About Stained Glass

Many different types of stained glass are available. There is a vast selection of colors, textures, and degrees of transparency from which to choose. These factors, as well as the cutting characteristics, differ from manufacturer to manufacturer.


Your supplier can help you choose the colors and textures that are appropriate for your projects. Allow a 25% waste factor when purchasing glass.

Full Antique Glass, so called because it is made using antique methods, is made by blowing molten glass into a cylindrical mold. The top and bottom of the cylinder are removed and the glass cylinder is cut lengthwise and placed into an annealing oven where it gradually unrolls and flattens out into a sheet of irregular thickness. Full antique glass is very transparent and is most often used for painting and staining.

A few of the special types of full antique glass are: CRACKLE, FLASHED, SEEDY, AND STREAKY.

Semi- or Sheet Antique Glass is also mouth blown like full antique, but the molten cylinder or bubble is elongated by swinging it on the end of a blowpipe. The elongation of the bubble causes semi-antique glass to be thinner than full antique. The individual sheets are also somewhat larger.

Machine-made antique, which is uniform in thickness and color, has an appearance similar to mouth blown antiques. It is commonly referred to as "Drawn Antique" or "New Antique."

Cathedral and Opalescent Glasses are machine or hand rolled to a uniform thickness. Cathedral glass is usually one color. Opalescent glass is made by adding one or more colors to a milk white base. During the rolling process, engraved rollers give teeters and uniform thickness to the glass.

Some common textures of machine-made glass are: figure c, granite, dew drop, moss, water, seedy, ripple, hammered, double-rolled, and flemish.

Glue Chip is a very popular texture. Clear or double rolled stained glass is sandblasted on one side and the fern or "jack frost" design is achieved by the application of animal glue to the sandblasted surface. It is then allowed to dry and exposed to heat the glue "chips" the surface of the glass.

Other Types of Stained Glass
Basic Stained Glass Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (Stackpole Basics)
Jewels are made of stained glass pressed into many different shapes. The most common ones are multi-faceted, convex, and sparkle like prisms. Glass jewels, faceted or unfaceted, add beauty to many types of projects.

Nuggets or Globs are rounded blobs of stained glass that are also used for decorative purposes. They are not as refined as jewels, varying in size and are irregularly shaped