What does Netflix’s newest hit “Locke and Key”, The Stonehouse and Ed Mirvish have in common?
Well, stained glass of course!
We were very excited to work with the props department of “Locke and Key”, a popular comic book written by Joe Hill and illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez, turned into a hit Netflix series.
This window was featured as a prop in Netflix’s “Locke & Key”
The window that was selected for the scene is rich in colour and hand painted from the late 1800’s. The window is part of a collection of antique windows we acquired from Ed Mirvish Warehouse restaurant. Ed’s Warehouse Restaurant closed in 2000. The windows were kept in storage at Honest Ed’s until we acquired them in 2016.
The scene (Season 1, Episode 1) revolves around Nina and Rendell Locke renovating their home. While Rendall works on painting a wall, Nina is delicately restoring an antique window. Having finished replacing some broken glass, she is finishing it off with applying patina to the cleaned lead.
Visit IMDB for a screen shot of the scene:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3007572/mediaviewer/rm3269835265
Our restoration artist, Michaela, was on set to assist with the actors with looking like well seasoned restoration artists.
“It was a joy to meet and work with Darby Stanchfield. She had a genuine interest in working with the stained glass window. I had a lot of fun working with her. She was very personable.” says Michaela with glee. “Bill Heck and Emilia Jones were friendly and welcoming. Ms. Jones is from the UK, and we had a nice chat in between takes about fun things to do in winter here in Canada. Everyone from the director, props, talent, and crew were great, it was a remarkable experience being on set. It was remarkable seeing how it call comes together.”
**spoiler alert**
“A pet peeve of mine in film and television,” states Michaela, “in regards to stained glass is how unrealistic it’s treated. When I see someone jump through a stained glass window, or throw a chair through it and it shatters, that just makes me cringe. The physics of stained glass do not work that way. If you were to jump through a stained glass window, you would break some glass, but you would most likely just bounce off of it, or get tangled in the very strong and dense lead.”
In the scene, a confrontation happens, resulting in the window being broken.
The prop team really did their research, and nailed it.
Being on set, Michaela had the opportunity to see the “sugar glass” break away window. They were digitally printed copies of the stained glass window, with a twist. The props team had reinforced the parts where the lead was. When the window broke in the scene, the lead broke separately, and with a stronger hold than the glass.
“It was very impressive how they did it.” Micheala says. “It gave me a lot of faith in the future of proper representation of stained glass in film and television.”
Be sure to check out “Locke and Key” on Netflix! We have more of the windows in our collection, so if you would like a close up look of the windows, be sure to pop by The Stonehouse of Campbellville!