Stained glass allows nature to play with art on its own terms 
Ingredient No. 1

Light
All colors depend on light. It bends, reflects and disperses into a wide spectrum of wavelengths, illuminating the world around us, making possible our sense of sight. 
Ingredient No. 2

Design
Design expresses the process of developing a path to construction for a desired outcome. Sometimes thought through in its entirety, many times left to the direction of the moment.
Ingredient No. 3

Craft
The faculty of executing well what one has devised to achieve. The use of skill and experience to shape materials and bring out the highest of their qualities.
Light streaming through the hanging window panel onto the window sill.

Combining new and ancient techniques with contemporary images 

The process of stained glass dates to medieval times, and involves using various metals to hold together individually hand-cut pieces of glass. I also enjoy incorporating other elements--sheets of copper, brass or nickel silver, copper tubing, glass rods, low fire hand-painting and kiln-fired glass. My background in painting (BFA 1979 VCU) and my love of nature drew me to glass over 40 years ago. It interacts with its environment, and changes with the light of day and night. It has a unique ability to invoke a sense of place, the quality of light on a landscape, or the state of mind one brings to these things.  -  Janet Smith
FEATURED PIECE
ascent detail janet smith light images glass
Ascent
#721 - 14” × 34” x 4”
Materials: light amber, aqua, and medium gray glass panels, fused glass inlays, bevel glass in a wrought iron stand​.
UNIQUE MATERIALS

Hand Painted Glass
Using a unique low-fire process to back-paint clear textured glass allows me to produce a virtually limitless palette of color and texture.

Kiln-fired Glass
Using techniques dating back to ancient Egypt and Rome, pieces of clear, colored and dichroic glass are fused at high temperatures to create a single sheet of glass. Sometimes these sheets are "slumped" into molds to create unique textures.

​

Metal Inlays
Sheets of copper, brass or nickel silver are incorporated into pieces. Sheets can be patinated to achieve a wide range of colors..

Copper Tubing
Pliable cooper tubing is hand bent to emphasize lines and shapes, while adding surface texture and structural strength.

Dichroic Glass
Dichroic glass is produced by stacking layers of opaque black or clear glass.with microlayers of metals and oxides. This causes the color of the glass to shift dependent upon viewing angle. Clear dichroic glass will transmit one color through itself, while reflecting a different second color.

Effetre (Moretti) Rods
Traditionally used in torch-worked glass pieces, these handmade rods are produced in Murano, Italy  from a soda-lime glass. They come in variety of unique styles. I incorporate them into many of my pieces to add dimension and color.

Beveled Glass
​Acting as a prism in sunlight, beveled glass creates interesting color diffraction which both highlights the glass work and provides a spectrum of colors thrown onto nearby surfaces. The angled cuts of the bevels also provide the eye with multiple viewing planes as one walks past.

Wrought Iron Stands
Custom handmade wrought iron stands are made in collaboration with master welder Herbert Underwood.

"My pieces are an ever changing interaction of light and glass."

Janet Smith - Light Images Glass
Stained Glass Artworks created by Janet Smith, Light Images Glass