Saturday, June 27, 2009

2 Students, 3 People...

This is it, the moment that Grace, Cheryl, Fran, Janice, and Jane have been waiting for: The Blog is now up to date! And rumor has it that we might see Lea return next week along with Gerald. Things might just start hopping again here.

Cheryl has finished her Wedding Box (as predicted). She did really well with this one considering that I sort of left her to make it on her own. I helped here and there but I do believe that she has the hang of this now. And it's a good thing because she has one more to go which she'll start next week.
Fran was in for a morning class and came in more than prepared. She had her cross and ribbon all cut, ground and wrapped. So she tacked it together, cut out her background, tacked that together and then added a border before then applying the brass channel to the window. Since she's on a deadline to finish this she said she might return that night to complete it. This is what she left with in the morning.


And this is what Fran took home with her that night. She soldered it and then just had to wash and color the lead before calling it a completed project. Isn't it amazing what a difference a little light behind a window can make in a picture? Just look at the top photo and then this one and I'd understand why someone would think that they were 2 completely different windows

And that's it. It's official now-- the Blog is up to date and I am calling it a night. :-)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Playing Catch-Up 6 (Week of 6-16-09)

Wow. The large windows are always impressive and this certainly fits the bill. Jane's Fireplace screen looks GREAT! It's based loosely on a pattern she saw on the cover of a book but it's been altered so much that the only thing it has in common with the picture she saw is the fact that they both have mountains and trees. We're not quite sure what Jane will be working on next but she has a number of ideas for things she wants to do.

And Fran's Wedding Box ( though smaller than Jane's Screen) is equally impressive. Rather than making the rose smaller so it fits inside it's background, Fran opted to make the rose extend into the border. It's a bit more work when making the border and trying to keep everything square but it's really worth it in the end.

Janice has her first centerpiece wrapped now and also has her second one fitted together nicely. She'll be wrapping this at home so we'll see background being cut for these 2 windows very soon now.

Grace has all of her window ground now! There are 2 borders to add to this but we won't worry about them until this is all tacked together. That insures a perfectly straight border. I can't wait to see this one hanging up. It's huge!

Cheryl has another Wedding Box in the works and I suspect that it will be completed next week (I know this because I'm a week behind here and know it was finished 3 nights ago. lol) The invitation is black and white and Cheryl is using 2 different clear glasses along with a great black Baroque glass for the border.

I was only going to do 2 posts tonight but I'm on a roll now and there's only one left to go to be completely caught up with the Blog so I might as well finish it now.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Playing Catch-Up 5 (Week of 6-09-09)

Only 4 people were in this week but they all got a lot of work done on their windows.

Grace has the center and the bottom right hand corner of her window to grind before she starts wrapping everything. Don't let the picture fool you-- the window is so big I have to take the picture of it at an angle so it all fits into the viewfinder. Then I straighten it out with Photoshop so it looks like it was taken head on. The only problem is that it makes the top of Graces window looked curved (which it really isn't). I think this will be all ground next week...


Meanwhile Janice has completed grinding the first centerpiece of the 2 she has cut out. One more to go before we start cutting out backgrounds.


Fran got all of the flower of her rose invitation box cut, ground and then wrapped and tacked. So she cut her strips and has taken them home to wrap so she can have this finished next week. Although you can't see it, the orange border matched the orange ribbon on the weeding invitation (which is on the other side of the lid).

Since Jane has finished soldering the first 2 panels of her fireplace screen she worked on finishing up the 3rd one this week. It's almost finished now and the small amount that she didn't complete will be done at home along with the soldering. Look for the finished picture of this screen next week.

That about wraps this post up. There's always more to come though.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Friday, June 26, 2009

Playing Catch-Up 4 (Week of 6-02-09)

Here's the first of another pair of Blogs. Round two begins...NOW!

Here's Fran's small Mardi Gras Mask all completed. After we put the handle on we thought it was finished until I went to take a picture and discovered we'd forgot to add a hanger. But that's all set now.


This is Fran's Mother-Of-All Mardi Gras Masks all soldered up. I'm not sure if the lead will stay silver or if she plans on coloring it black or copper. We're unsure if she'll put a handle on it because it would have to be purely decorative-- a handle would never support a mask of this weight and we don't want anyone assuming that the handle would hold it and then have it break.

Janice has been busy cutting out glass for her centers of her 2 windows. She's grinding them as she's cutting them so when she's finished with her cutting all she'll have to do is make some minor adjustments to get everything to fit correctly.

And Grace is still grinding away at the grinder on her window. I have to say that her cutting is wonderful and things are falling together pretty quickly here.

Denise brought in her window. It's all soldered and ready for hanging save for one thing-- she didn't have any brass channel to trim the edges of the bevels! Denise originally didn't plan on putting a bevel border on this window and I have to say that she really lucked out. She only had to skim a sixteenth of an inch off side bevels and it went together as if she'd planned it all along.

Cheryl has the top of her box completed and is ready for the bottom tray portion. She'll have that finished during the next class so expect to see this box completed in the next Blog entry.

I swear I'll never let this Blog get this far behind again. This is really a mental workout arranging all these pictures and remembering just what happened on each class!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Playing Catch-Up 3 (Week of 5-26-09)

Here's the second of another pair of blogs. This will wrap up the month of May.

Michael Ann's window is completed! As you can see the colors look very different with some natural back lighting. Micheal Ann did a great job and hopes to make some more projects later on towards the end of the year for Christmas Gifts.

Russ made a cat window. The glass is purr-fect, wouldn't you say? (ouch)

This is your first look at Fran's Mega Mask. This is easily the most elaborate Mardi Gras Mask I've ever seen. It's almost completely soldered as she worked on this one a lot at home.

And Fran also managed to finish soldering her smaller Mardi Gras Mask as well. All this needs is a handle and it will be finished.
Denise has been busy working on this LSU window at home. She came in to pick up some bevels to use as a finishing border. You can see the bevels (if you look closely) lying on the LSU portion of the pattern. This one will be finished soon so expect to see a completed picture shortly.


And that wraps up the month of May.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Playing Catch-Up 2 (Week of 5-19-09)

Welcome to the second of 7 new blog posts this week. Check with us here over the next few days to see what's been happening over the past 2 months. Hopefully I'll never get this far behind again!

Here's Michael Ann's window with the front side completed and the back almost completely soldered. There's no doubt that we'll see this finished next week. The window takes on a completely different look when it's held up to the light.

Janice is still busy cutting glass for her 2 windows. At the rate she's going she'll be at the grinder in no time at all.

Jane began soldering the large panel of her fireplace screen The front and back are now finished and she'll star work o the side panels next.

Grace is already at the grinder. Here's the first corner of her window all ground and fitting together nicely. She took her time cutting so the grinding isn't hard to do at all. She basically skimming pieces and having them drop into place almost perfectly. The only thing slowing her down is the number of pieces she has to do-- This is a LARGE window!

Fran began working on a new mask that she drew up. She has it cut and ground now and will be wrapping it at home over the week.

It was a slow week but this proves that it all really happened--6 weeks after the fact. LOL

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Playing Catch-Up 1 (Week of 5-12-09)

It's been well over a month (coming up on 2 months) since this Blog has been updated. Once I fell behind it just seemed like too much work to do in one sitting so I kept putting it off. Well, the time has come to catch up so expect to see at least 1 post a day until we're caught up here.

Let's start with Denise's Moon & Bear window that she's made as a shower gift. She wasn't sure of the babies sex so she made her window a uni-sex design by incorporating a pink night-hat on the moon and a blue blanket in the bears hand. The beveled edges cost a lot but they certainly make this window stand out nicely.

Christine finished her graduation box just in time for graduation. Boxes are for all occasions be it weddings, graduations, or babies.

Michael Ann was back in and got almost all of the front of her window soldered. I suspect we'll see this completed in 2 more classes.

Janice is working on 2 more of her original designs. She's cutting them both out at the same time so we can expect to see them finished at around the same time.

Jane has 2 of her 3 panels almost completely cut out. I think there are only 2 pieces of green glass left before she starts up on her third panel for her fireplace screen. This is really shaping up nicely!
Grace was hard at work cutting out the remainder of her background. As you can see she got a lot accomplished. Next she'll grind all the pieces so they fit perfectly.

This is a wedding box that Cheryl has begun making. It's our classic rose design which was chosen since there are roses on the invitation. I don't think it will be long before we see this one finished!

And so ends the first of 7 blog posts that need to be finished by next Tuesday so we're back on track here. Since I'm on a roll I think I'll do another one. :-)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks