Vetreria Re was founded in 1989 as a family-run business continuing a tradition of artisanal glass processing that began several generations earlier. Over the years, the company has expanded and achieved milestones unforeseen at the time of its foundation, leading to prestigious collaborations in Italy and abroad. Vetreria Re’s artisanal laboratories do not deal exclusively with industrial crystal processing but also offer various artistic techniques capable of enhancing diverse environments with elegance and refinement.
Vetreria Re Colored Glass
A flagship in Vetreria Re’s production is the design and creation of artistic stained glass using techniques such as gold leaf, sandblasting, enameling or painting, leaded glass, and lamination with fabric or metal meshes. The use of colored glass also allows for the creation of artistic windows with extremely scenographic effects, which can provide character and personality to domestic settings, as well as hospitality, commercial, or professional structures.
The widespread use of glass in architecture and as a base for various objects is due to its inimitable chemical-physical characteristics: transparency, chemical inalterability, and versatility. This last feature is particularly important for artistic applications, as it is sufficient to add specific elements to the glass composition to create unique aesthetic and chromatic effects. To obtain colored glass, specifically, certain coloring substances must be added to the molten glass. Among the main substances used to obtain colored glass suitable for artistic windows are:
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Elements such as gold, silver, and copper which generate different colors based on the concentration and size of the particles dispersed in the glass (for example, minimum concentrations of gold give the glass a vivid ruby red color, and even smaller amounts generate characteristic cranberry or raspberry shades, while silver compounds like nitrate generate colors between orange-red and yellow);
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Metal oxides, which impart their own color to the glass variably depending on the glass composition and the oxidation state of the metal: these include iron oxide (blue-green color), cobalt oxide (blue), chromium, manganese (amethyst color), selenium (red), vanadium, and copper (capable of producing, depending on concentration, glass colors ranging from turquoise to blue-green and from red-violet to opaque red), nickel (which can color glass blue, violet, or black depending on concentration), and titanium (yellow-brown);
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Colloidal combinations, such as tin oxide with oxides of arsenic and antimony (opaque white), colloidal gold and tin (pink-purple); colloidal selenium and cadmium (glass color ranging between yellow and orange-red); cobalt, selenium, and iron (bronze color); cobalt, selenium, iron, and chromium (gray);
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Other coloring particles that are dispersed within the glass mass, giving it different colors and shades.
Heating and Cooling of the Glass Paste
Other variables capable of determining the color of the glass are the methods of heating and cooling the glass paste. When carried out with artisanal techniques, the creation of colored glass allows for high-quality results suitable for aesthetic enhancement in private or public environments, providing elegance and brightness. Artistic windows made with colored glass are a prestigious architectural element, lending themselves to the creation of doors, windows, partitions, and parapets, while ensuring an impeccable finish. To find out the prices of artistic windows made with colored glass, you can contact Vetreria Re to discuss custom and personalized projects for artistic glass. This choice significantly improves the perceived comfort and acoustic silence of the space.