Beautify Your Garden With Stained Glass Art

Stained glass has many applications. The beauty of your garden can be enhanced by capturing the beauty of the sun's natural light through stained glass art. Stained glass ornaments in your garden will capture the sun's natural light and the stained glass will sparkle as the light dances off its surface.

A stained glass stepping stone or garden stone path provides a wonderful mixture of color and design leading to the entry to your flower garden. Stained glass mosaic garden stone designs are fun to do and can be placed throughout your garden. You can make them yourself with regular concrete mix or special colored stone concrete. You can make your own molds or purchase molds from your retailers or wholesalers.

With Tiffany Garden Borders patterns you can build a 4-foot concrete and stained glass circular garden border around your flowerbed, tree, birdbath, backyard pond, sundial or herb garden.

If you aren't experienced at scoring, breaking and grinding stained glass, just break random scraps of stained glass and arrange them in a design, or in no particular design, in your concrete form.

You can buy easy-to-make stepping stone kits in craft stores or online. Stained glass shops and suppliers have hundreds of patterns and instructional books on stained glass garden stones and other stained glass garden ornaments.

Whimsical frogs, fish and turtle stained glass designs on concrete rain spout deflectors are more attractive than the ordinary plastic ones you see under everyone's gutter drains.

Picture beautiful stained glass and beveled or prism glass wind chimes flashing brilliant colors. The sound of the stained glass shapes bouncing off each other is pleasing when they are moved by a gentle breeze.

Iron garden stakes frame colorful stained glass designs which are interchangeable. You can change the design to fit any season or special occasion. The stained glass garden stakes can be placed by your front door or in the garden. Guests will enjoy the warm, welcoming feeling they get when they see the warm colorful stained glass garden stakes and stepping stones.

Another gardeners' favorite is stained glass wire stake designs for flowerpots and smaller garden beds. 3D creatures such as stained glass hummingbirds, butterflies, ladybugs, and dragonflies are favorite colorful additions to any patio flowerpot.

A popular stained glass garden project is a resting bench. This is a larger and heavier stained glass project but is worth the effort. The beautiful designs in the many available patterns for stained glass benches fit so well in a beautiful, colorful garden, or under a shade tree. Many have been used in cemeteries and church yards as a lovely, restful place to pause and reflect.

There are iron frames for patio tables to be done in stained glass mosaics. They can be purchased though stained glass suppliers, shops and online. There are many stained glass patterns and books available for the patio tables; or, as always, you can use your imagination and come up with your own stained glass mosaic table design.

What about a cozy looking stained glass fireplace screen in front of your patio fireplace, or stained glass patio lanterns or porch light fixtures?

You can make any stained glass garden decoration yourself or have a stained glass artisan design and make it for you. You can decorate garden walls or patio floors with stained glass mosaic designs. When it comes to decorating your garden, deck, or patio with stained glass, you are limited only by your own imagination.

Glass Art for Young Artists

Stained glass is a beautiful art form that combines the use of various colors, shapes, textures and transparencies with light to illuminate, decorate and inspire the mind, spirit and eye of the beholder. Children have always been, and will always be, fascinated with shapes and colors which make the art form of stained glass perfect for them.

Unlike a coloring book page which is coloured once and then maybe taped to the refrigerator for a few days before finding its way to the garbage can, a stained glass creation can bring enjoyment and help boost a child's self-esteem for many years to come. There is nothing better than a beautiful constant reminder of the child's great "achievement".

In its early days, long before Christ was born; stained glass was made by mixing different metals with sand and soda and heating them at high temperatures so that the colors were actually a part of the glass. This type was thicker and the colors were rich and dark. Throughout the decades styles and tastes changed and new ways of using stained glass were needed. As people wanted to get more detail in their stained glass windows and also allow more light in, they began to use the technique of painting on the glass, rather than mixing the colors into while making it. This is one easy way to introduce a child to the art of stained glass. Kids can learn to paint on glass with Reusch paints, the same ones used for many years in traditional glass painting. Today you can purchase lead free paints. Once the glass is painted, it is fired permanently in a kiln.

Another easy and fun project for children is drawing designs on glass using ground glass, known as frit. Kids can be really creative with the many colour choices available in frit and the various grades of coarseness. Using a pattern below clear glass, they arrange the frit and adhere it with fusible glue. After adding another layer of clear glass on top, the whole design is melted together in the kiln to complete the project.

Children love to learn and using a fused glass or stained glass project provides the opportunity to teach them on a variety of topics such as art appreciation, the history of decorative glass, architecture, colours and design. Any project that allows a child to be creative, interact with others and develop their self-esteem is worthy of taking into consideration and glass crafting certainly meets those requirements. So why not encourage your budding young artist to pursue the wonderful techniques of making glass art? You might even want to join them. But be careful, glass work can be addictive.