When we are invited to examine a building, many times pieces of the building have been damaged or are missing. Sometimes they can be easily reordered from stone carvers, terra cotta makers or salvage companies. But every now and then a piece is so unique you need to do something different.
The first six photographs show the steps taken to reproduce 8 small column capitals for a home owner in Lexington. We salvaged the best piece and removed all of the many layers of paint. The piece was extremely eroded with the fibers showing though around the edges of the holes. We patched and sanded layer by layer until a satisfactory condition was achieved. We did not want a perfect piece and intentionally left flaws. We made the mold and cast our final pieces with statuary cement.
The last five pictures are from 331 North Broadway in Lexington. After removing paint from the entire house and these terra cotta window pieces, it was discovered that some were broken beyond repair and others missing. We went through the same process as before and then mounted the new pieces along with the original pieces back to the facade. There are 6 pieces for each window. Pictured here is Jake Newton alongside Larry Townsend, a good friend and faithful employee. An easygoing man of many talents. We miss him.