Stained Glass has changed
In the olden days stained glass was manufactured using small pieces of glass fixed together with a lead strip and soldered to keep the design together. Although this procedure is sometimes still used today, the modern stained glass technique is more popular and is a more versatile product.

Toughened glass can be used in todays stained glass along with self adhesive lead strip and transparent colour films. These materials produce a beautiful effect that lasts. When using natural lead strip, we can solder the joints of the lead to help make it unrecognisable from the traditional style of leaded lites.

What are the benefits of modern stained glass?
The modern procedure has many advantages over the original stained glass technique. Energy saving is a big concern in todays world and with the stained glass design being manufactured as a stained glass overlay onto a single sheet of glass, this reduces the possibility of the cold weather coming into the home through the joints of the design. Modern stained glass can also be applied directly onto energy saving Pilkington K Glass and this glass is now a building regulations requirement for every new window and door installation.

Durability and security are another advantage with the modern day stained glass technique. Applying the design directly onto toughened glass provides long lasting and secure decorative glass. In the past people have paid thousands of pounds for the old stained glass products only to find that small coloured sections of the design have cracked within weeks. This cannot happen with our product.

The materials
There are literally hundreds of overlay colours to choose from for use in the modern day stained glass and most colours can be combined with a frosted overlay to create an even larger range of colours. Adhesive lead strip also comes in many colours with the old favourite through the 80's and 90's being natural lead colour. Today almost every job we create is manufactured using antique lead which is a dark brown or almost black colour. Leadbitter Glass now uses antique lead as standard but other lead colours such as natural, silver and gold can be used on request.