direct involvement both in making and designing windows, emerged in the 1880s and 1890s, reinventing stained glass as a modern, expressive art form. Using innovative materials and techniques, they rejected formulaic Gothic Revivalism while seeking authentic, creative inspiration in medieval traditions. This new approach was pioneered by Christopher Whall (1849-1924), whose charismatic teaching educated a generation of talented pupils--both men and women--who produced intensely colorful and inventive stained glass, using dramatic, lyrical, and often powerfully moving design and symbolism. Peter Cormack demonstrates how women made critical contributions to the renewal of stained glass as artists and entrepreneurs, gaining meaningful equality with their male colleagues, more fully than in any other applied art. Cormack restores stained glass to its proper status as an important field of Arts and Crafts activity, with a prominent role in the movement's polemical campaigning, its public exhibitions, and its educational program. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art