Thursday, August 7, 2008

Copper Or Black Patina

Decisions, decisions... Should Cheryl color her solder black or copper? In the end she picked black but the front side ended up looking more like pewter which we all agreed looked nice, so rather than recoloring it shes going to see if she likes it a few days from now. If she doesn't we'll recolor it until it's black. You can't see the solder color in the picture but you can certainly see how nicely this window turned out. Bears rule!


And Lea completed her final China cabinet door. It looks a lot like the last one she did save for the fact the handle is on the other side of this door. :-) It's a large window that stands about 4 foot tall. Just please excuse the tacky background that shows through the clear sections. I think I need to set up a couple of shelves with some glassware on it just for taking pictures of inserts like these.


When we last saw Mary Lynn she had taken her green and red bird home with her to finish soldering. When she came in this week that one was finished (it only needed to be patina'ed) and she had a white bird cut out and ready for soldering! Needless to say, she walked out the door with two completed birds that look so good that Cheryl has decided to make one as well.

Gerald was back in this week and looked over the pattern that was adjusted the last time he was in. He liked all the changes and began cutting out the paper pattern. He's still unsure of what colors he'll be using but from the looks of things he can't lose. It's a great pattern that has a lot of flowing leaves and stems. Since this window is about 5 foot tall I've posted both the full size pattern and a closeup so you can get a better feel for what he's doing.
Janice and Grace began cutting out the glass for 3 windows that will end up on the front of their house.She's decided on a set of 5 windows made with 2 different patterns that alternate. Right now they're working on the pattern that will be repeated 3 times and it really looks good. Once the center is tacked together we'll build around it until the background is complete for a perfect fit. They're cutting all 3 windows at the same time so expect so see some fast progress on the second and third windows.

Well, Ann is finished with all the cutting on her first project. I love her choice of colors for the corner pieces that turn her round window back into a square window. She's got all of her border cut and ground and she's taken it home with her to wrap. The next time we see Ann she'll begin to solder this. She's at the home stretch now and this window will be hanging up shortly.

Sheila ground wrapped and tacked all of her 3rd window this week. She'll finish soldering this one next week and more than likely begin to grind her final window. She's picked up speed since she started these which proves my point: the more times you do a window the quicker you will get at it.

That does it for this week and the best part is it's not even 1:00pm on Thursday and the Blog is finished! I think I deserve a medal or something. LOL

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

A Quick Blog Update

Here's Jane's latest completed project-- another in her Deer series of windows. Jane will begin working on an 18" Peony lamp using an Odyssey mold. This means it will be an exact reproduction of the original lamp which was made by Tiffany.

Sheila has completed her second door which means that she'll start her 3rd one during her next class. The insert is beautiful but the shop is a bit of a mess, please excuse the background.


Pam finished her double bordered Fleur De Lis in record time. She tends to worry about the little things that should be of no concern, but she'll learn to worry less the more she does this. We won't be seeing Pam here for a while as she's headed back home to Dallas, Texas but she'll continue to keep up the good work there. She has our best wishes.


Janice has decided on a pattern for her center window in a series of 5. It's got a great Victorian/Old Style feel to it. Look to see this cut out next week.

Cheryl has her bear all set and ready for solder. She went to flux it all up at home only to discover that she was out of flux. After picking some flux up the next day she went home and tried to get to work soldering her bear but ner soldering iron was dead! Talk about bad luck. But she has a new one now so this window should be finished soon.


Here's a look at another suncatcher that Pam made during the week between classes. It's a cute sunrise or sunset window (depending how you want to see it!)

Ann got all but the center piece of her background all cut and ground. She'd have the center piece completed as well but since it was a very tricky cut I said I'd help her out. Alas, I broke the piece! It just goes to show that EVERYONE breaks glass from time to time.

Micheal began work on here Victorian design and she got really far considering this was her first day of work on it. She's got some great colors in this and wasn't afraid to use a bright red for her accent pieces.

This is the last window that Pam worked on during the week. She only needed to solder the second side to complete this and I'm sure it was completed before she left for home. As you can see from this picture it already looks great.

This is where Lea stands with her final China Cabinet door insert-- the front is completely soldered and the back side is half done. That means that we'll see a finished window next week when Lea returns.

And rounding things out is a look at the finished whale suncatcher that Pam started during her first class with us. She had finished it outside of class and I asked her to bring it back in so I could show you all what the finished project looked like. It appears that Jane is an excellent teacher (since Jane was the one showing Pam what to do while she wasn't in class with us.)

I apologize for the lateness of the blog. Hopefully this won't happen again!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks