Stained Glass Work Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 58.]

_How to Handle Leaded Lights._--I said "turn the panel over." But that brings to mind a caution that you need about the handling of leaded lights. You must not--as I once saw a man do--start to hold them as a waiter does a tray. You must note that thin gla.s.s in the sheet and also leaded lights, especially before cementing, are not rigid, and cannot be handled as if they were panels of wood; you must take care, when carrying them, or when they lean against the wall, to keep them as nearly upright as they will safely stand, and the inside one leaning against a board, and not bearing its own weight. And in laying them on the bench or in lifting them off it, you must first place them so that the middle line of them corresponds with the edge of the bench, or table, and then turn them on that as an axis, quickly, so that they do not bear their own weight longer than necessary (figs. 59 and 60).

_How to Cement a Leaded Light._--The next process is the cementing of the light so as to fill up the grooves of the lead and make all weather-proof. This is done with a mixture composed as follows:-- Whitening, 2/3 to plaster of Paris 1/3; add a mixture of equal quant.i.ties of boiled linseed-oil and spirit of turpentine to make a paste about as thick as treacle. Add a little red lead to help to harden it, some patent dryer to cause it to dry, and lamp-black to colour.

This must be put in plenty on to the surface of the panel and well scrubbed into the joints with a hard fibre brush; an ordinary coa.r.s.e "gra.s.s brush" or "ba.s.s brush," with wooden back, as sold for scrubbing brushes at the oil shops, used in all directions so as to rub the stuff into every joint.

But you must note that if you have "plated" (_i.e._ doubled) any of the gla.s.s you must, before cementing, _putty_ those places. Otherwise the cement may probably run in between the two, producing blotches which you have no means of reaching in order to remove them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 59.]

You can, if you like, clean away all the cement along the edges of the leads; but it is quite easy to be too precise and neat in the matter and make the work look hard. If you do it, a blunted awl will serve your turn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 60.]

One had better mention everything, and therefore I will here say that, of course, a large light must be made in sections; and these should not exceed four feet in height, and less is better. In fixing these in their place when the window is put up (an extra wide flat lead being used at the top and bottom of each section), they are made to overlap; and if you wish the whole drainage of the window to pa.s.s into the building, of course you will put your section thus--(fig. 61 A); while if you wish the work to be weather-tight you will place it thus--(fig. 61 B). It is just as well to make every question clear if one can, and therefore I mention this. Most people like their windows weather-tight, and, of course, will make the overlapping lead the top one; but it's a free country, and I don't pretend to dictate, content if I make the situation clear to you, leaving you to deal with it according to your own fancy.

All is now done except the banding.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61 A.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 61 B.]

_How to Band a Leaded Light._--Banding means the putting on of the little ties of copper wire by which the window has to be held to the iron crossbars that keep it in its place. These ties are simply short lengths of copper wire, generally about four inches long, but varying, of course, with the size of the bar that you mean to use; and these are to be soldered vertically (fig. 62) on to the face of the light at any convenient places along the line where the bar will cross. In fixing the window, these wires are to be pulled tight round the bar and twisted up with pliers, and the twisted end knocked down flat and neat against the bar.

And this is the very last operation in the making of a stained-gla.s.s window. It now only remains to instruct you as to what relates to the fixing of it in its place.

_How to Fix a Window in its Place._--There is, almost always, a groove in the stonework to receive the gla.s.s; and, except in the case of an unfinished building, this is, of course, occupied by some form of plain glazing. You must remove this by chipping out with a small mason's chisel the cement with which it is fixed in the groove, and common sense will tell you to begin at the bottom and work upwards. This done, untwist the copper bands from the bars and put your own gla.s.s in its place, re-fixing the bars (or new ones) in the places you have determined on to suit your design and to support the gla.s.s, and fixing your gla.s.s to them in the way described, and pointing the whole with good cement. The method of inserting the new gla.s.s is described at p.

135.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 62.]

But that it is good for a man to feel the satisfaction of knowing his craft thoroughly there would be no need to go into this, which, after all, is partly masons' work. But I, for my part, cannot understand the spirit of an artist who applies his art to a craft purpose and has not, at least, a strong _wish_ to know all that pertains to it.

PART II

CHAPTER XII

Introductory--The Great Questions--Colour--Light--Architectural Fitness--Limitations--Thought--Imagination--Allegory.

The foregoing has been written as a handbook to use at the bench, and therefore I have tried to keep myself strictly to describing the actual processes and the ordinary practice and routine of stained-gla.s.s work.

But can we leave the subject here?

If we were speaking of even the smallest of the minor arts and crafts, we should wish to say something of why they are practised and how they should be practised, of the principles that guide them, of the spirit in which they should be undertaken, of the place they occupy in human affairs and in our life on earth. How much more then in an Art like this, which soars to the highest themes, which dares to treat, which is required to treat, of things Heavenly and Earthly, of the laws of G.o.d, and of the nature, duty, and destinies of man; and not only so, but must treat of these things in connection with, and in subservience to, the great and dominant Art of Architecture?

We must not shrink, then, from saying all that is in our mind: we must ask ourselves the great questions of all art. We must investigate the How of them, and even face the Why.

Therefore here (however hard it be to do it) something must be said of such great general principles as those of colour, of light, of architectural fitness, of limitations, of thought and imagination and allegory; for all these things belong to stained-gla.s.s work, and it is the right or wrong use of these high things that makes windows to be good or to be bad.

Let us, dear student, take the simplest things first, not because they are the easiest (though they perhaps are so), but because they will gradually, I hope, warm up our wits to the point of considering these matters, and so prepare the way for what is hardest of all.

And I think a good subject to begin with is that of Economy generally, taking into consideration both time and materials.

CHAPTER XIII

Of Economy--The Englishman's Wastefulness--Its Good Side--Its Excess--Difficulties--A Calculation--Remedies.

Those who know work in various countries must surely have arrived at the conclusion that the Englishman is the most wasteful being on the face of the globe! He only thinks of getting through the work, or whatever it may be, that he has purposed to himself, attaining the end immediately in view in the speediest manner possible without regard to anything else, lavish of himself and of the stuff he works with. The picture drawn by Robert Louis Stevenson in "Treasure Island" of John Silver and his pirates, when about to start on their expedition, throwing the remainder of their breakfast on the bivouac fire, careless whence fresh supplies might come, is "English all over." This is the character of the race. It has its good side, this grand disdain--it wins Battles, Victoria Crosses, Humane Society's medals, and other things well worth the winning; brings into port many a s.h.i.+p that would else be lost or abandoned, and, year in, year out, sends to sea the lifeboats on our restless line of coast. It would be something precious indeed that would be worth the loss of it; but there is a medium in all things, and when a master sees--as one now at rest once told me he often had seen--a cutter draw his diamond down a bit of the margin out of which he had just cut his piece, in order to make it small enough to throw away, without being ashamed, under the bench, he must sometimes, I should think, wish the man were employed on some warlike or adventurous trade, and that he had a Hollander or Italian in his place, who would make a whole window out of what the other casts away.

At the same time, it must be confessed that this is a very difficult matter to arrange; and it is only fair to the workman to admit that under existing conditions of work and demand, and even in many cases of the buildings in which the work is done, the way does not seem clear to have the whole of what might be wished in this matter. I will point out the difficulties against it.

First, unless some system could be invented by which the amount of gla.s.s issued to any workman could be compared easily and simply with the area of glazed work cut from it, the workman has no inducement to economise; for, no record being kept of the gla.s.s saved, he knows that he will get no credit by saving, while the extra time that he spends on economy will make him seem a slower workman, and so he would be blamed.

Then, again, it is impossible to see the colour of gla.s.s as it lies on the bench; he has little choice but to cut each piece out of the large sheet; for if he got a clutter of small bits round him till he happened to want a small bit, he would never be able to get on.

There is no use, observe, in niggling and cheese-paring. There should be a just balance made between the respective values of the man's time and the material on which it is spent; and to this end I now give some calculations to show these--calculations rather startling, considered in the light of what one knows of the ordinary practices and methods.

The antique gla.s.ses used in stained-gla.s.s work vary in price from 1s. a foot to 5s., the weight per foot being about 32 oz.

The wage of the workmen who have to deal with this costly material varies from 8d. to 1s. per hour.

The price of the same gla.s.s thrown under the bench, and known as "cullet," is 1 per TON.

Let us now do a little simple arithmetic, which, besides its lesson to the workers, may, I think, come as a revelation even to some employers who, content with getting work done quickly, may have hardly realised the price paid for that privilege.

1 ton = 20 cwt.

x 4 -- 80 qrs.

x 28 --- 640 32 oz. = 2 lb., 160 ----- therefore 2) 2240 lbs.

----- 1120 = number of square feet in a ton.

The worth of this at 1s. a foot (whites) is:--

20) 1120 ( 56 PER TON.

100 ---- 120 120

At 2s. 6d. per foot (the best of pot-metal blues, and rubies generally):--

56 56 28 --- 2-1/2 times 56 = 140 140 PER TON.

At 5s. a foot (gold-pink, and pale pink, venetian, and choice gla.s.ses generally):--