I was asked by an Edinburgh client to restore and repair a three panelled window made by her artist father in the late 1950's. It had a number of pieces of broken and missing glass, and broken lead joints.
It needed to be completely taken apart, cleaned and re-leaded. A couple of dozen pieces needed to be glued, and another dozen or so replaced and painted. The plated pieces needed to be cleaned on their "insides" too, and then copper foiled to keep the cement from getting between the layers.
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| Dismantling the upper panel. Rubbing of the panel is in the upper right corner |
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| Placing the unleaded pieces on a second rubbing of the panel. The tape holding broken pieces together can be seen as white strips across the glass. |
The glass used was all hand made, and often up to 6mm thick. Where the colour of the thinner glass was not of sufficient density or a change of tone was required, the artist had double plated the piece with another colour.
I found it difficult to perceive the whole work, because of its broken and dirty condition, until it was all together.
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| The panel reset into a wooden frame for installation into the church of the artist's youth. |
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| The top panel |
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| Middle Panel |
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| Bottom Panel |
It is a very strong, modern work in stained glass depicting Mary with her child Christ and surrounded by women. It does not have the usual manger and dominant or supplicant males most often associated with depictions of the birth. It will be a contrast to the rest of the windows in the East Lothian church, but will compliment the themes already there.
The next post will give information on the Church
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