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How I got interestedMany many moons ago, sometime in the late 1960's I think, My wife and I discovered that my father-in-law was going to scrap a leaded and stained glass window that he had located in the basement of a house he had just purchased. The window was approx. 20h x 40w, was in an Art Nouveau design, and had some very unique glass and a number of 'square' bevels. The window was cracked in a number of places in the fantail center, as well as the border glass was broken, and some other pieces broken. It bothered me that something that old was to be trashed, so we took it and stored it. At the time, we lived in an apartment, and had no place to use the window even if it was repaired. About 6 or 7 years passed, we moved at least 3 times, and every time the window was moved, more damage occurred to the outer border, and more pieces fell off. Finally around 1980, I decided to invest some money in the window and have it rebuilt or restored. I contacted Ted Gooden Glass and got a price. In all fairness to Gooden, we laid some hard and fast conditions on the restore and in hindsight, this was not a good thing. It's amazing how clearly you can see with hindsight. Anyway, the studio was only 2 blocks from where I worked, and during the 2-week restoration I would go over a few times a day to view the progress and I followed every process from start to finish. It was during this time that I could see how roughly the glass was actually cut, and how many design and cutting flaws were hidden by the lead came. An analogy is the decorative wood trim used to finish houses or furniture, or the decorative welts used to finish upholstered furniture. It was also at this time that I said to myself, ''Hell, I can cut glass that good, so therefor I can do stained glass. No problem!'' I bought a few Stained Glass How to books, and began amassing personal experience. You may also be interested in the following sublinks See Tips and Hints for Leaded Restorations and/or My restoration experiences or The logic behind these tips. |
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