After being in the stained glass business for over 40 years it is inevitable that we would be asked to repair and or restore windows that we have produced. More and more this is becoming the case wether it is because of carelessness on the homeowners part, children, uncontrollable parties, or burglaries.
A few months ago we were asked to restore a beautiful stained glass window we had made over 30 years ago. The people had moved from their previous home and built a new home in Malibu, California. They decided to hang the window outside on their dining patio. Unfortuately the location they hung the window was extremely windy and in this case there were gusts up to 70 MPH. The window blew out of the window frame and folded down to the deck. In all there were over 200 broken pieces, with no damage to the frame other than a strip of molding and repainting.
Since the window was not particularly old we were able to obtain all the same type of glass used in the original. This window was a copper foiled window(Tiffany techinique) approximately six feet wide and seven feet tall. It had always been one of my favorite designs(we have duplicated it in one form or another, for various clients, at least six times).
The window was in eight major sections when I brought it back to the shop. We first layed it out on the work table. Next we assessed what glass we needeed and how many broken pieces we needed to replace. All of this information used to determine the cost of the restoration. The price was forwarded on to the insurance company and they agreed to the full amount.
The next step was to remove all the broken pieces and reposition the window to fit the pattern of the frame(window sash). As you may imagine this was very labor intensive. Next we had to clean all the pieces that we had to refoil and foil them. With the window now layed out in the exact position to assemble we began cutting the replacement glass. After the glass was cur and fit we copper foiled each piece. Next we soldered the pieces together. We generally use 50/50 solder and did so on this project. Finally we replaced the border lead on the window, and used a copper patina on the solder(this was mixed with a black patina to aqge the copper finish).
We refinished the frame and installed the window. As a safety measure we added a 1/4 acrylic panel to the windward side(outward facing) of the window. Finally we returned the finished restored window the the home and hung it back in it's patio location. The clients were very happy.
