We’re proud of the work that we do, and we want to share that work with you! So, as we’re getting started on a new project, we figured we’d bring you along for the ride and show you something of a work-in-progress view of things as a new repair and alteration job gets started. This’ll be the first in what we hope is a series of posts that’ll show you how we go about doing what we do–and what we can do for you!
The project, which we’re calling the Smith Panel Combination, is a fairly typical project for us in some respects. Our client has some older stained glass pieces that need some repair. In the photos below, taken in our shop after we got them home, a few bits of glass that’ve cracked show up. Too, the panels, done almost entirely in Tiffany-style, show some bowing where the glass has clearly been subjected to flexion and other pressures–and where it will break if something’s not done.
The lower panel. Note some cracking in the tree, as well as some evidence of flexion along the edges 
The upper panel. Note the way the came is twisted in the one corner and how it seems to wave around the whole border.
A couple of complications are already evident. One is the sheer size of the panels, given their construction; they’re large pieces, and the technique used to build them in the first place is one we’d normally only apply to smaller works or smaller components of larger pieces. We’ll be addressing some of that as we move through the work; we want to be sure that the piece we return to the client will hold up over time and be something that the client’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren can look at and still see the beauty of the light coming through the class.
The other major complication is that, although the panels are akin, they are currently separate pieces–and the client wants them combined into one larger window, framed in cedar, for installation. Again, the pieces are akin; they clearly already belong together. However, they’re not designed, in themselves, to be two pieces of a single whole; harmonizing them to fit together will be an artistic challenge. But we’re ready to face that; indeed, we welcome the chance to show what we can do!
Please, give us a call at 830-890-1509, or message us via our “Contacts” page; we’d love to talk about meeting your stained glass and art glass needs!
Read about the continued progress of this project here!
Heart's Desire Stained Glass 