Domestic Cupola

I was asked to replace a discoloured and plain cupola in a 1930’s bungalow.

It is lit from above both by a roof light and by internal lighting in the loft space.  This meant that a design could be employed that would be visible both by day and night.

The brief was to bring something of the Arts Nouveau into the design.  The design could have been the repetition of a design element in all eight parts, but I wanted to work with the whole as one piece.  After some discussion on the themes it was settled on a flower and leaves theme.

My first design was developed using a template of one of the triangles forming the cupola.

However, in my enthusiasm for the sinuous curves for the stems and buds, I forgot the need to include the roses that were discussed and agreed upon.

[Anderson 2^nd design web]

This one does include the roses.  And I do know that the roses in nature would be open after the other buds, but some artistic license was accepted. And the building of the panels began.

Installation required the removal of the old glass.  As the house had just been completely redecorated, lots of old carpet and dust sheets over them was required to protect against any glass falling and possibly puncturing the new wood flooring.

Already the simple removal of the nicotine stained amber glass transformed the light within the hallway.

The installation began by installing each numbered piece in order, as any misplaced panel would interrupt the flow of the design.  However, it would have been better if templates for each of the eight openings were taken.  The openings were not completely regular. 

When complete, it provided a new interest to the hallway as well as allowing much more light into the space. The straight lines running through the composition are the location of the support bars for the glass.

Best of all, the client was overjoyed at the result, bringing relatives around to see what had been achieved.

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 Progress

I showed some pictures of a design for a cupola the other week.  Progress is being made. The glass is cut and the assembly started.  This post gives some pictures of the first panels to be completed.

These panels have been soldered and are waiting to be cemented.

This panel, the first to be cemented, is the other side of the above panel on the left.

So progress is being made, and the installation date should be met.

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.

Ninteenth Century Glasgow Domestic Glass

An area of Glasgow known as Woodside was developed as a westward expansion of Glasgow in the mid 19th century flourishing of Glasgow's developing industrialisation.  Much of this area of large terraced houses has been converted into office space.  My involvement was to repair some stair landing windows in an expanding business.  Next to the stair I worked in was this stunning window done in the Aesthetic Revival style.  The maker is not known, but seems to me to be done by the Stephen Adam studio in the middle of the century.

The whole window on the half landing with the obscured urban skyline behind

"Industry" on the right of the window

"Peace" on the left

The decorative top left panel

The top right decorative panel

The windows of this nature seem to have been used to conceal the view over the backs of other houses across the service lane for stabling the horses, and delivery of supplies and services to the houses.  It is wonderful to see some of these still existing a century and a half after being installed.19th

Intern

This Summer I have had an intern.  As is usual with these things, I was approached by a person.  In this case it was Aimee McCulloch who is a student at Dundee University - Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.   She found me, it is told, via an Australian aunt who she rarely sees, and who knows a person who knows my daughter.!  How many degrees of separation is that?

Aimee contacted me and showed such enthusiasm, that I could not say "no."

In fact Aimee has been a hard working and enthusiastic worker and helper.  Her enthusiasm is shown by her daily commuting from outside Edinburgh or from Dundee, and occasionally at the weekend too.

She has participated in the various activities of the studio even when they are a bit taxing, as cementing on one of the hotter days of the year so far.

But then, like all good interns, she gets to make the tea as a break from her exertions.

Really, I do try to keep her tea making to a minimum.  It would be too easy to give her all the boring jobs because she always seems willing.

Have a look at her blog for her view of her experiences while being in the studio.  Another three weeks for her and then she can have a holiday - but only if she participates in another weekend course - on painting this time.

Victorian Patterned Glass

During some work on the stair of a south side house, a slip led to an elbow being put through some Victorian patterned glass that was on the half landing.  The job was to replace the glass with something as near as possible to the original, but be more safe than previously.

Fortunately we were able to do this on toughened sheet glass.  The installed result looks almost the same as the original glass.  This shows that the original features can be kept in many houses if you ask around.

Gordon Webster Domestic Window

Recently I have been given the opportunity to take out one of the last windows that Gordon Webster created for his house from scraps around the studio. This house has remained in the family until now. With the requirement to move elsewhere, the family decided that they wanted to take the windows that had been installed as secondary glazing by their father and grandfather.

Hall windows and front door panels

I was chosen to remove, pack and store the panels of the windows and to create windows that were in keeping with the originals. The family took me into the basement area which had functioned as Gordon Webster's studio to show me a number of the things remaining. In amongst the material was a small rectangular panel which proved to be the original fanlight above the door.

Door panel with fanlight

This enabled me to create a design that was in keeping with the original windows of the house. Removal of the windows began this week and will continue next.

Progress of the removal and installation

As the weather was pretty cold this week, we decided to do a panel at a time to reduce the cold getting into the house, and to enable us to have reasons to come out of the wind.

The removal of the windows took remarkably long. The panels were installed tightly within the wooden frames inside the primary glazing outside.  At first the panels appeared to need to come to the inside of the house.  However the putty that had oozed behind the clear external glazing had stuck to the interior panels.  A re-think on the method of removal was required.  We decided to sacrifice the external glazing to make the removal of the Webster windows to the outside possible.

Each of the three windows is made in three panels - one above the astragal and two below.  It averaged approximately 1.5 hours for each panel to be removed and replaced - much longer than expected.

The replacement panels

The Webster panels are remarkable for several things.  They are made from his scraps which now are highly sought after.  They are made from thick glass pieces requiring high heart leads that even then were almost too small to contain the glass.  The panels are incredibly heavy - more than twice the replacement panels.  

The design is also interesting as there are horizontal lead lines only where the glazing bars are in the main part of the panels.  So, although there are vertical "folding lines" there are no horizontal ones, preventing any "accordion" style collapse.  This might be a lesson for me and others when designing regular glazing patterns.

Alexander (Greek) Thomson House

One of the great things about this job is that you get to see houses that might go un-noticed because of their out-of-the way nature of their location, or non-descript face.

Such was a house I was called to to look at storm damage to the stair window.  As I finally negotiated my way down a lane and missing the entry causing me to go on to a railway station that I did not know existed, I finally went across the cattle grid to be presented with this.

Yes, as I was to learn, this is a Greek Thomson house, possibly his first outside Glasgow.  This is an architect of such importance that there is a society established to study his works.  This grand house is impressive in its size as well as in the amount of light he allowed into the building.  No other architect at the time was filling the wall with so many windows.

The front door is as impressive as the rest of the house.  And probably the scale was meant to impress visitors with the wealth of the owner.  The front doors are twice the height of the average person.

The back of the house is no less impressive than the front.  The house is marred by the modern extension at the left, but still is a handsome house.  Note the number of windows all of which face over the River Clyde to the south.

This gives an impression of part of the view just from the garden.

The view from the first floor must allow views over to the Mull of Kintyre and the Isle of Aran.

But now I have to get to work.  This is the external view of the area of storm damage.

Fortunately the leaded glass had been covered with protective glazing some years ago.  This meant that the falling slates and guttering extensively damaged the external glazing, but not much of the leaded glass.

As I was welcomed into the house, I noted the generous cloak rooms with the fine cornices at the upper level of the walls.

This kind of elegant decoration continues into the modern down stairs lounge -  which would have been the dining room originally.

As we went round the stairs to the kitchen, there were a pair of windows under the stair:

And just to the left of them the door into the kitchen:

You can see from these pictures that coloured glass was not an important element in Thomson's architectural decoration.  What there is is simple and elegant, relying on varied textures in the glass for interest.


Now, really, I must get to work.  The falling roofing materials had broken the protective glazing extensively, and in some places had come through to the leaded glass.

My job was to get up to these breaks, which were about 4 metres above the landing, and repair them.  Fortunately, the client has a friend who runs a scaffolding firm.  The scaffolding was put in place for me to get up to the glass.  It was difficult as much of the broken glass was pieces next to each other and the lead had been  twisted by the impact.  The obvious pieces are at the right centre of the picture, but there were others broken under the glazing bars.

Fortunately the broken original glass has modern imitators that are a very good match, so I was able to fit the glass and leave it appearing to be original.


I have been to this town many times, but would never have seen the outside of the house, let alone its inside.  The owner of the house is proud of it and happily pointed out lots of things to me, but of course does not want a string of visitors.  So, my job is a good job for someone - like me - who is interested in domestic architecture

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.

The Wood in a Window

I was going to look at a building that needed some bent glass the other day and passed by a house that had this remaining piece of an evening woodland representation.  Unfortunately the paired window no longer has any leaded glass to complete the image.

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.

Window Repair

An IT company is moving into a mid-19th century building in the Park Circus area of Glasgow and needs to have the window on the half landing from the ground to first floor repaired.  

Window from below

This is a large window of nearly 1400 mm wide and approximately 2000 mm high.  It has a large number of broken panes, although only two - where you see the tape - have fallen out. The textures are important for this window.  Fortunately, I have an exact or very near match for almost all of the clear pieces.

Upper sash

The difficulty is to get yellow glass to match the borders of this window.  There are two main shades of yellow and a few variations - all in a seedy glass.  Seedy is a term for intentional bubbles in the glass.  Various manufacturers have different ways of getting the bubbles. I am told by the people at English Antique Glass that they throw a potato into the pot just before gathering the glass to blow.

I have looked through my glass stocks and samples and have found one yellow seedy that will match.
For the other shades I will have to stain some clear seedy to get a good match.

Window from above

The above photo just gives an impression of the colour generated on the wood of the reveal.  I think this is important to preserve.  So the experimentation has begun to obtain the correct shade of golden yellow.

Bottom sash

This will be in process for a while - making samples and testing them against the window - before staining suitably sized pieces to replace the broken ones.  These pieces will be cut on site to fit into the original place.

Of course, there is no easy way to do the repairs from the outside without incurring large charges for scaffolding.

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