A lady I met at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens event back in the summer subsequently brought me a stained glass window that had been removed from its original setting.

She was keen to preserve it and give it a new lease of life. She wanted to be able to hang it on her wall.

When old stained glass windows are removed, the lead around the edges is usually mangled as lead is quite soft. This was the case with this panel. However, that was not an issue, as I was going to replace it.

Instead of the standard H-profile lead came, I was going to use C-profile came to give the panel a smooth and tidy edge.

Luckily, the old lead pulled off quite easily and the old filler could be brushed or scraped off. Next I had to cut back the ends of all the leads that had been attached to the removed edge, ready to take the new C-came lead. This had to be done on both sides of the panel.

This panel was quite tall and therefore bowed when stood upright, even when it still had its H-came border. Therefore I added long strips of steel within the new C-came, to make it more rigid and strong.

Then I soldered the new border to the old leads on both sides and added wire hanging loops to the top.

Fresh filler was applied and the excess cleaned off, before the edge was blacked to match the original leads.

Now the stained glass panel can be enjoyed once more – this time hanging on a wall in the customer’s bedroom.