John, by the way.
The wired glass doesn’t do it for me, maybe it reminds me of high school too much ;( Anyway the reason it is ¼ " is that it is two sheets of glass with the wire fused between. It will be a bitch to cut, as a matter of fact you can’t "cut" it you need a diamond saw( about $350).

There is a lot of patterned glass out there, look at Pilkington (check out the reeded 9970-51). Look at glue chip and glass by Shott ( I don’t have a URL and I am not quite sure of the spelling but this is a solid lead)

Next look at bevels, these are 5mm thick and can be had in clear, a few colors and glue chip. You need a few in hand to appreciate these.

Now the wide, wide world of art glass. These start with Opal glass that starts Creamy white, like clouds, everywhere and any thing. As you add touch of color. This is the sort of glass you see in Tiffany style lamp shades and go from there .

Past here is pure Art

the problem is not trying to find a peace that will work, but trying to narrow down the possibilities…John