Artist Panel Refurbishment

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.

Dismantling the upper panel.  Rubbing of the panel is in the upper right corner

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.

The panel reset into a wooden frame for installation into the church of the artist's  youth.

The top panel

Middle Panel

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

Cloakroom Repair

I am quietly proud of this repair.  The window was broken in several ways.  There was a considerable amount of glass broken so that it was not weather tight.  There were some very amateur repairs with glass that was too small and held in place with "sticky-backed plastic".  The tie wires were mostly broken.  There were a large number of broken solder joints.

All this meant that the panel had to be taken out of the opening and repaired on the bench.  It also made it easier to repair the complicated shapes.  However, as soon as it was inspected on the bench, it became clear the whole panel needed re-leading as most joints were broken.  The client agreed that this could be done, as there was going to be little additional expense.

This photo was taken on a very sunny evening, so it washes out a lot of the intense red at the top of the panel.  I had to replace almost every transparent piece of glass and I am pleased that it is very difficult to tell which are the original and which the new.  I kept all the opalescent glass, as it forms a large part of the panel's character.  Where they were broken, I edge glued them together with Araldite 20/20 epoxy resin.

I think the outside looks really good now too.

It sits in its stone casing to the left of the front door, reflecting back the light according to the textures that are on the inside of each piece.  Fortunately the client likes the result too.