AdammsGallery

Leaking Leaded Glass Windows

Leaking  Leaded Glass Windows If you have older leaded or stained glass windows you may be experiencing leaks. You may see this as droplets forming on the lead came, and dripping down the window, or as a pool of water at the window sill. Remember that water flows down hill, so if you see water anyplace on the window or sill it is most likely coming from a place higher up. After the rain stops and the water dries you will see water marks where the water has dripped. DO NOT CLEAN these off. The dried spots will help us determine where the leaks actually are.     Leaks may be from dried out a flaking putty, or they may be from broken, or missing lead came. On older windows(65-100 years old), the smog and acid rains have disintegrated the heart of the lead came, and in many cases it just falls apart. Also improper repairs lead to weakened windows and cause leaks. If the leaks are caused from dried out and missing glazing putty we reglaze by forcing the new putty into the lead came between the glass and the lead. The right type of putty will last for many years. The correct putty is metal sash putty. It is either black or grey in color, and is oil based. It should not be thinned with paint thinner, or turpentine. This will only dilute it too much, and cause it to dry out and flake. Do not use white putty. It is meant for wooden sash. Also, by all means, DO NOT USE SILICON. Silicon may seal temporarily, but it will make a mess, and only increase the cost of a repair because it has to be cleaned off before a proper repair can be successful.                             Broken Came      If your window is very old and the lead came has gaps, or holes your window probably needs to be removed and releaded. In this case we rebuild your window with your old glass and new lead came. We will also replace any broken, or badly etched(water stained) glass. To reglaze the window we try to clean out as much old dried out putty as we can. Then we force the new putty into the lead channel. After the window is reglazed the putty needs to set up, so we need a few clear days. Otherwise the new putty stands a chance of being washed out in a heavy rain. On a large window it may take two or three applications before the reglazing is successful. Of course if we totally restore your window you will have a quality window that will last many, many years. IF YOU NEED US WE ARE READY !Adamm's Stained Glass   1426 4th St. Santa Monica, CA 90401  310 451 9390  adamm@adammsgallery.com

First Baptist Church of Los Angeles Stained Glass Restoration

                                                               

   The First Baptist Church of Los Angeles is a magnificent church. The church is located at 760 S.Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles. The present location was built in 1927. It's magnificent sanctuary ceiling was patterned after the chapel of the Ducal Palace in Mantova, Italy. It seats 1,950 and is one of the most beautiful in Los Angeles.The 1980s brought to FBC a designation by the City of Los Angeles as Historic Cultural Monument No. 237 in 1981, and FBC hosted the Baptist World Alliance in 1986 where former president Jimmy Carter spoke.

     Part of the church is the Moore Prayer Chapel. It is a relatively small chapel with two beautiful stained glass windows each of which is 32" x 72" tall. The windows are predominantly blue being composed of various shades. The windows are etched and painted. The use of both hand blown glass and machine made cathedral glass is marvelous. Some of the glass is variegated (streaky clear and blue glass) with black painting in a flowing design. As often happens, the reason we were called is because of vandalism to the windows. Unfortunately both windows were broken in at the lower of two panels.

            
            

           Before Restoration                                                                   Completed Restoration                                                      

                                                                                                                  

     We were able to find exact replacement glass (Lambert antique for the hand blown, and Kokomo variegated for the cathedral). Our fabulous painter, Mary Orrell, did a fantastic job in replicating the original artists work, and both Alberto Marquez, and Armando Aleman performed their usual magic. I could not tell the restoration from the original, and yes the church was thrilled. Now we will be installing protective glazing on the exterior. This will be 1/4" clear tempered glass installed with circulation vents at the top and bottom to prevent any heat damage to the stained glass.

Custom Stained Glass Heart Windows

                         

   Who doesn't like hearts? Quite often we have long time customers that want to add a window or two to their home. Sometimes they have bought a new home and would like a special window for it.Here is another set of windows that we added to the sitting room of a wonderful long time customer. We installed a pair of identical, but smaller heart windows in the bedroom about 7 years ago, and she always wanted to finish the job with more in the sitting room. It turned out that the sitting room was the perfect place. We added the two heart windows by cutting out the mullions and then we replaced all the clear glass with double glue chip for privacy. Now she doesn't need the blinds that disrupted the room, and she has plenty of light.

     The blue glass is bullseye cathedral, red is hand blown Lambert antique, and we used  2" glue chip bevels as the border that we custom beveled for length. We also used 8 1" round faceted jewels around the hearts. She did a great job with the fabric drapery over the windows for a romantic effect.
   It's clients like these that make coming to the studio everyday so enjoyable. 

Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary- Flagstaff, AZ- Stained Glass Restoration

  

The Nativity Of Our Blessed Virgin Mary is a Catholic church in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Church was finished in 1930, and largely built with the hands of the entire congregation. It is made of volcanic rock that was brought from the surrounding hills by truck and in some instances piece by piece. The church has 18 stained glass windows including the magnificent multi section triptych of "The Assumption of Mary" over the entrance.

The Assumption depicts Mary as she is raised into heaven by cherubs. The Apostles mourn her death. Some kneel by her stone sarcophagus while others look upward witnessing the glory of her Assumption. All of the stained glass windows in the church were created and installed by Jesse Earl Fink in late February, or early march of 1930. Mr. Fink worked in Los Angeles at American Glass Company. The American Glass company was responsible for many other commissions including churches in New York city, Phoenix Arizona, Shakey's Pizza Parlor, and Forrest Lawn Cemetery.

Assumption Window

     The church is in dire need of restoration. The concrete  structure has severe cracks and deterioration.The pink decorative concrete is severely decayed due to a volcanic contaminate in the original concrete mix (silica).  However, the concrete substructure and stonework appears to be sound. Some gargoyles are missing, cracked,  and or severely damaged, as are other decorative elements. The harsh winters have taken their toll of the magnificent church, yet it stands proud and firm like the pioneer families that erected her. Some years ago the Catholic church decided to move and build a larger church for it's going congregation. This left the Nativity to fend for itself. Funds have been nearly non-existent.  However, thanks to an extremely ambitious, persistent, resourceful, and courageous volunteer(she prefers to remain anonymous) work is moving along.

                               
      Three years ago I performed a survey of all the windows to determine the condition, and type of restoration needed to preserve the windows for future generations to enjoy. Portions of the Assumption window were the most vulnerable. In addition  the windows in the Sacristy had multiple breaks, and one had multiple pieces missing. We determined that the lower left transom of the assumption window be restored immediately as it was in dire danger of falling out. In the future when more funds were available we would work on the sacristy windows.

It took three years but last month we returned to Flagstaff to work on the sacristy windows. The sacristy windows had been dual glazed with protective acrylic. Unfortunately the acrylic was sandwiched against the stained glass leading to the advanced deterioration of the lead came. Two of the windows had multiple broken pieces, and one of the windows was heavily damaged. We repaired two of the windows, but had to bring one back to our Santa Monica studio to totally restore it. We were able to get a very good match on the amber glass using a Bullseye amber, however the olive green was much more challenging. After sending samples out to various manufactures( Wismach Glass Co., Kokomo Glass Co., Bullseye Glass) we settled on dual glazing a gray and olive green glass from Kokomo(many thanks to Cindy and Judy for their terrific customer service). The resulting color was indistinguishable from the original.

           
                                                                 

                                                                 Removing window note old acrylic                                           Here's Adamm               Removed window note prior repairs to solder breaks in lead came

 

                                                                                          Completed and installed window(on right)    Nice Job Wonder Woman!           
       
 Because of costs and timing we shipped the window back to Flagstaff for our noble volunteer to install. I must say she did a fantastic job with only a very short demonstration by myself while I was there. We arranged for a local glass company (Rock Glass) to install 3/8" tempered glass as protection over the two sets of windows. We made sure to leave  space for

breathing room top and bottom. The glass was set in aluminum channel with the bottom resting on the steel hinge of the frame. The sides were fastened to the concrete jamb. 

 

                                                                       

                                                                  Installing 3/8" tempered glass protective glazing              exterior glazing finished

If you would like to help with the restoration by donating funds you can get in touch at

http://www.savenativitybvm.com/

The Nativity Restoration Project

c/o The Babbitt Foundation

P.O Box 520

Flagstaff, AZ  86002

 

Triple Pivot Casement Beveled a & Leaded Glass Windows

Beveled Glass Installation

 

      It has been about one year since one of our long time customers approached us about making a set of triple beveled glass casement windows with a center pivot on each. After much back and forth we finalized a relatively simple rectilinear beveled design.

The difficult part was installing the triple casement. Once again I enlisted the help of the best Handyman, and installer I know, Don Van Cura. Don is in my Networking group Wildfire Networking. I wouldn't do any difficult installation without him. I was able to find a perfect all brass, ball bearing, pivot hinge, from Architectual Resource Center  http://brasswindowhardware.com/and the installation of them appeared to be pretty straight forward.

 

                  window before

 

            We understood how the hinge worked, but it took some time before we agreed how to install them.  The owner of the company that sold the hinges didn't have any help with our particular type of installation. We didn't  have the option of removing the jamb to set the top hinge. We ended up removing the ball bearing on the top hinge, and that gave us the extra room for clearance, and didn't affect the ease of pivot since the weight was on the bottom bearing. We set the hinge into the sash. With the ball bearing hinge the pivot was very smooth.

     We first set the center sash,

                                                                                      cutting detail

  

              routing mortise                                  hinge set

and then trimmed the right sash as we needed. Finally we set the left sash. This was an interior set of windows. It was a divider between the master bath and bedroom.

                                                    mortise in sill

   

         bottom hinge set      mortising top hinge          Don with windows installed

 

     After we finished the installation the owner had the sash stained and finished. A very nice and interesting project.

                

                                 

  

Restoring Stained Glass Windows at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, Santa Monica, CA

           
          J.S.Bach Window before                           J.S. Bach After Restoration  

              

              Door Stained Glass                      Martin Luther Window

Having been located in Santa Monica, CA.  since 1978, and locally since 1972, we have been called upon to restore the stained glass of many local churches, and synagogues. We have worked for Pilgrim Lutheran for over 30 years, mostly doing repairs. Now we have begun a more in depth restoration. We are also updating, and adding to the current protective exterior glazing.

     The current home of Pilgrim Lutheran Church was dedicated in 1953. The more than 50 stained glass windows were hand crafted in Belgium. All the glass is hand blown "antique" glass, whose natural imperfections add to their dazzling beauty. The windows illustrate Biblical scenes, and the life of Christ.

     The church sits on the corner of 18th street and Wilshire Blvd. and gets a considerable amount of foot traffic. For this reason protective acrylic was added to the exterior in the 1970's. Over time the acrylic has hazed and discolored. We are currently replacing the acrylic with 1/4" tempered glass, and adding tempered glass protection to all the windows facing 18th St. We are also repairing, and restoring many of the windows that have suffered damage over the years from vandals, athletics(the church is also hoime to a school), and heat.

     Since the glass is European hand blown glass we have so far been able to get exact matches using Lambert German antique glass available through Bendheim Glass, in New Jersey. Our expert glass painter Mary Orrell, has been exceptional in her restoration abilities, and has provided a flawless recreation of the original pieces. In addition glaziers Alberto Marquez, and Armando Aleman have been doing an impeccable job with the removing, restoration, and installation of the windows. Indeed the Pastor and members of the congregation couldn't be happier. I must also add that they are a true pleasure to work for.

    Check back throughout the year for updates on this project.

 

Leon Applebaum Glass Artist

    

lava Bowl

I've known Leon Applebaum for about 35 years. I started representing him in my gallery in 1982, and have been ever since. Leon loves to work with transparent primary colors and has developed an extraordinary assortment of work.  One of my favorites were 3" paperweights with  five balloon shaped bubbles. He would create these weights by blowing small bubbles on the end of the blow pipe and move them over one at a time as he would blow the next color. When he had all the bubbles on the blow pipe he then encased them in clear glass. His "balloon" weights were a tremendous hit. So  much in fact that Leon got tired of making them. Leon also worked with clear pieces as in his twist candle sticks, but always liked color and his use of color and clear glass. Unfortunately for myself and my clientele Leon isn't backing away from his decision to not make them anymore.

 

                                                               

                                                                                 Textured Bowl                              Trails Bowl

         However, all is not lost. Leon went on to create many popular pieces from his lava bowls, rainbow ice perfumes,and cold worked carved bowls, and transition sculptures. Leon was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1945. Leon planned in being a high school art teacher, but, as many artists find out, he was captivated by glass after his first hot glass class. Leon received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art, and his MA from the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.He has studied in Sweden at the Orrefor's glass School, and at Boda Glass. In 1974 he returned to the US to pursue his MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. He later taught at RIT, and Naples Mill Art School, in Naples, N.Y.

                                             

Transition Sculptures

     Leon's work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Ajeto Glass Museum in the Czech Republic.

     Leon explains that"The process of blowing glass has been my teacher for the past 30 years. I have developed glass blowing techniques for my work that captivate the fluid energy of hot glass, using fire, air, centrifugal force, gravity, and tools to push and pull the glass. I enjoy exploring the visual dimensions of massive glass and reflective interiors, using transparent colors so that the light passes through and brings out the pure beauty and essence of glass".

     You can visit and purchase Leon's work in our Santa Monica,CA. Gallery at 1426 4th St.Santa Monica, CA. 90401

adammsgallery.com

 

 

Restoring Concave/ Convex Leaded Glass Windows

  

                        

  A few times a year we are asked to restore concave/convex leaded diamond pattern windows. Many people think that these  windows were originally flat and that they sagged  due to age, and people poking on them. While this may be true in many cases there were a significant number of windows that were made concave/convex intentionally. We don't see too many being made today simply because it is a time consuming process, and most manufacturers either do not know how to build them, or just don't want to put in the time.

     In fact the first time I encountered such a window I though it had sagged from age, but the home owner informe3d me that he was a child when his father had them commissioned and that they were intentionally made that way when the house was built. It was from this experience that I learned how the windows were constructed, and what we had to do to restore, or duplicate them.

     With this particular project there were other leaded diamond pattern windows that had been releaded, but flat rather than concave/convex. This project involved eight casement windows approximately two feet by five feet. Four were in steel sash, and four wooden sash. We removed all the sash and boarded up the window frames with plywood. This was easier, and cleaner than taking the windows out of the sash on site. Of course it was much safer also as we could remove the windows in our studio with no risk to them falling, or coming apart in the process.

     The windows were in such deteriorated condition that we didn't have to soak them to loosen the putty. When we removed them from the sash they for the most part came apart in our hands. Of course we numbered the pieces first before removing them. Then we cleaned them and began the process of rebuilding them. The deflection was about 1" on each side, so we used 1" Styrofoam cut in 1 1/2" square to support each rise. The 3/8" H flat lead easily bends up and down, and the intersecting sections are cut to slip into the opposite channel. Once the window is leaded up, we solder the joints normally and glaze up both sides.

The reinforcing bars have to be placed horizontally rather than on the diagonal as we do with flat diamond windows. Of course this means that the bars are visible as they cut half way through the diamond, but there is no alternative.

                                      

     As you can see the final result is dazzling. The reflection off the glass resembles a diamond, and really stands out, especially from  a flat diamond pattern.

Adammsgallery.com                          Adamm's Stained Glass  1426 4th St.  Santa Monica, CA 90401

 

Palau De La Musica Catalana

  
 

 

The Palace of Music in Barcelona, Spain was started in 1905 and completed in 1908 as the home for Orfeo Catala(the Catalan Choral Society) which still occupies, and owns the building. It is architect Domènech i Montaner’s most significant building. Astonishingly it took only 2 years and 8 months to build. With the quantity of detailed art work involved and the number of artisans working on it a truly unimaginable feat.

                    


The stained glass skylight is a focal point in the concert hall,

                                

 but there are so many other artistic elements to take in. Banisters with blown glass balusters,

mosaic tile decorations on pillars, and the ceiling, sculptures of Beethoven,

                
                                 

other prominent people, figures, and animals, and of course St. George the Patron Saint of Barcelona, amazing woodwork, and wrought iron, and  needless to say other stained glass windows.Performers  have included Lenard Bernstein, Herbie Hancock, Ravel, Zubin Mehta, and Pau Casals to name a few.

The Palace of Music is the only concert hall is the world to be declared a UNESCO world heritage site. It is in what we call the Art Nouveau style. In Barcelona it is referred to a Modernisme( modernismo for the rest of Spain), in Italy Stile Floreale, or Stile Liberty. If you are in Barcelona it is a must see. Tours are given regularly,. and worth every penny. If you have time take in a concert or a flamenco show. You won't be alone. The Palau seats over 2,000.

La Casa De Maria- Montecito, California

    

                                                                  
          

Toward the end of February 2018 I was contacted by a representative from La Casa De Maria in Montecito, CA. You may recall that the exclusive enclave of Montecito, just South of Santa Barbara, was hit by ravaging mudslides. La Casa De Maria was originally built in the mid 1950's. The 26 acre estate , in addition to its magnificent home, has a Spanish style Catholic Church that was built in 1955.  The church eventually became a retreat center for the Catholic Archdiocese, and years later changed to be a multi denominational retreat. The mud slides brought disaster to La Casa De Maria. What was once a beautifully landscaped wooded retreat was not chocked with tones, and tons of mud and rock. The San Yisedro Creek had been forced to overflow from the washed down boulders. The resultant flood washed not only mud, but giant boulders for miles. Many smashing into cars. trees, homes, and other buildings. The slides caused at least 22 deaths.

                                                               

      I was asked to come up to Montecito to give a proposal to remove a stained glass window from the La Casa De Maria Church, restore, crate, and store it until restoration of the church was completed. When I arrived I as astonished at the size of the catastrophe. The lush vegetation that had been there was gone, mud and boulders were everywhere you looked. In areas there were huge mounds of dirt, concrete, boulders, and building materials that were the aftermath of the floods, and slides. In some cases entire buildings were gone.

     I was accompanied to the church where I noticed an eight foot and 5 foot boulder that had slammed into the side of the church. The resultant collision had fractured a 12" x 8" beam that was supporting the windows from below. There was a hole in the building that was about eight feet across, and, I was told, led to 24 large boulders and three feet of mud being deposited in the church. The mud and boulders had been cleaned out, but the shock of the collision from the giant boulder had caused the ceiling timbers to shift. We had to remove the stained glass window( approximately 3' x 11') directly above the hole so that the walls could be rebuilt, and the ceiling timbers restored.

   

     The nine stained glass windows are magnificent. Originally fabricated in Ireland they have very vibrant colors and have a modern feel to their design. I completed my inspection, returned to the studio, and drafted my proposal( which included all necessary work on all windows), and emailed it. It will be at least a year before the restoration work on the church structure is complete. The administrator shortly there after informed me that they would like me to proceed. Since they were in as hurry to start, and couldn't do anything until we removed the window we went up the following week. We removed, crated, and transported the four sections of the window back to Santa Monica.

     I'll follow up in a later blog with the progression of our work, and also that of La Casa De Maria.