A Rock In The Y

 MiMi's Butterfly window is downright perfect from the colors right on down to the soldering, cutting, and grinding.   There's not a flaw to be found because MiMi takes her time and makes sure that everything is perfect before moving along to another piece.  I'm making a note here, huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

 

 

 

Next we have Sheri's Fractured Rose Window which is another example of perfect cutting and grinding.  The idea of this window keeps calling out to me and I know that someday I'll do something similar because as Sheri knows my tastes run towards the unconventional which is just what this window is.  Beautiful.

 

 

 

Jeannette has certainly been busy as you can tell by looking at her pair of Flower Hand Mirrors and her Dove Suncatcher.  These mirrors are  very popular gifts so we could be seeing more of these being made in the near future, especially since Jeannette's look so wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

Shelley's Address Numbers aren't as colorful as she thought they would be but in the end I think they look much better with a blue border than with a multi-colored border.  And everyone agrees because that glass she used for her border is suddenly in demand now that students have seen it used.

 

 

 

Linda F mixed up three Drink Lawn Ornaments this week and this week they were staked and are now ready to display in her yard.   Have a drink on Linda! 

Belinda's second Church Window is a wrap!  She's already inserted it into her front door and she said it fit like a glove.  It looks great and it shows off her skills to everyone who walks into her house!

 

 

 

Susan R put the finishing touches on her Sunflower Heart Lawn Ornament and it really turned out nice indeed.  These are popular for a reason and Susan shows that in her work on this.

 

Helen  finished up 2 more Crosses his week and she says she's only got a handful more of these to go before moving along to a full sized window.  She also completed a Christmas Tree but alas, I have no photo proof of it.

 

 

 

Beth may be making a Turtle but she's moving along on it as quickly as a Hare!  With almost all of her pieces ground already, she's going to be wrapping this before you know it.  And its fits together wonderfully!

 

 

 

Cindy's got her Geometric Window with a Southwestern flare all wrapped and ready to be tacked and soldered.  She'll be jumping around while adding lead to this to avoid putting too much heat in one area.   I tend to do every other line and then come back and fill in the missed lines with solder.

 

 

 

 Angie has all of the glass cut for her huge Pumpkin window and she's just about ready to flip this over to solder the back side.  Stunning is the best word to describe this decidedly Autumn themed Window.

 

 

Lara finished wrapping her 3rd Flower/Leaf Window and then tacked it together before calling it a night.   Next week she'll easily get a border attached and then move along to soldering this!

 

 

 

Melissa not only finished wrapping her background pieces for her Fleur De Lis Window but she got it tacked together as well.   She made sure that everything was laid out perfectly before applying the lead and now she'll be able to grind the background pieces to the 4 FDL's without having to worry about anything growing or shifting out of place.

 

  

 

 

Roxane's Nativity Scene will have two other panels that match which will be mounted one on each side of this window but they haven't been drawn up to the correct size yet.   This week she started grinding everything that she's already cut because until I get those patterns ready we don't know what will happen with the sky.  Hopefully that will be resolved when she comes back in. 

  

 

 

Linda L had to make a major decision this week regarding how many borders she was going to put on her Tree by The Waterside Window and what colors they would be.   We ended up photoshopping together some  ideas and then picked a winner involving a small clear inner border followed by a thicker border that matches the water. She's taken the final border home to wrap so that she can tack and then put a finished solder bead on this when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Ann was able to use the pattern that Melissa finished using earlier this week and started cutting all of the straight line cuts that make up her diamond background.    She's ready to begin grinding and then she'll do the same exact thing that Melissa did this week-- wrap and tack together all of her pieces save four the four diamonds that the Fleur De Lis' will be cut into.

 

  

 

 

Susan D spent the day grinding her Love and Hearts Window and it fits together to the utmost perfection.   The hand writing matches the pattern so well that you can't even tell it's been cut!  What this means is that Susan is set to begin wrapping her pieces when she comes back in next week.

 

  

 

 

Martha almost has her third Franklin Street Light Window completed-- there are only a few lines left to go on the border before this is finished.  Look to see this among our completed windows in our next post.

 

 

Cheryl is making a Franklin Street Light Window of her own and she's finished cutting her glass and ready to begin grinding it.  She's using an antique green glass background that she got from Martha which is unavailable now.  It's a shame because everyone is asking for a piece f this after seeing it!

 

 

Mary's got the front of her Magnolia Window all soldered and will be working on the back side when she comes back.  I'd say that there's a fairly good chance that this will be finished when we see it again next week.

 

 

 

Mary Grace got all of the pieces ground for her Address Window and is now ready to begin wrapping.  It won't be long now before she picks out a border and gets ready to solder!

 

 

 

Jeanne L got her first border cut, ground, wrapped and tacked into place on her Fruit Bowl Window and then got her final border cut and ground as well.  She's taken the pieces for her final border home with her and hopes of coming  in with them all foiled and ready to be attached next week.

 

 

 

Lastly, Tracey  finished working on her Butterfly Lawn Ornament but I neglected to get a picture of it which is too bad because the colors she picked were superb.

And there you have it.  We have a lot of pieces still in the construction phase so there will be a lot of completed projects in the weeks to come so be sure to drop on by again!

Paul 

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Bohemian Rhapsody / David Cassidy Connection?

What is the 10/30 Rule?  It's a simple phrase that will keep you accountable and motivated to bring every project you make even better.  Simply take the 10 extra steps or 30 extra seconds to do what you are doing correctly and you will save more time later on down the road plus end up with a project that looks better.  Try it, you'll like it.  Guaranteed.

 Cheryl's Address Window was completed this week and her soldering is superb.   She completely understands that slow and steady is the only way to make the lead flow smoothly.   Soldering is something you just can't rush no matter what kind of  hurry you're in.

 

Helen finished up two pieces this week-- another beveled Cross Suncatcher and a Pumpkin with wire work and some 3D leaves tacked onto it.  Two beautiful suncatchers from our newest student who worked for the most part on these at home-- that's accomplishment!

MiMi has been working on this exquisitely detailed Butterfly Window at home and this week she brought it in all tacked together and ready for borders.   After deciding on two complimentary colors we then cut the glass into strips and cut their lengths down to make the perfect border pieces.  Before she left she got a brass channel added and that leaves just the backside left to be soldered.

 

 

Susan D started work on a Love Window and with all of her pieces cut out she's already begun grinding it.  Perfect cutting and fitting is very important in this design because the neatness of the letters is the end result of perfect grinding.  As you can see Susan is well on her way towards a window containing perfect penmanship.

 

Beth began working on a large Turtle Suncatcher and it's very detailed indeed.   Still, she got it all cut out and is ready to begin grinding all those pieces to achieve one perfectly fitted Turtle!  there are some optional toenails for this piece but I think we're going to leave them out to save stress and strain on Beth!

Linda F is now a mixologist since she's working on three mixed drink ornaments.   The first two have been slightly redesigned while the third is her own pattern.  I love her olives-- probably because they're a PITA to do and anything involving extra work pays out handsomely in the end!

 

Linda L had a broken piece of sky glass which could have been problematic because the sky glass isn't made anymore and she didn't have any big pieces remaining after she finished cutting.  So what to do?  Alter the pattern!  I'll bet you have no clue where the extra piece is that allowed us to use the broken piece of sky without it looking like a break. 

 

Mary Grace began an Address Window of her own and she's using a randomized background which means that we DON'T want the background to have a grain that matches throughout the piece.   To accomplish this she simply mixed up all of the pattern pieces and placed them any which way on the sheet of glass that she picked for her background.  She's got this ready to be ground already! 

  

Roxane is a cutting machine.  Her Nativity Window is moving along very quickly and it wont be long until she moves on over to the grinder.   She was a little unsure about the colors on Mary's clothing but combining blue and white is the only thing you have to do to make it look like Mary.  The placement of those colors really doesn't matter.

 

Cindy made incredible strides on her Geometric Window.   She wanted to add some more colors so she even chopped up some of the larger pieces so she could add more detail (and thus color) into this design.   Amazing.

 

Angie's Pumpkin Window was tacked together this week and then she got the first border cut, ground, and attached as well.  She only has one border left to go and then she'll be ready to finish this massive project well in time for Thanksgiving.

  

Melissa's Fleur De Lis Window is also coming together quickly as she wraps all of her background pieces.  There's a good chance she'll be able to tack this together next week and then she'll only need to cut the background diamonds for each of her four Fleur De Lis.

  

With the front of her church all soldered and the back side almost completely finished, Belinda is just about set to attach the lead cross we made (as seen to the right of her window) and call this a completed church!  There's no doubt in my mind that she'll have this easily completed upon her return.  I also want to try something we normally don't do-- we'll see what Belinda thinks...

  

Ann's four Fleur De Lis' have been wrapped and tacked so she's ready to begin cutting out her diamond background pattern.   With a little luck that will happen next week (if the pattern becomes available which I think it will) but if not then she'll surely begin it the following week.

 

Jeanne L got the front side of her Fruit Basket Window soldered and next week she'll bring in the glass she plans to use for her first border so we can strip it and get it all attached.  Jeanne has used 1/4" foil on this window which will give it a much thicker lead line and thus a Lead Came look.  I'm even going to recommend finishing it in silver (perhaps greying it a bit) to complete the illusion

  

Jan has got all of her Poodle Window ground and has begun wrapping her pieces in copper foil.  She's missing a piece here and there (which is standard fare when dealing with a lot of pieces in a window) but we'll easily fill them in once she tacks this together.  After that there are just a few background pieces and a border left to cut to finish it all off.

  

After Mary got her Magnolia tacked together she set upon bordering it with a nice dark green glass.  Round borders are more work that straight ones but once you know the secret to grinding them they can still move along pretty quickly as evident by the fact that Mary got her border cut, ground, wrapped, and tacked all inside of one class.  This flower is now ready for its final solder. 

  

After a little work Martha got her two borders attached to her latest (3rd) Franklin Street Lamp Window.   For some reason the glass didn't want to cut easily (sometimes it happens) but as always, Martha persevered and the job done got done. As much as I loved her first one I think I like this color scheme the best.

 

 

Shawn started wrapping all of the pieces that make up her Mario Window just in time for his (Mario's) 35th birthday.  She's wrapping this in black backed foil so she can finish her lead with black patina because we think that cartoon characters look best finished in black rather than copper. 

 

Shelley was originally going to go with a border made up of many different colors but when she put all the glass around her Address Numbers she felt that the viewer's focus went to the super bright border rather than the numbers.   In the end she decided to go with a nice Baroque Blue glass that has a bit of pizazz all on its own.  I think its a great choice.

 

 
Sheri is soldering her Fractured Rose Window and now that the iridized glass is in place you can easily see this window the way it's supposed to look.   I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be completed when she comes back in.

 

Susan R finished grinding her Sunflower Heart Suncatcher and then wrapped all of her pieces as well.  The missing piece that you don't see in the picture was the last piece to be wrapped and was in Susan's hand as I snapped the picture.   This is another project that will no doubt be completed next week.

 

Tracey moves like a blur with a high degree of precision!  She came in, traced out a butterfly pattern, cut all of the glass and then ground it all as well.  Look at that fit!  And half  of it is wrapped as well!  I think it's safe to say that she's really got this stained glass thing down now.

 

And guess what?  Annette is back already!   She sure surprised me when she walked in the door looking fantastic (Not that she normally doesn't).   She took her time tracing out and then cutting out her paper pattern and then called it a night after deciding on what glass she'll be using for her large Fleur De Lis when she comes back in next week.  It's great to have her back in class so quickly and I have to say that I'll never think about Wolverines without laughing from here on out!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Flirtin' With Disaster

Hurricane Laura certainly screwed things up for us but thankfully we got no damage at all even though we expected 2 to 3 feet of water from her.   We spent two days taking all the glass out of the building and making shelves across the tables so we could lift everything 3 feet off of the floor.  It was stressful and it was hard work but that was nothing compared to returning everything to the shop which took a good 5 days.  So even though we cancelled classes last week we're ready to start things up again and get back to our regular schedule. 

How is it that we have projects pictured for this post?  Well, these were done the week before Laura made landfall- I've just been too busy to get this posted!

So first up we have Roxane's Angel all cleaned up and looking spectacular.  Her border color matches the trim of the angel's robe which makes it a perfect choice.   There are a lot of pieces in this, some being downright microscopic, but Roxane made it all look easy as she put this together quickly and efficiently. How can you not love it?

Mary Grace put the finishing touches on her Praying Hands Window which came out to be a bit larger than life.   Three borders will always make a window bigger than you'd initially think but that just makes this all the more inspirational because Mary Grace's work on this was wonderful. 

 

Beth's first window was completed and I have to say that her work was impressive.   It may have been slow going at first (as it always is) but by the time she was finishing this up she was moving along at a nice steady pace and with a good deal of confidence in herself.  They say that confidence can move mountains and although I can't attest to that fact I can say that it helps you make windows that look as good as Beth's Cardinal!

 

Here's a shot of Susan D's latest large Outdoor Lawn Ornament sent to me from her phone.  The spiraling copper that holds it all together is nothing short or elegant.  Her 'wire' work is spectacular and if I'm lucky she may just teach me how to do it!

 

Linda F wanted to make a Mardi Gras Mask Panel for her Lawn Sign Post and this is what she came up with.  Not bad at all!  Her work improves with every window that she makes and I don't even have to touch up her soldering anymore.  Here's to another job VERY well done.

 

Helen started making this cross at home during the week and then brought it in for some soldering tips and for me to critique it.  There's not much to critique other than for my saying that she did a great job all on her own with this.   Some of those cuts get pretty thin but Helen managed them like a pro.

 

Susan R put together a third 3D Bird Ornament and I think she has these down to a science now.  She's added a cut along the birds belly where it sits on the leaf to give the solder a spot to anchor to which makes this far stronger than the ones you see on the internet.  And hers are prettier as well!

 

Tracey's rendition of the Modern Cross uses only 2 colors -- a light grey and a steel blue.  I took this picture in direct sunlight so the colors look much lighter than they actually are.  It's not often Tracey's projects get sunlight behind them since she's a night student!   No matter how dark or light it is, it's gorgeous.

Betty was as busy as a bee this week as she wrapped up a Sunflower heart, a Christmas Ornament, and a triangular Santa Face complete with a wire mustache that she bent and attached all by herself.  Betty is proof positive that if you are determined to do something and you don't give up, it WILL get done.

As promised, here's a better look at Cindy's Geometric Window.   Now that more glass has been cut you can really get a feel for what this is going to look like when it's complete.  Actually, I believe that I have this sideways (resting on its side) but I'll figure out how it actually hangs next week and then I'll post the next picture in the correct orientation in our next blog.

 
With everything but the borders tacked into place, Jeanne L is ready to pick border colors and finish up her glass cutting on this beautiful piece.  I know she plans on using a clear outer border but the inner border is still being decided upon.

 

Angie's Pumpkin Window is the talk of all our classes, especially when they see how big it actually is.  Yes, it really does fill a table and it's really even more impressive than the picture here would have you believe.

 

Roxane not only finished her Angel Window but began work on cutting out a Nativity Window as well.  As you can see she's well underway and what you see below was done in just one class.  At this rate she's going to need to start thinking about her next project!

 

Linda L resumed work on her Treescape Window and with only the water and some small pieces of sky left to fill in it won't be long before she starts grinding these for a perfect fit.  I understand that there may be a problem with the sky and a large broken piece but we're going to see what we can do when Linda comes back in.

 

Melissa's moving quickly and now has all of the background glass ground for her Four Fleur De Lis' Window.  The actual Fleur De Lis' have yet to be cut into position--  currently they are just resting on  top the glass they will be cut into.  First she's going to wrap everything but the four clear diamonds that the FDLs will be cut into and tack the rest of the pieces together because we don't want things to grow and twist out of position while she's wrapping them.

 

What you see here is Sheri's Fractured Rose Window ready for its two final pieces.  Once they are cut and ground (a 15 minute job) she'll be able to begin soldering this truly unique window.  If it looks broken, well, that's the point of it!

   

 

These are four Fleur De Lis' that Ann is making to insert into her own version of the Four Fleur De Lis Window.   She's got everything ground and will begin wrapping these when she comes back in.  After that she'll work out the background the same way that Melissa is working on hers..

 

Jan's Flowery Poodle Window is very close to being completely ground.  The face will take a little time due to the detail and the complexity of the flower that is set within the poodle's profile, but I can honestly say that this is coming together beautifully.  Next week we'll see far more detail as the final pieces are ground.

 

Lara's background glass showed up just before she walked into class so she was able to cut out the final pieces of her Leaf Window and then even manage to get it all ground as well.  Her border glass was also delivered so there will be no hold ups on this window from here on out.

 

Mary busily worked on foiling all of the pieces that make up her Round Magnolia Window and even though it was ground with room to spare she is still finding the need to re-grind pieces here and there to help ease up on the tightness that is occurring as she wraps her pieces.  We like a nice even fit in our windows be we also need to leave room for two pieces of foil to slide in between each piece of glass.  It may not sound like much but it sure adds up quickly.

 

MiMi's Combat Vet Window is all ground now save for the lettering the banners across the top.  There are some difficult cuts here but MiMi is taking her time and following her patterns lines perfectly.  She's practically a machine!

 

Susan D has her Heron all cut and ground but it's still basically white on white and hard to see.  It looks fantastic though which should always be expected when you look at one of Susan's pieces.   I have no doubt that when this is finished it's going to look stunning.

 

Mario has been completely ground and now Shawn is ready to spend a relaxing evening foiling all of her pieces.   When she does that you'll easily see the definition in Mario's gloves which are hard to see now, sort of like with Mary's Magnolia Window.  Those lead lines are very important because they help 'flesh' out the gloves and bring them to life.

 

Shelley's Address Window is all ground and is already being foiled.  With just a few pieces left to go I know that we'll be adding a border to this when we next see her.  I've told her to bring in all of her colorful scraps because she wants this border to really stand out.

 

When Belinda came in she asked if it was possible to make her Church Window about 12 inches taller than originally planned.   After a little consideration we added 6 inches to the top of the sky and 6 inches to the bottom grass to arrive at the perfect height.  After that we got her border cut and now she's ready to fill in the last three pieces.  the lettering has been fired onto the 3 pieces that make up the scroll and she only needs to cut them into place when she comes back in.And then to finish it all off a cross will be added to the top peak of the church.  We'll see that happen soon, I promise you.

  

Susan R started cutting this Sunflower Heart after finishing her 3D Bird Ornament  and by the time class ended everything was cut out and ready to be ground.  Not bad at all!

 

and to end things up here, Linda F also worked on two Mixed Drink Suncatchers -or will they be Lawn Ornaments?  All I know for sure is that the one on the left is a Caribbean Sunrise and the one on the right is a Blue Hawaiian.

 

And that's all she wrote.  Classes resume tomorrow and we can't wait to see everyone!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks