What Is the Difference Between Stained Glass And “Painted Glass” (Or Is There Any Real Difference)?

The glass vase looked beautiful, I thought. I was at a flea market vendors booth years ago just looking at glassware to buy for my wife. At the time I was a real novice in glass (speaking broadly about all categories of glass knowledge, such as collecting, art glass, and glass crafting). I didn’t buy the vase right away but vowed to come back later to buy it unless I found “something better”. In talking to a friendly vendor at another booth I found out that a buyer must be cautious because some glassware items have the color painted on with a chemical solution which is then fired to make it “permanent” on the glass. This process is called “staining” the glass. I later found that some collectors, and even some dealers, call this technique “flashing” although that is not really the correct name. Whatever name it is called, the problem with glassware made by this technique is that the thin chemical coating (or “paint”) can wear off in time with a lot of handling and washing. Needless to say, I did not buy the vase that the first dealer had for sale! So keep in mind that when talking about collectible glass pieces, such as a vase, the techniques of Flashing, Casing, and Plating are separate layers of glass applied to the piece and that Stain is a painted on coating.

Now we will talk about Stained Glass Windows. They are a different animal from the collectible glass mentioned above! Stained glass windows have a history over a thousand years old! From what I can learn of the early times it appears that most of the medieval windows were made by painting a special mixture containing tiny glass particles (frit) over the desired piece of glass and then firing the glass and “paint” in a kiln to fix the painted design on to the glass piece. Most, but not all, modern stained glass windows are made with a different method. This later technique involves cutting a clear or colored glass to fit in a part of a pattern drawn on tracing paper or similar material. The glass piece is normally not painted. It is used “as is”. Its shape and color make it part of the design. The glass piece is then held in place in the window by lead or copper foil and solder. For a little more information look at my glossary terms below. The glossary for Crafting Glass may be found on the upper left side of this web page. Thanks for visiting, Jerry (webmaster, craftingglass.com)

STAINED GLASS – Commonly used to describe any colored flat glass or any object made of such glass joined by metal strips. The term originally applied to colored or clear flat glass cut to fit an artist’s design, on which details were painted in pigment with a brush. The glass pieces were then heated in a kiln or oven to bond the pigment to the glass surface. This firing makes the painted detail as durable and permanent as the glass itself. Most religious windows from medieval times until this century were executed in this manner, and so the term came to be used first for any architectural application, and then for any design in colored flat glass. It is now universally accepted as a convenient general term to define the art, the craft, and the industry

PAINTED GLASS – Glass on which special paints (containing frit) have been applied in illustration or decorative pattern and then heated in a kiln to a temperature high enough to fuse the pigments permanently to the glass surface. The modern version of the original medieval “stained glass.”