Saturday 8 November 2008

A new Skeleton

Starting is always tricky... whether it's writing the first paragraph of an essay, counting out a piece of cross-stitch or indeed starting to assemble a leaded light. All the more so when the finished size is predetermined as it's replacing an old piece, and it's got to fit a hole.

The pattern, I knew was unreliable as it had been drawn using the broken and twisted form of the old piece of glass. The new glass was accurate to the millimetre. Two sides of the perimeter were positioned and the first numbered glass was slotted into place. The pattern was a good half an inch out - oh dear! After much fiddling with the pattern and measuring I was satisfied that I could position the next three pieces. Why couldn't they be a simple rectangle? It was obvious that the pattern was going to be 'out' during the whole assembly.

Quite quickly the glass took shape.

The last section was not going to be easy. Utilising the old glass, odd shaped new pieces and curves... lots of them. What was more, because of the design, some pieces of glass would have to be fitted at the same time, as pieces fitted snugly inside others. A bit of thought was going to be required as to how this was to be achieved. I still didn't know if the leaded light would be the desired size. Only when the other two pieces of perimeter lead were in place would I know.

The last pieces are tricky too!

Finally, the body had its new skeleton.

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