In re-development!!  On this page we intend to provide an Index to current and completed projects.  Remaining older projects will be progressively moved from here to new individual pages to save scrolling a long way.....

The Burning Bush

The House Martin

The Light Box Experiment

New Light...

Door Panel Repair

Arts & Crafts Firescreen

There is light at the end of the tunnel ......

We have been recently commissioned on a small project to provide coloured light at the end of four small "tunnels".  These are tubes set into a former outhouse wall.  The building is being upgraded to form a holiday let cottage and the pipes are being retained to bring a little bit of coloured light and interest to the interior.   We have worked with our clients to choose the glasses.  To help visualise the outcome and choose the glasses, a special jig was built to model the "tunnels".   

Each tunnel (approx. 11 cms in diameter) will have a have a piece of transparent, Artique, textured glass on one end (four different colours) while on the other end will be a wispy transparent glass, again four different ones.  The colours have been chosen to provide a transition going up the way from the lightest combination at the bottom, to the darkest at the top.   The pictures below show how it is supposed to work.  Left to Right:  one clear textured glass at the rear, streaky glass added to the front slot, shot of one of the chosen glasses, Spectrum SP339-1S.   Watch this space for photos of the outcome!

The glass has now been cut to size and installed.  First pictures,. courtesy of the clients, below.

Restoration project, Aberfeldy

Extensive restoration work was planned on a hall in Aberfeldy, which had damage to two stained glass windows, one at either end of the hall, comprising three panels each.  Pat volunteered to repair the glass panels as part of the overall project.  It was considered not practical to remove the panels from the building, so the repair had to be attempted in situ - a first for us.  In total 13 pieces of glass had to be replaced and re-cemented.  12 were broken or cracked or had been inappropriately repaired in the past, one had to be replaced because it broke in the course of removing the piece adjacent for replacement.  Although the existing lead is coming to the end of its life, it would not have been possible to replace this on an in situ repair.  The pictures show examples of the damage.  Once complete we will add pictures of the finished repairs. 

Cracked piece in the corner of the border, inappropriate previous replacement of broken border piece with green glass

Cracked piece. It was the border piece beneath this that cracked during removal

Twin Panels for the inner front door - Dunolly Cottage, Aberfeldy

Design was completed in October, the glass chosen and ordered, the drawings printed.  However, glass cutting did not begin as soon as I had hoped. 

These two panels, inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Macintosh, are to be placed in the door between the restored cottage and the new porch. 

Finally managed to get them into place in the cottage, though I had under-ordered the trim, so still a little work to do....

Work on the cottage restoration and getting the letting business established got in the way and work did not begin on cutting the glass until the middle of April 2017.  However, today, Friday June 16th, the panels are essentially finished.  No doubt there will be a little more cleaning and polishing, but essentially done.  Now we just need to get them installed.  

The Townhouse Aberfeldy - Restoration

Taybank Glass were commissioned to make 10 leaded panels as part of the restoration of a Grade B listed building in Aberfeldy - the former Palace Hotel - now restored and re-opened as The Townhouse, Aberfeldy. 

Of the ten panels, only three damaged windows were available to us to attempt to restore.  The largest panel had been so badly damaged it had been scrapped.  This had to be reproduced based on photographs alone.

Recovery

The three  existing panels were disassembled and as much of the original glass as possible was recovered and re-used.  This included gluing together some pieces of blue glass that we could not match with a modern equivalent. 

Project Milestones

Research for the project and the construction of working drawings began in June 2015.  In Phase 1 we constructed a pair of matching panels based on two of the extant but damaged panels.  These were completed in August 2015 and the second of the two was installed on August 25th.  Work in the Studio then moved on to Panel 3, while at the same time research work for the largest panel and construction of a working drawing continued in parallel.  Panel 3 was completed and installed towards the end of September 2015.  A key challenge in re-creating Panel 4 was the central piece of clear glass.  From the recovery of the centre-pieces of panels 1-3, it seemed clear that this would have been custom bevelled.  To be faithful to the original, we needed to find a craftsman to execute the bevelling of our glass.  This done, the new centrepiece arrived at the beginning of November, allowing completion of the remainder of the project.  Panels 4-10 were installed December 1st 2015

Gallery

Below we present a selection pictures of the originals and our finished panels

Panel 1, as received, on recovery from the former Palace Hotel

Panel 1 complete, before fitting into its original sash.

Panel 1 after fitting into its original sash

Panel 2, as received, on recovery from the former Palace Hotel

Panel 2 complete.

Panel 2 fitted into its original sash

Panel 1 and Panel re-installed into the former Palace Hotel, in what is now Girvans Hardware Store

Panel 3, as received, on recovery from the former Palace Hotel

Panel 3, complete, before installation into its original sash

Panel 4, as it was on recovery from the former Palace Hotel.

Panel 4 complete and re-installed into its original sash

Panels 4 to 10 finally installed on the mezzanine level of the Townhouse, Aberfeldy

The Phoenix

My most recently completed project was the Phoenix.  This had been intended to be mounted in a Victorian style fire screen on completion.  Being busy over Christmas it "rose from the ashes" slower than expected.  Now complete aside from framing. 

The construction phase underway

Phoenix still rising ...... interesting construction challenge ahead, with apiece 150 needing to wrap around the leg feathers and claw .....

Construction and soldering complete, first impression of what the finished panel might look like. Picture taken on the light table allowing the colours of all the glasses to be seen for the first time.

Phoenix back in the ashes! The next stage of cementing is underway. The nice shiny Phoenix is buried in "ashes" (soot among other things), during the cementing phase. Working towards the final rising and shining, when cementation and polishing is complete. About a week to go.

Phoenix Finished, though not yet framed....

Commission For a Perthshire Home

I recently completed my latest project  - three panels for a family, who are home owners in the Aberfeldy area.  These were to bring interest to three adjacent openings between their Porch and Hallway.   The three panels comprise a stylised view from just outside their home towards the North.   The design was based on photographs. 

Through a number of stages discussed with our client, the photographs were evolved into the realisation below.  The choice of glasses and colours were also discussed at length to evolve the final selection.  This included a request from the client to change from wooded hilltops to snow capped one to add interest. 

The finished panels in two stages, panels and two on  September the 2nd, the third panel on September 12th.  The finished panels are below.

In Development