French Weave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.95

Although the cold weather has the garden looking rather peaked, Jane's butterflies certainly do a lot to make it good again. It's just a shame that she took them home with her! When she left last week she had cut and ground the larger of the three butterflies. When she got home she decided to scale the pattern down and make another one slightly smaller. She shrunk the pattern twice and couldn't decide which one looked best so she took the safe way out and made both smaller versions. Back in class it took us about 10 minutes to come up with the best way to attach them to the poles that anchor the butterflies into the ground but what we came up with worked perfectly. They're solid enough to never come off the pole but easy enough to remove for a quick cleaning without pulling the entire pole out of the ground.
We had a new student start classes this week and readers who frequent this Blog all know what that means-- we have a new butterfly to check out. Roxie really caught on quickly and finished her first suncatcher with time to spare. As you can see from the picture she went with three different shades of green. I'm not sure what's on her mind for her next project but I'm pretty sure she wants to do a Cross suncatcher at some point. Perhaps next week we'll see one finished here on the Blog.

Wow, I must say that I was impressed when I saw that Julie has all of her first Iris window cut out. In the end she decided to replace 3 pieces of glass in one of her Iris' because they just didn't blend in correctly with the rest of the glass, but I suspect we'll manage to work them into the other window she'll be making. Make sure you click on the picture to see a larger version of it. Since it's tall and narrow it's hard to see in the thumbnail below.

Janice elected to solder her window in class after she got her outer edge of the background (the triangle sections) and borders attached. As I said before, she has this window down to a science now. This window is almost out the door and I wouldn't be surprised to see this completed next week.

Grace picked a heavily textured glass for her background (nothing new there!) but this one was fairly easy to cut. Rather than run the grain horizontally or vertically she decided to run it at a slight angle, sort of like rain in the wind. The end result is very attractive. She picked black baroque glass for the smaller inner border but she's not quite sure what the final border will be. She's got a week to mull it over so she can start soldering this when we see her again next Tuesday.

Lastly, we get to see the front of Patty's window all soldered. The brass channel has been attached and the Tabasco name has been baked onto the glass. She soldered this on her own and I've got to give her two thumbs up for doing such a great job. There's no doubt that this will be a finished window next week so come back and check this one out when it's all cleaned up and back-lit.

We have 2 windows near completion-- one will surely be finished and the other is going to be very close. Check back with us to see how they turn out.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Can't Make A Window Without Breaking Some Glass

Since we don't have any completed projects this week I went ahead and put the windows we just installed at the end of this update. We'll be seeing some finished student projects shortly as more than a few students are finishing up with their work. And Jane's lamp is a good example of that now that it's nearly complete. Although it's the same pattern as the last one she made she's changed the glass this time around and made it out of entirely new colors. Jane plans on making a third lamp with the same mold, but with a different pattern that involves a flower border. All that this lamp needs is a cap and then we'll see it completed.


Jane not only got her lamp almost finished -- she also worked on this butterfly lawn ornament. She got it all cut and ground during class so this is another project we should see finished very soon.


Grace began making another one of her Fleur De Lis windows. She wasn't sure what she was going to make when she came into class so she started looking through some of the patterns we had laying around. When she stumbled upon this one she decided that she'd like to do it again but with a different color scheme. She got all of the Fluer De Lis sections cut and ground during the first class and only has 8 pieces of background to cut before she gets to the borders. She'll be making her borders square rather than using the leaf-like border that you see in the pattern. This may not make much sense now but it will be much easier to see next week when her background is completed and then tacked in place.


There's not much left for Patty to do on her window either. She finished grinding it during class this week and then got all of it wrapped and ready for solder. Patty has decided to forgo a border on this window and I think that it will look just great without one. The other option would be to go with a double border (because a single border would look too plain) but that might actually take the focus away from the center of the window. It's always tough to know what to do when you have a project that looks this good already. :-)


Julie began cutting glass on her first of two Iris windows. She's looking to make a colorful window but not one that screams 'LOOK AT ME!' I think she's doing just fine. She's questioning 3 particular pieces of glass that she's cut and will decide if she should change them next week when she comes in to begin cutting her leaves and background. I have to give her credit for considering changing anything that she's cut. All too often students believe that once a piece is cut it's more or less set in stone. Sometimes you can't really tell what something will look like until it's cut out in in place. And if you don't like it I always recommend changing it. I've replaced MANY pieces in windows I've done over the years including the ones you'll see at the end of this post.


And yet once again Janice has moved along quickly and efficiently with her window. I suspect this one will be all tacked together next week and then she'll decide on whether she wants to solder the window here in class or at home. She's got another center piece all cut and ground for her second window so she has options on what she'll be doing when we see her again Wednesday night.


Lastly, here's a look at the Iris windows that we've been working on here in the shop. When each window was cut and ground it was put aside and then another would take its place on the back of the work table. A lot of students didn't realize there were actually 3 different windows so here's a look at all three of them installed in their new home out in New Orleans. Make sure you click on the picture to see all the detail.

And that brings us to the end of our post this week. We'll return in another week with more on what's been happening in our classes.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Commonality Of Irises

We're finally getting back to seeing finished projects each week after our holiday break. Grace made short work of her Tiger Eye/Fleur De Lis window and plans on making a second one. The first time you do any project it tends to go a bit slower than the second one will so I can't wait to see how quickly she moves on her next one. I don't think that it's possible to come out any better than this one did though-- it's perfect! Even Grace's soldering was spot-on.

Isn't Patty's window looking great? We're going to use bake-able paint pens to put the name on the Tabasco label. I was recently at Avery Island (home of Tabasco) and found some wonderful glass tile labels that would have worked perfectly for this window had we scaled it out to the correct size. But something tells me the hand printed letters are going to give this window more charm than a factory stamped label. Everyone who comes into the shop comments on how nice this is turning out.

Janice ground the second of her center designs, tacked together the 1st one (that she wrapped at home over the weekend) and then cut, ground and wrapped the 28 two inch diamonds that border the top and bottom of these windows. Whew! Talk about a productive night! The grinding on both of these center pieces is perfect. I suspect she'll be cutting the background for one of these next week. Below is the one she ground and took home to wrap this week:

And this is the one Janice wrapped while at home and then tacked together in class:

Jane almost has her 2nd lamp completed. She has it all together save for the 21 accent pieces that she hadn't cut yet. She wasn't sure on what color to use but has decided to go with the deep wine color that sits up high near the cap (which we don't have attached yet) to sort of bookend the lamp . She's already putting a final soldering job on this so we'll be lighting it up soon. And it looks like there might be a third one of these in the making. Practice makes perfect!


Julie has decided that if she's going to do her two windows in Irises she going to do the full length, so we redid her pattern and made it almost twice as long as it was last week. I just love the bud that's creeping in near the top right. It will connect to a stem that is in the window that will rest along side this one and tie it in to one large scene rather than 2 small separate designs.

And Fran was in looking to make some kind of Mallard window. After much searching she decided on these 2 overlapping mallards. I love all the feathers and Fran plans on making these look as realistic as possible. Expect to see some glass cut on this window next week when Fran returns.

That about wraps it up here. Welcome back from your cruise, Cheryl. It's been pretty quiet without you and we look forward to you ending your therapy sessions and coming back to classes to drive us crazy. LOL It sounds like Cheryl had a GREAT time but, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. And that includes this edition of our Blog.

See you next week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Three Eyes, 2 Tigers

Camille has completed his first project and there's no doubt that this window will go over big to anyone he shows it to. His work is excellent and the window is instantly recognizable. This is actually an odd window to work on because after awhile all you see are oddly shaped blobs until it's all soldered and cleaned up-- That's when you finally see the closeup of the tiger's face. Camille might be working on a butterfly next. We'll see what happens next week.

Here's the third Tiger eye we talked about in the title of this week's blog. Grace is all set to solder her window after getting her background and border tacked together. This window has fit together perfectly from start to finish and I suspect we will see it finished VERY soon (perhaps as soon as next week?)

Meanwhile Janice ground all of the center piece for her first window and then took it home to wrap. I can't tell you all the great comments these windows get and I received one again today about the Janice's perfect choice of pattern and colors.


Jane has 3 of the 7 sections of her lamp tacked together. She's working a lot on this one while she's at home and I'll bet anything that she comes in next week with all 7 sections ready to be joined. She still hasn't decided on what color to do the accent pieces so there are still 21 pieces to cut but that's child's play for someone like Jane.

Julie came in with an idea and when before she left she had a pattern drawn out. She got as far as tracing it out and will begin cutting this one out next week.

That's it for this entry. We'll be seeing Lea return to class shortly-- I can't wait to see what all is in store for us next week.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Framed Again

It was a quick and easy week 2 weeks ago. Classes are almost finished for this week but computer issues have kept me from updating our students progress from last week. Luckily these issues have been resolved so let's look at what happened 7 days ago during our classes.

Julie was sort of in-between projects and while trying to decide what she'd do next she opted to make another frame. A simple one night project that took her, well, just one night to do. :-) When she finished it I realized just how nice these always turn out and just how long it's been since I've made any of these. I'm going to have to make a few for the shows that we have coming up. Great job Julie, you've put a fire under the teacher's arse.

Patty is really moving along with her window. She did all the brickwork in this past class and then moved on to the grinding process. As you can tell by the pin heads in the picture (if you look closely) she has the lower left corner ground. With all the glass cut the hardest part of this project is over and the rest of this window is all down hill.

Ahh, now here's something we haven't seen in a while now. Janice is back to work on Windows 1 and 2 of the 4 she has left to make before she retires this pattern. Obviously she hasn't forgotten how to work on this because in just one night she got 2 of her centers all cut out. Now that's what I call good work!
And Grace came in with her Fleur De Lis Tiger Eye ready to be ground and wrapped. She hit the grinder and within an hour or so she had it all fitting together perfectly. She wrapped the pieces before the night was through and even had enough time to tack it together but we decided to wait until the following week for that rather than letting it sit and extra week with flux on it. Here's her Tiger eye all ready for solder.

And Grace isn't the only person making a Tiger Eye-- We have Camille making a pair of them in his window. With his borders all cut, ground and tacked together he started soldering his first project. He got all of the LSU section completed and some of the tiger eye section before calling it a day. I know he'll finish this during the next class because his next class happened this morning!
This brings us up to date. We only have 1 more class with 2 students arriving this week so we'll have a new post before the weekend.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Last Project For 2009

We only had one class this week and with it came the last completed project of 2009. When we last saw Louis he had taken his Tropical Fish window home to grind and wrap. Little did I ever suspect that when it would return just a few weeks later it would be be all finished-- soldered and all. He brought it in for me to add the final brass channel to it along with some hooks so he could hang it. We touched up the solder, gave it a bath and this is what he took home with him.


I think that Louis was surprised at how well it cleaned up but that's almost always the case. When a window is covered in flux it's hard to see just what you have in front of you. Louis did a great job and he says that this project taught him a lot about making stained glass windows. He plans to continue working at home and I think he's got what it takes to do some wonderful work. Hopefully we'll be able to show some of what e accomplished here on the Blog.

That about wraps it up here for this year. We'll be back next week in 2010 (sounds like Science Fiction, doesn't it?) with all new projects.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks