Greene & Greene Stained Glass Window

[Mike Cutler]

Thought I'd share the project I've been working on as of late. It's a Greene and Greene Style stained glass window.

The frame is a copy of the framed mirror, on pg. 19, of Darrell Peart's book on Greene & Greene design, and was originally done by John Hall.

The frame I built is much larger 37 1/2" x 26". It is made of macassar ebony, and the window was an ebay purchase by LOML.

Much of the work had to be done by hand for the final fit, and other than routing, and bandsawing the waste, the joints at the bottom are almost entirely hand done. This really stretched my handtool capabilities. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I apologize upfront for the poor photo quality. My Nikon 5700 broke and I was trying to use a point and shoot camera that won't allow me to turn the flash off and manually focus.

[Mark Valsi]

VERY NICE !!!

I love the Greene and Greene stuff !

[Jim Becker]

Oooohh....that's lovely! Nice job!

[Gary Herrmann]

Great job, the joinery is beautiful.

[Bruce Page]

What Gary said!
Beautiful!

[Gary Keedwell]

Very nice.....LOML is after me to make one with "The Tree of Life " motif. Someday................
Gary K.

[Charles Jackson III]

Very nice work!

[scott spencer]

Very sharp Mike. Some really neat joinery going on, and a very unique project. Really nice!

[Don Bullock]

Wow Mike, that's some very nice joinery. I really love Greene & Greene pieces and stained glass. When I saw the mirror in Darrell's book I didn't think of using the frame for stained glass. Now I have another project to add to my "must do" list.

[Mike Cutler]

Thanks for the kind words folks. It was a fun project, kinda nerve wracking at times. The frame reaches a point in construction where there are no right angle references, so it makes it a little harder to plan out the sequence of cuts and assembly.

Don. I love the book that Darrell Peart put together. So much is in it for inspiration and direction. I think we'll see a lot more of the details replicated in peoples projects. I've already seen the legs, in the style he makes, in another project here on the board. Should you make a stained glass panel with antique glass. One tip for the glass is to use 0000 steel wool to clean all of the grime off the glass. Works like a champ.

Once again. Thank you all for the kind words.

Mike

[Alan Turner]

Mike,
Beautiful, and well executed. I suspect your lumber budget may be out of balance for a little while.

[Mike Cutler]

Mike,
Beautiful, and well executed. I suspect your lumber budget may be out of balance for a little while.

Yeah. I may be using a lot of scrap pine for awhile, maybe some dumpster diving for used pallets.;)
While the cost of the ebony was fairly high, simply finding it in widths over 3" and 4" was also difficult. Most of it came from a lumber seller on eBay down in your area. Apparently it's very popular with luthiers.
Little un-nerving to cut, mistakes can really cost big $$$ in a hurry.

Thank you for the compliment.

[Dan Larson]

Bravo Mike! Your workmanship with this piece is impressive. The ebony really works with the design... the joinery is an interesting extension that John Hall made of the G & G style.

Have taken a look at Robert Lang's G & G book? It's a nice compliment to the Peart book... a little less "how to" and more into specific design details and factoids. An amusing side note from the book... the Halls' billed $680 for famous Gamble Chiffonier back in 1908... 1150 hours of labor @ $0.50/hr. plus materials!:eek:

Dan

[lowell holmes]

I'm impressed, Nice Work

[Wallace Brooks]

Wow. Form leading function.

[Frederick Skelly]

Hey, ummmm guys? This thread is 11 years old! :) :) :)

[Patrick McCarthy]

Hey, ummmm guys? This thread is 11 years old! :) :) :)

Party pooper . . . .

[lowell holmes]

Well. It still is a good looking window.

[Mike Cutler]

Apologies folks. It was not my intent to resurrect this old thread. I linked to it in Lowell's thread about Greene and Greene.
For the non history buffs, the window was based a design by John Hall, one of the principal craftsman responsible for bringing the Greene's designs, and concepts, to fruition. The Hall's worked very closely with the Greene brothers.
I grew up in the Highland Park/ Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. This area is across the Arroyo Seco from Pasadena. This area, and the houses built there, are atypical examples of the Mission/Craftsman/Art Deco concepts. Essentially I grew up in these design elements.
When I first bought Darrel's book, and saw this design, it reminded me of the houses, and woodworking I grew up with, and I knew that I had to make something based on the design of the mirror this window is copied from.

Lowell
It is still is a beautiful hanging window. It hangs in front of a window in our library, that is heavily influenced by the Art Deco/Arts and Crafts styles. One principal deviation from the Greene and Greene style is the actual window itself. The window is reference to the Mission and Limbert styles.

[glenn bradley]

I have never thought the age of a thread made it less valuable. certainly "current" prices or makers may not be relevant years later but, techniques and craftsmanship have been relevant longer than this forum, or me for that matter, have been around :). Linking to our own historical data is one of the things that makes a forum such a great resource and not just Facebook for wood butchers :D.

Beautiful tribute to John Hall's frame there Mike. Wonderful material and the glass makes a nice crossing of styles within a style. I'm glad it is where you can enjoy it regularly. I know I surely would. Beautifully done.

[Bill Carey]

agreed - the age of a thread that imparts some woodworking knowledge and/or inspiration can never be too old. I do believe that the G&G pieces were made before 2007. Just sayin..........

And it was very timely for me because I had just pulled out a nice walnut board to start making a G&G frame for my wife's certificate for the Art Glass class she took at Marc Adams School. The timing was perfect.

Thanks for the reprise Mike.

[Yonak Hawkins]

..A superb piece, Mike. What do you plan to do with it ? Does it go in front of another window, for instance ?

[Nick Decker]

An old thread was how I found this place. Oddly, Google searches turn up more useful threads here than the forum's own search engine.

Beautiful piece, Mike!

[Stan Calow]

Very nice! I've seen G&G done in non-traditional woods before and they haven't looked as stunning as this. What is the finish?

[lowell holmes]

An old thread was how I found this place. Oddly, Google searches turn up more useful threads here than the forum's own search engine.

Beautiful piece, Mike!

A wall hanging in the den:)

[Mike Cutler]

Yonak
It hangs in front go another window, and can be moved around. I've done a few of these for my wife. Different designs.
I actually made two of these when I made it. One was made from some scrap choke cherry I had re-sawn from a tree that came down in our yard. I would "practice" on the scrap cherry,a nd then work on the ebony, which was wicked expensive at the time.
A co worker now has the choke cherry frame, which I just gave him, because I would have put it up the chimney come winter. Which oddly enough, he put a mirror in to.

Stan
If I recall the finish is a light coat of Tru-Oil.