Glass thickness

I was at an old chapel recently which was converted to flats perhaps ten years ago. An accident had revealed something that anyone living in such a building might want to be aware of.

A window, some six feet off the ground, had been broken, and the owner had kept a piece of the blue glass which she would like me to replace.

I noticed it was very thin; in fact, it was one-sixteenth of an inch (about 1.5mm) thick. (The Methodists who built the chapel clearly didn't believe in spending any more on luxuries like glass than they really had to.) Being over 1500mm above the ground the building reg rules about thickness won't actually apply, but tapping some of the (unbroken) windows around the property we came to the view that there could be some glass of that thickness at a lower height elsewhere in the building.

The coloured glass I normally use is 3mm (one-eighth) thick; in some high rick places 4mm is preferred (or required, in Building Regs).

The thinner glass breaks very easily.

I have a suspicion that glass thickness had not been on the list of things that were thoroughly checked by Building Control when the conversion was done - it is difficult to tell glass thickness when it's in a window! The piece will have to be replaced with 3mm glass, it's almost impossible to get hold of anything thinner these days.

The problems of matching colours

I did the necessary work on the broken Victorian panel (see Feb 2016 post) recently. The glass we had ordered was indeed a close - but not perfect - match, the three replaced lights can be readily identified in the photos I took on my phone (which perhaps bring out the difference more than is apparent when actually looking at the panel).

Closer examination of the glass in question did lead me to wonder whether it was the same as the glass I had removed, or the matching pieces at the other end of the panel.

I have left the customer a piece of the yellow glass I used, just in case she wants to replace the bottom left light; however, when reviewing the photos I took in February, I noticed that that piece was slightly darker than those I had replaced anyway.

The glass will, of course, weather a little, and I was not able to polish the panel aggressively while the cement was still soft; once it has hardened some Mr Sheen and an old pair of tights will work wonders. I will still notice the difference in colours, but possibly others won't!

Lettering on glass

I've been working on a piece ( a gift - photos of it will follow once the recipient has it) incorporating some lettering.

Large letters - 2 inches high or more - I tend to cut in glass, using copper foil to solder them into the panel. There are some in the piece.

In this case it's was also necessary to use smaller lettering, using paint or similar to add the required text onto the glass. Traditionally, this would be done in enamel and fused into the glass with heat; modern technology does provide alternatives, one of which I've been experimenting with.

Many of us have used Letraset lettering on paper in the past (younger readers may not be so familiar with it, now that Microsoft Word and the like are used to produce reports).

The photo below shows two tests of black Letraset, applied using a burnishing tool onto white glass.



In both cases the lettering didn't quite go down perfectly, but did give an acceptable effect; however, I needed to protect the delicate lettering with varnish. For that on the left I tried a squirt of gloss polyurethane, on the right I brushed on some clear nail varnish. Both varnishes did soften the lettering enough to cause slight runs, but the final effect of the spray was more than acceptable - that's what I'll be using to protect the text on the final piece (which is complete, apart from the text - I will apply the letraset now the panel has been fully soldered). The nail varnish can be returned to the bathroom shelf!

Update on mirror and restored panel

I've now finished work on the mirror, and it's now installed on an external wall, reducing the amount of visible brickwork in the garden and reflecting light onto a lemon tree. It's mounted on a wooden frame, with the mirror itself being held away from the wall; previously, a plastic mirror was in this spot and failed quickly due to the silvering not coping with moisture that sometimes runs down the face of the wall in heavy rain.

There's another plastic one to the left (visible in the first photo, giving rise to the 'bent' reflection). The glass mirror I've made reflects light 'straight', whereas the plastic mirrors didn't sit 'flat', giving a reflection not wholly unlike the hall of mirrors in a funfair! (If using them again I would mount them on very solid board, to try to stop them bending.)

In low light the colour plating picks up the light from the sky; who says you can't have colour in your garden all year round?

The plan is to make another similar mirror to fit the wall to the left, turning a corner of the garden into a mini-light box.

I've also completed the soldering and recementing work on the panel I picked up at a reclamation yard: this would ideal to add a bit of decoration to a uPVC window or conservatory. I'm putting it on sale, initially in newspapers and on the internet.

Transporting and moving leaded panels

There's a programme on TV this week (Channel 4, 5.30pm) which is a sort of competition for the transportation industry. One of the things that had to be transported was a set of seven Victorian leaded stained glass panels.

The commentator kept describing them as 'irreplaceable' - actually, the glass was mostly pastel English Muffle, available from Decorative Glass (http://www.decorativeglasssupplies.co.uk/). Maybe this was to wind up the contestants a bit, who seemed very, very nervous about trying to move them.

Actually, it's easy. Each panel must be on a firm board (12mm MDF is best), ideally with two sides edged with 2 x 1 timber. It should be kept on it right until it is fitted into the frame: here's a photo of my garden mirror panel, on its board, prior to fitting:

 

The board can be leant at an angle, and the timber edges keep the panel on it. For transportation, I cover the panel with either hardboard or stiff cardboard, and tie the whole thing up with strong tape, before putting the board into the car or van, ideally on its long edge with the timber support at the bottom, and secured in place, padded out with old curtains or something soft. They'll survive anything encountered in normal driving if protected like this.

 

#Stainedglass #Transportation





Inspiration from Amsterdam

I've just got back from a short visit to Amsterdam.

There's much more use of stained glass ('Glas in Lood' as they call it) over there than in the UK, with even modern buildings and shops using some coloured glass to soften the light coming in, and to give some colour to light going out (at night).

 

One bar we found - 't Lommertje on Bos en Lommerweg - has large panels in all the outer windows, with the leaded panels encapsulated in double glazed units (partly for insulation, and partly, no doubt, for security - the panels would be very vulnerable to damage). Somehow this has rather more style than the sterile uPVC units you see in shop and café windows in the UK:

 

 

 

Most of the designs we saw made maximum use of straight lines - straight cuts being much easier to get right than curves, greatly reducing the labour cost of each panel. Here are a few examples:

 

 

 

In at least one case I saw a leaded panel fitted behind a conventional uPVC window (rather than bei9ng encapsulated within it). I've been planning to try that for some time, and it will be one of my next projects.

 

One glass-related observation I did make - in the otherwise wonderful Rembrandtshuis museum, the leaded windows of the 17th century building have obviously been restored, with new leads, and some glass lights being replaced. Unfortunately, it's clear which lights have been replaced - they have used modern 3mm glass (optically perfect) whereas the old 17th century stuff had a few ripples in it. I did wonder whether they could get something like clear water glass, which would work better; I've used red and pastel water glass in the past but I wasn't sure if clear is available. Later that day we went to the 't Lommertje, where some of the lights are clear water glass! I will be reviewing Rembrandshuis for Tripadvisor soon, I'm not sure whether everyone will feel it a fair criticism but, in fact, the glass in the windows would have had a significant impact on the light available to the artist - so it should really be right.



I’ve now found some amber glass that’s suitable for the panel in the Victorian house. It’s ‘Wissmach Light Amber Seville’, code W112. I’ve shown a sample to the client and she is happy with the match, next step is to order some more and then plan in the job, probably for some time in early May.

I’ve moved forward on the other two pieces previously mentioned. For the mirror, I have selected some coloured glass to plate in front of some parts of the mirror: the English Muffle green and red pick up the light well, and will look good in the planned garden setting.

Work on the small panel I picked up in Cambridgeshire has started. Both top and bottom leads will need replacing, and the side ones will need some work to clean them up satisfactorily. I’ve soldered some of the broken joints and am trimming the side leads to allow a new top lead to be fitted.

I’ve also had a couple of other projects worth mentioning. The first, albeit not at all time consuming, involves a window which I repaired four years ago in ‘The Cock’ in Hitchin, (on a July day, in pouring rain, with a bagpipe player fifteen yards away..!)  

 

Areas of the lead that I had worked had become oxidised over the last couple of years, and I popped by and polished them with a little boiled linseed oil. This should keep them looking good for at least a few years. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos below don’t really show how much better the lead looks now but I can wholly recommend this treatment for any leads that are looking a bit pale.

(Befiore: )

(After:)

Finally, I had a request to help save a copper foil panel from disintegration. The foil had weakened at the edges and broken resulting in a small piece of glass coming away:

This often happens with copper foil work; the solution I’ve used in the past has been to frame the whole piece in some C-section lead. Having done this, the piece now looks fit for another few years on a windowsill: