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Glass Art: How To Place and Light It
Helpful Tips on Illuminating Glass Art Around Your Home
Houzz Contributor. Pangaea Interior Design is an award winning design firm specializing in residential projects including new construction, remodeling and kitchen & bath design. Pangaea's style is characterized by clean lines and uncluttered interiors that are warm, comfortable, inviting and reflect the personal taste and interests of her clients. Call to schedule your initial consultation and you'll be well on the way to the home of your dreams. 503-.816.4394
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Before I became an interior designer, I was a full-time artist. Although I worked in several different mediums, my favorite medium has always been glass. Glass art has always been a passion of mine — I love the colors, depth and translucency.
Because of the translucent nature of glass, there are some special considerations to make in placement and lighting to best display your glass art. Here are some helpful tips.
Because of the translucent nature of glass, there are some special considerations to make in placement and lighting to best display your glass art. Here are some helpful tips.
Glass needs light to pass through it when it is translucent. I designed these glass panels and had them cast by a local glass studio. Each panel is 30" wide by 54" tall and 1.5" thick. They weigh 220 lbs. each! To allow light to pass through to show off the unique colors, I had custom steel holders made that are set into the walls and that hold the glass about 6" away from the wall.
| Lights are placed above and below the panels. In this case, the lights are actually aimed at the wall so that the light bounces off the wall and passes forward through the colored glass. |
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These amazing glass panels are also installed floating away from the walls, with a white wall serving as a perfect backdrop. For this piece of art, instead of light coming from behind, the light source comes from a ceiling spotlight in front of the glass in order to cast shadows against the wall. The shadows then become part of the art. The figures appear to be wrestling with each other and the shadows add a feeling of movement to the piece.
Artist is unknown.
Artist is unknown.
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This glass art by Robert Kaindl has both translucent and opaque properties. Using a free-standing spotlight is an unusual choice for lighting and it works beautifully. Because the bowl is sitting in the middle of the room, it can be appreciated from all sides. The light passing through the bowl from the outside and reflected on the inside back out again, highlights different aspects of the design. Depending on which way you are looking at it, you can appreciate the unique qualities of glass.
Since glass and light go hand-in-hand, some artists actually incorporate the light right into the work. Some may call this a chandelier, but I call it a glass sculpture. Notice that they have placed spotlights aimed at the sculpture all the way around on the ceiling to create a glow throughout the entire piece.
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| If you love glass art, then white walls may be the way for you to go. To share a personal story, one of my clients came home from the store so excited because she had found a beautiful but transparent, rich turquoise-colored glass platter. The turquoise color glowed in the brightly-lit and almost completely white store. Unfortunately, the only places to put this platter in her own home had dark wood paneling on the walls and no way to provide light from behind. Ultimately it ended up looking drab and dark, and she was very disappointed.
The colors of these beautiful platters show up spectacularly against this white wall. |
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| Oh — Did I say that you needed to put glass in front of a white wall for it to look good? Well, not exactly. These yellow wall pieces by Robert Kaindl look spectacular against this black wall. Here's why: They have a high percentage of opaque glass in them. The black wall shows through the translucent areas adding contrast with the opaque yellow which shows up well against the dark wall.
So as a rule of thumb: if you are placing a piece of glass that is all or mostly translucent, the colors are going to show up better in front of white and with light coming from behind it. But if the glass is mostly opaque, then you can put it in front of any color wall and light it from the front. |
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| Placing your glass pieces where light can pass through from windows and other sources will give it the best opportunity to sparkle. The clear glass table and white carpet under this sculpture allow the colors to be appreciated from all angles. |
This colored accent wall from designer Pepe Calderin, is created from pieces of colored glass that are mounted at different levels. Some pieces appear to be polished while others are either sand-blasted or acid etched.
Light playing over the surface highlights the unique dimensions and because the glass is translucent, the light shines into the depth of the ruby-colored glass.
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by RoomService 360
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| These are Leucos lights created from stacked blown glass cylinders. Placing them in front of large windows means the color and translucency is displayed even when the lights are not turned on. |
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| Placing a collection of glass pieces in this unique open room divider elevates the look of simple glass vases.
So, if you are trying to place glass art: Think space, light, bright and white! More Glass-inspired Ideabooks: Decorate with a Rainbow of Glass Cascading Chandeliers: All Kinds of Gorgeous Life in a Glass House |
Ideabook published on Aug. 9, 2011.
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Your red art glass wall is stunning! What an imaginative idea! I would call it room jewelry.
http://robertkaindl.com/index.htm
Sheila -- That picture is a tricky one. That isn't a mirror. Notice that there are different things on each end of the table. That table extends across the divider and has seating on both sides of it. Extremely unusual. I'd love to find out more about that room.
Princessfirefly -- Wall mounted glass pieces that don't have a way to be held by a bracket of any type usually have mounting hardware epoxied to their back. Your best bet is to get in touch with the artist who made your pieces or the gallery you bought them from. If neither are available to you (I know many galleries went out of business in the last couple years) then I would call any large glass art gallery and ask for a recommendation to a professional who deals with hanging and mounting glass art. It would be worth shipping your glass to a professional rather than having it done incorrectly.
Aprilaries -- Aaaack!! That is NOT hand painted! The color was all done in a hot shop, melted, pulled & stretched in to shape. Then the colored pieces were stacked and layered in with clear glass and the whole thing put into the kiln. Much more involved process than hand painting. I'm attaching photos. Shows Ray Ahlgren stretching glass in the hot shop -- some of the colored strands before assembling -- glass layered in the molds partway through -- me in front of the entire pile of glass in the molds before the whole thing went into the kiln.
That is really a very cool process of how the panels are made. I had no idea the colored sections were also glass...that makes them even more phenominal! Thanks for sharing!
aprilaries -- No worries. It's hard to know exactly what we are looking at sometimes and these were an unusual combination of techniques. Ray Ahlgren, (who has the casting studio) and I really had to put our heads together to figure out to create the look I wanted with the methods and tools available to us. He is an amazing guy and one of the founders of Bullseye Glass which is well known to anyone in the glass art world. I was very fortunate to work with him to create these. Fun!
More about Ray and Fireart Glass here:
http://www.fireartglass.com