BLESSED SAVIOR LUTHERAN

Blessed Savior Lutheran Church is a small country church in Blissfield, Michigan.  They purchased the church about 5 years ago and had us restore their stained glass, which had received damage from vandals as it sat empty.

Unfortunately, vandals were at it again.  The photo shown here is one of the window openings after all work was completed.  In my blog, you will find additional information about the latest repair efforts.  

Matching the colors of the glass, the glass paint, and the style of the original artist always makes repair/restoration work a challenge. 

Many churches run into similar issues with vandalism.  Although this church did have protective covering on the outside of the stained glass, these vandals worked diligently until they broke through that covering and through rocks through the stained glass.  Hopefully, as we drive by beautiful buildings like this and see things that don't look quite right, we will call the authorities and possibly eliminate the need for repairs like this.

ANTIQUE PANEL REPAIR

When my customer came to me with this leaded glass panel, their first request was for me to remove a cracked piece of glass and replace it.  They also wanted the old putty removed and new putty put in it's place.

After observing the window, I discussed the possiblity of further damage to the glass that seemed uneccesary to me.  The one piece of glass that was cracked was textured, hardly noticeable, and did not cause structural issues to the panel.  It was somewhat bowed and the putty was falling out.

We decided the best course of action was to remove the old glazing, remove the window if it came out without concern over further breakage, flatten the panel, repair necessary solder joints, and reinstall the window.  This worked out very well in this case.

RETROFITTING

Some projects are exciting, some are just fun, some are inspirational... and some are challenging.

This is one of those challenging projects.  My customer found an exceptional buy for stained glass panels on Ebay.  What they had was a set of sidelights and a large panel that had similar patterns and glass.  What they wanted was to take the large panel, have it cut down to create an arched window, and have additional glass added to the sides so it would fit the space and look appropriate with the sidelights they purchased.

Doing this was no easy task.  I was told they contacted several stained glass studios and my understanding was they did not get a real positive response.  The top of the already completed stained glass had to be cut without causing damage to the rest of the panel.  Separate panels were created for each side and had to be attached in such a way that it looked like that was the original design.

Additional struggles were the size of the piece.  Once I completed my work, the stained glass was transported to a window glass company to have it thermopaned.  The size of the stained glass and the weight of the finished thermopaned panel was also a struggle for their builder.

Once the glass was completed and the builder got it installed, this customer was very happy.  Was it worth the time, effort, and money it took to take existing panels, retrofit them, have them thermopaned, and then have a builder create what was necessary to make the whole project work?  This customer thought so.  Take a look at the finished piece and decide for yourself.