It was in ancient Rome that stained glass windows, simple compositions of colored glass, were first created and admired. It was between 1150 and 1500 that stained glass art reached its peak in Europe, where large stained glass windows were created for cathedrals (Metmuseum.org, 2014). These windows were “illuminated visual sermons of biblical stories” and greatly changed the way the congregation learned about religion (Reynolds, 2013, p. 3). It wasn't until the late 1800s that stained glass artists began making secular-themed windows. Another art form that became popular in the late 1800s was glass paperweights. The first glass paperweight is thought to have been made in Venice by glass artist Pietro Bigaglia around 1845 (Exhibits.museum.state.il.us, 2014). Four artists, featured at the Corning Museum of Glass, who pushed the boundaries of how these everyday objects were created were Louis Comfort Tiffany, Jean Crotti and Roger Malherbe-Navarre, and the Compagnie des Verreries et Cristalleries de Baccarat. Louis Comfort Tiffany was originally trained as a painter, but began studying glassmaking techniques when he was 24 years old. In 1885, Tiffany established his own studios, employing teams of designers and artisans to translate his vision into material works of art (Morsemuseum.org, 2014). Tiffany Studios, over its 50-year history, has produced approximately 5,000 windows. Many of these windows had religious themes, such as The Righteous Will Receive a Crown of Glory (Tiffany, 1901). The theme of this window "celebrates victory over death and the joyful theme of resurrection" (Cmog.org, 2014). The Tiffany window depictions were overall more optimistic than most other 19th-century commemorative stained glass windows, with......middle of paper......canes of flowers, including some silhouettes, on a background of white filigree, and the third and smallest dome contains a vertical lampworked blue flower with green foliage. The 3-tier paperweight is made up of three separate paperweights made using different techniques, which were then “heated and then fused together. Given that every time a paperweight is heated the danger of destroying it increases, this is a rather technical achievement” (Cmog.org, 2014). All of these artists pushed the limits of the materials and concepts they were working with. Louis Tiffany, Jean Crotti, and Roger Malherbe-Navarre all developed new ideas and techniques for stained glass, and the Compagnie Des Verreries Et Cristalleries De Baccarat took a new glassmaking technique and turned it into an everyday object. All these people offer different innovations to the world of glass processing.