pine cone window

The making of the pine cone window. This video shows all the steps of making a window; creating a full size cartoon, cutting glass patterns, cutting glass, leading, soildering, puttying, cleaning and finished window.

recent work

This is a leaded glass sidelite, part of a larger entryway. I did the design and my father fabricated the window. 

This is a new leaded glass door. The door is made of black walnut, the center is made up of all clear glass, rondels, heavy and weak seedy.

leading a stained glass panel

This is one of 32 leaded glass panels that will be installed in a church clerestory window. The glass is very dark, looks black in the photo. This is because the glass is heavily painted and is made up of very dark colors. Very unlike the sidelite or doors I do that use mainly clear glass. You can't tell from the video, but the sheet of paper is a leading guide and shows a outline of where each piece of glass is supposed to go.

puttying two sidelites

puttying and cleaning two sidelites.

leading 2 sidelites

These two sidelites are part of a 8 foot double door entryway going to Chicago. A real monster entryway. The glass is made up of rondels, heavy and weak seedy.

Traditional Stained Glass

Here is a different project I've been working on. This window is part of a much larger window that will go into the Washington National Cathedral. The techniques and materials are the same I use in the entry doors I fabricate at kuhldoors. There are, however, some significant differences. The biggest is the glass. The glass is dark, deep and painted. There is no clear glass it is all colored glass. The glass does come from the same source I get my glass.

This is a close up of one of the pieces. All the dark space is black paint. The artist uses a cross hatching pattern to dampen down the brightness of the glass. This piece was cut, painted by the artist and then fired in a kiln to permanently adhere the paint to the glass. These steps were all done by someone else (my father and the artist). I am only helping my father out by leading, soldering, puttying and cleaning the panels. 

Each painted piece is assembled to make up a larger picture. This is the base of a tree trunk. 

Here is the whole panel. In this window there are 44 panels. 

cool beans.

installing glass into door

Many times clients, contractors, architects want to know how the glass is installed in the door. For many of the designs seen on the website the art glass is installed up against the tempered insulation glass facing the inside. Here is how we do it. 

We start with a door I get from one of several suppliers. I get the door with no glass. 

I also get a double pane of tempered insulation glass. This is what provides all the insulation and protection from the outside. This panel is 7/16" thick.

After applying a sealer on the exposed wooden back stop I run a bead of caulk around the edge. This will seal the unit from the outside elements.

I place the double pane of tempered clear glass up against the caulked back stop. 

Then we put the art glass up against the tempered unit. This is facing the inside of the door. The art glass is exposed to the inside of the home or building.

The last step is putting the inside stops up against the art glass to keep everything in place.