I would go to a place that does stained glass. They often have stuff on display. You might also discuss custom work or maybe a student would be willing to make windows for you, but plan on spending big bucks for anything custom as it is time consuming work.

The other place to look is salvage yards, places where they demo old houses or hang onto and restore architectural pieces.

In our area, there's this place...

Here is a link that might be useful: United house wrecking

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 12:35

When I encountered this 12 years ago, I took the class and did my own. :)

Look for a stained glass place, and they'll custom make them to fit your windows. These places seem to be disappearing, though. There were 3 stained glass stores in my city when I did my class, and they have all gone out of business. I have to order glass online now if I do another project.

You probably do want something hanging in front of your window, though. Art glass doesn't tend to have the same weather proof properties that regular modern windows do.

I know Andersen has art glass windows that would pass code here. But they were spendy (3x the regular sdl cost) and the choices were limited.

Not sure about your rules there for energy efficiency, but Ebay also has some custom craftsmen/women who build the window to your specs. I wish I had a name for you, but I remember seeing them when searching there last year. Also Etsy (link below).

Here is a link that might be useful: etsy stained glass designer

Great information, and so fast!

I hadn't considered a student, but I'm still close to two old students who are in art school. Neither is studying stained glass, but they might know someone . . . a good idea.

Wow, what a great "salvage place". I'm not aware of anything like that in my area, nor am I aware of any storefronts that create custom pieces, but I will look.

I was thinking of online places -- I did enjoy looking through the etsy stuff.

And doing it myself is absolutely an option. The community college near us teaches a class.

About mounting and glass protection -- I am woefully confused. I absolutely understand that bits of glass aren't going to provide much in the way of energy efficiency! Do I need glass in front AND behind the design? I was looking at some lovely pre-made "bevels" that can form the central piece of the design -- looked pretty smart to my uneducated eye. If you go with those, can you still install a piece of glass towards the exterior of the house for protection? If I go the DIY route and make my own pieces, can I get someone to frame them . . . or do I hand them to the builder and say, "Here, install these" and assume he can frame them in?

No, you don't need glass in front of them. They are designed to hang on their own. I have a couple in my bathroom to block views in. This house was existing, so I made panels the same size as my windows. I mounted trim inside the existing window frame, for a spacer. I then placed the stained glass panel against the trim, and then more trim in front of the stained glass to hold it in place.

I have some other panels in the living room/dining room, and I built wooden frames around the glass and then hung them from the window frames. These aren't made the exact size of the windows, just the same shape.

Depending on the size, you may need support bars. Also you don't want a tight fit as you can get heat building up behind the glass from the sun which can cause warping or cracking. I would also want weep holes in case any moisture built up behind the glass.

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 17:43

It's true, you wouldn't want it too tight, I didn't want to have to force it into place, so there's probably an 1/8" gap all around it which is hidden by the trim.

Are these going to be in operational windows? That will make things a lot more difficult. I have several vintage British stained and beveled glass windows, but we used them as transoms. I bought them at auctions in TX. Turns out there is a dealer in the next town over here in central NC that sells and restores them. I had him add some vintage glass to the ones that needed to be made wider.

Here is one to show what I mean:

We just had one put in. It belonged to a family member. I see salvaged stained glass windows a lot around here in the antique shops. Most of those are kind of small. Our builder just took what we had and put it between two pieces of glass, caulked the gaps and framed it in. I am sure it is not very energy efficient but we wanted it. Here it is. Not everybody likes the glass covering but we wanted to protect it.

Long story short, back in the 60s, Mom was in VT and saw a victorian home being torn down, so she stopped and asked if she could look around. She saw these 2 doors and asked how much. He said, give me $10. So she bought them. They were in her garage for years...amazing they were never broken. Still one was badly warped and cracked and would need serious repair...more difficult as it's caming, not leaded glass.

So we managed to salvage one, had a stained glass restorer tighten the joints, had a new door made the size we needed and had the glass inserted in the new door. It's indoor only and it's on a door that is seldom closed so it's pretty safe.