GLA SS-MAKING. 3 1 



The manner of painting the flesh portions is not without inter- 

 est. The pieces of opalescent glass are mounted in rough frames 

 before a window, and nearly all other light is cut off. In this way 

 the artist can see his work under precisely the same conditions 

 that will prevail when the window is put in place, and he can paint 

 to correspondingly good advantage. The colors are put on rather 

 heavy to allow for firing, and for the distance at which the faces 

 will commonly be seen. In many cases the paint is put on solidly, 

 and is then picked off with a sharp instrument, giving much the 

 effect of an etching. It looks a little eerie, on going into such a 

 studio, to see a group of heads and hands, and other severed mem- 

 bers of the anatomy staring at one in luminous characters. The 

 painting must be done in installments, as it is necessary to fire the 

 glass from two to four times. Each firing requires about an hour 

 and a half, and six hours more for the kiln to cool down. Before 

 the last firing the flesh portions are taken to the figure-room and 

 given place in the otherwise completed picture. In this way the 

 artist can judge of the final colors needed to bring them into per- 

 fect harmony with the general color tone of the picture. 



It is by the expenditure of such care and labor that the soul 

 and body of our picture-window are brought together ; but, before 

 the union is made permanent, the window undergoes a searching 

 art scrutiny, and any changes are suggested that would add to its 

 beauty and harmony. In some cases all the combinations have 

 proved so fortunate that very few changes are needed ; but the 

 case is not always so easily disposed of. It happens at times that 

 portions of the glass must be recut several times before the de- 

 sired effect is secured ; or, even after the window is completed, the 

 discovery is sometimes made that a different background would 

 have been more effective in bringing out the figure. Such was 

 the case in a Jeanne a" Arc window designed by Mr. Frank D. 

 Millet. The substitution of a light for a dark sky brought the 

 figure into much finer relief. 



When, finally, the effect is considered satisfactory, the frag- 

 ments of colored glass are removed one by one from the sheet of 

 clear glass, and are skillfully bound together by means of strips 

 of doubly grooved lead. This requires some very nice soldering. 

 When it is completed the lead is tinned in order to protect it from 

 the atmosphere. The spaces between the glass and the lead are 

 then filled with a composition of putty and lead, which sets very 

 rigidly, and serves the double purpose of making the window per- 

 fectly water-tight and of preventing any looseness on the part of 

 the fragments of glass. There remains only the provision of a 

 strong, iron-bound frame, and the picture-window, after a devel- 

 opment covering many months, is ready to be put in place. The 

 materials for its manufacture have been gathered from many 



