For more than a year, Graham Stewart has been working on a giant jigsaw puzzle with pieces numbering in the thousands and of differing dimensions and quality.
Stewart is a stained-glass artist and conservator tasked with repairing the large rose window which fell from Christchurch's Cathedral in an earthquake in June 2011.
Seven metres in diameter, the window sat 20 metres above ground on the cathedral's west face and was, according to Stewart, "a beautiful thing to behold".
The window concertinaed onto a roof below when the ground began to shake. Heritage experts sifted through the remnants and recovered thousands of glass fragments, which were delivered to Stewart's Loburn workshop for him to sort and identify.
Frustratingly for Stewart, the window had been removed for conservation and cleaning work a year earlier and had only been reinstalled a month before the first earthquake of 2010.
"We'd only just put that window back in August, and it looked pristine and perfect," Stewart recalled. "It was just terrible."
His lengthy work to restore the shattered rose window is now complete and, on his lightbox, Stewart showed Seven Sharp many of the fragments which could not be incorporated into the finished design.
Stewart said it was a valuable opportunity for people to see the intricacies of the original artwork up close, something denied when the window was in place, high in the cathedral.
"When you see it first hand, you see the technique and texture," said Stewart. He hopes the leftover pieces can be incorporated into a new window or put on public display for everyone to admire.
The window was designed by cathedral architect Benjamin Mountfort, featuring the hierarchy of angels with "The Lamb of God" at its centre. London-based glass artisans Clayton & Bell were commissioned to create the stained glass panels in 1881, and they were then shipped to New Zealand and installed in the Cathedral.
With less than 10% of the window able to be salvaged, it's been left to Stewart to re-make thousands of pieces in the original style. Stewart has hand-drawn each piece with assistance from fellow artist Carmen Schill.
Stewart has long pursued artistic endeavours. He recalled growing up on a farm in Australia, where he drew cows and tractors.
A glazier noticed his drawings on a window when he moved to Wellington to pursue art.
"He said, 'Oh, I know this stained glass guy that wants to teach somebody'," recalled Stewart. "That's how I got into it."
"The whole stained glass painting thing is like drawing. If you like drawing, you'll love stained glass cause it combines all those elements of drawing and pen drawing, using a brush instead of a pencil."
Much of Stewart's work in post-quake Canterbury has been repairing damaged church windows. He trained with conservators at the V&A Museum in London under the tutelage of two English craftsmen with years of experience and a commitment to age-old techniques.
"What I learned was of the old traditions that weren't practised very much," he explained.
These techniques have proved invaluable as Stewart and his sons, who work alongside him, recovered and repaired century-old broken windows from churches all over the region.
While the rose window is now ready and waiting for reinstatement, the building it will sit in is incomplete due to funding issues.
Stewart is hopeful his work will go on public display one day soon.
"I'd like to think it's in my lifetime," he reflected. "I'd love to see it up, and I'd love to see that building functioning again."
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