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.
 This stained glass
commission combines beveled
glass with stained glass. The bevels are stock bevels, which means that
they are pre-made clusters of beveled glass pieces that are readily for
sale from wholesale stained glass suppliers. This particular
manufacturer has come up with a novel idea... instead of marketing
complete bevel clusters, they market bevel cluster elements.
These elements can be combined in thousands of different ways, allowing
the stained glass artist to create bevel clusters that are more unique
than complete stock bevel clusters. In each of these particular doors,
there is a center design element, combined with two end design elements
(one above and one below the central element).
Since I do not make my own bevels, I must either [1] purchase stock beveled
clusters, or [2] design and commission the making of custom bevels. In both
the stock and the custom bevels, the cutting of the glass (before the
pieces are beveled and polished on large grinding wheels) is not up to
the precise standard that I demand of my work. Stock bevels even come
with a paper pattern of how the bevel pieces are supposed to fit
together, but they never fit the template very accurately.
To
achieve the precision that is the hallmark of my
work, I include several extra steps. I lay out the bevels on the large
piece of paper that will eventually become the full sized glass
patterns. Next, I start grinding the beveled pieces on a diamond-bitted
grinder. I grind the curved edges until they are smooth curves and the
straight edges until they are truly straight. I grind the points until
they are actually pointed (they never are very pointed to begin with!).
Then, working from the center outward, I grind the pieces wherever
necessary until they fit together properly. Finally, I trace around all
of the beveled pieces so that the background pieces will fit properly
too. While this takes considerably more time to produce beveled glass
panels that are precise, I think the beauty of the final leaded glass
panels is worth the effort. Besides, it's the only way I know how to
make leaded glass windows... I'm sure that not doing this would take
almost as much time trying to fit together pieces of glass that really don't fit!
The background glass here is a clear, glue-chipped glass (one of the few processes that is done to
clear glass after it is cold, rather than while it is still molten).
The colored glasses look fairly accurate here, so I won't describe
them, except to say that what looks black in between the bevels is a
rich dark green.
These beveled glass door panels
were mounted on the inside of the existing glass (this is explained on
my Commission Process page), reducing the cost of installation and
providing more heat loss protection. Only the tiniest of spaces is
necessary to do this, and with proper caulking and painting the result
is almost indiscernible from a typical in-the-sash mounting.
If you're considering a custom artwork that includes bevels, you can read more about the use of bevels in my artworks.
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