{"id":21473,"date":"2021-05-04T13:26:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T13:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/?p=21473"},"modified":"2021-05-04T13:26:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T13:26:28","slug":"21473","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/stained-glass-projects\/21473\/","title":{"rendered":"Portfolio Update: Recreating a Beloved Stained Glass Window for Sam Houston State University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our company, Fort Worth Stained Glass, is part of the Scottish Stained Glass family.\u00a0 The group of companies has been a part of some pretty amazing historical stained glass restorations. One such project was\u00a0 Sam Houston State University.\u00a0 It is a fine example of why we love what we do–we get to breathe new life into structures like churches, synagogues, historic homes, and universities around the country.\u00a0 A recent project at Sam Houston State University was one of our finest and most exciting works to date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Replicating Sam Houston State\u2019s Historic Stained Glass Windows<\/span><\/h2>\n

Sam Houston State University has been in Texas longer than most schools since it was founded in 1879. The architecture of the original campus buildings was dotted with lovely arched buildings–one of which had a crowning piece of stained glass. This window was iconic to the school and something they were very proud of.\u00a0 However, in 1982 the window was completely destroyed by a fire.\u00a0 In a recent decision, SHSU commissioned our group of stained glass companies to commemorate their school motto \u201cThe measure of a Life is its Service” by replicating the original stained glass window.\u00a0 We could not be happier that they entrusted us with this task!<\/span><\/p>\n

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The First Challenge of Restoring Sam Houston State University\u2019s Lost Stained Glass<\/span><\/h3>\n

Since there was nothing but a yearbook photo from 1962 to guide us, this job came with some unique challenges.\u00a0 But certainly nothing we could not handle with our extensive experience and stained glass industry ties. You see, we always want to pay respect to the original stained glass art and make it as historically accurate as possible. \u00a0 Meaning we had techniques already in place to work around having very little historical context or guidance for the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

Modern Technology for Restoring Stained Glass<\/span><\/h3>\n

We always work using a mix of ancient stained glass techniques and modern technology.\u00a0 So we started this recreation by scanning the old picture into the computer.\u00a0 This allowed us to print out a full-sized version and carefully trace the lines. We then rescanned the drawing into our CAD program and doubled the stained glass window\u2019s size at the request of the university.\u00a0 While the process was painstaking it was also well worth the time and paid off in accuracy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Restoring Sam Houston State University\u2019s Lost Stained Glass<\/span><\/h3>\n

Sourcing materials was an issue we knew we would have since most of the time we are working on historical pieces made with materials that no longer exist.\u00a0 After all, this window was made over a century ago.\u00a0 In cases like this, finding proper color matches is the challenge.\u00a0 But we have a network of conservation specialists and used them to help us find colors that were very close to the originals.\u00a0 To us, close is not enough so our plan to get the old colors matched exactly was to employ our incredibly talented painted stained glass<\/a> artists.\u00a0 Using their skill and knowledge they painted over the \u201cclose\u201d hues to make them exact matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Results of the Recreated Commemorative Stained Glass Window<\/span><\/h2>\n

The recreation of the stained glass window<\/a> at SHSU took almost a full year.\u00a0 In some spots around faces and clothing, there were ten layers of color to get the shading just right!\u00a0 A mix of art and science this lovely commemorative window ended up with about 3,000- 4,000 pieces.\u00a0 The reactions from the university staff, students, and board were of amazement and gratitude. This made us so happy since we take such great pride in our stained glass restoration, repair, and recreation projects.\u00a0 We believe these treasures of old deserve preserving it for generations to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you are looking to have a historic stained glass window restored or rebuilt we would love to speak to you about it!\u00a0 Contact us<\/a> Fort Worth Stained Glass today for a free consultation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our company, Fort Worth Stained Glass, is part of the Scottish Stained Glass family.\u00a0 The group of companies has been a part of some pretty amazing historical stained glass restorations. One such project was\u00a0 Sam Houston State University.\u00a0 It is a fine example of why we love what we do–we get to breathe new life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,35],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Fort-Worth-Stained-Glass-recreation-portfolio.png",445,445,false],"list":["https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Fort-Worth-Stained-Glass-recreation-portfolio.png",348,348,false],"medium":["https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Fort-Worth-Stained-Glass-recreation-portfolio-460x310.png",300,202,true],"full":["https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Fort-Worth-Stained-Glass-recreation-portfolio.png",1080,1080,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21479,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21473\/revisions\/21479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fortworthstainedglass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}