I haven’t done a jigsaw puzzle for a while so it was fun to tackle this stained glass round window challenge that was brought to me in pieces in a cardboard box. It had been removed from a front door that was now inside a porch and it had been knocked in and distorted.

The owner wanted to just throw it away and replace with clear glass but his builder convinced him it was worth saving.

My first job was to clean it all (always a big task) and piece it back together so I could work out what needed replacing and what could be saved. The outside lead was unusable, but I always try to keep as much as I can of the original glass and lead to maintain the authenticity of the design.

A couple of the glass panels were cracked so I had to carefully remove them. Two pieces had been replaced by someone in the past and they had used a strange filler that – luckily for me – came away easily.

I cut new pieces of glass and fitted them, as well as replacing some of the leads as necessary. Finally, I fitted a new lead surround to secure the window and blacked the new pieces to blend in with the existing tone of the leads.

I heard that the owner was thrilled with the repair and was glad that he had listened to his builder’s advice. It is good to know there are people out there who appreciate that it is worth saving stained glass windows and keeping the character of real glass in their homes.