Stained Glass Terms and Definitions

Stained Glass | Terms & Definitions - C
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Came: A grooved strip of metal, generally with an H or U shaped cross section, used to join separate parts of glass windows. Originally lead, but zinc, brass copper and lead ores are also used.

Came Bender: Tool used to bend metal cames (zinc, copper, brass) into curved shapes without destroying the profile or center channel.

Cameo Glass: Glass of one layer covered, usually by casing, with one or more layers of contrasting color(s). The outer layers are acid-etched, carved, cut, or engraved to produce a design that stands out from the background. The first cameo glasses were made by the ancient Romans. The genre was revived in England and, to a lesser extent, in America in the late 19th century.

Candelabrum: A candle holder, lamp, or lighting fixture with several arms or branches.

Cane: A thin, monochrome rod, or a composite rod consisting of groups of rods of different colors, which are bundled together and fused to form a polychrome design that is visible when seen in cross section. See also Bar, Millefiori, and Rod.

Carnival Glass: Inexpensive pressed glass with vivid gold, orange, and purple iridescence, made in the United States between about 1895 and 1924. It is so called because it was frequently offered as fairground prizes.

Cartoon: The name for the working drawing for a stained glass design which contains all the cutlines. It can also contain paint lines, color, grain directions, piece numbering, an other information. It is essentially the blueprint for the work.

Carving: The removal of glass from the surface of an object by means of hand-held tools.

Casement Window: A window sash hung by hinges and fastened to the window frame.

Casing: The application of a layer of glass over a layer of contrasting color. The gaffer either gathers one layer over another gather, or inflates a gob of hot glass inside a preformed blank of another color. The two components adhere and are inflated together (perhaps with frequent reheating) until they have the desired form. Sometimes, the upper layer is carved, cut, or acid-etched to produce cameo glass.

Casting: The generic name for a wide variety of techniques used to form glass in a mold.

Cathedral Glass: Term used to describe transparent glasses, often of a single color. The name comes its resemblance to glass used in traditional church windows.

Cats Paw: Opalescent glass with a mottled appearance that suggests cat paw prints.

Cement: General term used to describe either the mixture worked into a lead came project to seal and stiffen the work or to describe the material used in mosaic works into which the design is embedded.

Chair: The bench used by the gaffer while forming a glass object. Traditionally, this is a wide bench with arms, on which the gaffer rests the blowpipe with its parison of molten glass and rolls it backward and forward so that the parison retains its symmetrical shape during the forming process. It also can refer to the team of glassworkers who assist the gaffer.

Chalk Glass: A colorless glass containing chalk, developed in Bohemia in the late 17th century. Vessels of thick chalk glass were often elaborately engraved.

Chamber Annealing: The part of a kiln used to cool down fired glass.

Chancel: The east portion of the church set aside for the clergy and choir.

Chandelier: (French, "candlestick") A lighting fixture suspended from the ceiling, with two or more arms bearing lights (originally, candles) or two or more pendent lights. Many chandeliers have faceted lead glass arms, candle cups, shafts, and prisms, which reflect the light and sparkle like tiny mirrors.

Channel: The flat "U" shaped groove in the came in which the glass sits.

Chimney: A glass tube, open at both ends, used to shield the flame of an oil lamp, to trap soot, and to increase the draft.

Chipped Glass: Another tem used for Glue Chip Glass. A unique surface texture created by applying a thin layer of animal hide glue to a cathedral glass and then heated in an oven. As the glue dries it pulls away from the glass surface and chips it. Different patterns created include single, double, and oceanic. The texture is often described as feathered or like frost on a window pane.

Chunk Glass: Another name for Dalle-de-Verre and slab glass. Generally they are glasses 8" x 12" and 1" thick.

Cintra Glass: A type of decorative glass developed by Frederick Carder (1863-1963) at Steuben Glass Works in Corning, New York, before 1917. Most Cintra glass was made by picking up chips of colored glass on the parison and then casing them with a thin layer of (usually) colorless glass.

Clamp: A tool sometimes used instead of a pontil to hold the closed end (usually the bottom) of a partly formed glass vessel while the open end (usually the mouth) is being shaped. See also Gadget.

Clapper: A tool consisting of two rectangular pieces of wood joined at one end by a leather hinge. There is an aperture in one of the pieces of wood, and this holds the stem of a goblet or wineglass while it is being made. The clapper is used to squeeze a blob of glass in order to form the foot.

Claw Beaker: A beaker decorated with claw- or trunk-like protrusions made by applying blobs of hot glass that melted the parts of the wall to which they were attached. The blobs were then blown outward and manipulated to resemble hollow claws. Claw beakers were made in Europe between the fifth and seventh centuries A.D. Similar decoration was made in Germany in the 16th century.

Clerestory: The upper part of the nave above the side aisles of a church.

Cluster Socket: A multiple (3 or 5 generally) socket with bulbs at angels to each other. They were used in Tiffany lamps instead of one large globe.

Clutha Glass: A type of glass with air traps and specks of aventurine, patented in the 1890s by James Couper, Christopher Dresser, and George Walton.

Cluthra Glass: A type of glass developed in the 1920s by Frederick Carder (1863-1963) at Steuben Glass Works in Corning, New York.

Coil Base: A trail or thread of glass drawn out to form a ring or conical foot on which the vessel stands.

Collage: Method of producing areas of color on paintings of cartoons, usually using colored paper, cut to required shape and stuck on to the cartoon.

Color Selection: The very careful choice of which colored glass, made under natural light, is used in a stained glass work or restoration.

Commercial Glass: Clear, heavy glass with a pattern pressed on one side.

Composition: Term used to help describe the overall design, balance, color, and line of a finished piece of stained glass.

Copper Foil: The technique of joining pieces of glass where foil is centered on the edge of each glass piece, then bent over the edge to cover a very small portion of the back and front faces of the glass. Pieces are abutted and solder is melted over the exposed foil surfaces, causing the foil-covered glass edges to become joined. It also refers to the mil-thickness copper material, often adhesive backed, used to join separate pieces of glass.

Copper Sulfate: A compound used in solution form that reacts with the tin in stained glass solder alloys to produce a coppery tone on the surface of the solder. The color produced ranges from bright copper to darker brown tones.

Copper-wheel Engraving: A technique of decorating the surface of an object. Copper disks (wheels) of various sizes and rim profiles are rotated on a spindle. An abrasive such as Carborundum® (in the past, emery was frequently used), mixed with oil, is applied to the edge of the wheel. The wheel presses the abrasive against the glass so that it removes the surface by grinding.

Core: The form to which molten glass is applied in order to make a core-formed vessel. In pre-Roman times, the core is thought to have been made of animal dung mixed with clay.

Core Forming: The technique of forming a vessel by trailing or gathering molten glass around a core supported by a rod. After forming, the object is removed from the rod and annealed. After annealing, the core is removed by scraping.

Corella: A texture made on glass by Wissmach Glass Company. It creates a soft, lightly hammered surface, making the glass highly refractive.

Cracking Off: The process of detaching a glass object from a blowpipe or pontil.

Craquel (Crackel) Glass: An antique made glass into which an intentional cracked texture has been added during the cooling process.

Crimper: Tool used to bend copper foil tape applied to the edge of stained glass glass around the edges. It may also be designed to press or burnish the foil to the glass.

Crizzling, Crisseling: A chemical instability in glass caused by an imbalance in the ingredients of the batch, particularly an excess of alkali or a deficiency of stabilizer (usually lime). The instability of the glass results in an attack by atmospheric moisture, which produces a network of cracks in the surface. Crizzling can be slowed or perhaps even halted, but it cannot at present be reversed.

Crown: The top anatomical division of a lampshade (crown, body, skirt). Come in different shapes and heights, may sit vertical or flare out from the center line of the lamp. It is a feature more often found in panel type lamps.

Cruciform: Refers to anything cross shaped.

Cusp: The projecting points formed by the intersection of two segmental arcs or foils.

Cutter: General term used to describe the tool used to make the score or break line in glass. The tool consists of a small steel or carbide wheel on a axle set into a head that can either be permanently attached or removable from a handle of some shape.

Cullet: Raw glass or pieces of broken glass from a cooled melt or scrap glass intended for recycling.

Cut line: The borders of cut edges of glass as defined in a designs cartoon

Cutting: The technique whereby glass is removed from the surface of an object by grinding it with a rotating wheel made of stone, wood, or metal, and an abrasive suspended in liquid. See also copper-wheel engraving, carving, and wheel engraving.

Cutting Fluid: Applies to any fluid used with a glass cutter to help keep the wheel smooth rolling and improve its scoring function. Fluids used include kerosene along with commercial preparations.

Cylinder Glass: Window glass made by inflating a large gather and swinging it until it forms a cylinder. The cylinder is then detached from the blowpipe, and both ends are removed with shears. Next, the cylinder is cut lengthwise, reheated, and either tooled or allowed to slump until it assumes the form of a flat sheet. After annealing, the sheet is cut into panes.

The sources for this material include:
•Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking.
Compiled by David Whitehouse, 88 pp., 47 illus., 1993
•How to Work in Stained Glass. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 247 pp., 1972
•Stained Glass Lamps. Anita & Seymour Isenberg, 222 pp., 1972
•The Techniques of Stained Glass. Partrick Reyntiens, 168 pp. 1977
•The Coming Museum Website: www.cmog.org
• The Stained Glass Association of America Website: www.stainedglass.org