Official blog from the First Presbyterian Church of Edmonton. Sharing the story of our congregation, its individual members and church events.
July 29
We’ve made great progress this
month on the restoration of the West window of First Presbyterian Church,
Edmonton.
All of the panels have been
carefully dismantled, each piece of glass cleaned, catalogued and stored. New
structural drawings (cutlines) are being produced to include lap-leads in the
European style to spread the weight and stress on the windows more evenly.
Once the glass had been cleaned
we could see the non uniform movement that took place during the original...
glass production. The original lime green glass is a semi-antique, this means
that it has been hand made and then machine rolled which produced its surface
texture.
We sent samples to the largest
distributors on the East and West coasts of N. America, who between them
cover most of the manufacturers in Europe as well as those closer to home.
Once a close match had been identified we traveled into the US to see the
glass and compare directly to the original. The colour match and refraction
of light for both the lime green and amber border is very close to the
original. Uroboros art glass is a beautiful hand cast and machine rolled
glass that is made in small runs at the Portland facility in Oregon.
Here is an interesting link to a YouTube video showing the process of making the glass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKmx3qwJJ6k |
June 24
We’ve had the West Window from
First Presbyterian Church in our studio for a few weeks now.
We’ve been going through the
messy first restoration stage which is comprised of several steps:
The windows are examined for
condition of glass, lead came, solder joints and tie placement for saddle
bars.
Rubbings are then taken of each
individual panel to record shape, width of lead came and the individual
position of each piece of glass.
After concluding the windows
suitability, they are then placed into a ‘bath’ of water and Ph neutral
cleaner to loosen dirt, and soften the ‘cement’ to aid removal of the lead
came from the glass.
The windows are carefully
dismantled, and each individual piece of glass cleaned and placed on the
rubbing to the exact location in the panel it was removed from. A record of
placement is made, and the glass removed to storage.
In some sections of the window
there is evidence of damage and replacement of whole areas, necessitating
sourcing a glass that will match the original as closely as possible. Samples
have been sent to the largest suppliers on the East and West Coast of N.
America who stock glass from the largest makers of mouth blown in Germany and
France, as well as all of the American manufacturers.
The next stage will be creating
new structural drawings - watch this space!
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May 26
The Great West Window at First
Presbyterian Church, Edmonton, has been successfully removed! Here are a few
photos from John's two and a half week adventure getting them out. This week
back in our studio we'll be starting to dismantle the windows completely and
begin the process of rebuilding them.
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May 6
Rod Kurtz' story about the First Presbyterian Church Windows,
featuring John, will be broadcast this afternoon at 510PM (4:10 for us in
Vancouver) on CBC Radio One Edmonton. The broadcast may be heard at 93.9FM,
or online at www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton
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May 2
John set off this morning on his exciting adventure to Edmonton to
remove and then return with the Great West Window at First Presbyterian
Church. It’s about a 13 - 14 hour drive, but he’ll be stopping in Valemount
this evening, which is very near to Mount Robson the tallest mountain in the
Canadian Rockies - should be some good views. It will take about two weeks to
remove the window and replace it with acrylic as temporary glazing during the
restoration period. He’s also, according to the media liaison for the church,
going to be filmed and interviewed at various point by Global television, CBC
Radio, The Edmonton Journal and Heritage Canada - all that should keep him
pretty busy!
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