Saturday, June 14, 2008

Where's Barbara??

No one has heard from Barbara this week so we're hoping that the 'getaway time' she took with her husband last week turned into a getaway vacation. :-)

As we predicted in our last post Janice has completed the second of her three Fleur De Lis windows. This one is a little different from the first one that she did but there is a common theme running between them which makes them match. Janice is working on a second window to match this one and act as bookends to the first slightly fancier window that she made.


Wasting no time at all Janice got Grace to help out with the corners for her next window. They were both jumping around helping out here and there until the large window was completed and most of the corners and the center Fleur De Lis was finished for the last window. It looks like we'll be cutting out the background next week for these.


Lea began working on 2 long china cabinet doors. She's going with a diamond bevel theme bordered in a light color. There will be 2 large bevel sets in the center of these windows and then a smaller diamond bevel will sit on the top and bottom of the larger ones. Here are her first 2 larger clusters all tacked together.
Sheila got most of the background cut for her window and we got to see what it looks like held up in the air and off the table. As you may (or may not) know, I never show a window with light behind it until that window is finished. I hate to give away too much before the project is completed but rest assured that this one is going to be well worth the wait. Sheila has picked a heavily textured clear glass for her background that's hard to see in the small picture below so make sure you click on it to see the larger view. We'll have a border on this next week for sure.

Mary Lynn got her background all cut out and then moved along to her thing colored border. After that was all wrapped and tacked together we got her last border all cut out so she could take it home with her and do what she can with it there. This is a classy looking window! We tried to play a trick on her when she was out last week but she was too smart for us and didn't bite. Look how nicely everything fits together here.


Cheryl has managed to finish with almost all of her cutting and grinding. With only eyeballs and lips left to go I'd say that she is on the home stretch with this window. This was a big project and Cheryl made short work of it by working quickly and efficiently though it. All her lines flow gracefully and her straight lines all line up. I don't see how anyone could have done a better job on this . Cheryl will be soldering this before you know it. I'm not sure of this will be getting a border or not but I'll find out for sure next week when Cheryl returns.


Craig was in again this week to get some bevels to finish off his final border for his own Fleur De Lis window. Blue jewels and a deep blue Fleur De Lis rest inside all clear glasses which make this window sparkle wonderfully. I just got word that he's finished soldering this and that he took my advice and moved slowly while soldering to avoid having to remelt his lines. He says he agrees with me now and understands what I mean when I say that the slower you solder the faster your window will be completed. It's far easier to get the solder correct the first time than it is to try to remelt it to fix the mistakes that are made when you move too fast to try and rush a job out the door.

Jane got all of the clear center pieces of her Trellis Window cut and ground so she then laid out all her flowers and leaves on top of her gridwork design and began to cut them into place. It's difficult to tell from the picture but half of the flowers have been cut into place while the others are just resting on top of the glass waiting to be traced out ind inserted into this pattern. Jane will be wrapping this soon enough not to mention soldering it.


Gerald is gone away on his cruise this week and we hope stained glass is a million miles away from his mind as he enjoys his vacation with his family. We all missed him here in class though. And I can't end this without saying a big "Thank You" to Janice and Grace for bringing me a birthday cake this week. I feel sorry for anyone who didn't get a piece of this cake! Thanks!

We have 2 new students starting next week so be prepared for 2 butterflies.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

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