Grace Stained Glass Windows
Denese Gornto Lee describes the process she is using as she creates stained glass windows which are being installed in our church Sanctuary. Phase I of the stained glass project has been completed. During the planning stage of this project, a pane of amber glass from the windows of the old sanctuary was found and some of the amber glass has been used in every window medallion. Pieces are as small as the dove in the Holy Spirit medallion and as large as the sun in the Resurrection medallion. The colors around the edges of the window and around the medallions are the colors used in the church throughout the year.
Several of the medallions contain pieces which were fired in a kiln. The hand in The Hand of God, the grapes in the Communion medallion and the Bible in the Bible medallion were all made by putting pieces of special glass on top of each other and then fired in a kiln to fuse the layers of the glass together. The entire Baptism medallion was fused in a kiln-a piece of clear glass, blue glass, the gold seashell and droplets and the list thin pieces of black glass to make the lines on the seashell were all carefully glued together. The glue burns off in the kiln as the layers of glass fuse together. The gold glass in the seashell, droplets and the Bible are a special type of glass which actually contains gold.
A personal note from Denese: "Throughout the construction of these windows, I have felt God's guidance and I have gained some knowledge and experience in this hobby which I enjoy so much. I look forward to the next stage of the three larger windows in the front of the sanctuary. There is still some amber glass left which I will try to work into each of these windows. I want to thank everyone for his/her encouragement, patience and trust in allowing me to take on this sometimes overwhelming project"
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| A pattern is chosen & 3 copies made: 1 is used as a reference & historical document 2. used to cut the glass pieces by and 3 is to put the glass puzzle together on |
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| Each piece of glass is cut to fit into the pattern |
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| A thin strip of copper foil is applied around the edge of each piece of glass. The copper foil has a sticky side to it will adhere to the glass |
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| All the pieces of this pattern have been cut to fit & the copper foil has been applied |
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| Strong Line (a thin piece of steel covered with copper) is placed between the pieces of glass to reinforce the soldered seams. After the copper foil has been applied, the medallion is soldered with 60/40 solder to hold all the pieces together. The medallion is then placed into the pattern for the window panel & the glass pieces are cut to fit into place. |
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| The last piece of glass is ready to be put into place. As before, all the glass pieces get copper foil applied and then all of the seams of copper foil are soldered. |
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| The panel has been soldered. The solder at this point is silver in color. |
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| Within 8 hours of finishing soldering, the flux must be washed off of the piece to prevent oxidation. Flux is the chemical appliied to the copper foil to make the solder adhere to it. It is washed with baking soda to dilute the flux & water. |
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| After the flux is washed off, the solder is a bright shiny silver. Sometimes the silver color is desired. For our windows a patina has been applied to the solder which causes a chemical reaction to make the solder turn black. The patina has been applied to some of the seams. |
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| The residue from the patina has been washed off. Now the window will get lead attached as a frame. Then, the whole piece will be polished very gently with a glass polish. It will then be ready for installation in the church window for all to enjoy. |
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