In my mind there’s nothing better than a beautiful and solid leaded glass window. In fact if I had my way, I would use them for almost every window in my house! Today I’m going to talk about them in a little bit of detail… both the history and the making of them as well as where you can find good deals to get the best leaded glass windows for your home.
Also I’ll spend just a minute or two talking about faux stained glass options for those of you who may not want to jump right into full-on windows, these do it yourself methods can create a fairly nice effect with no money, or I should say little money, and just a little bit of effort. So let’s get into it is!
A quick history lesson before we go on: your normal glass window, or glass just about anything, has lots of calcium in it. Lead glass replaces that calcium with lead to the tune of 20% to 35% mole units. The mole unit is just a measurement unit that’s not real important to understand. This lead increases the glass’s refractive index and lowers is working temperature as well as its viscosity. This makes the material really dense which gives it that sort of murky look. Lead has a high at atomic weight which makes it more dense.
We’ve found (and by we, I mean archaeologists and scientists) lead additives all the way back in Mesopotamia which is the cradle of civilization as far back as 1400 BC. A recipe for lead glaze was found in Babylonia on a tablet in 1700 BC! We’ve also found examples of lead glass all the way back in early Han China around 206 BC to 220 AD. They used to use it to imitate Jade. We think that the technology was brought along the Silk Road by glass workers from the Middle East into the West. Monks used it in Western Europe during medieval times for the stained glass of their monasteries and churches. Then between 1618 and 1681 a guy by the name of George Ravenscroft began producing it on a mass scale throughout Europe especially in Italy… and the rest is history.
Enough history, let’s talk about price! If you want the beautiful look of leaded glass or stained glass, without the price and the hassle of actually buying some… then you can do this simple do it yourself method that is fairly inexpensive and has a really nice look to it. First just take a cardboard box and cut it up into a pattern that you would like to see on your window. I suggest you get some ideas from magazines or catalogs as to the exact look you want to create on the window. Tape the cardboard cutout onto the window.
Next place self-adhesive lead strips that you’ve bought from the store onto the window along the pattern that you’ve cut out of the cardboard box. When sticking the lead strips onto the window, be sure to use more than you need, you can go back when you’re finished and cut off the excess with a utility knife. Clean the windows like you normally would, you don’t have to do anything special because of the lead strips that you’ve installed.
This is a great way to create the look and feel of a leaded glass window without the expense normally associated with it. This effect should last for many years to come leading to a good deal of enjoyment for yourself anybody else who happens by. Check out the rest of the site for more details on purchasing leaded glass.