New Church History Image Project

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Photo246.jpg

Image ID: 295
Title:Drawing of a stained glass window being cut into pieces in preparation for tracing onto glass
Source:Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn Archives, Bryn Athyn, PA
Date:Unknown
Medium:35mm slide
Description: Each stained glass window went through a meticulous design process, from sketch, to scale drawing, to full-size cartoon, before the glass was cut and the window assembled. Special shears were used to cut out each pane of the drawing: “…these had to be cut up to the exact patterns of each little piece of glass. And if we were to cut that with a pair of shears, like you cut paper or cloth with, when we put the leads in between the window would grow and it wouldn’t fit in the opening. So to compensate for that, we have this special shear—this shear instead of having two blades, it has three blades. The two at the bottom are fastened together at the very end, and the top blade is double edged, so that when we cut with that, the little piece of paper which you see there, represents the thickness of the lead, which would then be placed between each piece of glass” (Gunther, Ariel. Transcript of Bryn Athyn glassmaking lecture. Raymond and Mildred Pitcairn Archives, Bryn Athyn , Pennsylvania ).