Last year we rebuilt and restored this old came window, which included obtaining some new bevels and adding the colored Youghiogheny 5502SP art glass. Judy had the restored window mounted in a new wooden frame and it now proudly hangs in her home in Central Alberta.
Judy said “I finally have that beautiful window you repaired, framed, hung and as promised here is a photo.”
“Thank you again so much for the wonderful job you did. I just love it!”
A number of years ago a neighbor brought us this old wooden frame stained glass window. Fortunately the only glass broken in it was one of the center frosted (Glue Chip) pieces of glass. While the wooden frame looks flimsy it was quite solid and our clients wanted to leave it as is. Replacing the one piece of broken glass was not a big issue, but over the years and numerous coats of paint, the colored glass become speckled or had a substantial amount of paint on it. The only way to remove that paint from that rough textured glass was to pick it off little by little with an X-Acto knife, ensuring that we did not scratch this old glass. After this detailed cleaning we then polished the glass, restoring it to it’s original beauty.
Quite a few years ago the United Church in Innisfail was making a small model of a church, which if memory serves us correctly, was going to be auctioned off as a fund raiser.
When we saw it we decided to help by adding a small stained glass window which would add to the authenticity of the model church. This was our design.
Design by Flory Wilkins
We have now cemented the back side of the reconstruction and will be starting on cementing the front. Unfortunately there were many broken pieces of glass in both windows, however we were successful in restoring this window with all original glass by using pieces from both windows.
The following pictures shows the window in sunshine before we started to cement the came.
The reconstruction of this wonderful old Alberta Rose Came window continues.
We now have started the reconstruction of these Alberta Rose Came windows. After discussions with our client we are going to first restore window # 2, which has the rose colored background glass. We will have sufficient pieces to replace those that were broken from window # 1, which will allow for this window to be rebuilt using all original glass. When it comes to doing window # 1 we will have to add new glass and will cover off that in detail when we get to restoring that one.
Very carefully we take apart these old came windows. Most of the glass in window # 1 was intact with only a couple of broken pieces.
This is window #1, taken out of its wooden frame, the next step is to dismantle it. The background glass appears pinkish but is actually clear as it is laying on a colored towel.
We recently were brought 2 of these old Alberta Rose Came Windows to rebuild and restore. They measure approximately 16 inches high by 36 inches long. This picture is of window # 2 which has a background glass with a slight rose colored hue to it. We have decided to do this one first. Fortunately on both windows the background glass and Alberta Rose glass is all intact. However the stems and some leaves and the cream boarder line across the bottom have broken glass. We will be having more discussions with our client and we maybe able to take pieces from the other window to replace those broken in this one. Unfortunately these are very old windows and to obtain replacement glass is impossible. Rather than have substitutions in both windows we will see if we can make one with all original glass and the other unfortunately will have some new glass. Window # 1 has clear background glass and it’s restoration process will follow once we complete this window. We have taken this window completely apart and are in the process of starting the restoration with more photos to follow.
Shaw TV Red Deer found our website the other day and decided it’d be a great story to share. Check out the video and let us know what you think!