Restoring a damaged Stained Glass window

The above photo is the beauty restored to her former glory. Below is what she looked like after a terrible hail storm:

As this window was made with handmade glass, the search begins for glass of the same colour, texture and quality.
Not so easy, as there are very few glass importers, and as this kind of glass is the most expensive, big quantities of it are not being imported in the current economic climate.
Here are some of the amazing glass we found:

Next we prepare an exact copy of the pattern. The hardest part is to try and preserve as much of the original glass as we can. It will actually be faster to do a complete remake with the new glass we found, but some glass just cannot be replaced, and for authenticity's sake we prefer to save as much as we can of the original glass:

Everything laid out, ready to go

And then the serious labour starts... carefully cutting apart the old window to remove the damaged glass and old lead came. Then we start to replace the newly cut and fitted glass and lead came.
​And at last, the restored beauty - this time the outside view!

Well worth the effort!