Painted Stained Glass as Fine Art

At Scottish Stained Glass, we work with innumerous tastes and styles for our home stained glass options.  While the most common type of stained glass is our colorless, textured privacy glass choices, occasionally we come across an uncommon request.

Recently, we had the pleasure of working with a client to add a unique, hand painted piece of stained glass to her entryway.  As you can see from the photos here, this piece depicts a beautiful young woman, actually an angel, with red wings behind her.

Creating Painted Stained Glass Art

For this particular piece, we drew inspiration from a painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti called “La Bella Mano,” which depicts many angels together. Our client came across this painting and loved it.

“I wanted to subdue some of the harsh sunlight that was coming through the transom windows above my front door, but I wanted to do something creative with it,” said our client. By using this beautiful painting in the center, and surrounding it with textured glass, she was able to create the perfect look for her home; both fine art and functional glass.

The process of painting glass is a delicate art, and our expert painter, Nancy, is skilled in this process. Painting glass is a layering process in which the glass is painted, then fired, then painted again, and so on.  This particular piece was fired in a 1200 degree kiln at least 15 times, cooling for about 24 hours after each fire.

Fine Art Stained Glass

“Just the hair used three colors to create the right depth,” Nancy said.  This process actually melts the paint into the glass, making the artwork permanent.  If properly taken care of, a piece of this kind of glass can be passed on for generations and last forever.

Nancy actually restarted the process after her first few steps.  “I was using a technique commonly used in painted glass for churches, but it creates more solid lines.  After I saw how this would look on the angel piece, I decided I wanted something softer looking.  I really wanted it to look perfect,” she said.

Our piece of this beautiful glass artwork is finished, but our client is getting one more addition.  She’s having wrought iron installed to the outside of the window to match the exterior look of her front door.  “I’m very happy with all of the glasswork.  Everyone did such a great job, and I love the way it looks,” she said.

Adding Glass Artwork to Your Home

This project is a beautiful example of fine art stained glass.  Since every piece we build is custom, you’ll be able to actually choose a piece that you’ll truly love.  One of our most popular choices for hand-painted glass is to get a beautiful family crest to honor your family name and heritage.

If you’re interested in getting a painted piece of glass artwork in your home, feel free to give us a call or send an email.  Our designers and painter will help you find the right piece for your unique home, that you will love for years to come!