What is Layered Stained Glass?

Some of these new pieces have "layered" in the title - but what does that mean?

Imagine you have two works of stained glass - one that looks like a strand of ivy, and then one circular piece with a lovely polished slice of agate held within it. Layering those two pieces allows for something that used to be done frequently in Louis Comfort Tiffany's method of creating stained glass artwork - by building stained glass windows with layered pieces of glass, those pieces allowed for dimension and depth between the pieces that were layered, giving both pieces new colors and texture they didn't have before.

Now I don't claim to have anywhere near that level of ability (or the workshop he had), but I do love what layering can do for a piece of stained glass artwork. Take the two photos here - each piece is interesting in its own right, but when I soldered them together, they became something wholly new and beautiful as one piece.

It's time-consuming, and challenging, and requires multiple steps of cleaning, polishing, soldering, and putting on patina - and that's after making all of those little leaves! But it sure is fun when you get to the finished product...