Tracing and Cutting

We didn't get to see Gerald this week but we still managed to have a good time without him. :-) Perhaps next week...

When Denise's Mother passed away last year she wanted to do something special and I think she's succeeded. She made this stained glass box which not only contains her mother's ashes but helps serve as a reminder to everyone who sees it just how important she was to Denise. She'll surely never be forgotten.

Denise also finished her Mallard window and topped it off by adding an overlay of cat tails and leaves which help give it a 3D effect. Denise chose to make this window with colors that match the actual birds rater than exagerating the colors which can give a window like this a bright (but cartoonish) look.

And Denise also cut and ground this Moon & Bear window while she was home last week. It will be a baby gift when the child is born and since the sex of the child isn't known Denise as incorporated both pink and blue into the color scheme which sort of makes it a unisex gift. :-)

Cheryl has begun work on one of her most ambitious windows yet. This peacock pattern was a big hit with the other students and Lea has already signed aboard to do this window when she's completed her kitchen cabinets. This is going to be a beautiful window if I do say so myself.

Jane has just about completed her window. After tacking it together she began to sort through glass to pick out a border color. Everyone's first choice was the same blue (for some reason it looks green in the picture) that forms the curving pattern in the window but we didn't have any of that left. Ater flirting with the idea of using the background glass Russ decided to see what a slightly darker pink would look like. And it was unanimous-- The darker pink was exactly what the window needed even, perhaps, more so than Jane's original choice of blue.

Lea continued working on her cabinet doors. She completed another small window and then got this large window all cut, ground, wrapped, and tacked together before she called it a night. She'll finish the second one next week and more than likely take both of them home with her.

We missed Janice and Grace this week and have Glen and all of his family in our hearts, minds and prayers.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

No One Believes My Jeans Are Shrinking...

We have quite a few finished projects this week. We'll start right off with Cheryl's Cross window. It's about 12 inches tall which means that all those pieces (especially the leaves) are fairly small. She'll be working on a Peacock of much larger proportions next week and I suspect she's going to like working on that project as much as she enjoyed working on the Hot Air Balloon Window she made last summer.


Next we have 2 Butterfly suncatchers that Jane made with scrap glass she had considered throwing out. She liked this pattern and decided to use the glass rather than waste it. Although the patterns are similar the Butterflies wings are very different. Jane made these at home during the week and as always has done a great job.



Jane also put together this beveled cross suncatcher while she was home. The clear glass used to trace out the bevels is an iridized glass which really makes this sparkle.


So what did Jane do during class this week? Well, she got the rest of her glass cut and ground for the large window she's working on. She's taken the glass home to wrap so I suspect this window will be all tacked together next week.

Janice has just 4 pieces to go and this window will be all cut. She's taken it home to get some soldering done before she comes back to class next week when we'll fill in the 4 corners and then finish this window off with some channel.
And we can't forget Lea's work this week. She has one of these cabinet door inserts finished and the other is ready to be tacked together and soldered. This will finish off one side of her kitchen so she's halfway there! I believe she said that she'll be working on some larger doors next so expect to see some full sized doors in the nesr future.


Rumor has it that we'll be seeing Gerald next week. It's been a while since Gerald has been around to keep us laughing so we're looking forward to next Tuesday.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Cutting Up

As always we'll start with a few finished projects this week. We'll start with Janice's 2nd window in a series of three. And the amazing part will be when you see how far along she'd gotten on the 3rd one already!


Denise took a little time off from classes but she's back and in full force. Here's an LSU window that she made at home. She wasn't sure about adding another color into the mix so she finished it off with a beveled border which suits this just fine. And check out the fancy hangers she made.
Denise also made some ribbon angels but my picture didn't turn out too well. I'm using a new camera and wasn't sure about the camera's focal distance. After blurring this angel I now know when to turn on the Marco...

Grace made incredible progress with her Angel window. She's added the sky, the clouds and the angle's dress (and a sun and horn as well!). All she needs now is some hair and a face before she gets to the borders.

Jane had picked up her pattern late last week and traced it out while she was at home. Her glass arrived on Friday and she got all of the background traced out and cut before she took everything home with her to grind there. We'll see her cutting the blue sections next week and this 3 x 3 window will be nearly complete!

Well, we started this post with Janice's finished window and we're going to end it with another window that she worked on this week. With most of the background cut, ground and tacked into place we'll be seeing this one finished soon. We have the pattern for her next three windows all drawn out so we'll be revealing that one in2 or 3 weeks.


Check back later in the week for another update!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Happy New Year

We're ringing in the new year with not one but two more completed doors by Lea. Since bevels wouldn't fit in the limited width of these thin doors Lea had to cut smaller versions of the bevels out of Flemish glass. She'll be working on 2 smaller (but wider) doors during her next class.

Cheryl finished wrapping the remaining pieces of her Cross window and then filled in the missing background pieces after tacking what she had completed together. It's a little more work this way but it makes for a better fit with less grinding. This window will be finished next week after she adds her black baroque border pieces and then solders it.


Jane wasn't sure what she was going to do when she came in but she knew that it was going to fit in her bathroom window. After combing through many patterns this is the one that caught her eye. We spend the rest of the class drawing it up to the size she needed but next week we'll see some cut glass laid out on the pattern!


Fran designed a new Mardi Gras mask while she was at home and asked for input on how we thought it looked. We made a few minor changes in it for stability and then she started working on a wedding invitation box. After attacking the invitation with a razor blade we were able to make a plain text front and then a fancy backside that will be revealed when the glass box is opened. Here is rough drawing of the top of the box:
And here is a drawing of the box top lifted open so you can see the fancier side of the invitation. Simple text invitations are easy to do because you only have to deal with one side, but when you have a fancy invitation you want to make sure that all of it is preserved in the box for safe keeping.
That was about it for classes this week. We'll see more student coming in next week though!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

December In A Nutshell

December was a busy time at the shop and I've been EXTREMELY neglectful of the Blog because of it. Rather than trying to sort everything in the weeks that they occurred I'll just roll everything up in this one posting. I regret that I don't have finished pictures of everything. People where in a rush to get their projects completed and would rush out there door or pack them up before I could get my camera out. But things are quiet and calm again so we'll be seeing more completed windows soon.

That said, we're going to start things off looking at a pair of beveled windows that Lea completed about 2 weeks before Christmas. She's averaging a window a week (or better) now. Practice makes perfect I guess. :-)

Jane made another of her ever popular bird windows in December. This was all we go to see of it because she finished it while she was at home. And it's sold already as well!

This was a finished Mardi Gras mask that Fran made. Made from Black Baroque glass the pattern was created by Fran herself (as are all the masks she's been making).


Christine finished off her Indian Window just in time for Christmas. I sort of jumped the gun on this one because after it was washed off I put patina on it to turn the lead copper colored. Luckily I didn't get very far before Christine stopped me from going any further-- she wanted to leave it silver! A little steel wool removed the coloring and now you'd never know...

Cheryl completed her Angel window. It came out so nice that Grace decided to do the same window herself. And in a strange turn of events Cheryl has begun working on the cross window that Grace was working on in December. Talk about admiring a fellow students work!


Here are 3 Fleur De Lis that Grace completed just before Christmas. They were finished with black Baroque borders (like the Mardi Gras Mask that Fran made up above). I know this sounds strange, but look how they all match perfectly. Grace works quickly and efficiently now days. Beginning students have a lot of trouble making identical pieces. As you can see, Grace doesn't have that problem at all...

And we can't mentioin Grace without mentioning her mother, Janice. She was hard at work making the second of 3 windows for her house. Here you can see it almost all cut out and ground. When I last saw it Janice took it home to finish soldering. She'll be working on the final window of this series next week.

This was a Fleur De Lis window that that Cheryl made for her sister in Baton Rouge. I'd swear I took a picture of the finished window but I can't find it on the camera's memory card.


Here we have another self designed Mardi Gras Mask from Fran. She's really on a roll with these things. She's working on one now that is MUCH larger and more intricate than

Does this door look familiar? It's the last of the doors this size by Lea. She's got 2 thinner doors to do after this one and she just brought in 2 more smaller square doors so I could have the pattern drawn up for her before she comes to class.

This is the Cross window that Grace originally made that Cheryl started. What you see below was accomplished in one class. All the cutting, grinding and most of the wrapping! We WILL see this one when it's completed.


Fleur De Lis' are popular here in Louisiana so it's not uncommon to have one made every few weeks here. This is the last one that Fran made just before the Holidays. As you can see we really got a good picture of it.



And lastly we have the Angel window that Grace is working on. You can see a finished version of it up above because it's the same pattern that Cheryl made just 2 or 3 weeks ago. Grace has almost all of the wings cut out but it's hard to see the clear glass on top of the pattern. What impressed me was how exact her cutting has become-- there's hardly any reason for her to grind the pieces that she cut here!


So that brings us almost up to date here. Expect a second Blog posting on Monday night which will cover our first classes of the new year. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks