Each piece of the window had to be carefully removed and cleaned. The old crumbling lead was collected and taken to a metal recycling center.This was a very messy job as the old lead in the windows was crumbling after 150 yearsafter replacing all the lead brace bars were added where the design allowed. And a grouting cement was pushed under the lead channels to give more strength and stability as well as darken the lead to give it an aged appearance.The customer wanted to retain as much of the original materials as possible. The old wood frames were badly weathers and rotting in some areas, which required reinforcement with wood putty and metal brackets.There were 6 windows. Two of the largest were aprox 6 ft x 8 ftMuch of the cleaning after the mudding process was done in this position . These were very heavy windows especially in the old wood frames.The windows came out of the church of the corner of Douglas Ave and McCallie in Chattanooga TN. When the church was demolished the windows ended up in a antique store (the knitting mill in Chattanooga) where my customer found them. The design of the windows was a pleasing geometric mix with no church related symbolism.Two of the panels were this arched shape. I was able to restore in two sections because the design incorporated a large metal brace bar. Copper wires were attached to the lead joints and wound around the bar for stability.It took 4 strong men to lift these after they were complete. They were transported on a flat bed truck to the customer’Much of the glass was cracked and some was completely gone. Glass was chosen to match as close as possible. Where cracks were concerned, the customer requested they remain to keep as much of the original glass as possible. This meant carefully removing the pieces and taping them together while re leading.each window had a unique design with some elements running through all ,The windows were transported to the customer who will be building an outdoor cathedral with an open air feel on his property.two of the windows were long an narrow. The customer used them in a bell tower he made on his property to house a sentimental bell. The color choices of the bell tower were bright purple and pink to match the vibrant colors of the old stained glass windows.Bell towerlooking in the bell towerThe bell tower windows were aprox 3 ft wide and 7 feet talllooking up to the top of the bell tower from withinThe windows were delivered to the studio wrapped in plastic. The glass was literally falling apart due to the ageing of the 150 year old leadThe windows were stored in the studio and restored one at a time.The windows were not only falling apart, but bowed and distorted.close up of the corroded leadthis is one of the two windows that will be used as walls of the outdoor cathedral.cathedral wall window. The open air structure will has wisteria growing to form a canopy.beautiful geometric designThe two arched windows will be used in the outdoor cathedralsome glass had to be replaces, but some that was only cracked was reused as long as it was able to be leaded and structurally sound.The glass itself had many year of dirt on it . The colors came alive after cleaning.in some sections of the window there was evidence of past attempts to restore on site. This is never a good idea. The best way to restore an old window is to lay it flat and remove the old lead.
