Technologies have evolved in recent years

In one of the buildings of the Loire workshops, Hervé Loire enfile the blouse and presents the model of a porch in a particular decoration. Glass tiles, strips of paper and a drawing gouache to view the final result. Later, the project began to take shape. The master glass artist, forty-eight years, opens with a bit of apprehension among the four furnaces of thermoforming of the workshop: "Let's see if it's good."While flat on the baking appear large sections of glass Killifish gridlines and enhanced brightly. At first glance, the craftsman is satisfied. "I was a little worried about this yellow, but he is finally well out," he says. A watch it do, it is the image of Epinal traditional stained glass. In the Loire workshops, talk today thermoforming, fusing, lamination resin, double glazing... "Technologies have evolved in recent years." New tools have appeared, from most of the industry, explains his brother Bruno quinquagénaire, responsible for the introduction of these new methods of work. Today, in this job, it must be all master, the classical expertise to the most modern techniques!

The art of stained glass, the Loire brothers have almost in the genes. Hervé and Bruno are the heirs of a long tradition, their father, Jacques, and their great father, Gabriel, founder of the lineage, died in 1996. From the école des beaux-arts in Angers, he bought in 1948 a property at Lèves, near Chartres, where he installed his workshops. As early as the 1950s, he became known in France by recreating the stained glass windows of the churches ruined by the war. But his notoriety soon transcends borders. Gabriel Loire works in Europe, with prestigious commands, such as stained glass windows of the Church of remembrance in Berlin, then, especially in the United States, where he signed more than 250 accomplishments (80 of the sales!). In the 1960s, the workshop employs up to 40 employees, before experiencing financial woes. Today, there in less than 10... In the rooms move on two levels, 4 or 5 workers work in the preparation of the layers from the model to 1/10 performed by the master glass cup, with a chisel to three blades or stained glass painting. The glass is omnipresent, leaf rows with care in traps in pieces on the tables ready to be assembled by sticks of lead welded Tin, or slabs of 22 millimetres thick, coloured in the mass set to cement or resin, a brilliant luminosity house specialty. In total, more than 300 nuances and different contents, worked by Jacques, with sober, clean lines, and his two sons, who joined their father in 1986. "We have had no pressure from our parents, but, when it lived in this world has always been difficult to detach", explains Bruno, who had yet attempted, in its infancy, turn to the development of the territory, while his brother followed the higher national school of Applied Arts and crafts (Ensaama). If the premises are unchanged, the company has evolved. Jacques Loire brought the stained glass in civilian buildings, banks, schools and town halls... His sons have been evolving technologies to meet new telephone, thermal, with large glasses. They have also developed partnerships with artists who perform their works in the workshop. Among recent orders, stained glass windows of the Saint-Julien, Brioude Basilica with the Korean painter Kim in-joong, or staircase Lefuel at the Louvre, with François Morellet. But "big sites," as the 1960s, have become extremely rare, said Bruno Loire. We had we diversify and introduce new glass working techniques. "About 800,000 euros in turnover, religious art is more than half of activity, public places 30 and 20 individuals:"It has become commercially more difficult." Stained glass, alas, not to use not! "The brand of the Loire House, which combines creativity and innovation, remains a fine asset marketing to attract new customers.

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