Red Glass: The Saga Continues

Last weekend I posted a few shots of my front stained glass window. It has a large piece of red glass with a bullet hole in it and I lamented my inability to get that type of glass in a piece large enough to replace it. Except for Kokomo Glass, the industry standard for stained glass is 24-inches wide and as long as you want. I need a piece roughly 36-inhces square. I’ve heard the red glass I have referred to as “Flash Glass”, and some may refer to it as “Water Glass”. Really, it’s just looks like old wavy glass, only it’s red instead of clear.

I can get red glass in the right size from Kokomo Glass but all they have is Cathedral Glass. Cathedral Glass is heavily textured. I’m not sure how to explain it other than that. Then Monica over at Bungalow Dreams kindly directed me to a place called C & R Loo in Richmond, CA. They advertise something called Antiqued Machine Glass on their site and it says it comes in sheet sizes 47" X 31.5" and 63" X 60”. They offered clear glass and then about a dozen different colors.

On Friday I called C & R Loo but I had my doubts after visiting their web site. On the menu they have 2 links for Spectrum. Spectrum Glass is a big maker of stained glass and one of the ones I contacted a few years back. Spectrum only makes 24-inch wide glass. I spoke with a gentleman with a very thick accent. At first it sounded promising. He assured me they had Antiqued Machine Glass in the size I needed. I started to get wary the second time I had to correct him on how many inches are in a yard. He most likely grew up with the metric system.

We then started talking about shipping. This is the other issue I ran in to a few years ago. Shipping a single piece of glass that size needs so much packing it has to go by freight. He couldn’t give me an estimate but he kept saying (use a thick Indian accent here), “Very, very expensive. Yes, very expensive”. Ok, so Richmond isn’t too far away, I can drive down to pick it up. That’s what I had to do with the Cathedral Glass I bought from Kokomo Glass.

The whole conversation was awkward at best because of the differences in our native tongues. I finally pestered him once more to assure me that he had a piece of Rose Antiqued Machine Glass, Item Number GNA-70 in stock that was 36 X 36 inches. He finally said, “Oh, you want the 70? No, we can’t get that in that size. I think that only comes in 29-inch widths” I said, “You mean 24-inch widths”. He said, “Yes, yes 24-inches, that’s it. Only the clear glass comes in the larger sheets.” I said thank you and hung up.

So, no-harm no-foul. I have the red Cathedral Glass that I can use but it’s just not the same as the red Flash Glass. I’m willing to bet the large sheets of clear Antiqued Machine Glass they have at C & R Loo is from one supplier and everything else is from Spectrum Glass and they just list it all on the same page. I hope to replace the broken glass this summer so time is running out on finding a large enough piece of the red flash glass. Anyone want to takes bets on this one?