Thursday, November 26, 2009

On The Eve Of Thanksgiving

We had 5 students in on Wednesday night even though it was Thanksgiving Eve. I call that dedication!

When I last saw Steve he walked out of the shop with a brand new grinder and his unground window. When he walked in Wednesday night (not even a full week later) he had not only finished grinding his window but he had it foiled as well. He tacked it together in class, got his border both cut and tacked and then began soldering. He's doing great and has taken it home with him. I highly suspect that this will be a completed window next week.

Meanwhile, Louis managed to complete cutting both of his tropical fish for his window. He seems to be completely comfortable with his cutter now and when he moved over to the grinder he watched me grind just 2 pieces of glass to demonstrate and then he jumped right in. He got a lot accomplished and I suspect that he'll be wrapping glass after his next class. this is going to be a nice colorful window and Louis should be proud of the work he's accomplished.

Janice has decided to work on Birth Announcement box which is simply a Wedding Box with a picture instead of a wedding invitation. She's making the Entwined Hearts pattern with colors matching the birthstones garnet and turquoise. She'll finish the background next week and then move on to smaller beveled boxes because the baby this is being made for will most likely not be born yet. Without a birth we can't have a picture and without a picture we can't finish the box. But the hard part will be completed.

And speaking of small bevel boxes, guess what Grace worked on this week? She wrapped the bevels for 3 boxes and got the tops completed for all 3. Next week she'll have the bottoms assembled and we'll attach them and call it a night.


Now you may be saying to yourself, But wasn't Grace working on a Fleur De Lis / Tiger Eye window last week? Well yes she was but after she cut out all the purple glass early on in class she decided to move on to her next project and do her grinding at home. Here's the window you were all wondering about.
Okay, I have to say that I was completely impressed with Cheryl's work this week. She's emailed me and said that she never got a chance to work on her window while it was home so she would be grinding when she came into class. The amount of detail this window has made me believe that she's be grinding for 2 classes but was I ever wrong. In one class she got the whole thing perfectly ground. An exact fit is necessary for a window like this because if you're off at all your eye will pick up the lack of symmetry and it will just look awful. As you can see in the picture below that's not the case here!

Rather than being slaves to an oven on the night before one of America's biggest feasts we were all laughing at each other and cursing our broken glass. Either way, we all had fun.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Two Finger Method Of Cutting Glass

Patty has come up with a new method of cutting glass that she calls the "Two Finger Method". You cut your glass and while you're breaking it you cross your two fingers and pray. :-) Hey, it certainly can't hurt!

Well, this week we get our last look at Janice's 4 x 3 window that she made for her son. It's based on a design that he came up with combining the smiling and frowning faces that are traditionally used to represent the theater, and the Acadian flag with some Baton Rouge elements thrown in to round it all off. The window turned out beautiful and Jance really did a good job dealing with the large pieces of glass that make up this window.

Patty has her first window completed and you've got to admit that it certainly doesn't look like a first project. Nothing about Patty's window says that she's new to this art. She's a natural at this and I expect well be seeing more great windows from her in the

And speaking of naturals our latest student, Catherine, made this butterfly this past week. Her ability to cut glass and follow a line with the cutter was amazing. Perfect pressure and perfect cutting lead to this perfect butterfly.

Grace traced out the pattern to her latest Tiger Eye/ Fleur De Lis window. With the yellow and the white all cut we should see this window completed fairly soon. I can't wait to see this after she gets the purple cut out.

As promised, Louis managed to get enough of his window cut out so we can really see what it looks like now. I think Louis has gotten the feel of the glass now and no longer worries about each cut he's making. No one is ever 100% confident that a cut will break correctly but the process goes much smoother when you're confidence level is high and you're not worries about crossing your fingers with each cut you make.

Steve is finished with his cutting and has moved on to grinding his window. He's so into this that he ordered a grinder and then picked it up on Thursday along with his window so he could work on it at home. There's no telling how far along he'll be when he returns this week.

Jane has begun cutting the glass for her first of 2 stained glass lamps. The 2 lamps will be identical in design but the color schemes will be different. I have to say that I love her choice of glass. The color she picked for her in her trim is incredible.


Pam is almost finished with her cross window. She worked on this while she was at home and she's up to the soldering stage now. I must say that she's really taken to the soldering process. This window is almost finished!And Cheryl's latest window may be a Hell to grind, but it's certainly going to be worth it. She traced the pattern out this week and she's already got 61 pieces cut out and ready for the grinding wheel. A double border is really going to set this window off nicely.

We'll have a limited amount of students next week because of everyone's Thanksgiving commitments but we'll have an update on everyone that shows up. Check back then.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Party Time

We had a birthday feast for Russell on Wednesday night thanks to Janice, Cheryl and Grace. The cake was (as always) to die for. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this for the wonderful food.


Grace has completed her first box. She had a hand in every part of this right down to the design of the 'invitation' to the left of the stained glass flowers. It's very pink and came out perfectly.
Grace will be starting an LSU Fleur De Lis window next week.


Cheryl worked on 3 box bottoms and then attached the lids to all 7 boxes. She's well ahead of time for Christmas and that's always a good thing. I wish I could take note on this strategy! Don't these look great?


We had a Camille begin classes this week which means that we have a new butterfly to look at. Camille chose different shades of purple for his butterfly but the shading of the glass didn't photograph well since there was no sunlight left in the day at 9pm. :-( Still, this gives you an idea of what he accomplished on his first night. Camille had no problems whatsoever and I think we're going to see some wonderful work from him in the near future.

Patty has her border attached and the front side of her window all soldered. This one is going to be finished next week and I must say that the pearls added a certain style to the window. They're hell to solder but the more work you put into a window the more enjoyment you'll receive from it.

Janice has cut her last piece of glass for this window. With her borders all cut and tacked into place she began soldering this beast of a window. Don't forget that the size of this is 4 foot by 3 foot which makes it very large. Alas, soldering it should be fairly easy since there aren't many pieces and there's not many lead lines.

Just look at Steve's Turtle! With everything cut but the small pieces on its head and legs, Steve is making excellent headway with his window. He cut his large sections of water without even batting an eye. He'll begin grinding this next week.


Jane began working on her lamp. This is the mold with the pattern attached to one section. She'll make 6 sections and join them all together to make a completed lamp. She plans on making 2 of these but is working on them 1 at a time. She's discovered that the recommended amount of glass is GREATLY overestimated by about one third. She was pretty sure she didn't have enough glass for her secondary color but we got all the pieces out with some left over to spare in case there's breakage.

Pam is back in from Texas and decided to come to class so she could make a cross window. She got the cross cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together and half of her background is cut. She plans on working on this while she's staying at Jane's.

That about wraps it up for this week. We'll have a lot of new projects starting next week so come back and see what get's laid out on the cutting table next.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Saturday, November 7, 2009

An Unexpected Visit And a BUSY Night

Another week brings us some news to pass along to you. We'll be attending the "Franklin Christmas On The Bayou" this Saturday on Main Street in Franklin this week. It runs from 12 noon to 6pm and looks as though it will be a fun event. If your nearby or looking for something fun to do on Saturday, Nov. 14th be sure to drop by and say hello. Food, music, fireworks, crafts, and a lot of people will be there. We'll be in the blue tent with all the stained glass. Click here for more details: "Franklin Christmas On The Bayou With A Trail To the Lampposts" If you stop by make sure to say hello and let us know that you read about it here in our Blog.

Ok, let's get started on what happened in classes this week. Cheryl made 4 box bottoms this week and has 5 left to go. The problem with box bottoms is that you can't start them one week and then finish them the next. The mirrors on the bottom of each box need to be washed and dried as fast as possible so that means we have to finish what we start. Four boxes in one night is VERY good. There are only 8 small 1/8 inch joints left to solder so that the tops are attached to the boxes so these will certainly go home next week. Oh, and Cheryl gets extra kudos for getting the feet attached all on her own. She made a tricky process look easy.


Louis began working on his firs stained glass window- It's a pair of Angel Fish which is hard to see in the first picture since only the ground is cut but mark my words, next week you'll easily see what this window looks like. We just need a little more detail to show.


Steve's window is a bit easier to pick out because his detail is confined to the back and the legs of his Turtle and we didn't cut that section of his pattern out yet. Nonetheless, both windows are coming along great for Steve and Louis. I can't wit to see what they look like after the next class.


We weren't sure how things were going to go when it came time to cut the pearls into Patty's background but all in all it went VERY well. Not only is it all tacked together but she's also got her border cut and ground. It's at her house right now and will be wrapped when she comes back on Thursday and then begins soldering. She wasn't sure what color to make her border and we played around with pink at first but in the end we all liked the green better. I think it was a good choice. We also did a quick readjustment to cover one small break that was unplanned. I don't think anyone can figure out where that break was and it really helped show how we can fix minor problems without re-cutting huge areas.

Janice has 2 borders cut, ground, wrapped and tacked. That means there's only one left to go before she starts soldering this window. It's starting to take shape so you can see what it really looks like now. I'd say she's just about finished with this one and the soldering won't be hard to do at all.

Grace has the top of her pink wedding box almost completed. When I wrote about her progress last week I forgot that Grace would need to cut out the background of her flowers before she could cut the borders. Nonetheless, it's done now and the top of her box is ready for soldering. With only the bottom left to assemble I suspect that we could see this one finished during the next class.

Our unexpected visit came from Julie when she managed to come into class on a night that she thought she wouldn't be able to show. This week she was out of town and arrived home in time to put in a good performance by cutting out the background for her window. Next week she'll be out of the state so I'm really doubting that she'll surprise us this coming Thursday. Since what she's working on is a surprise this is all I can show you of her progress this week. :-)


We have another new student starting next Thursday so get ready for another butterfly. See you then.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks