Repair Broken Staines Glass: A True Story of Blood, Sweat, and Tears

I love this piece.  The size, the shape, the colors - all of it.  I love it more than I thought I would.  It was especially heartbreaking when I broke it! 

How? It's hard to believe but I stepped on it!  I usually dry freshly cleaned stained glass on bathmats or thick towels. In the bathroom. On the floor. 

I know, I know... it was a plan designed to fail. And, fail it did!

The Back Story

I set it on a thick towel in the bathroom, out of the way, to dry. A towel fell on it. And, I forgot. Can't see it, must not be there! As soon as I put my weight down, and an instant before I heard the cracking, I remembered.

Hours of planning, cutting, grinding, foiling, soldering, cleaning, and patina-ing (it's a word now)... crushed in an instant.

I was so upset! I set it aside for a good while and tried to forget about it.  I just kept thinking about it.

I love this piece so much, I just had to do the repair. 

The Clean-up

The dirty work! Removing the cracked pieces was step one. When I pulled replacement glass to mark the new pieces, I found I was the tiniest bit short of having enough to replace the smaller piece. A slight color change was needed. That meant I also had to remove the unbroken piece of the same color. Drat, but okay!

Cleaning it up was messy. All the solder had to be melted off, the copper foil scraped away, and the icky residue scrubbed clean. New foil was added to the opening.  

Tracing the replacement pieces was the easiest part! I just placed the piece over the full-scale pattern, and double-checked the sizes of the new pieces. They fit perfectly. Nice!

Tracing, scoring, cutting, and grinding the replacement pieces happened with zero hiccups! After a good washing to remove dust and oils, I applied new foil and test-fitted the whole thing.  Looking good!

Except... the new pieces weren't flush with the old.  I used cuts of scrap glass to build them up to the right height and tack soldered them in.  From there, it was smooth sailing. Just soldering all the joins,  scrubbing off the flux, oxidation, and existing patina so the new patina will "take" evenly.  After the patina, I re-applied the wax and give the whole thing a nice buffing!  And so worth the effort! Spring Awakens remains one of my most asked-about pieces at events.

The Lesson

Learn from my mistakes ... never walk on or sit on (yep, I've heard of people doing that, too) your stained glass.   Learn more about how to actually care for your stained glass here.

Until next time,

Ailsa