Glass is somewhat of a mystery: It has both gas, liquid and solid behavioral characteristics, depending on its temperature. It has the ability to capture light with similar properties to that of a jewel, however it is made so simplistically – superheating quartzite sand with lime and soda.
Before records began, humans have known has to make and colour glass. Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxides during the glass making process. These oxides capture certain parts of the white light spectrum, allowing us to see beautiful colors such as the ones that we see in stained glass windows. Gold coloured salt/oxide produce amazing reds, cobalt creates stunning blues; silver produces golds, whilst copper can create both greens and reds.
Ornate stained glass windows have been around since 1000 AD. The Gothic age gave us full-flowered stained glass windows, which we see in the magnificent churches and cathedrals around Europe. During these times churches became higher, with thinner walls and larger, filled with generous amounts of stained glass.
Significant artistic skill must have been required to design and manufacture such stained glass pieces. Also, the artist must have had some engineering and physics skills, as they had to create the piece, most commonly a window, so that it was able to support its own weight and withstand the test of time. They certainly succeeded, given how many stained glass windows from the Middle Ages still remain intact today.
Before records began, humans have known has to make and colour glass. Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxides during the glass making process. These oxides capture certain parts of the white light spectrum, allowing us to see beautiful colors such as the ones that we see in stained glass windows. Gold coloured salt/oxide produce amazing reds, cobalt creates stunning blues; silver produces golds, whilst copper can create both greens and reds.
Ornate stained glass windows have been around since 1000 AD. The Gothic age gave us full-flowered stained glass windows, which we see in the magnificent churches and cathedrals around Europe. During these times churches became higher, with thinner walls and larger, filled with generous amounts of stained glass.
Significant artistic skill must have been required to design and manufacture such stained glass pieces. Also, the artist must have had some engineering and physics skills, as they had to create the piece, most commonly a window, so that it was able to support its own weight and withstand the test of time. They certainly succeeded, given how many stained glass windows from the Middle Ages still remain intact today.