How Did That Happen?

Ever ask yourself that? There are times you ask and you really have no idea. Most of the time when unexpected things come up, we know right away what went wrong. “Oh, I forgot to tell you not to paint the fence when the wind is blowing.”

The other day, we delivered some windows to a client and one was way too big. The client asked, “How did that happen?” I didn’t have an answer. I had thought several times when I was making the window, “Is this really how long this window is?” It seemed too long, but I went back and checked our measurements and it was supposed to be that big.

When we discovered the problem, we took back the window to shorten it 40” and we checked our measurement. Yep, we wrote down that is was 84, not 44. Jeanne immediately took the blame, “It’s my handwriting, so I screwed up!” Then I pointed out that I was reading the tape measure and I could have read it out wrong, so there was really no way to determine who was to blame.

I used to be really ready to assign blame, but I’m actively trying to overcome that habit. Who cares who made the mistake, we still have to fix it and we’re both aware of what happened, so we’ll be vigilant to try to avoid the same thing in the future. A friend told me that when he measures. He first takes all measurements in inches, then he re-measures in feet and inches. This way he has two sets of numbers and when a question comes up, he can verify that they are both the same length. If not, he can pinpoint the fact that there really is a problem.

The Big Switch

I have been interested in reading the sites of several family members and the other day I decided to really get more serious about the way I blog. In the past I've divided up my blog into this site which houses copies of the newsletter I write and my “Stained Glass Artists Survival Guide.” I realize that this really impacts my writing. I can only blog about Stained Glass and I have to divide everything between two sites.

So I’m going to put all my posts here, because it’s more about my life. All my adventures are Stained Glass Adventures.

How To Rebuild A Leaded Glass Window -Mar 2008

When the perspective client arrived with his window that "needed a little work", it was taped and wrapped to a board to keep it from falling apart. We explained that we'd have to completely rebuild the window, so he asked if we could make some design changes while we were at it. We agreed, while securing the added stipulation that we would rebuild it using the copper foil method.

We unwrapped the window and assessed the damage. Every joint was weakened and falling apart. The lead was brittle and crumbled quite readily. The age of the thing and it's time riddled damage was quite amazing.

To Read the whole article with the pictures that go with it, click on the title above.