As a designer for Scottish Stained Glass, I occasionally get to work on church stained glass projects. In fact church windows are one of the most common things that people relate to when it comes to stained glass.  These traditional projects are different from residential leaded glass work as the pieces tend to be much larger and often incorporate colored glass. These projects are fun to work on as they often lead to beautiful, detailed windows that truly have charm and grandeur.

Stained Glass Church Project

The Applewood United Methodist Church was established over 50 years ago.  They began with a very small sanctuary and have grown into a large congregation with a new building as well as a new, larger sanctuary.  The older chapel has needed a facelift for years.

Meeting with one of the board members, we looked at the new construction and how they wanted to incorporate stained glass into their new design.  The board members took me into the newer section of the church and asked if I could use the look and colors of this area and transform into the new design for the old sanctuary.

I worked with the board members to create 4 new stained glass panels. We mimicked the new church design by using all different geometric shapes from circles to squares to semi-circles, and triangles to create a more modern look, without losing the original charm of this facility.

Stained Glass Panels

All of the stained glass panels are uniquely different, but still look fantastic together.  The colors they choose were jewel tones, colors ranging from dark reds, oranges, purples, blues, golds and greens. We used a combination of different glass textures to both enhance the colors and allow for the outside light to shine into the sanctuary.

The members were elated with the results of the new stained glass windows once installed. Along with new carpet and paint, the 50 year old sanctuary has been given a fresh new look, while still maintaining the traditional feel that the congregation loves.

I am continuing to work with this beautiful church to add other windows in the original sanctuary as memorials for the Applwood United Methodist Church.  The church is excited to add more pieces of unique glasswork, and so am I!

Terri Jenney, Scottish Stained Glass Designer.

Our clients are delighted when we tell them that our custom stained glass windows will last for generations, and probably become much loved family heirlooms over time. And in fact, time doesn’t cause glass to deteriorate to any significant degree, (okay, perhaps over thousands of years!) but of course anything can happen over the years that might chip, break or even shatter it completely. That is one of the reasons we’ve developed our special stained glass installation methods, where we will place the stained glass panel on the inside of an existing pane of glass.

How Stained Glass Restoration Can Save Your Windows

However, the lead strips which are generally used to hold the individual pieces of glass together can and does deteriorate. These strips are called “caming,” and can be made out of lead, brass, or even copper—the preferred metal used by the famed glass designer, Tiffany.

In the case of lead caming, the lead reacts with humidity or other weather conditions which cause oxidation, and over time the metal becomes brittle, losing any flexibility and making it ineffective at its primary job—holding the stained glass pattern together. The good news is that this doesn’t happen right away, it can take anywhere from 60 years to double that length of time.

By the time the lead does need to be replaced in a stained glass window—that window is usually an antique, with great value. It is usually worth it to do a full restoration of that piece, and here at Scottish Stained Glass, we take restoration of antique stained glass very seriously. We are honored to restore the pieces created by the stained glass masters who came before.

Whether an antique stained glass panel has been broken due to the elements, or is in danger of breaking because the lead has deteriorated over the passage of time, restoration involves taking the entire panel apart. Each piece of glass must be removed, and if they have been broken or are missing, we do our best to match the exact color or texture. Of course, in many cases the type of glass that was used is not even produced any more, but our restoration experts know exactly what glass to use so that no one would ever know it’s been replaced.

Stained Glass Restoration Experts Make All the Difference

The glass pieces are cleaned and polished, and then reassembled into the exact same pattern with brand new lead caming. If it sounds like a time consuming process, it is. However, once the restoration is finished, the panel is restored to its former glory and if installed behind another pane of clear glass, it will last at least another 100 years and probably much more.

The largest restoration we’ve done to date was the famous stained glass lobby ceiling in the Boulderado Hotel, which took us approximately six to seven months to complete.

If you have a stained glass piece that needs restoration work, how do you know whether it’s worth the money and effort? Perhaps you’d be better off if we simply made a new piece, with the same pattern and design as the older one? The fact is that restoration of an antique is much more costly than commissioning a brand new window. And yet, after a good, high quality restoration job, that original window would be 2 to 3 times more valuable than the new one.

How do you decide? Contact us for a free consultation about a stained glass window restoration.

We recently designed and built some beautiful stained glass for the Landmark Tabernacle Church in Denver, and we want to share this amazing process with you! Often churches are some of our biggest projects, and this one is no exception.

This task actually sprang out of a larger part of the church’s remodeling process; a huge stained glass wall behind their altar. This larger piece will cover the entire back wall of the sanctuary, around 280 square feet, and will be lit from behind.

For these smaller windows, our designers produced replacement windows that border the sanctuary area. Our team created four windows to go on either side of the stairways to the altar in this already beautiful church. As you can see from the pictures, these windows are full of vibrant colors that look fantastic in the sunlight.

Barb Timmons, one of our expert designers, spent a lot of time making sure that this piece was perfect. “We always knew that they wanted very bright colors, and an abstract design, so we worked from there,” she says.

The Landmark Tabernacle Church opened over 30 years ago, and they are in the process of a complete renovation. Our stained glass replaced a plastic, faux-stained glass window insert, and a refashion was definitely in order.

While this church as a whole has been a challenge from a design stand point, Barb says that the challenge has actually been her favorite part along the way. “Creating something so big and so unique is difficult, but rewarding. Everyone at the church is really happy with the new windows.”

Cathy Jones was the talented builder who put together the many pieces of this glasswork. She says this piece was particularly challenging because of its size; it took three people to flip the windows for work on the other side during production.

Each of these bordering stained glass windows has over a hundred different pieces of colored glass, each hand cut and then placed into the window. For such an intricate build, it’s important to take the time to ensure that each piece is the right size so that the window as a whole fits into the frame correctly. Since our windows are custom and built by hand, even large windows like these are constructed piece by piece. Cathy was up to the challenge.

“There wasn’t actually any breakage throughout the building process,” Cathy says, “just a lot of holding breath.” Because of the long, narrow pieces throughout this window, the building process was a particularly delicate one.

Cathy’s favorite part of this project was actually after her work was done; she had the chance to watch these windows being installed. “It was so cool. I usually just see the windows in the shop, but it’s so different to see the windows in their home, so to speak,” she says.

Barb, Cathy, and most importantly our clients, were extremely happy with this church addition. “Our clients are madly in love with the glass pieces, and that’s the most important part,” says Barb.

To see more of of the Church Stained Glass projects Scottish has completed, visit our Religious Stained Glass page or our Religious Stained Glass Gallery.

One of the projects we are most proud of having completed is the complete restoration of the Boulderado Hotel stained glass ceiling in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Removing, cleaning, and replacing each piece of glass in this ceiling, Scottish Stained Glass spent more than a month lovingly restoring this work of art.

If you are ever in Denver or Boulder, Colorado, we suggest you take a little bit of time to have a coffee or a drink under this work of stained glass art!

View Stained Glass Bucket List in a larger map

Scottish Stained Glass can provide four services to anyone looking for stained glass in their entryway, sidelights, or transom.

1. If you have existing clear glass in your door, transom, or sidelights, we can design our stained glass to be bonded to this existing window, thus allowing your home to retain the highest possible structural integrity and energy efficiency. Assuming your door’s wood is in good shape, our stained glass is the perfect finishing touch to create a stunning entryway.

2. If you would like to brighten up a dreary entryway and need to refurbish wood of your door Scottish Stained Glass can not only design a beautiful entryway stained glass system for you, but we can also refer you to one of our partner companies that include Dazzling Doors.

3. In many cases clients are looking for a complete new entryway system. This allows us the optimal flexibility to create a solution that is exactly what you want. We can create stained glass designs that compliment you wood and stain choices while allowing you the broadest choice of door designs. We work with Stark Lumber to design and install custom entryway systems.

4. In a limited number of cases, there is the opportunity to cut out part of the door and insert stained glass into it. While this is not the ideal situation, there are certain cases where this is the only choice.

Follow this link to learn more about your stained glass entryway choices and see more photos.