Stained Glass Skylights (redux)

Some time ago I made a post about the faux stained glass skylights I made from the florescent lighting fixtures in my shop. But by the time I had decided to take any pics of this project they were all several years old and badly faded and in need of repair.And of course, no pics of the actual production.

This past spring I did a little remodeling at the store and a couple of the lighting covers got remade. I took a few pics of the process to better illustrate it. I love the way these look. Such a simple treatment with such a dramatic effect.

Here we have one of the light diffusers pulled out of its frame, ready to be repaired. You can see how several of the panels are badly faded from the light and the cellophane has rotted and torn. FYI: Red, Orange, Purple and Yellow fade the fastest, red being the most susceptible to UV. Blues and Greens last the longest.

Here I have removed all the rotted cellophane (different panel, but same situation), but left the black electrical tape. I could have started from scratch, but I liked this design and there was nothing wrong with the electrical tape, except that it was coming unstuck in a few spots around the edges.

New sections of colored cellophane were cut out to fit the spaces between the black lines. These sections were taped down in place along their edges with clear cellophane tape.

 I carefully selected which colors would go into which spaces so that I would have a minimum of areas where the same color was adjacent to itself. I also left a couple of large spaces empty (clear) to allow more light to go through.

Once completed, the panel is put back in its frame and hung in place. Here it is in the ceiling (with no flash so you can see the vibrant colors).