Ancient Treasures

• Ancient Egypt was the birthplace of colored glass as a distinct art. In those days, glass jewelry was worthy of a pharaoh. Archaeologists discovered exquisite pieces in the tomb of King Tutankhamen, better known as Tut. Ancient Egyptian artists laid different colored pieces of glass next to each other and fused them together. Threads of still-warm glass were also carefully embedded in traced designs. The final piece was reheated to permanently fuse the glass to the underlying material.
  
  

Coloring the Glass

• The glass of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Phoenicia was a fairly straightforward mixture of sand, lime, and soda ash. The resultant glass was opaque or semi-transparent. It also retained whatever color was imparted by natural imperfections. Eventually, glass workers learned to create pieces of pure color. Cobalt added to the basic mixture produced a vivid blue. Copper or iron made turquoise. Yellow was created through the addition of lead and antimony. Craftsmen produced pure white and even black glass, through the use of different combinations of metals and minerals.
  
  

Development of Blown Glass

• More than 2,000 years ago, some enterprising artisans began to heat glass over a lamp instead of inside a furnace. The new process made possible the production of translucent tubes and disks. The Ancient Romans also cut colored glass into a variety of shapes that could be set into mosaics. The Byzantines further refined the process producing transparent glass in a variety of shades. Early medieval colored glass is found mostly in the form of tiles that were mixed together with bits of marble and stone.
  
  

Stained Glass

• The art of making transparent colored glass truly flowered later in the Middle Ages. Churches and cathedrals all over Europe were decorated with beautiful windows that were made up of tiny pieces of colored glass. The glass was cut to shape with a red-hot iron, and the pieces reassembled over a cartoon. Master glass workers applied the colorants directly to the glass, fusing the color into the glass with high heat. The individual pieces were joined together with strips of lead.
  
  

Modern Colored Glass

• Colored glass can also be cut and blown into almost any shape. It can be applied to portions of vessels to impart brilliant effects. The glass masters of Murano, in Venice, eventually spread their art throughout Europe. Kings and nobles competed with each other to produce the finest specimens of colored glass. Today's artisans use similar methods. Modern techniques make possible colors and patterns unknown to Medieval and Renaissance craftsmen. One example, sommerso, permits the submerging of one color under another.