Restoration Planning for Stained Glass Church Windows

A church or house of worship can be a sizable restoration project that may even seem insurmountable. Many houses of worship have numerous stained glass windows that are 80+ years old with bowing, sagging lead and broken or cracked glass. Not to mention the grime and paint that have likely encroached the windows over time. At some point these assets must absolutely be preserved or unfortunately replaced with a less expensive, less inspired option.

However, there are manageable ways to go about both the funding and execution of a restoration. A little strategic planning can go a long way toward controlling costs. On the topic of raising capital, we stumbled on this interview with an experienced fundraiser. The article includes a host of both prudent and creative techniques for raising asset preservation funds.

And if you are in no rush to complete the project you can prioritize the windows in most need of restoration and pay as you go. Staging the project in this way does not diminish the quality of work. We can help determine prioritization and draft an execution plan that meshes with your budget and ability to raise funds. We will be your partner in assuring an affordable, quality outcome to last another 80-100 years. We’d love to help bring your stained glass windows back to their original beauty and to delight and inspire your congregants. Contact us for an on-site consultation.

Lucas Stained Glass Design + Restoration — Alma

This is the type of project we love to do. The 1910 home, located on Alma Street in Cole Valley, San Francisco, was missing a window. Rather, only the upper part of an existing, paned single hung window remained, while the lower portion had been replaced with a single sheet of clear glass. The client wanted the upper and lower portions to match.

The main challenge in meeting the client's needs was matching to the existing century-old glass consisting of a narrow green border and a field of clear harlequin panes. This required a little sleuth work, adding some extra fun to the project. To match the existing green border, we sourced a near perfect facsimile from Kokomo Opalescent Glass located in Kokomo, Indiana. KOG has been in continuous operation since 1888 and at one point Louis Comfort Tiffany purchased their glass since it offered the imperfections he sought for creating his painterly windows and lamps. More on this history can be found on the KOG website.

Matching the clear panes took a bit more effort. Over time glass gets milky so if we had built the window with new glass or even reconstituted the replacement pane the windows would not have matched. We decided to salvage old glass in similar condition that we lightly sandblasted before cutting it into the harlequin panes.

After building and puttying the window we added patina to the lead, further "aging" the new window. Once installed we knew our sleuth work had paid off: both windows looked as though they were created on the very same day. Most importantly, the client was thrilled. What makes projects like this extra fulfilling is the a-ha moment when we find the right solution. It's one reason we love doing restorations: every project requires an extra level of exploration to help restore the object's original beauty. Please contact us if you have a window that could use new life.

Source: https://www.lucasglassdesign.com/custom-de...

Lucas Stained Glass Design + Restoration — 10th Avenue

Welcome to the LD+R Blog! Here we plan to showcase special projects, explain our process, explore the history of architectural stained glass in San Francisco, and other odds and ends. For our inaugural post we are writing about our favorite project to date: the 10th Avenue house. This house is a beautiful Craftsman circa 1911 in the Inner Richmond District located in the NW corner of San Francisco. Our project included three windows featuring minimalistic natural motifs as typical of the Edwardian era. Please tap through the gallery below as you read along.

In situ, the windows' exteriors were covered in overspray from a previous housepainter. Who knows how long the windows' translucence was obscured by old paint? In the first couple photos you can see the difference once the windows were dismantled and the glass cleaned of old paint. The quality of the antique glass, now revealed, is stunning with beautiful texture and depth of color. One particular challenge came with cleaning the clear crackle glass as environmental grime as well as the original artists' putty were embedded in the fine decorative cracks. But with a lot of elbow grease we were also able to take the clear glass back to the day it was produced.

Some of the glass pieces were fully cracked and you might assume we'd outrightly replace those pieces. But that is not the standard restoration method. In fact, it is preferred to retain the original glass and make repairs with modest lead lines which you can find if you look closely at the photos.

Once the windows were rebuilt we puttied and added a patina to the lead. But first to avoid adulterating the crackle glass all over again we applied an adhesive matte. That's the green material you see in the photo. This took a lot of effort but was well worth it.

Windows of this size require bracing to ensure their structural integrity. Typically this is achieved with straight metal bars. However at one point the bracing would have intersected the windows' floral shields, causing shadows across the predominant design elements. To avoid this we bent the bars so they followed the shields' organic curvature. If we didn't tell you about them, you wouldn't know they were there.

After so much work we re-installed the newly restored windows in their beautiful Craftsman home, where they'd previously resided for more than 100 years. It was an especially sunny San Francisco day which gave the windows extra sparkle and fire.

This is the type of project where we get our greatest satisfaction and not only in the work itself. The satisfaction is also in knowing that we are restoring the work of a talented artisan from long ago while helping ensure it lives on for another 100 years. Please contact us if you have a window that could use new life.