I guess you could say stained glass was patterned in my blood, because for almost as far back as I can remember, my father owned his own stained glass lamp shades company. He ran it at night out of our garage in California after working days selling safes in the not-so-glamorous Skid Row section of Los Angeles. (He didn't always have a sales job; he owned his own safe installation business until multiple heart attacks forced him to retire from pushing 2,000-pound objects around on a dolly.)

My brother joined him at night in the garage building kits filled with stained glass pieces he hand-cut to help facilitate my father's work, and the resulting business was named Chadwick and Son. Actually, thinking back, it should have been named Chadwick and Son and Daughter, because I worked for him, too, starting when I was 10. Many of his stained glass patterns incorporated flat-backed red beads that had to be wrapped in copper tape before they could be soldered into the lamps. It was my job (at 5 cents per bead, which wasn't bad pay for a 10 year old in 1969) to wrap the beads.

I loved this job and took it seriously. Everywhere I went, I took a used margarine tub full of red beads, a roll of copper tape and a blunt tool to burnish the tape into place. Young entrepreneur that I was, I would take my bead-wrapping paraphenalia with me when I baby-sat. When the children went to bed, I got paid by the hour AND by the bead. Soon I had a lot of money in my piggy bank, at least I thought so by my pre-teen standards.

As you can imagine, my father was quite interested in stained glass. He reveled in it wherever he could find it. Since nostalgia was just coming in as a style in the early 1970s, the Victorian look was in and Tiffany lamps were everwhere. This meant there were many outings to restaurants so we could study the lamps hanging over our tables.

I have fond memories of sharing this mutual interest with my father -- especially since he died when I was 14. But I keep that interest alive to this day by loving all things vintage; I even have a vintage art blog. Because of the blog, I collect all types of vintage art. When I came across the stained glass patterns at the bottom of this page, I just knew I had to offer them to others to enjoy.

I also found some fun videos that stained glass enthusiasts will probably love. Two feature examples of beautiful vintage stained glass windows and the third is an amazing time-lapse video of a stained glass window being built.

I hope you enjoy the videos and can find a use for the resources available on this page.

Free Stained Glass Pattern Resources on the Web

Sites that offer free stained glass patterns:

• Warner free stained glass patterns
• Directory of free stained glass patterns