TELEPHONE:
ADDRESS:
Calle Francisco Díaz Romero nº 4 – 03400 Villena
ACTIVITY
Manuel restores stained-glass windows and also makes new glass panels in artistic lead-came, Tiffany and other styles.
The techniques he uses in artistic came-work are traditional, with coloured glass pieces being set in lead with pictorial decoration, figurative or otherwise.
The process is as follows:
Preparation of… a preliminary sketch and of stencils or cartoons.
Study of the colour composition and the types of glass to be used in the panel.
Cutting of the glass, normally formed by blowing. Painting of the pieces with grisailles made of iron oxides and ground glass particles, silver chloride and sulphide yellow stain with ochre and clay salts, along with enamels made of pigments mixed with flux. All these paints are applied with various thick and fine brushes as best suits each technique.
Firing of the painted pieces in a glazing furnace as many times as needed to achieve the desired result.
Fitting the glass into lead came on a wooden panel, which involves edging the glass pieces with H-shaped came, normally with a 7 mm flange and a 5 mm heart. The seams or joints are soldered with a 60/40 tin-lead alloy.
Cementing of the panel with a putty made of linseed oil, lamp black and whiting with drying chalk.
The Tiffany glass technique, on the other hand, involves assembling coloured glass pieces with copper foil. The joints are made by taping around the edges and soldering the panel with a bead of 50/50 tin-lead alloy. Finally a copper-coloured or black patina is applied to the solder.
Dismantling stained-glass windows for restoration involves, firstly, the erection of suitable officially approved tubular scaffolding. How the stained-glass panel is extracted will naturally depend on the side of the window to which it was fitted. Once a suitable access system is in place, the preliminary steps are:
Graphical and textual documentation of the window (photos of the whole panel and of the details seen as most significant, with datasheets being drawn up prior to dismantling, recording the damage and defects observed along with all other relevant details).
Dismantling of the window, for which the first step is to tape up the panel for removal, to prevent pieces from coming out of the lead network. Next the perimeter sealing materials (mortars and putties) are removed, along with the reinforcing rods, which are documented and stored.
TRAINING
Manuel worked as a stained-glass glazier for Vidriarte Flosing Glass from 1987 to 2011.
Advanced glass-painting course at the National Glass Centre Foundation (FCNV) in La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia province), taught by Santé Pizzol.
Stained-glass restoration course at the FCNV Higher Glass School, taught by… Fernando Cortés Pizano.
TEACHING
Instructor in a level III glass-painting course for Vidriarte Flosing Glass in 2011.
SELECTED WORK
– Restoration of the Joaquín Sorolla Museum in Madrid
– Collaboration with Fernando Cortés Pizano in a budgeted restoration plan for stained glass in the Church of El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Havana (Cuba)
– Restoration of stained glass by Pierre Gustave Dagrant dating from 1865… in Alicante
– Restoration of Church of San Francisco de Asís in Valencia
– New stained-glass windows for the church of San Esteban Protomártir in Alicante
– New stained-glass panels for the 19th Caballero Legionario Maderal Oleaga Special Operations Group at the Rojas Navarrete army barracks in Rabasa (Alicante province)
– New stained-glass panels for the 4th Caballero Tercio del Ampurdán Special Operations Group at the Rojas Navarrete barracks in Rabasa
– New stained-glass panels for Special Operations Command at the Rojas Navarrete barracks in Rabasa
– Restoration of panels of St Claire at the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes (Toledo)
