Patterned glass

Patterned glass is a kind of decorative translucent glass with embossed patterns on one or both surfaces. Pattern Glass or Decorative Glass or Rolled Glass is generally used where privacy or obscurity is desired but light transmission is still important. With the special property of decoration, patterned glass can allow light to pass through, at the same time, it can also prevent clear view. Usually it transmits only slightly less light than clear glass.

Patterned glass is not-perfectly-smooth structure with different patterns impressed on it. The depth, size and shape of the patterns largely determine the magnitude and direction of reflection.

Basically patterned glass has a pattern impressed on one side of the glass which prevents someone from seeing though it, for privacy. Pattern glass can also be ordered in various tints as well. A common application of this sort is when used in privacy walls to separate one room from another.

Rolled Pattern glasses are available in a wide variety of patterns, to add the perfect complement to many interior designs. Heavy patterned glasses provide added strength and support, and are a fast-growing product category. According to customers' requirements, patterned glass can be cut, ground, drilled, tempered, laminated, etc.

Production

Patterned glass is made with a rolled glass process. All rolled patterned glass begins as a batch of materials, including silica sand, soda, and lime. These materials are melted together in a tank, and then the molten glass mixture is fed onto a machine slab. The glass flows under a refractory gate which controls glass volume and speed then moves between two counter-rotating, water-cooled rollers. One of these rollers is embossed, imprinting a distinct pattern onto the soft surface of the glass while the other roller is smooth.

The result is a piece of glass that is patterned and textured on one side, while smooth on the reverse. The distance between the two rollers determines the ultimate thickness of the glass. After it moves between the rollers, patterned glass is annealed or cooled slowly in order to remove any residual stresses. Rolled patterned glass can then be cut into standard sizes or cut into customized sizes for a specific customer application. The glass is then inventoried and ready for delivery.

Applications

Rolled glasses are used in commercial, residential, and specialty applications. End uses include shower doors and tub enclosures including frameless shower doors interior partitions, translucent door and window treatments, foyers and vestibules, patio furniture, shelving, decorative furniture, and lighting fixtures. Comprehensive range of soft natural colours compliments and harmonizes with modern building materials to provide an exciting and different look to new and existing buildings. Pattern glasses are available in large amount of patterns. Patterned glass is most often found in bathroom windows.

Patterned glass is applied to all kinds of public and private places, such as office, meeting room, hotel, hospital, bath room, washroom, etc. It is also widely used as glass table, glass shaft and lampshade and so on. Mainly used in interior partitions, interior design, decorations, street furniture etc.

Tiffany glass

History of Tiffany Glass

Tiffany glass is the generic name used to describe the many and varied types of glass developed and produced by Louis Comfort Tiffany, (1848-1933), one of the most famous stained glass artists of the United States; he was remembered not only for his windows but for decorative glass objects as well, in particular the so-called Tiffany lamps.

Tiffany was an interior designer, and in 1878 his interest turned towards the creation of stained glass, when he opened his own studio and glass foundry because he was unable to find the types of glass that he desired in interior decoration.

Tiffany Glass

Most people think of Tiffany glass as decorative bronze lamps with intricate multicolored, stained-glass shades, but it actually includes other glass products, including solid color windows, painted art glass shades and lamps, and flat and pressed glass. Tiffany glass pieces were incorporated into homes, most notably in lamp and window construction. The glass work was used in the homes of the wealthy, but also in public buildings.

Tiffany glass not only incorporates the color into the glass, but also tonal variations and texture, as well as use tonal variations to suggest depth. The pieces of glass were not evenly colored but were pieces of opalescent window glass made by combining and manipulating several colors to create an unprecedented range of hues and three-dimensional effects. Thus the tiffany windows look like paintings, which were therefore in great demand.

The Preston Bradley Hall dome put in place in Chicago's first public library in 1897 features more than 1,000 square feet of Tiffany glass. (Preston Bradley Hall is now home to the Chicago Cultural Center.)

Types of Tiffany glass

1. Opalescent glass

Opalescent glass is commonly used to describe glass where more than one color is present, being fused during the manufacture, as against flashed glass in which two colors may be laminated, or silver stained glass where a solution of silver nitrate is superficially applied, turning red glass to orange and blue glass to green. Some opalescent glass was used by several stained glass studios in England.

Opalescent glass is made with a combination of white glass and a cathedral color. The opacity of this type of glass is in relation to the amount of white glass used in its creation. Dense opal base glass uses a higher consistency of white glass than light opal base glass. Because of this change in mixtures, dense opal base glass is much more opaque than light opal base glasses.

Opalescent glass radiates especially deep, vibrant hues to achieve pictorial effects of unsurpassed beauty. This stunning stained glass piece features transparent enamels, silk-screened and kiln-fired on hand-rolled glass.

Opalescent glass is made in a number of ways, including as a single colour; with the pigments that give the glass a streaky, mottled, or cloudy appearance; and with or without a surface texture. It can be both a most beautiful and challenging glass with which to work. This is because the pigments are mixed into opalescent glass by hand during manufacture, with the result that the color patterns and tones in the glass are never exactly the same in any two sheets.

Opalescent glass has one characteristic that transparent glass does not: namely, that it can be seen in both transmitted and reflected light. Opalescent glass has color impregnated into it to the extent that the pigmentation is visible by light rays reflecting off it. It can be seen as well as seen through.

2. Favrile Glass

Favrile glass often has a distinctive characteristic that is common in some glass from Classical antiquity: it possesses a superficial iridescence. This iridescence causes the surface to shimmer, but also causes a degree of opacity. This iridescent effect of the glass was obtained by mixing different colors of glass together while hot. Favrile is different from other iridescent glasses because its color is not just on the surface, but imbedded in the glass.

Some of the distinguishing colors in Favrile glass includes "Gold Lustre", Samian Red"," Mazarin Blue", "Tel-al-amana" (or Turquoise Blue), and Aquamarine. Favrile was the first art glass to be used in stained-glass windows, as Tiffany first thought of the idea of making patterns in windows based shapes and colors.

3. Streamer Glass

Streamer glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of glass strings affixed to its surface. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass.

Streamers are prepared from very hot molten glass, gathered at the end of a punty (pontil) that is rapidly swung back and forth and stretched into long, thin strings that rapidly cool and harden. These hand-stretched streamers are pressed on the molten surface of sheet glass during the rolling process, and become permanently fused.

4. Fracture Glass

Fracture glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of irregularly shaped, thin glass wafers affixed to its surface. Fracture glass is made from paper-thin blown shards or flakes of intensely colored glass fused to the bottom of sheets during the rolling process. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, foliage seen from a distance.

The irregular glass wafers, called fractures, are prepared from very hot, colored molten glass, gathered at the end of a blowpipe. A large bubble is forcefully blown until the walls of the bubble rapidly stretch, cool and harden. The resulting glass bubble has paper-thin walls and is immediately shattered into shards. These hand blown shards are pressed on the surface of the molten glass sheet during the rolling process, to which they become permanently fused.

5. Fracture-streamer Glass

Fracture-Streamer glass is fracture glass combined with hand-stretched streamers or strings of glass during the rolling process. Fracture-streamer glass refers to a sheet of glass with a pattern of glass strings, and irregularly shaped, thin glass wafers, affixed to its surface. Tiffany made use of such textured glass to represent, for example, twigs, branches and grass, and distant foliage.

The “fractures” are created by the addition of thin blown flakes of intensely colored glass, while the “streamers” are pulled or drawn strings of intense colors. Both fractures and streamers are quick-fused to the bottom of sheets during the rolling process.

Fracture and streamer glass is used primarily for backgrounds; the fractures suggest multitudinous leaves or flowers in the distance, while the streamers suggest twigs or stems. For this reason, fracture colors are usually selected to correspond to the colors used in leaf or flower foregrounds.

6. Ripple Glass

Ripple glass refers to a sheet of textured glass with marked surface waves. The texture is created during the glass sheet-forming process. A sheet is formed from molten glass with a roller that spins on it, while travelling forward. Normally the roller spins at the same speed as its own forward motion, and the resulting sheet has a smooth surface. In the manufacture of rippled glass, the roller spins faster than its own forward motion. The rippled effect is retained as the glass cools.

In order to cut ripple glass, the sheet may be scored on the smoother side with a carbide glass cutter, and broken at the score line with breaker-grozier pliers.

7. Ring Mottle Glass

Ring mottle glass is an opalescent glass in which rates of crystal growth have been controlled to create ring-shaped areas of opacity. The effect is a visual surface mottling. Ring mottle glass refers to sheet glass with a pronounced mottle created by localized, heat-treated opacification and crystal-growth dynamics. Tiffany's distinctive style exploited glass containing a variety of motifs such as those found in ring mottle glass, and he relied minimally on painted details.

This type of glass has a locally varying opacity; the “rings” are more opaque than the surrounding matrix. Ring mottled glass is used to provide color and image gradation that is non-streaky, or non-linear. The naturally rounded shape of each ring breaks up the more typical streakiness of stained glass. The artist, using ring mottles, can create shading and imagery unavailable from other glass types.

8. Drapery Glass

Glass sheets with multiple dramatic folds, likened to those in hanging drapes. Drapery glass refers to a sheet of heavily folded glass that suggests fabric folds. Tiffany made abundant use of drapery glass in ecclesiastical stained glass windows to add a 3-dimensional effect to flowing robes and angel wings, and to imitate the natural coarseness of magnolia petals.

To create drapery glass, the molten glass is shaped by taking a hand held roller and using it like a rolling pin to create "speed bumps" on the surface. It can also be tugged and pulled by hand using steel tongs to create the deep fabric-like folds in the surface. It is easy for the glassmakers to get burnt while making this unusual glass and extreme care must be taken while rolling the glass.

Etched Glass

Decorative glass of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was sometimes put through a process of ‘etching’ to produce a frosted pattern. Etched glass is the result of intentional and often artistic carving of the surface of glass to leave a white, frosted finish. This technique is used to create designs on the glass.

Etching refers to the technique of creating art on the surface of glass by applying acidic, caustic, or abrasive substances. Etched glass can be found in a wide variety of decorative contexts, including glass doors and windows, furniture, wine bottles, and serving dishes. The skill of the artisan etching the glass will determine the quality and detail of the resulting piece.

There are three ways to create a piece of etched glass:

1. Sand-blasting
2. Acid-etching
3. Chemical etching

Sandblasting

Sandblasting is the act of shooting an abrasive material, such as sand, at a piece of glass. There are three other types of sandblasting techniques: Carving, shading, and surface etching. A combination of all three techniques can also used.

Acid etching

Acid etching uses an acid resistant material to cover areas of the glass that the artist wants protected. Hydrofluoric acid is then applied to the glass to produce the design.

Chemical etching

Chemical etching is another way to produce etched glass and is normally what is found in glass etching kits. Just as in sandblasting, a stencil is used to protect the glass where the etching effect is not desired. Instead of an abrasive, however, a chemical cream is applied to the glass. It is this etching cream that produces the final frosted effect.

Acid etching can create the same appearance as sandblasted glass. One of the major advantages of acid etching over sand blasting is that it can be done simply and without as many tools. A frosting effect can also be achieved using different strengths of acid etching compounds.