church – Glass Artistry

Thanks to the generous support from the Storylines Art Bursary by Mark Furner MP for Ferny Grove and the James Whitney Workshop/Seminar Scholarship by the Stained Glass School/Stained Glass Association of America, I recently had the opportunity to spend few weeks in the US to further my expertise in glass conservation, in particular for heritage stained glass.

During this trip I spent some time at the Corning Museum of Glass (NY), visiting and working with Stephen Koob, Fellow of the International Institute of Conservation and the American Institute for Conservation, who is responsible for the care and preservation of all of the Museum’s collections.

Under Stephen’ mentorship, I have practiced conserving some damaged glass objects, including a vessel created by Frederick Carder in his carrear at Corning. I also had a chance to visit the museum and assist to the end of residency demonstration by visiting artist Dane Jack (blown glass).

After my time in Corning, I travelled for few days to Boston, MA, visiting some churches with heritage stained glass on the way. In Boston, I had the privilege to see a number of stained glass panels by Tiffany and La Farge, among others, including some installed in Harvard University’s Memorial Hall, generally not open to the public.

Once left Boston, I travelled to New York where I visited the Bullseye Glass Resource Center New York, the Queens and Brooklyn Museums, and the Claire Oliver Gallery (a commercial gallery that is the sole representative of J udith Schaechter’s stained glass work).

After New York, I travelled to Bryn Athyn, PA; not before having stopped in Princeton, NJ to admire some great stained glass from Tiffany Studios, depecting St George, and in Millville, visiting WheatonArts – the Museum of American Glass.

Once in Bryn Athyn, I had the opportunity to participate in a heritage stained glass conservation workshop, lead by Steve Hartley, with the help of Kenneth Leap. In the workshop, we had the opportunity to work on and examine a number of medieval and heritage stained glass panels. I also had the chance to return to Philadelphia to admire Tiffany’s Dream Garden mosaic and some stained glass in a church and in the local museum.

Next, I continued my trip and I drove to Washington, where I returned to visit the Washington National Cathedral, including the Stained Glass Association of America’s annual exhibition. Details of glass panel by Kathy Barnard below.

Finally, I concluded my journey in Los Angeles. There I visited the St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, which has several Harry Clark’s windows, and the Forest Lawn – Glendale – Great Mausoleum. There, I had the chance to see ‘The last supper’, the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci, but in the form of a stained glass window. The museum also had on exposition a few wonderful panels by Franz Mayer & Co. of Munich — but the greatest collection of Mayer’s windows in Los Angeles was in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. A true art supper for the stained glass lovers.

I will post on this blog some stories and images from my trip, including images of Tiffany’s stained glass and lamps, La Farge stained glass masterpieces, fantastic glass artworks from the Corning Museum of Glass, and much more. So, keep looking!

We have now finished the restoration of the leadlight windows at Our Lady of Victories in Bowen Hills, Queensland. The heritage-listed church was hit by the violent thunderstorm that devastated many Brisbane suburbs in November 2014. The image below show some of the damages done to the church’s window as we photographed in our original survey.

Broken windows at Our Lady of Victories, Bowen Hills (QLD)

Damaged leadlight panel, Our Lady of Victories, Bowen Hills (QLD).

Damaged semicircle leadlight, Our Lady of Victories, Bowen Hills (QLD).

Damaged semicircle leadlight (fanlight), Our Lady of Victories, Bowen Hills (QLD).

The restoration involved repairing more than 80 windows. Of these, most were removed from their original timber casements for reconstruction, while attempting to salvage as much original glass as possible, and match the new glass with the original one. Those with minor damage and no structural concern to the lead were repaired on-site.

The matching was not easy: the windows were originally crafted by the RS Exton Studios, a painters and decorators trade who used to have their warehouse in Brisbane CBD and closed their stained glass business in 1958. The windows of the church date back probably to 1924. The original glass is not produced anymore, and the production processes and colours have since then changed. We managed to recoup some old glass through some stock we had acquired from older stained glass businesses and some demolition yards. However, for a large quantity of glass, we had to commission a custom manufacturing to some glass companies in the US to be able to match the original glass as close as possible. David from Hartley and Williams was of great help in coordinating the sourcing of this glass.

Rebuilding one of the main leadlight panels

On the way to remove leadlights from the tower.

The main damages were concentrated on the south side of the church; however a number of windows throughout the floors of the church’s tower were also damaged; their restoration involved the use of a crane to remove the windows, replace them with temporary perspex (transparent acrylic sheets), and after few weeks replace the restored windows in place.

On-site reparations at Our Ladies of Victories.

When we remove the panels, we place temporary perspex to keep the weather out and the sunlight in.

An example of a poor reparation, carried out in the past, using silicone and cardboard to fill the gap left from a broken glass.

Through the restoration process it became evident that the windows had undergone several reparations in the past, not all carried up to the highest standard. Some glass was replaced with glass that was of completely different tonalities when compared with the original glass, compromising the original history of the windows. Other glass was installed using glues or silicones: this practice is not just an eyesore, but it also puts under serious risks the integrity of the lead that gives the structure to the windows.

Previous repairs have not put much attention in maintaining the original characteristics of the windows: here you can see a clear colour miss-match for one of the diamond shaped glass from a panel in the church’s tower.

Another patchwork of colours due to previous poor quality repairs. It is always difficult to match colours that are not produced anymore, but the differences in colours of the glass used for previous reparations is way too big.

Damaged semicircle from Our Ladies of Victories in Bowen Hills (QLD).

One of the restored large semicircle leadlight (fanlight).

The damaged windows are now all restored to their original appearance. The larger windows are composed from two strips of four top-hinged hoppers, mostly filled with green diamond mullioned glass. The green colour of the windows is to commemorate the armed forces of World War I. Above these panels is placed a semi circular window glazed with a leadlight panel depicting a rising sun, which, continuing with the commemoration of the WWI armed forces, recalls the symbol of the First Australian Imperial Force AIF.