By KEN de la BASTIDE
For more than a century, the stained-glass window “Lady of the Lake” has kept a watchful eye over the Seiberling Mansion. That will continue after repairs were made to the window Monday.
Stacia Giles, one of the few people in Indiana that can repair stained glass, replaced a piece of missing glass and filled gaps in the leading to repair a mansion focal point.
“Lady of the Lake” was created by Opalescent Glass in the late 1880s and has been a part of the Seiberling Mansion since the house was completed in 1891.
Kelly Karickhoff, executive director of the Howard County Historical Society, said the stained-glass window was damaged during a hail storm that rolled through Kokomo last summer.
Opalescent Glass donated the cost to repair the window to the historical society.
Karickhoff said “Lady of the Lake” was originally located in a rear bathroom of the house. It was moved to a bedroom near the front in 1972.
“The window was moved so the public could enjoy the stained glass,” she said. “It is original to the house.”
There are five other stained-glass windows created by Opalescent Glass in the Seiberling Mansion.
The hailstorm broke out a piece of purple glass toward the bottom of the window.
Giles, the director of retail sales and studio operations at Opalescent Glass was replacing that piece of glass with new leading, using putty to fill in the gaps on other parts of the window and cleaning it.
“It’s to stabilize the window,” Giles said. “It would have been detrimental to remove the window to make the repairs.”
Had the window been removed from the frame to make repairs, Giles said the entire window would have needed to be repaired.
Giles first visited the Seiberling Mansion to evaluate the needed repairs and what tools and equipment would be required.
“This is a minor repair,” Giles said. “I have been doing this for 20 years. There is only one other person in our studio that can do repairs, and I taught her.”
Giles said a factor in the repair was the structure of the window and the fight with gravity to keep solder from running down the glass.
“There would have been more damage if we took the window out,” she said. “The lead joints would have cracked and would have needed to be rebuilt.”
Giles said just to replace the image of the woman in the stained glass window would cost $500 because of the different tints in the glass.
“We still make 99 percent of the glass we did 100 years ago,” Giles said. “I was surprised at how well the window was maintained.”
The cost of repairing the one piece of glass is $500.
“It takes a steady hand,” she said of the repair work. “There are only a handful of people in Indiana that can fix it the right way. I do restoration work three or four times a year.”
Giles said a lot of people are unaware that Opalescent Glass does repair work on stained-glass windows. She learned the trade through trial and error and studying how different companies did their glasswork.
The estimated value of “The Lady of the Lake” is $10,000.
Karickhoff said there are lots of stained glass windows in the historic Silk Stocking district of Kokomo.
Giles said the best way to clean the stained-glass windows is with vinegar and water. Cleaners with ammonia should not be used.
Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454 -8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com
