Lamp Repair – Restoration July 2014

A picture story of a broken Stained Glass Lamp Shade. The picture below shows the damage to the lamp’s crown.

StainedGlassLampBrokenCrownJuly 2014

The next photo shows the one large lamp panel with serious cracks in it.

StainedGlassLampBrokenPanelJuly2014

This last photo shows the broken bottom panel. There were 4 crown pieces, 1 large panel and 1 bottom panel which were broke.

StainedGlassLampBrokenBottomPanelJuly2014

When we take out broken lamp pieces we use a large low sided box filled with crumpled newspaper for support of the lamp shade, then slowly and carefully remove the broken panel. What helps in this process is to take steel wool #0000 only to clean the old solder seams of their dirt and patina, as it allows faster melting of the old solder and less chance for heat build up to damage other pieces.

StainedGlassLampRemovalofBottomBrokenPieceJuly2014

The next photo shows the lamp shade with all of the broken pieces and the crown removed. Then all of the edges need to be thoroughly cleaned and scraped of all of the old foil, using an X-acto knife, #0000 steel wool along with Kwik Clean. Then new foil has to be applied and burnished on to the existing cleaned areas and the new pieces to be used.

StainedGlassLampBrokenPiecesRemovedJuly2014

The next picture shows the crown fully restored.

StainedGlassLampRestoredCrownJuly2014

Once all the new pieces have been properly soldered in place, with beading as required along the edges. In this case we did our best to match the soldering techniques used by whoever made the lamp. Then the completed lamp shade is cleaned with Kwik Clean to remove flux. We then mixed some black and copper patina’s together to match the antique brass look. After that another cleaning with Kwik Clean, then Clarity stained glass polish applied, with final polishing using soft cloths and tooth brushes for the seams. Then double checking when on a lighted lamp stand which allows to see and find polish etc that we may have missed.

StainedGlassLampCompletionJuly2014

 Designer Unknown

 

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