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Some stained glass designers consider stained glass overlay the future of stained glass. Overlay is a modern technique used for stained glass.

"There are two types of stained glass overlays,"says David Dillian.
"A true stained glass overlay is made when you take a piece of glass that you are currently working with and you either glue another piece of glass to that (you cut out size or shape to it) or you fuse it together by melting the two pieces of glass together," he says. "That's the true stain glass overlay."
The other form of overlay is cast glass overlay, which is the oldest form of molding glass, says the Glass Encyclopedia (http://www.glassencyclopedia.com/).

"The technique was known in ancient Rome and Egypt, but in the art nouveau period (very early 1900s) it was called Pate de Verre and developed to a very high artistic level by such French artists as Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, Henry and Jean Cros, Albert Dammouse, Francois Decorchemont, Amalric Walter, Emile Galle and Georges Despret," the encyclopedia says.

The technique, the encyclopedia says, involves creating a paste made from powdered glass and coloring agents. That paste is then poured into a fire-proof mold, filling it, and firing it in a furnace to melt the glass.