How we plate stained glass
Sorry, Rosemary, this is shockingly late: you asked us about plating:
… and we've been so busy in the studio, it's only now that we can sit down and answer your question.
By way of context, you might plate one piece of glass behind another for several different reasons. For instance:
This is the only way to achieve the colour you want.
You want to use silver stain but the coloured glass you've chosen just won't take stain at all.
To achieve a particular effect e.g. a drowned Orphelia painted on the piece behind, then blue shaded glass plated on top to represent the watery grave in which she lies.
Thus the up-side is you achieve the precise effect you want.
But plating has its down-sides such as:
The risk of condensation between the plated glass.
The increased time to cut, paint, stain, fire and assemble the glass in lead.
The added weight.
If your plated stained glass forms part of a weather-fronting window, item 1. is serious indeed.
Items 2. and 3. become serious if you plan to plate extensively.
Therefore it's altogether easier when your plan is to make a small stained glass window which will be framed, for instance, and hung inside against a window.
A decorative panel, not a fitted stained-glass window.
So from his sketch of Our Lady of Walsingham …
David prepared a small water-coloured cartoon:
He cut the glass and painted the trace-lines:
Then strengthened and shaded it, so:
And also plated most of it, sometimes to get the rich, deep colour he wanted, sometimes because the glass would not take silver stain.
The process was:
Cut the glass, then paint and stain and fire it each time.
After the last firing, check again the front and behind pieces are the same size, and grind them if they aren't.
Clean them.
Wrap the glass together in copper foil.
Lead the glass in deep-hearted lead, then solder and cement as usual.
Here's a whirlwind overview:
Leaving aside the risk, is plating worth the work?
Only your human eye can make this judgment.
Consider this example from a window we featured in several of our earlier posts this year like here:
and here:
From the same window, here’s a piece of painted glass on its own:
Here it is side-by-side with the glass we chose to plate it with:
And the effect:
The colour was just right. We decided the extra work was worth it. Sometimes, plating is the only way.