Lost and Found and Loved again!

Fashions come and go, the Edwardians did away with the musty old pastel tints of their parents, deciding to let the light in with lots of clear glass and big bold shapes. Two world wars came and went and damage done to buildings that was not essential for living was low priority in frugal times. Whatever the reason, discovering a panel or set of original panels covered in dirt but with some beautiful glasses can be very exciting! Below are some examples of panels, found in basements, attics, garden sheds and skips and where they ended up...

  Original panels from the street being thrown away by a neighbour.

 

Rare glasses in the central diamonds removed and reused for internal door set.

 

 Nothing wasted, another customer chooses the spare panels for their garden studio.

 

 Discovered in a basement...

 

 The existing door..

 

Home again!

 

Squirreled away in the depths of a Corbett house.

 

All door struts removed, possibly bomb damage.

 

Struts and panels intact again.

 

A similar story with replacement central strut.

 

Being thrown out by a neighbour.

 

Damaged glasses replaced from original stock collection.

 

The Look!

 

If you have removed all your floorboards, checked every nook and cranny and still cannot find any panels there are some great local places to find original stained glass panels; The Junk Shop on Greenwich High Road, Aladdin's Cave, Lewisham Way and Lassco in Vauxhall. Note of caution though; old panels can need more work than is immediately obvious so do take photos and check costs before purchase. 

Light and air and space (with a Mackintosh feel)!

Was the brief for this job which needed to link in with an existing lovely sparkly Chandelier. We used subtle tints and texture rather than colour to create different shapes, plus some rare glasses; a cranberry and an olive Cathedral glass, a beautiful oval pink jewel and old Muranese with it's deep cut pattern to really light up the borders.

Sparkly Chandelier!

 

Pasting up colours to check everything works.

 

Beautiful olive glasses leaded up.

 

A traditional yet light and modern look for an Edwardian home.



St Nicholas Church Kidbrooke

Back in 2005 the Reverend Tim Linkens invited me to his warm and welcoming congregation to discuss ideas for 2 windows at either side of the alter. The main ideas coming forward were 'not figurative but simple and geometric'. From this I took the medieval, repeat glazing pattern as the central idea with it's aim of not distracting but providing a calm backdrop to aid contemplation (although these patterns could also be highly complex and quite ingenious!). In the centre of the main pattern a representation of three gold coins was used in reference to an act of kindness and charity in the life of St Nicholas.

Rear view of St Nicholas before installation.

 

Existing mural between the 2 windows. 

 

Narrowing down the design from a range of options.

 

Leading up.

 

Cementing - a mucky business!

 

Detail showing handmade glasses.

 

 

Panels installed

 

Nothing wasted - new life for the small fanlights - they are adapted and head to Malta for a circular window in a barn conversion!

 

 

 

From pub to home on a roof rack!

Restoring their beautiful Edwardian home my customers bought 2 panels of 44" x 38" on ebay. These huge panels dating from 1903 were thought to come from a pub in Portsmouth. They must have been looking forward to their new life as they survived the journey to London on the roof rack intact! The panels needed cutting down and the sizes changing for their new shape as window light and door panel. A new fanlight with anchor was made to go above the door panel. What I love about these panels is not only the choice of glass (that lovely fiery orange border and the fantastic ripples of the streaky glass in the sails) but the real quality touches; joints mitred for the clouds, copper wire soldered on for rigging, different thicknesses of lead to indicate posts, lead overlay to indicate beams silhouetted against the sky.

Original panel size.

 

Ship detail.

 

Resizing.

 

Anchor detail.

 

 

A feature running through the house was the reed and ribbon pattern. We picked up on this for a further door panel and fanlight.

 

Reed and ribbon detail.

 

 



Thames Barrier door set

A love of the industrial skyline led to the making of these panels. The shapes the 'hoods' make in their various views and stages of opening and closing create interesting angles although an engineer might smile wryly at the scene! Great fun was had choosing the glasses with some classic industrial glasses in the buildings; cross reed, half inch reed and narrow reed (other reeds are available!). These panels seen here in their original location as a set of study doors have now moved on to new doors in a new home.

From 25th November to 25th December...

The plan is to post a favourite job from my back catalogue every day up to Xmas Day. Kicking off with (ok probably the wrong choice of words) a beautiful smashed Victorian panel. Luckily the fragments were fairly big, could be glued together with the conservation glue Araldite 20/20 and only a small section needed repainting.

 

The Factory Presents...

Just came across this brilliant blog by a group of cataloguers, photographers, curators and volunteers at the V & A http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/factory-presents/stained-glass-on-paper-morris-co-and-the-pre-raphaelites .

The (stunning, award winning) William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow, London.

Set in beautiful grounds, this museum is an inspiration. It gets the balance just right with lots to do for children and adults. Above all it never loses sight of the man with intimate touches like the letter to his mother trying to calm her fears as he lets her know he has left the safe career path mapped out for him and is going to choose a different route. Plus they do great tea and cake too!

According to his doctor William Morris died at the young age of 62, of "simply being William Morris, and having done more work than most ten men."