Stained Glass Window
Raleigh Hughes Makes Coat of Arms in Glass
In Raleigh Hughes' shop, a cross rests on a heart in the center of the Messianic rose, captured in the colors of stained glass.
When the addition to the St. Paul's Lutheran Church in St. Maries was being built, Mr. Hughes and previous church pastor Frank Carson were discussing the construction. "He said to me, you know it would make an interesting addition if we put an octagon window up there and you made a Lutheran coat of arms for it," Mr. Hughes said. "That's how it came about. I was just taking the stained glass classes from Judy Dundas then. It took a lot of thought before I got psyched up enough to start it. The size of it bothered me more than anything."
The stained glass window is five feet across and contains approximately 270 individual pieces of red, blue, orange, white and black glass. It is the second large stained glass project Mr. Hughes has done since he took the stained glass class.
Even after he decided to make the window, Mr. Hughes could not find a table large enough to accommodate the construction of a five-foot octagon. He solved the problem by taking a Ping-Pong table and splicing two sheets of plywood together on top of it.
"The pattern took as long as anything to make," Mr. Hughes said. He started on the design of the pattern before Christmas, working from a small picture of the coat of arms adopted by the founder of the Lutheran church to express trust in God. Once the pattern was done, actual work on the window took a month.
"I did have to take a couple of days off after cutting the glass to heal up. It takes a lot of pressure to get a good score (cut the glass). Look at all these callouses," he said, holding out his hands.
The window nearly is complete. There is soldering yet to do, and braces must be put accross it to strengthen the window. "Just wish me luck when it's time to install it," Mr. Hughes said. To get it to the church, he will sandwich it between two pieces of plywood, and find a vehicle large enough to haul the window flat, he said. The mechanics of getting it into the window space at the church, however, have not been worked out yet.
The window will be installed as soon as Mr. Hughes finishes it. "The morning sun will shine through it into the church," Mr. Hughes said. "The highlights on the ceiling will shine through it at night."
Mr. Hughes was born in the log house on Main Avenue in St. Maries and has spent most of his life here. A retired Potlatch maintenance superintendent, he likes to spend his time dabbling in a little of this and a little of that. After the window is complete, he'll move on to other projects.
"When you build up 40 years of backlog work, it takes a while to catch up," he said. "I don't think I'll be wanting for anything to do. I want to do a window with the Steamer Idaho on it. I want to build an addition onto the house. I'd like to learn chainsaw sculpturing."
(Article written by Kathleen Obenland in the St. Maries Gazette Record, published on February 25, 1987)