This stained glass commission combines beveled glass with stained glass. The bevels are stock bevels, which means that they are pre-made clusters of beveled glass pieces that are readily for sale from wholesale stained glass suppliers. This particular manufacturer has come up with a novel idea... instead of marketing complete bevel clusters, they market bevel cluster elements. These elements can be combined in thousands of different ways, allowing the stained glass artist to create bevel clusters that are more unique than complete stock bevel clusters. In each of these particular doors, there is a center design element, combined with two end design elements (one above and one below the central element). Since I do not make my own bevels, I must either [1] purchase stock beveled clusters, or [2] design and commission the making of custom bevels. In both the stock and the custom bevels, the cutting of the glass (before the pieces are beveled and polished on large grinding wheels) is not up to the precise standard that I demand of my work. Stock bevels even come with a paper pattern of how the bevel pieces are supposed to fit together, but they never fit the template very accurately.  To achieve the precision that is the hallmark of my work, I include several extra steps. I lay out the bevels on the large piece of paper that will eventually become the full sized glass patterns. Next, I start grinding the beveled pieces on a diamond-bitted grinder. I grind the curved edges until they are smooth curves and the straight edges until they are truly straight. I grind the points until they are actually pointed (they never are very pointed to begin with!). Then, working from the center outward, I grind the pieces wherever necessary until they fit together properly. Finally, I trace around all of the beveled pieces so that the background pieces will fit properly too. While this takes considerably more time to produce beveled glass panels that are precise, I think the beauty of the final leaded glass panels is worth the effort. Besides, it's the only way I know how to make leaded glass windows... I'm sure that not doing this would take almost as much time trying to fit together pieces of glass that really don't fit! The background glass here is a clear, glue-chipped glass (one of the few processes that is done to clear glass after it is cold, rather than while it is still molten). The colored glasses look fairly accurate here, so I won't describe them, except to say that what looks black in between the bevels is a rich dark green. These beveled glass door panels were mounted on the inside of the existing glass (this is explained on my Commission Process page), reducing the cost of installation and providing more heat loss protection. Only the tiniest of spaces is necessary to do this, and with proper caulking and painting the result is almost indiscernible from a typical in-the-sash mounting. To view my Beveled Options Pages, click HERE.

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