Stained Glass by Tampa Bay Artist James W. Spruill

Stained glass is an incredibly beautiful artistic medium.During travels in Europe I stood awestruck at the monumental windows of the ancient cathedrals and decided that it was a medium I had to learn.With all the sunshine to be enjoyed in the Tampa Bay area stained glass panels in entryways and windows add spectacular colors and patterns to your living space that change constantly with the variations of the day's light . Projects can be as extensive as the one on the first page and detailed here, ( at the artist's home in St Petersburg ) to simple sun catchers which can hang in a kitchen window,stained glass can add a dimension to your home like no other medium.

While the huge pieces seen in religious institutions are extremely heavy and done in the old fashioned lead channel method, I use the foil wrap technique invented and perfected by the Louis Comfort Tiffany studios over a hundred years ago. This method ,using copper foil with an adhesive backing to bind the edges of the art glass,then soldering them together,enables an artist to use very small pieces of glass with a much smaller divide between them than the leaded glass method. With this technique many different colors and patterns can be juxtaposed giving the possibility of finely detailed compositions and an amazing array of colors over a small area. It is possible to create moderately large compositions with this method quite sufficient for residences or businesses.