Cupola Installed

We have now installed the cupola!  It was seven and a half hour process for the three of us.

I will give you some of the stages of design and installation to indicate the transformation.

The cupola originally looked like this:

The original appearance with dirt and paint

The design was quickly settled to be of the period of the house, putting it into the Arts Nouveau style.  After some playing around with ideas, I submitted this design to the client.

First pass at a design

I of course, got totally involved with elongated shapes.  Upon presenting this I was reminded of the client's statement that roses were required.  So, a second stage was required.  You can see some penciled rose shapes on the first design paper.

This was the second and approved design:

Second penciled design over laid on the first

At this stage the colour choices were made between the client and me.

Templates were checked again and final measurements made.  The full size cartoons were drawn up and the construction then began of the eight panels. Some indication has been given of this in earlier posts.

The kind of transformation that was to be created was revealed when the old glass was removed.  

Cupola ready for installation of the panels

The amount and quality of light flooding into the hallway was amazing.  This photo shows the difference in the light from the original glazing.

The cleaning of the checks and installation of support bars began.

Just over half way installed.

This view shows that there is still a lot of light being allowed through the seedy clear glass and the textured coloured glass, although the features of the underside of the ceiling is diffused. 

There continued to be a bit of jiggling and adjustment to get the design to flow as intended.  But the installation was completed to the satisfaction of the client (most important) and me.

The completed cupola

This has been an arduous project, but one which has left me happy.  I made the choice to move away from the traditional use of one design in a repetition toward realising an image for the whole cupola.  This makes more sense in modern terms (although not in economic ones).  It is less frequently chosen, as there is more design work - making a single design eight times larger than a single panel.  There is also much more care and effort required to get the flow of the design to meet over the whole opening.  But, I think it has given a much more pleasing result that can provide interest over time as new elements are discovered by the viewers.

A chandelier will hang from the central pendant post, which will reflect the colours at night especially as the spotlights above transfer the light to the glass pendants of the chandelier.

Cupola

A client has recently purchased a house built in the early 1920’s.  It contains a cupola that has become ugly over the years through exposure to nicotine and general dirtiness.

Rather than trying to clean it, the client has decided to replace it with something in keeping with the period of construction that will allow light through into the hallway, but also obscure the view of the roof.

After trying out several ideas, I came up with one that I liked and developed it.

In my enthusiasm for the flow of the piece, I overlooked the desire for roses that the client had expressed.  The client gently pointed this out to me when I showed the design.  Oops, time for a re-think.  Everyone agreed that the flow of the green forms, although not rose leaves was desirable.  You can see the beginnings of a re-design on the original.

So I came up with a variation.  I worked on making a simple but clearly rose shape instead of the elongated buds that were the colourful feature of the first design.  I also worked to bring more of the colour lower into the panels.

You can get a better impression with the new design over laid on the old.

This is now at the glass cutting stage and soon to move to the building of the panels.

Arts and Crafts House

Today I had the opportunity to view the "in-progress" restoration of a large Arts and Crafts house in central Scotland.  The house has approximately 150 windows I am told by the owner. If accepted, I am to make and install 19 window panels by the time of the visit of the Mackintosh Society on 6th June.

Eastern elevation

South east elevation

Southern elevation

This last image shows the extensive work required to remove later additions to get back to the foot print of the original house.  The windows to be replaced are in these gaps.

Apologies for the rain drops; it was raining very hard on the day of the visit.  I hope to show some of the tremendous work being done on the house to bring it back toward the original decorative state.  My contribution will be preparing windows of this pattern.

Rescued

A very nice bathroom door panel was in a poor state when I arrived.  It was lose and floppy with many broken joints.  It had been repaired in two ways - broken glass had been replaced with unsympathetic textures in the clear, and a lot of silicone had been spread around to try to hold the whole together. 

The door had been dipped and it is possible the glass remained in place during this treatment.  But however it had occurred, this panel faced the prospect of being replaced with a modern textured glass sheet, or to be restored.  After some discussion the owners agreed that it was a very nice example of late Arts Nouveau stained glass work and should be restored.

A price was agreed.  The panel was removed - almost completely falling apart in the process - and taken to the studio.  Closer examination revealed that all the glass was held in the cames by silicone.  Further it was discovered as we began to take it apart, the glass cutting had been very lose - i.e., poor.  The lead barely covered the edges of much of the glass.  A lot of the clear granite textured glass was broken and a number of pieces had been replaced by both badly fitting and inappropriately textured glass.

After consideration, it was decided to replace all the clear granite with a modern equivalent.  All the coloured glass was retained, as most was in tact, and of course much would not be possible to replicate.  A chemical silicone remover worked really well to enable the silicone to be removed without damage to the glass.  All the lead came was replaced by the same sizes of modern came.  This was more work that I had expected, but was rewarded in part by the comment of an expert on Arts Nouveau that happened by the studio during the re-buliding that it was a 1914 window.  How he could date this so accurately, I do not understand, in spite of his explanations.

This was the window after reconstruction.  New clear glass except the central piece, new leads and new cement as it sat in the studio window before delivery.

This is the appearance of the window in the door from the interior of the bathroom with the natural light from the hallway shining through.

This is the door from the outside.

A close-up of the installed panel.  This shows it is very hansome, even though some of the greens are washed out in the photograph.


I am very pleased with the result we achieved.  The older sister is too.  She says that now her younger sister can't peer through the broken glass while others are in the bathroom.

Discoveries

Even when walking around a well known area, you can stumble upon previously hidden things.  While walking along Alexandra Parade, a former client, for whom I had made some panels for his front door, stopped me and asked if I would like to see the skylight in his stair.  Of course I would - and I had my camera with me.

Building at the corner of Alexandra Parade and the suburban railway

The building is not unusually impressive, and the entry to the flats is almost concealed between the shops. Internally, the tiles run all the way to the top - a sure sign of quality in Glasgow - where his flat is.  At the top the arts nouveau cupola is revealed.  It is at the top of the stairwell, using borrowed light from a skylight let into the roof.

Coupla, facing the skylight

One part of the central emblem

Coupla, facing the top right flat

A lovely chance meeting to get updated on each other's lives and for me to get to see a hidden piece of art work.

Old into New

A while back a client was given an old panel by a friend to enliven their new house.

As you can see there is some interesting and no longer available vaseline glass included in the panel. The varying light between the bottom and the top shows some of the difference in colour caused by the level of light striking the glass. It is also a better example of arts nouveau than many and so seemed to be worth while keeping.

These same people who gifted the panel recommended me as a person who could arrange the mechanisms to hang the panel. The client brought the panel to me and we discussed the proposal to hang this in the door. I was unhappy about hanging a panel in a door for reasons of safety of the panel and of the clients.

I also was unsure of how the size of the panel related to the size of the door and arranged to go to their house to get a better idea of what was being proposed. The door is considerably larger than the panel and of different proportions.

So I said that the minimum required to keep the panel and people safe was to mount the existing panel in steel bars which would be fixed to the sides of the door. This wiould give two strong horizontal lines across the door opening. The client (and certainly not me) was not happy with this. So I quickly went on to say that the panel could be remade into a larger one for the door, removing the deep flemish glass that existed. This was difficult to envisage, so I agreed to devise a setting (for a fee which would be incorporated into the whole cost if they agreed) for the panel and bring it to them for approval.

In the end, I developed a full size cartoon which I took to them and placed in the door for them to consider. As the proportions of the two were so different, I needed some way of lengthening the image contained in the panel. This extension needed to be sympathetic with the original. My decision was to extend the acorn shaped buds at the bottom and add two formal elements - the half circles - at the top and bottom to draw the whole together. It also provided a "base" or cradle at the bottom and gives an overall oval appearance.

The image was approved and after some discussion about colours of glass, light loss and other aesthetic matters, a price was agreed.

The disassembly began. I removed the perimeter glass so the panel would not have an appearance of being inserted whole into the surrounding glass. Various repairs were made and decisions taken on the placing of the grid lines. The cartoon you see here was modified from the one shown to the clients in the detail of where the verticals and horizontals were placed.

The glass was selected to match as nearly as possible to the existing glass where relevant, and clear glass was chosen to surround the main image.

In the leaded up state, you can see that exact matches for the vaseline glass was not possible. Instead a translucent white glass was chosen that transmits amber in sunlight to compliment the way the vaseline glass changes its colour.

Finally, it was cemented and had its ties for the glazing bars attached. After some hesitation I went for two instead of four glazing bars. This was on the grounds that as a laminated glass sheet was to be placed on the outside, the two bars would be enough to protect the glass from bowing inwards if the door happened to slam into the wall.

The finished panel installed. I think the door fits well with the terrazzo tiling of the hallway.

Although the panel is a large one - 1140 by 850 mm - it does not appear to be out of place in scale. As soon as this was installed, the client began to think of how they could deal with the remainder of the large flemish glass. That of course, will be when funds are again available.

Installation finished

The finished installation was successful. I had a call from the client saying he was thrilled by the result. He did not say "at last", but I did for him.

These photos show some of the windows created from the design of the door's fanlight.

The two above are the fourth and fifth rooms off the hall from the left to the right.

This is an image of the fanlight for the third room from the first.

A really nice part of the whole project was the request to design a window in keeping with the Arts Nouveau for the bathroom. This is a big window (approximately 1.4 metres by .9 metres). The object was to obscure the view inwards, but let a lot of light into the room. It is a very long corridor of a bathroom (Don't worry it is a dead end). This window is important in allowing natural daylight into the room.

I looked at a number of themes from the period. I used both books and my own images to come up with the modified water lilly theme shown below. The client agreed. And I began work. I enjoyed the process, although the leading is very complicated in places. I finished it in about a week and a half. So it was under priced, but more enjoyable than many other projects.

I am happy with the result and, more importantly, so is the client.

Installation problems

At last I have finished an installation of five fanlight windows in a posh Glasgow flat/apartment. The client wanted windows that reflected the time the building was constructed. This was during the full flowering of the Arts Nouveau.

There is a nice design in the fanlight above the door that is original to the flat, so I suggested this should be taken and adapted for all the fanlights around the central hall. The photo shows the existing design that I took to make "reproduction" windows.

All went well until it came to installing the windows. The facings on the openings ran from floor to the top of the fanlight. They were impractical to remove. So the spacing timbers had to be pried out of their location between the glass and the facings. Fortunately the glass could be sacrificed. It was truly horrible. I won't even consider putting a photograph up (not that I took one anyway). This then revealed that the size of the space was larger than allowed for by as much as 20mm in some cases.

The windows were manoeuvred into place by bending leads and panels. Then the windows needed extra strips of lead to keep them in place. Also because the spacing timbers had to be destroyed during the removal, I contracted a joiner to replace them. However he did not realise the importance of matching the spacing timbers to the lines of the facings.

The client called me back, because the panels must have slipped or something. In fact the panels were OK except for one which had genuinely slipped. In looking at the placings in the fanlights, I decided the best would be to remove the existing leaded windows, and make templates of the openings to enable me to remake the outside parts of each window. I got the joiner back to help take out the spacing timber.

Now I know how to do it much faster than before - destroy the timber with a chisel, rather than trying to pry it out. It always helps when you know your materials!

I took the templates on stiff card, and rebuilt the outer parts of the panels, using 16mm(5/16") lead came. This enabled me to bend the leaves of the top and bottom cames so the panels could slip into the opening through the facings. Then the effort was to straighten the flanges while in the opening. This is a two person job. One to hold the panel, the other to work the flanges. They all fitted.! One fitted so snugly that the bottom flanges had to be cut off. Now another firm of joiners is coming to fit a shaped spacer that will set off the windows very well.