St Pauls Restoration by Albert Stained Glass

Albert Stained Glass Studio received the bottom half of this window in a small cardboard box. A burglar had broken into the church, demolishing the window. On the left is the remaining window. In addition to a few pieces of intact lead and glass, we had hundreds of small pieces of glass and no idea of how they were to be assembled.

Three of our master craftsmen and two apprentices patiently assembled as many of the fragments as possible. By gluing many of the small pieces, we were able to assemble about 80% of the window. Next, the craftsmen had to draw a pattern. We had a fuzzy photograph and a few seconds of video that members of the church shot. We used these and the pieces of old lead that survived to draw a pattern. The new pattern had to match the top half of the window and had to make a smooth transition to other windows on the left and right, which continued the field of lilies.

This window is double plated; so, we were actually making two windows, one in front and one behind. You can see in the photo of the restored window how the second layer of glass imitates folds in Jesus' robe. Though you cannot see it in the photos, the entire window is double plated. To match the old glass we used Kokomo, Uroboros, Wissmach and Spectrum glass.