The Entrance Door with Stained Glass ART
(a project in progress, started August 2003)

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The reason to exchange the front entrance door glass panels is not simple actionism by the artist, but a required task, as the present stained glass elements became old and fragile. I suspect the 2 outer ones date back as far as 1937, the year Wentworth Lodge was build. They are still safe, and protect from weather and (in combination with a good alarm system) intruders,  but  their days are counted. The door itself, its frame, hinges and locks, are in perfect condition and do not need replacement. However, a strong wet winter with high temperature changes (expanding and retracting the panels), gusty winds and frost (freezing water in small intrusions and breaking up the lead-cement), might do damage to the Stained Glass work of the door at a time least needed. Note that this is not a door or window replacement, but conservation work of parts of a existing door, i.e. its glass pieces and lead. See for yourself, and check your own Stained Glass Windows and Doors for such cracks...

Some early design ideas                   

Above 2 pictures are digital produced design ideas. The final look is very difficult to predict, even more difficult to demonstrate. As you can see from the results of my previous project "The Garden Shed", it is the sunlight reflecting on the glass, in combination with inner lightning which will determine the final look. 

Also the lead-structure will be much more visible, a very important element in designing these panels. maybe more important than the colors themselves.

But lets start building the 2 outer panels. Once these are finalized and installed, they will give us a more realistic guidance for the layout and color scheme of the inner panels.

Fist cuts are made, the glass used is from Spectrum called "Waterglass"

 (13.9.2003)

It is very important to get your shapes right. Specially with diamonds, if the angles, height and width are not identical, you are in trouble. Small variations within 1mm can compensated by the lead cane, but higher and you have a window with holes.

For a pleasing appearance, you must also consider the "flow" of the glass structure. In this project, Spectrum's Waterglass is used. It has a distinct "structural pattern flow", from left to right <-->. You may want this structural flow intact through out your window panel, thus you have to consider it when cutting the sheet of glass into squares, diamonds and triangles. The result may be scrap glass you have to throw away.

The white clear glass was not used in the Garden Shed. Here for the front doors it is intensively used for the upper part of the panel, to allow as much daylight as possible to enter the inner entrance hall

The green and purple glass are the 2 main themes of the whole property, as since 1937 they are the 2 dominant colors in the coat of arms of Wentworth Lodge.

As you can see from the pictures above and below, the structure of the glass is in reality much less pronounced than the structure visible in the sample above. To get a better feeling, imagine above sample to represent a sheet of glass 1m by 1m in size. 

Note that the actual uncut sheet of "Waterglass" is  around 1.2m x 0.5m, or around 0.6sqm.

As both outer panels are of the same size and design, the glass for both panels is cut simultaneously.

 (14.9.2003)

One of the outer panels consists of 66 pieces, and as I cut the glass for both outer panels at the same time, I have at the end  of this process 132 pieces of glass in different shapes and colors.

The glass cutting for the 2 outer panels is done. Now lets solve the puzzle, with the help of horse-shoe nails.

The nice thing in working with Stained Glass is the diversity of tasks. Design, Glass cutting, Lead cutting, Soldering, Cementing, installation. Cutting 132 pieces of glass can be pretty tiring, and after many hours even plain boring. But this done, the assembly starts, cutting the lead into right sizes, and "solving the puzzle". Remember the original design ?

After soldering, a dirty but important job has to be done: cementing. Its not concrete, but a oily viscous paste that needs do be pushed into each gap.

Whiting: the white powder is legal ! It binds the surplus cement, allowing cleaning.

SIMBA plays with the "new hole" in the entrance door.

17th October, the 2nd panel is finally installed

2 weeks are lost, as the last changes in design required a higher quantity of clear Waterglass, that I had not in stock and had to order.

16th November, the 3rd panel is finally in place

      

One more weekend gone, and the job is finally done on the 23rd November 2003, 
and this is how the final design  looks from the inside.

As in 2003, in 2004 there was again one day with snow, the 28th January 2004

At night, illuminated from the insight, the pattern and colors can clearly be seen.

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These stained glass windows are not of the shelf, they need careful consideration. 
Each window is build individually in a time consuming but rewarding process.
Only your personal design guidelines will achieve a result you will be pleased to look at for years to come.