Stair Windows

One of the pieces of work I have been involved with over the past weeks is the painting and staining of four windows for a stair for a glazing company.

The panel at the top (shown below) is approximately 580 mm wide by 700 mm high

The lower panel is 580 mm wide by 1090 mm high.

These required tracing paints for the main lines of the images, and shading green in addition to some shading brown for variation.  This required a number of firings to complete the high temperature phase of the firings.

The stains were of three kinds - dark amber stain, orange #1, and Yellow #3.  A considerable amount of testing was required to find the colours and then the correct intensities, as the lower panel had to be paler than the upper one.

The big kiln was a life saver in terms of time, as two could be put into the kiln at the same time, saving by a half of the firing time and cost.

Art Deco Lamp Shade

A few weeks ago a person who is renovating their 1908 architect designed house brought a lampshade to me.  The architect's daughters kept his last redecoration in the 1920's with minimal change.  This included the electrical wiring as well as the plumbing.  It has been a big project for the current owner.  He has now gotten all the fundamentals done and is able to move toward the finishing touches.  

This hanging lamp had only one side piece and the bottom left intact.  This was enough to provide a pattern for cutting the glass and give a guide for the painting.  The frame for the lamp is made from aluminium painted to appear as a corroded bronze.  Although they loved their aluminium and the crisp designs, the people of the time still wanted the items to look aged.  

In some ways this is an elegant design as the supporting arms are bolted to the base ring - the elements that appear to be feet in these photos are the base of the bolts.  The glass is then laid into the supporting ring and between the arms.  You can just see the supporting lugs at the base of the glass in the second picture. This loose fitting may also be why there were only two pieces of glass left before rescue.

The glass texture was chosen to be similar to the original in conjunction with the client.  It was then painted with an obscuring white, followed by many layers of a Reusche amber enamel to obtain the slightly orange appearance of the original.  It was an interesting project to do, as all the base and supports are not exactly symmetrical.  Each piece of glass fits one place and the base also fits only one way around.  This took a bit of adjustment as the unequal-ness was a surprise to me.  I am satisfied with the result and the client is pleased too.

Stair Window

I was called out to advise on what can be done for this stair window in Dunfirmline made around the beginning of the 20th century.  It is about 1200 mm wide and 1500 mm high.  It appears to be made in a single piece, which is very unusual.  It has 19 mm square glazing bars and you will notice that at the bottom there is an extra one, presumably for safety if anyone fell down the stairs they would not go through the window to the ground.

You can see there is internal secondary glazing up to where the round head of the window springs.  In spite of it being open at the top there is considerable condensation within the gap as you can see from this picture of a broken pane.  This makes the point that ventilation needs to be both at the top and the bottom.

The above image shows the only major break in this whole window.  There are of course small cracks here and there, but nothing obvious or likely to impair the function of the window.  The more major defect is at the bottom of the window where there has been a repair using violet instead of bronze coloured glass.

At the bottom, the window is beginning to develop an accordion style bend which is it major problem.  Had the window been built in three sections as I would expect for this size of window, the bottom section could be removed, taken to the studio to be flattened and repaired.  Trying to take this window out in a single section above a glassed in conservatory will be difficult and is bound to cause some breakage.

The owners have already decided to put a double glazing unit on the outside of this window.  This will have a gap of about 100 mm between the stained glass and the unit.  This will prevent any further ingress of water and drafts.  It will preserve the life of the window by many years without further action, but will not stabilise it.  I have made recommendations to the owners and await their response.

In addition, they have some breaks in this entrance screen.  They are all side by side, which is the most difficult to repair in situ.  So I am recommending that they let me take the panels out (filling the gap with clear glass) and repair them in the studio.