Category Archives: New Work

Sometimes, the best part of this gig is the randomness.  Nancy wanted to resolve a privacy issue (her bathroom was clearly visible from the roof deck next door). Somebody she spoke with mentioned my name…email ensued, then a couple of meetings…and then it happened: eight square feet of antique glass showed up in her LEED Platinum home in Fishtown.  The room took on a lovely glow, the privacy issue was resolved and as an extra bonus, a second piece of glass appeared in the mirror.  Since the glass is almost 100% recycled and largely local (South Jersey is the most likely original source of the glass), it is LEED compliant!

Our friends, Joe and Vanessa have a lovely early Vic-Twin in West Philly.  The house is trimmed with chestnut instead of the later-used oak.  Their leaded window and door panels have colored glass, which was not used in the vast majority of the West Philly homes.  Since it is a little bit older, it has had more opportunities to get banged up.  The lovely chestnut doors on the second-floor parlor entry had taken a direct hit at some point in the past 115 years, leaving a 10×10 inch hole in the middle of one of the panels.

I cleaned up the wound, burnished the metal so that it would accept solder, and patched the hole, using mostly antique glass.  The finished product speaks for itself, and asks that you please take your football outside!

We have a very nice suite of leaded glass window panels in our home. They are production glass from 1905, not colored, and very common in our Victorian neighborhood. They came with the house, so are certainly nice to have with us!

There was a sad story though:  each panel had been damaged over the years, and there was deterioration in the zinc came. The missing glass is not currently available, so a linear reconstruction of the windows was not possible. Also, given the location of the damaged sections (in the middle of the panels), there would be a ton of work taking them apart, and trying to get them back together. The outcome is always up for grabs.  So, I developed Plan B.

I took each panel out of its frame, cleaned the glass, and mended the solder joints in the zinc matrix.

Working with new and antique glass, I filled in the damaged sections, and stabilized the remaining glass.

I backed the leaded glass with insulated glass panels, which reduced the airflow in the living room, and provided additional structure.

It was actually quite a bit of work, but all seems worthwhile now that the glass is back in place. It will be strong and lovely for many years to come!

Terrible accident at Tuomi’s (Ca 1900) house…a very nice chestnut door with period glass took a direct hit from the cat.  The glass was cracked and pretty well busted up…

I cleaned up the break, and made a frame for the old glass.

Using lots of the old patterned glass from the Mullica Hill stash , I filled the void left by the cat…

So, the door is restored, with lots of new color and pattern; that is a good thing. The lovely old glass is once again sitting in the light, which is also a very good thing!

I met Ilene at the Woodlands Craft Fair in West Philly.  We talked about a couple of ideas for her Elkins Park home, and settled on improving the streetscape from her living room, and enhancing the privacy of her home…

Her bay window looks out on the street, with parked cars, and random passersby.

I made a set of five 24″x18″ panels,  designed so that the glass is continuous across the rails which separate the panels.

The idea being that it looks like one continuous piece of work….

No more visual clutter…

The parked cars and passersby are gone, and the treetops remain …plenty of natural light, lots of visual interest and more privacy!

It is always nice to work with old friends, and also nice to have free reign over a project.  It was quite a treat for me when our old friends Kerry and Brian wanted me to make “something beautiful” for their home.

They have a very nice entry doorway with multi-light sidelights;  all it needed was a little dolling-up.

Kerry let me go, with no adult supervision, and below is the result.  I was able to use lots of old painted and etched glass from Mullica Hill Glass in Elmer, NJ.  Bill and Carol at Mullica Hiill have been working the South Jersey art glass scene for quite a while, and Bill saved up a pretty extensive pile of beautiful old glass.  As you can see, the old glass adds a very powerful dimension to these panels.  It is really a treat to have it available, and sincere thanks to Bill and Carol for setting it aside over the years.

Here is a before and after view of the doorway, and some detail pics of the panels. Thanks to Bill and Carol, and to Kerry and Brian!

Entryway in its original state.

Here is the finished work.

Here are the panels.  There is no doubt about the visual power of the old glass.