How To Tell The Difference Between Leadlights & Plastic Film.
Often we have customers coming to us and saying they want a leadlight remade after its been broken, and it turns out to be fake leadlight, not infact a traditional leadlight.
How to spot the difference!- Below you'll see a photo of plastic film being applied to a single panel of glass (left) & a leadlight being traditionally made (right).
You can often tell if the glass has plastic film applied to a single panel because all the glass will have the same texture, but different colours.
Traditional leadlights will have all different textures of glass and colours, as the the glasss pieces are individually cut to shape, leaded and soldered together, then cemented to seal them from water ingress (you can lead more about this traditional practice here).
You may also notice that if the lead lines are not all connecting, this will mean it is not a traditional leadlight.
Often cheap immitation leadlights that are just plastic film is sold as traditional stained glass. These immitations have a short life expectancy if they are put in sunlight and it does not take long for the colour to fade.
We have found that there is a number of people using coloured plastic film overlay, which they pass of as authentic stained glass! Or trying to make people believe that that this is the only option available, this is not so.
There are plenty of skilled tradesmen and women up and down the country using the traditional methods to make traditional leadlights.
So it is up to the customer to ask what you're being quoted for, is it traditional leadlight and stained glass windows made by crafts people, or is it an imitation made with stick on plastic film and adhesive lead?
You may be intreasted to know we offer a cheap alternative to leadlights, that is UV stable! Click here to find out more.
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