My Front Door

This project has been my most ambitious to date. We had an extension built on our home in Autumn 2023 and the new door was fitted in November. Temporary glazing was included so I had time to build new stained glass windows to fit.

As soon as the frame had been fitted I was able to confirm final dimensions for each panel. The panels were to be encapsulated in sealed units and I swapped notes with the glazing company before drawing the whole window set out on AutoCad. This allowed me to ensure that lines would flow and that the final dimensions of the lead would fit the finished panels correctly.

Having worked out how I wanted colours to work inthe window I spent ages spreading my glass collections out in the sunshine to let me choose what to use where. It takes ages!

I had made a ‘252’ years ago that hung in our old porch. I dismantled that panel to recover and re-use the blue numbers in the new transom panel

My wife makes quilts so each corner of the design has a small pattern based on a quilt block. The pink glass in this one is the gorgeous gold pink mouth-blown glass from Lamberts of Germany. It is very expensive!

A lack of space on my workbench meant that only the pair of door panels could be constructed in parallel.

One of the side panels being assembled.

After both sides of a panel have been soldered, it needs to be cemented. This is the part of the job I least enjoy but needs to be done carefully to ensure that all gaps are filled and that the panels are as strong as possible. The white powder is chalk, to soak up excess solvents and oils in the cement.

Once the cemented panel has been cleaned up, the lead is polished using black grate polish. Again, lots of time was spent making sure everything looked as I wanted. There then needed to be at least six weeks between cementing and getting the panels encapsulated so that the oils in the cement had time to evaporate off. This would hopefully avoid any future issues with the panels misting up.

At this stage I finally get chance to see the glass with the sun through it!

Finally, in November 2024, all seven panels were complete. I took them to the glaziers to be encapsulated and we were able to fit them.

Our new front door from outside:

And inside:

And the best bit! In this case, low morning sun projecting colours onto the hall wall.