Islamic Stained Glass Windows and Tiles

The Nasir Ol Mok "Pink Mosque" in Irans

slideshow can be downloaded here

Here's another stained glass option for the holidays (other stained glass lessons: medieval rose window, and Chagall. See sidebar for those). The stained glass seen in Islamic structures is different from medieval stained glass, or figural, because the designs are geometric and pattern based, and don't include the human form. In the slideshow you can see many examples of the gorgeous and intricate stained glass found inside the Nasir Ol Mok "Pink Mosque", in Iran. This building was designed specifically for the morning light - as it comes through the stained glass, the colored light spills on the persian rugs to create an otherworldly kaleidoscope of color and pattern. (For better pictures than the slideshow, go look at this article).

As you go through the slides with the kids, questions you might ask in addition to "What can you see? What more can you find? What makes you say that?" could be - what do you think the designers of the glass windows' goal was? How does the weather affect one's experience of this place? How do you think you'd feel, standing in that pool of color?

The art activity for this lesson is pretty flexible - you can take it a few different directions depending on the age of the students and how much time you have.

Option 1 - Stained glass out of parchment paper 

from artsyartfulamy.com

Have the kids draw a geometric pattern or design on parchment paper using black sharpies and markers (colored sharpies and also crayola water-based work on parchment). You might want to download and print out a few templates of geometric designs for the kids to trace - they can combine the templates for added creativity. (Templates can be downloaded here, just scroll down about halfway through the article and to find the templates. They have a bunch of different shapes...). Then use black construction paper to create the exterior of the window, as seen above, and glue on.

Option 2 - tiles out of card stock

from mrsbrowsart.com

Using sharpies and markers, have the kids create symmetrical designs on card stock. The ones shown above are circles but bonus points for using some of the shapes found in the templates linked in the above activity.