So You're Making Two Of These?

Annette is not only happy that her LSU Tiger Window is completed-- she's also thrilled with how it turned out as well.   I knew that would be the case because as I always say, "You always get more out of a window than what you put into it."  And when you put this amount of work into one project you know that the end result will be spectacular.  I know it's the wrong analogy for this window but I do believe that she's knocked it out of the ballpark with this amazing window. Talk about a head turner! 

Keri's rounded Sun/Moon Box was completed this week and the end result is amazing. Since we can't easily make curved pieces of glass for the ends Keri 'rounded' the left and right sides of the box by arranging rectangular pieces of glass to form a curve on each side. The curve was painstakingly kept within the border of the box top for a perfect fit that finished off this perfect box!

 

 

Kandise finished off her Pair of Cardinals Window and they really did turn out lovely.   By utilizing different reds throughout the piece she was able to use red for the border without having the red wings of the cardinals 'bleed' into the border thus giving it a uniform cardinal red effect.  Fast and efficient are the words to describe Kandise's work.

 

 

 

Cheryl finished her wedding box and I have to say that you just can't lose when you make one of these. Her colors are wonderful and I'm sure that this will be treasured for years to come. 

 

 

 

Jan's Golf Green Panel shows that little things mean a lot. Although this only contains six pieces of glass it is elegant and easily recognizable. Adding and more pieces to this would just be over kill.  It's a hole in one as is.

 

 

 

Betty's Christmas Candle is one of my favorite large suncatchers. I used to make these by the dozed and sell out of them faster than I could make them. Here we see that Betty has put this together perfectly.

 

 

Betty's Pumpkin Owl is the third in a series of Owls made by individual students putting their 'spin' on the pattern. There's no right or wrong to the color schemes used in any of them and this one is just as appealing as the others were. Betty certainly has an eye for color and exercises it regularly.

This is the last of our completed pieces for the week and it shows us that Judy has her second to last Cross finished.  Last week I was under the impression that this was the final cross but her orders for these just keep racking up!

 

Martha started a new window this week which features plenty of assorted clear textures to make the background scenery of her Art Deco Woman. The woman herself will be the only color in this window as she will be wearing a striking black dress.  Martha's cutting thus far is exemplary!

 

Barbara is back and she's hoping that a new type of cutter will make things easier on her right hand which still has not recovered from her accident. Judging by the looks of things here she's managing the cutter just fine as well as the grinder!

 

 

Cindy's Golfer Window is moving right along and now that she has a fair amount of glass cut and ground it's much easier to see exactly what this pattern looks like. It's amazing how color can help the mind to see images more easily and it's why I occasionally color in some of the patterns I draw for people. Sometimes when a pattern has no color it just looks like a mess of lines and it's hard to differentiate what's what. 

 

 

 

Susan D is jumping head first into Christmas and has multiple Ornaments started here. She's really far along on each of them so these will EASILY be completed before the Christmas rush even thinks of starting to panic people.

 

  

  

Let's Mammoth Moth has a cute flower decoration in each of the wings that sets it all off nicely with a little accent of color.  Now that all of her pieces are foiled she can come back in, solder this and call it a day!

 

 

 

Susan R's Autumn Leaf is officially at the halfway point. She has done amazing work on this and she's moved along so much faster than I though possible. It's a lot of work but I know she's going to have a big smile on her face when she sees this hanging up.

 

 

Sheri cut, ground and even began foiling her Halloween Ghost. Once this is tacked together she'll fill in the eyes with black glass and learn the difference between cutting out a piece of glass that has had a pattern traced on top of it as opposed to a piece of glass that's line was made by tracing around an opening in the actual project itself. There's a difference and it really does matter. 

  

 

 

Paula began this Batman insignia and already has it all cut out and ready for grinding. She's really flying now!

Lara took a break from her African Woman to work on a series of large Beehive Suncatchers. She's got everything cut and ground so these just need to be foiled after which she can solder them.

  

Linda L is back from her vacation and it sounds as though all in all it was a successful two weeks of relaxation (except for some mini(?) traumas that always occur when you're trying to relax). That said, she's begun foiling all of her geometric shapes that make up the rounded background to her Fractures and Bevel Window.

 

 

 

 

MiMi is working on the third and final section of her lamp and this week we got to see her empty her first of twenty-ish egg cartons. Each egg carton had three of the same pieces in each of its cubby holes and once she emptied this one she crumpled it up and tossed it away very much like a goal celebration.

 

June got the paws for her Multi-colored Cat cut and ground leaving her with just five pieces in the body left to go before she can start foiling all of these colorful pieces.

 

  

  

 

Paula almost had her Pair Of Cardinals completed but the foil came loose on two of the branches when she thoroughly washed the flux off in the sink. The edges of suncatchers can be fragile until the suncatcher has been dry for about a day but luckily these pieces were easy to remove and then re-foil. This will quickly be completed next week.

 

 

 

Lorrie is moving steadily through her dozen Oil Wand Kaleidoscopes. This week she worked on filling in the corners where the actual oil wand slides into with solder . Her double sided mirror has arrived and these are well into the home stretch of being completed.

 

  

 

 

Here we see that Judy has already cut out and started to grind the (hopefully) last of her Crosses. But you never know. The Lord works in mysterious ways...

 

  

  

 

Bee is taking a break from her large Cardinal Window and is going to get this large and beautiful Oval Dragonfly done first.   She's sketched out that pattern and is now happy with how it all looks which means that she'll be cutting glass for this when she comes back in. 

 

  

 

Looking forward to your response,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

And Susan Is Off To The Bathroom Again

Susan D  has finished all of her Hummingbirds with this circular double bird and flower being the largest of the flock.   To solidify things she added a few glue chip pieces into the mix and it works out perfectly. It's her own design and if that doesn't impress you enough then take a gander at the workmanship and add that to the mix! 

 

 

 

As I said, Susan completed all of her Hummingbirds so here's a look at her two free hanging hummingbirds.  Both are traditional in style making them lovely pieces of art that will add beauty to any window.  

 

 

 

Let took no time at all to make this cute little Birdhouse Suncatcher.   Little may be the wrong word to use because as a suncatcher this would have to be classified as somewhat oversized.   Not horribly so, but it's definitely bigger than your standard suncatcher. 

 

 

 

Let also completed her Pumpkin Owl and it's very distinctive white gourd body makes it stand out in a crowd.  These are as sweet as can be and I know that there are more on the way!   

 

 

Mary Grace has completed her last frame! She is VERY happy about that and I completely understand why. Making two or three of the same items isn't bad but after that third one I can honestly say that it becomes more work than fun. I remember making 200 suncatchers for a customer once and it was hell on earth to me!

 

 

Cindy worked on her Golfer Window which is not to be confused with a Gopher Window. There's a surprising amount of detail in this panel sized project which is why I'm not labeling it as a panel. Sometimes you have to take the number of pieces into account when deciding to call the finished piece a window or a panel. This has enough pieces for me to label it an actual window.

 

 

 

 

Susan R is pounding out the pieces to her multi-pieced Leaf one at a time with precision and a good sense of humor!   Her flow of Autumn colors ensures that this will be a standout item in her stained glass repertoire.   

 

 

 

Paula's got a pair of Cardinals well under way and she's picking out her colors carefully as well as methodically.  Close enough is NEVER an option for Paula and it's what I admire about her stained glass making.    

 

  

 

Lorrie's been working on these Birds on a Branch while at home and she surprised me with it when she brought it in and asked what the next step was.   Because this is so wide I like to reinforce it with a wire that runs the complete width on the back side that will be soldered over to hide it.   This wire helps ensure that these beautiful birds won't  sag in the middle and eventually pull apart.  We call that planning ahead. 

 

  

 

Annette has completed the soldering on her LSU Window as I suspected she would.   The only thing left to do on this is to touch up the soldering here and there and add a channel to it.  This could very well be completed when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Cheryl's wedding box is just about ready to come together now that her top has been completed.   She'll wash, color and wax this upon her return and then be ready to assemble the box bottom.

  

 

 

 Mary resumed work on her LSU Tiger Eye Window and has the Tiger itself entirely cut out now.  She's unsure about the color of the eye that she's picked but we are going to wait until it is all  ground and wrapped before changing anything out.   She'll tack together everything but the eye pieces that she's unsure of and then she'll move this to a light box to see what things look like and then make a decision. 

 

  

Shelley designed a Child Ballerina Circular Panel and after numerous sketches she's come down to this design which really impresses me. Them again, I'm always impressed when students draw up their own patterns because it's not an easy thing to do at all. 

  

 

 

Lorrie has certainly been busy working away at her dozen or so Oil Wand Scopes and spent her class time filling in the front sections around the rings that hold the oil wands with solder. It's truly the hardest part of making these. Slow and steady wins the race and the good news is that her mirrors have arrived! All the pieces are finally here only needing to be put into place. 

 

  

 

  

Judy's about ready to solder her newest Modern Cross after cutting and grinding this week. Could this be the end? We'll soon find out.

 

  

   

I see we need really only need some paws cut on this gorgeous Cat Of Many Colors that June is making (as well as a scant six more body pieces). That means that the hard part of making this window is coming to an end. Since this will be a window she'll still need to cut and grind the background glass as well as the border pieces but that will only take minutes to do at the most. 

 

Remember, keep grinding!

Paul 

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Shut Up And Drink Your Beer

Martha finished her pair of Sunflowers Window and we all agree that the color that she picked for her border may actually steal the show.    It's not only the perfect color for the window, that goes without saying, but it also lights up spectacularly!

 

 

 

Cindy's latest large Circular Flower Suncatcher is now finished with a completely new color scheme as compared to the first one that she did. This one is subtle pastel colors that suit it perfectly. Hopefully someone will like it well enough to purchase.

 

 

 

 

Long ago Barbara began this Cross Window but then she hurt herself and had to stop taking classes for a while. I told her that I'd finish it off for her since it only needed its border to be ground and then a quick soldering. Now that I've completed the restaurant windows I was able to quickly jump on this and finish it off for Barbara. The only thing she didn't do was solder it so this window was by all intents and purposes made by her. And it certainly looks phenomenal since many of the students ohh'ed and aww'ed over it last week while it was hanging up.

 

 

 

Linda F is the first to complete a Pumpkin Owl and it's without a doubt as cute as everyone thought it would be. There will be a few more of these made in many different color schemes in the weeks to come. Alas, although they may be different I'll bet that although they may equal the beauty of this one Linda has set the bar pretty darned high for a Pumpkin Owl so I doubt that anyone would be able to top this.

 

 

 

Captain America has a new shield in his arsenal thanks to Paula. The key to making this look great is not only in making the rings perfectly round but to also make the five pointed star balance perfectly. When you give a challenge like that to Paula you can bet money on the fact that she'll achieve perfection.

 

 

Let has made a Modern Cross of her own using just clear textured glasses.  The end result is a cross that sparkles like a diamond in the sunlight.

 

 

 

These Geometric Designs are always popular and with Let having made a pair of them Sheri decided to follow suit. Her mostly clear Geometric Flower Burst was completed with pale glass glob accents for effect. Stunning! 

 

 

 

Judy has another Modern Cross under her belt with this one having been made from two different greens. Although it's hard to tell the outer pieces of green are actually transparent as opposed to the inner pieces which sets the cross off perfectly. 

 

 

Annette made five more Breast Cancer Ribbon Hearts and at this point I think that she could possibly make them with her eyes closed because just look at how nice this one is.  

 

Susan R's Autumn Leaf is moving along quicker than I though as Susan appears to have more than an eighth of it cut out already. She's been tackling the smaller pieces first which I feel is always the best way to handle things. Do the hardest part first and leave the easier pieces for the very end when you can use a bit of a break! At any rate, I'm loving her use of color here. She loves color and is not afraid to mix and match.

 

  

 

Melissa was busy grinding on her Double Humming Bird piece which isn't quite a window but which is too large to be labeled as a Suncatcher. On thing for sure is that it contains a lot of pieces and they have all been cut from perfect colors. This will surely turn out to be amazing.

 

  

 

 

MiMi managed to foil all of the remaining pieces to the second section of her lamp while at home so she came in with a plan of action and immediately set to work.   First she removed the first section of the lamp from the mold by heating it with a heat gun so that the wax that held it to the mold softened and released its 'grip'.  She then moved that section to the left and pinned it into place since there is no wax on that section of the mold.   After smoothing out the wax with a brush she then began placing her newly wrapped pieces onto the mold where the old section used to reside.   Once that was done she tacked all of the pieces into place and called it a night.   Here you can see her placing the pieces on the mold and then the lamp with two of its sections tacked together. 

 

 

Here's a look at the board that MiMi had her pieces pined to. Everything was rock solid for carefree carrying and it looks like an impressive forest of pins.

 

  

 

 

Lara's African Woman gained more pieces in her colorful skirt which is the more trying part of making this. Lara always chooses her colors carefully and in this case she has many pieces to chose colors for. Luckily she knows what's right when she sees it and as you can see, her picks are perfect.

 

  

 

Susan D isn't going for a single Humming Bird and Flower Suncatcher being finished, she wants all of them to be completed at once. The hardest one (the circular double flower and bird) just needs its back side soldered after which she'll quickly and easily attach it to the metal hoop that will contain it. She also has two other suncatchers in the works which are also being soldered. The end is near.

 

  

 

Mary was back this week and she began her new Tiger Eye project. In just one short class she's got the tiger's share of the window cut out already! Impressive! Will she begin grinding this when she returns? Come back next week for the answer to that. Same bat time, same bat channel. 

 

 

 

Let is also working on a Pumpkin Owl of her own but this one features a white Pumpkin rather than an orange one. She may be wrapping up this project as soon as next week!

 

 

 

Kandise has all of her Double Cardinals Window cut, ground and tacked together. That alone is plenty of progress for one night but then Kandise went ahead and got a border cut ground wrapped and tacked on as well. I won't be surprised to see her complete this upon her return!

 

  

 

 

With the top of her box completely soldered Keri is ready to begin cutting and assembling the box bottom.   You might notice that top looks somewhat different than it did last week.  That's because Keri changed out the border that surrounds the sun and moon from a clear glass to an iridized and more textured glass which looks much better if you are interested in my opinion.

 

 

Annette flipped her LSU Window over and began soldering the second side of it leaving with only a small portion of the window left to be soldered. All of the hard work that she put into this is about to be revealed because next week will surely see her complete the soldering. She'll surely need to do some touching up but her soldering is so good that I think this will be touched up, washed, patina'ed, washed, soldered and waxed the following week. 

 

 

June's Colorful Cat has only a handful of pieces left to go now.  The ad for the 3D stained glass lamp that this was based on has been showing up very frequently in my Facebook feed for the past week in a 20 percent off sale or something similar.  I think June's version is nicer so she should charge full price! 

 

  

Judy even has another Modern Cross under way and I could be wrong here but I believe that I could have possibly heard her say that this might be the last of the Cross Suncatchers that she has to make.  If so, I'm thinking that she's thrilled about that.

 

 

 

And lastly we see that Mary Grace is hard at work on her final frame! This could be completed when she returns unless the glue chip that we ordered to make the legs which enable this to stand on a table top doesn't arrive before MG shows up for class. If that's the case she'll simply begin her next project and then finish this the following week.

 

  

 

And there ya have it!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks