Church Glass Adventure...the rest of the story

I recently completed an unusual and unique commission piece....if you have not read the post, you should check it out.  Here's the link  http://newmoonglass.blogspot.com/2010/06/church-glass-adventure.html

Even if you just look at the pictures...

Go ahead...I can wait. OK...there is   a l o t   of information there!  But it's a great human interest story.

And then, just when my church glass adventure is becoming a fond memory, I get an email from Gisele.   She says the workers found two stained glass corners. ( that's what a sponser like Levi can do for you...give you workers!)  She wants me to work my magic.  (my words not hers)  She ships them right away. 

                        

They are very dirty with a lot of breakage, but I won't know how exstensive the damage is until I get them

taken apart and cleaned up.

 

So I head to my "studio"....which was once my son's little bedroom.  If you have not seen it, but would like to, just click on this link.    http://newmoonglass.blogspot.com/2010/04/this-is-my-studio.html

But don't forget to come back...

So I head to my studio and disassemble the corner pieces.  

Now, even though it's still dirty, I can see that there are enough undamaged pieces to reassemble only one corner.  I'm a little bit amazed by this good fortune.  Other than the pieces for a corner, there is only one other piece unbroken.  Now I start the process of cleaning old dirty church glass.  I learned a little something about how to accomplish this with the first church glass project.  There's alot of soaking time involved, some household ammonia, fine grit steel wool, and patience.

In the end, I'm quite pleased with the reassembly. 

Now I still have quite a bit of glass left, even though it's all broken, including some clear textured glass from the original church glass adventure.  I can't remember if I mentioned it in the previous post, but Gisele had stated at the very beginning, that if there was enough glass, it would be cool to have the zip code of their town made with the glass from their future community center. 

Well, now I have enough!  So I get out my pattern book with numbers in it and make the pattern.

  

 

Here are the numbers and the glass that remained.  You may be wondering "You just sent her the numbers?... all loose like that?"  Don't be silly...I frame them with the afore mentioned glass left from the first project, of course!.

Then I add two lengths of chain.  I'm pleased once again!

But I still have the one remaining unbroken piece.  I should do something with it...or I could just send it with the zip code...

There is still just a bit of that textured glass that I framed the numbers with. 

I'll just make a little sun catcher... 

I guess this is truly the end of my Braddock church glass adventure...

It's been great!

Hey!  I love getting comments from....anyone!

Church Glass Adventure

It's March 17, 2010...a Wednesday.  A great day to start an adventure!

"Hello!  Your work is beautiful and I think you would be perfect for the project I have in mind."
Wow!  Excellent!  I can always use a little validation.  You want something unique and one of a kind, and you provide the glass?.........I'm in!

Now we're both excited...the glass is from an old Presbyterian church that is important to her husband.  The piece will be a "just because" gift for him...surprise! 

She ships the glass right away...

The glass is really dirty from countless years of weather and, eventually, neglect.  That's ok, I can wash it.

I wash it as I wash all my glass...hmmm...still dirty. I scrub it really hard. Still dirty...Arrg!

It's April 27, 2010...a Sunday.
Not to be bested by some old church glass I search the web for professional stained glass restorationists.  I shoot a message to two different sites, and get a response from one.  Michael, at Mezalick Design Studio http://www.mezalick.com/MDS/Home.html is gracious enough to reply to my inquiry and gives me a  few tips.

Cool!  Except the glass is  s t i l l  dirty!  I make a face!  Maybe if I tried the final and most extreme tip, given with much caution....but I'm not getting mixed up with any kind of acid!

I send an email..."I cannot get the glass clean.....can I add some other glass to brighten it up?"  No...she wants to respect the integrity of the church.

I lay the pieces out on my work bench, touching them, moving them around, trying to picture the pieces in some new form.  But suddenly I'm worried, I'm thinking that I have no idea what these people would really like...or dislike. Well...I just have to go for it.

It's somewhere around June 1, 2010...on a day that ends in y.  I've completed the piece.  It lays there, finished, on my bench, for something like a week.  What if she doesn't like it?  She likes the stuff in my shop....so does my mom, but I doubt that this piece would appeal to her. There's only one way to find out.  I shoot a couple photos... I wait a couple more days...I'm a very busy person!

It's June 13, 2010...it's a Sunday.  I send a short email.  "I've finally finished your church glass."   I attach a couple photos...I'm still nervous, but it's a relief to send the message. 

"Janet!  I love it! And it's right on time for my husbands birthday!"  H u g e  sigh of relief!  I ask her for additional information about the church...this might be good blogging material!  She responds....

"A little more about our church and what it means to us."

"My husband bought this church to save it from being razed. Our community is very poor - the poorest in the state of PA and has already lost 90% of its buildings, homes, business and people with the decline of the steel industry. (we're a rust belt town) The church was so beautiful and important ... we wanted to save it. The dream was that one day it would become a Community Center for the community, although we were unsure of how that dream would actually come to fruition. The previous congregation sold all the stained glass windows and really stripped everything in the church. Left behind was one small broken window and the glass pieces were the ones I mailed you."

"Our community is Braddock, PA and my husband is its Mayor, John Fetterman. A little bit more here."           http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/us/01braddock.html

"Our dream for the Community Center is now finally coming true. The church is being featured in a national campaign for LEVI jeans that will be public July 1st, and can be seen at length on their website as of that date."
"And so ... our little church has life again."

Thanks Gisele...for a most excellent adventure!
Gisele was kind enough to forward a photo of her family....now my curiosity is entirely slaked!

"Hi Janet ...Here it is!
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/200905/sm_braddock01_500.jpg
There is also a video on youtube that has a few great shots of the former church ... when you see an empty church window behind John ... you will see where the glass came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhhQmrUKMsg
All our best!
And here's the communities website     http://www.15104.cc/
gisele"

Please feel free to leave a comment below...I'm interested in your thoughts...
I'm not sure I can ever top this!  But please check out my shop anyway! ....http://www.etsy.com/shop/newmoonglass....thanks