The northern coastline of New England is dotted with many seasonal chapels. We were fortunate to work on two of them last year. Our work on the windows at St. Peter’s was an exciting collaboration with Marc Bagala, and Justin Smith at New England Sash Co. The overall scope of work called for fabricating a new sash to match the unsalvageable original, and restoring the stained glass panels.
The lead came was severely deteriorated and the windows required complete releading. We documented, disassembled, cleaned the panels, and went to work.
Many of the original green exterior plates were cracked beyond repair or missing. As we often point out, matching glass can be exceedingly difficult. Finding the same color, texture, and transparency of the original glass is not a given. The green glass looked like it came from the Kokomo Glass Co in Kokomo, IN, (where they’ve been operating since 1888.) I worked with our rep Judy who was able to pull a few sheets and send it our way. She nailed it! In time when a glass manufacturing is shifting overseas, I’m beyond thankful for companies like Kokomo, who service our industry with knowledge and history, on top of the gorgeous glass.
For other repairs, we kept the original glass and used tinted conservation-grade epoxy to secure them. The most prominent example of this was on one of the angel faces. We were able to match the color and glue the broken piece back together. Even up close, the crack is nearly invisible. We were thrilled with how it came out.
With the glass repairs behind us, we rebuilt the panels with new lead and our work was nearly complete.
Meanwhile, Justin and his team at New England Sash Co. created a beautiful new sash; a perfect replica of the original. The restored stained glass panels fit after minor adjustments and now the 150-year old windows look new. Many thanks to New England Sash Co. for including us in this fascinating project.
