Hand Beveled Glass

Do you enjoy beveled glass?  What is it that you enjoy?  Do you like the prismatic colors when the sun hits it? Next time you see beveled glass really take a close look at it.  I notice several things, the way light goes through it, the prismatic colors, the width of the bevel, waves in the bevel and dimension. I have noticed a difference in a commercial bevel (one done by a machine) and a bevel done by hand.  I create bevels by hand by holding the glass onto a beveling grinder and eyeballing the line of the bevel.  I find that the hand bevel has more light play with it than a machine bevel.  My eye tends to go through the bevel on a commercial one.  A hand bevel tends to have more fine waves in the glass which bends the light more and plays with colors and whatever else is going on in the background.  Another detail that I have noticed is that the bevel is an even width all around the piece.  In some windows with a lot of bevels this tends to look flat to me having all of these uniform bevels.  I wanted more depth and movement in my work so I began playing with varying the widths of the bevel.  This gave me the effect that I was looking for.  Another detail that I enjoy with bevels is that they have a clean, sharp look to them which appeals to me very much. I also began beveling colored glass and bonding it on top of the clear beveled glass which gave an added dimension and continued with the clean sharp lines that I desire.  The following image is a detail of a larger window showing the bevels.