ListWise

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Morning

Damn, the bullet hole’s still there. I think if there is one thing I could change about what was done to this house it would be to remove that hole. No one makes that red glass anymore. The one place that still makes 36-inch wide stained glass, The Kokomo Glass Co., only makes it in Cathedral Glass, not the red Flash Glass you see there. Cathedral Glass has a texture to it. All other glass makers only make 24-inch wide stained glass.

11 comments:

StuccoHouse said...

You might give this place a call: http://www.gayteestainedglass.com They do a truckload of restoration around here and have quite a reputation.

Wonder what the story was about the gunshot.

Monica said...

There's a special hell reserved for people who shoot windows. It's right next to the one for people who break beer bottles at playgrounds.

Jocelyn said...

The first thing I thought when I saw this? ....fairies.

Deb said...

to me, it looks like "water glass" which was very common then, and is widely available at most art glass stores (and not very expensive). Water glass is named so because it looks like reflections on water.
if possible, remove the window and take it into the glass shop and see if they are able to replace it. i'd offer to do it myself, but shipping would cost a fortune and the possibility of it getting broken scares me!
try a google search for your area for stained glass: http://www.google.ca/maps?hl=en&lr=&q=stained+glass&near=Eureka,+CA,+USA&sa=X&oi=local&ct=title

Greg said...

I guess I should have given more info on the bullet. The shot came from inside the house and passed through someone before exiting out the window. A lovely image, uh? I don’t know the whole story other than what I was told. Someone “shot themselves accidentally”.

As for the glass. Finding red glass is not hard at all. The problem is the size. That is a 35-inch diameter piece of glass. Non-manufacturing places (retail outlets and salvage places) pretty much have never seen anything that size. Think about it, most stained glass windows are made up of a lot of small pieces. When I first bought the house I scoured the internet, stained glass user forums, restoration sights, salvage places, etc, etc, etc. Kokomo Glass, which is the oldest stained glass manufacturer in the country, is the only place that makes 36-inch wide glass. All of the others I contacted only make 24-inch wide glass. The other issue is shipping. To ship a single piece of glass that size would have to be by freight. I had to wait for a retail outlet in the Bay Area to get their regular shipment from Kokomo. I then had to drive down to pick it up.

Anonymous said...

C&R Loo in Richmond California carries "Machine Antique Glass" in sizes from 47" x 31.5" and 63" X60". They have red.
http://www.crloo.com/Products/Sheet_Glass/Machine_Antique/machine_antique.html

Greg said...

Amazing. I’ve never heard of Machine Antiqued Glass before. I guess I was asking the wrong question. I went to the web site and I’m going to call tomorrow and see if I can get samples. This could be great. Thank you very much. I wonder while all the stained glass geeks I talked to didn't know about this?

CarrieZ said...

Call spectrum stained glass. They have several different shades of red cathedral glass in a quite a few textures. I buy my glass at 52" width and i know spectrum manufactures a lot of their waterglass at 72" width.
I agree with deb that it looks like waterglass and really isnt expensive. And i would offer to help fix it too but as she said, the shipping would be expensive.

Greg said...

Carrie,

Unless Spectrum's web site is wrong, the sizes you mention don't exist.

http://www.spectrumglass.com/stained-glass/literature/SpectrumSheetSizes.pdf

30 inches is as wide as their glass comes and that is only on a few types. It is true that you can get it longer than 30-inches, but not wider.

CarrieZ said...

Hey now, this glass geek has heard of "machine antique" i just call it drawn antique. The size i can get it at is only 47" x 31.5.

I thought of another idea.

You could find someone with a kiln. Fusing a piece of glass in the exact size you need is another option. I didn't think of it because i only have a 7 inch kiln so i tend to think "inside the box."

A ceramic shop could probably help you. Their kilns tend to be very large and it isnt difficult to find cone to temp charts online.

I'll be checking back to see what solution you end up with. That window is too beautiful to leave that way!!!

Greg said...

Sadly, 47X31.5 is not big enough. I had to call you on it because I've written about this window many times. Every time I do, several people chime it to tell me they are "positive" they can get smooth red glass (not textured or cathedral) that size. The only trouble is, every time I've pressed the issue, they turn out to be wrong.

However, a few weeks back I bought some red and gold glass for the cabinets in the butler's pantry (See my post dated SUNDAY, MARCH 01, 2009) from a local retail place. I asked him about it and he had just found a new supplier that makes smooth red glass (not cathedral glass) in a size large enough. He had a manufacturers catalog and sure enough it was listed. I don't recall who it was but, he will be getting me some samples to look at.

We'll see how good it is when the samples come in.

Oh, and yea, removing the window is out of the question. The glass is easy to get out by itself. These are locally made redwood mullions with glazing putting, not lead came. The whole window is about 6 feet across and 7 feet tall.