LAKEPORT— A last-minute guest of Rotary Club Lake County turned out to be a welcome addition to broaden the depth of the civic organization, to one of the longest surviving art antiquities.
Kendall Fults, former executive at Adventist Health, Clearlake eventually retired from Adventist, Hanford, in 2018, and was a stained glass artisan for 40 years as well active in Rotary 35 of those years. He was welcomed as keynote speaker when an original guest fell ill for the program of January 17. Introducing Fults was Dennis Fordham, Rotary member and estate planning attorney of Lakeport. Fordham reconnected with Fults once he returned to Lake County, after Fults purchased 45 acres of land in Lower Lake to launch his Fults Family Vinyards. Fordham admitted he had no idea the depths of Fults’ talents.
Fordham said, “Stained glass windows we know are wonderfully illuminated artwork. They often tell a religious story, and I often associate them with the great cathedrals, Fults enjoys custom designing and fabricating customed stained glass windows as well as mentoring several cohorts of students each year for the last several years.”
Once entering his post high school years, Fult’s father insisted his children earn a degree but also learn a trade. “And when in my 20s, I lined up with a gentleman that hung sheet rock, that’s what I Iearnd to do to earn a living, help pay my way through school,” Fults said. “But he built stained glass windows for a contractor and that’s how I got into it.”
The Romans were the first recorded civilization to use glass for windows in 100 AD. An ancient ruin of Pompeii bore signs of glass used in windows with bronze frames. By the end of the 1st century AD, manufacturing glass was refined and done at scale. It became a commonly available material during that time. It was the Egyptians who were trying to come up with making a vessel to carry water noted Fults. And they had melted salt into sand, yet ended up making beads and not so many containers.
From 1100 to 1500 became the Renaissance of glass making Fults noted, “Think of cathedrals, stained glass windows, becoming more and more popular, you’d see some amazing work, he said. But in the 1600 to 1880s they thought glass work had become too opulent for the churches and began removing it.” So out came the glass from the churches because it was becoming too fancy for the purpose of what parishioners should be using the church for at that time, so, in early history a lot of stained glass got smashed.
Fults said. “WW II bombing impacted the buildings. and when you walked up to it, can see it is cracked all the way down. “I’m not sure how they did it (pointing to one example), “These mountains here is a layer of glass, which is how they got the 3-dimensional perspective catching that depth and the mountain, they soldered it to the back, like this standing out,” Fults said. “That example called an Oyster Bay. Louis Comfort Tiffany set the tone and you can see samples of his work from 1870’s to 1959,” he added.
“He developed the Copper Foil method that I use,” Fults said. “Then there’s the Lead Came. So, this you see this example,” he pointed out to the Rotarian audience.
The Lead Came is comprised of thin strips of lead with an H-shaped or U-shaped cross section, according to stainedglassfun.com. The came strips create channels that hold the edges of the glass pieces. Once the entire panel is assembled, one applies a final sealing putty. Putty waterproofs the window and prevents the glass from rattling.
Copper Foil, however, according to stainedglassfun.com is an extremely thin, narrow and flexible strip of copper with an adhesive backing. In stained glass, copper foil tape is used to wrap the edges of the glass pieces. Once wrapped in foil, the glass pieces are then soldered together all along the foiled edges. The use of copper foil in stained glass is mainly attributed to Tiffany in the late 19th- early 20th centuries. The Tiffany copper-foil-method revolutionized 3-D projects like lampshades where small glass pieces and intricate curves wouldn’t allow the use of Lead Came.
Fults admitted he did not care for the Lead Came method even though it is traditional. The reason was with wear and tear over years, as a window or door experiences repetitive strain, they will start to disintegrate, can get loose and an artisan will need to remove it and recondition the piece.
He offered a brief highlight of a third method called, Slab Glass. It comes from the French name, Dalle de Verre. Fults explained it uses pieces of colored epoxy resin or other supporting material. But it is also known by another name, Faceted Glass, which requires frequent restoration.
Fults teaches six students in a class and each works on their own timetable so there is no pressure, to “keep up with the Joneses” he explained. Typically, he will schedule four separate class sessions per year. Recently Fults completed a glass stained window section for the Methodist Church in Lower Lake. He is also preparing a front entrance for that church. “Stained glass has always ebbed between being popular and flat,” Fults said. “Art one time they did over 3 million square feet a year. They’re still making it, but it has a whole new distribution model that’s probably gone forever.”
