Working with glass can be dangerous. Although working with small pieces of glass doesn't frighten most beginning glass artisans for very long, working with the large sheets of glass does. Studios that teach stained glass usually accommodate their students by cutting large sheets of glass into smaller ones. Even once the techniques for dealing with large sheets have been taught, it still takes a lot of practice before the fear begins to subside. Mark says that for most people, the fear of working with large sheets never goes away completely, but that you probably won't get hurt as long as you have a reverence for the glass and a respect for its potential dangers. Minor cuts, as well as major injuries, usually happen to those who have forgotten this or never learned it to begin with.

A stained glass or beveled glass panel may be the only pane of glass between the inside and outside worlds, or it can be mounted on the inside of a standard pane of window glass or a standard thermal glass "sandwich" (two panes of window glass sealing off an enclosed air space) for added protection from the outside environment.