light made solid

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett looks to be an interesting read about religion as a function of animal behavior as an adaptive strategy for survival. Here is a review of the book. I have thought of religious artists as focusing more on the action of doing the work of creating and don't necessarily having to believe in the particulars of the religion. It allows us to work with any religion and create stained glass as a practice of studying religion as an expression of human consciousness.

York Minster is the home of the largest Medieval stained glass window. In total the church houses one hundred and twenty eight windows. The five sisters window is in the North Transept, named after the five fifty foot lancets, each in thirteenth century grisaille, a frosted silver-grey glass. The fifteenth century east window is the world's largest area of medieval stained glass (approximately the size of a tennis court); it depicts the beginning and the end of the world. Other famous windows are the West window with its heart-shaped tracery portraying the heart of Yorkshire. In the South transept is the Rose window commemorating the end of the wars of the roses. Another of importance is the Pilgrim window, featuring Peter surrounded by pilgrims, unusual details are the funeral of a monkey and a cock reading.

The rededication of windows at Christ Episcopal Church will signify the end of a 10-year restoration project of 21 stained-glass windows in the church, including the 11 that were memorials and original windows that date from 1850. Those windows include the three large, lancet-shaped windows above the altar. The Henry Hannen Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., which made the windows that later failed, also made the lancet windows. The Christ Church windows were removed two at a time and taken to Wardell Art Glass Studio in Aurora, Ill. There, John Clark restored each window inch by inch, with assistance from his wife, Evelina Jarosz Clark. They will speak at the rededication about preserving the windows.

The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center has unveiled a stained glass tribute to the 17 astronauts whose lives were lost. The artwork's design memorializes the men and women whose lives were lost in the 1967 Apollo 1 pad fire and the in-flight accidents that occurred during space shuttles Challenger and Columbia's 1986 and 2003 final missions.

Etched into the top of the glass are the names of the 17 fallen astronauts.

Central in the glass's focus is an astronaut posed with outstretched arms and legs, reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Surrounding "him" are planets and galaxies, as well as a Saturn IB rocket and space shuttle launching towards the heavens.

Here is a interesting project for the invention of electric stained glass by Boris Volfson. He has images of a prototype here.

Electric Stained Glass is comprised of light-emitting substances or electroluminophores arranged in a decorative pattern, electroconductive walls trapping the electroluminophores, and a plurality of lead-simulating strips coinciding with the boundaries of the electroluminophores. Unlike conventional stained glass, Electric Stained Glass, under the application of electricity, emits beautiful light from both sides rather than transmitting and filtering it from one side only.

Here is an audio download available on BBC's feature section. It is a discussion by Richard Marks, a medieval art historian at York University, and Peter Gibson, a stained glass conservator, exploring stories and messages hidden in the medieval stained glass of York Minster and the city's ancient Parish churches. It is a 17 minute audio file. York has been a famous centre for stained glass since the 12th century and I personally have heard Peter Gibson talk about his work restoring these windows on a trip he made to Pittsburgh for a Stained Glass Association of America's summer conference. Enjoy.

Here is an article with photos of a restoration project of windows from the Marienkirche in Frankfurt an der Oder.

During 2001 - 2002 the Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of Works of Applied Art restored 15 of 111 14th-century panels that made up three stained-glass windows in the Marienkirche (Church of the Virgin Mary) in Frankfurt an der Oder. Six centuries of pernicious atmospheric conditions, vandalism and war took their toll on the stained glass. In 1943 the panels were removed from the windows by the Germans to save them from bomb damage. They were placed first in the church itself and later in storage in Potsdam. From there they were removed to the Soviet Union and given for keeping to the Hermitage where they remained from 1946 to 2002. All the damage to the glass and lead came was recorded when they came into the museum.
The Hermitage had created in 2001 a Laboratory for the Restoration of Stained Glass with a team of three specialist restorers, three research workers specializing in mediaeval art and an expert in the chemistry of glass under the direct supervision of the museum's director.