La Casa del Vitral
La Casa del Vitral (The House of Stained Glass) is a local business owned by Juan Carlos Castillo that specializes in the production and restoration of stained glass windows. Mr. Castillo and his team were in charge of the restoration and manufacture of many of the windows exhibited in the museum.
Religion Enthroned
The original window was created by J&R Lamb Studios and is exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum. Mr. Castillo and his team traveled to the Brooklyn Museum to obtain the exact measurements and design of the window in order to replicate it in their studio. This proved a complicated process, requiring his team to figure out the manner and techniques used during the creation of the original piece by artists over 100 years ago.
La Ascensión de Jesús
(The Ascension of Jesus)
This window was an original design by Mr. Castillo. With over 20 years of experience,
he has mastered the copper-foil technique, which allows for the construct of curved objects,
such as dome-shaped windows and lamps.
Mr. Castillo and his team were also given the immense responsibility of restoring the stained glass window Te Deum, which was transported from the First Presbyterian Church of Syracuse, New York.
The window was first disassembled completely. In order to ensure proper reassembly, a map was created depicting the exact location of each individual piece of glass, which was a particularly difficult task due to the complexity of the window. This particular window used up to 5 layers of glass in some areas, which can be appreciated at the bottom corners and along the edges of the window. These multiple layers allowed the artists to achieve a darkness and depth to the characters.
After the disassembly, the glass was cleaned piece by piece, which allows more light to pass through the window to create the colors originally envisioned by the artists.
Unfortunately there were a few damaged areas to the window. Missing pieces were reproduced to match the original glass and a technique called grisaille, which is a monochrome painting technique that imitates sculptures, was used to retouch the human figures that had damaged faces or hands.
When the window was ready for reassembly, Mr. Castillo and his team put the pieces back together again by joining them with leads of tin and applying chemicals that would insulate the window and unify the leads of the glass. Because of their diligence and mastery of this art form, the final result is truly stunning.