Monday, February 28, 2011

What's Behind The Duck?

It was a quiet week this time around- Jane's been busy helping out her sister (it's tax time), Janice and Grace are still MIA because of Janice's knee surgery, Cheryl is looking for that perfect pattern, Paul and Ray were on their way but got a flat tire and then discovered the spare was airless as well. And lastly we had Anita facing some big issues that had her missing this week as well.

But Patty was able to make it in and immediately completed her variation of our standard cross design. The brown glass gives this cross a wood-like effect and I think that the lack of overall symmetry really makes this look really good. I must say that I love the design and wish I had knocked out the first one myself!

So after Patty wrapped up that project she decided to set upon making an address window for her house. Since she really liked Roxie's design all she had to do was change the numbers (letters?) and she was on her way. She's taken her 2 and her 6 and her 0 home with her to wrap which means that next week she'll have these tacked and ready to be cut into the background glass.


Terry designed this stylized Fleur De Lis while she was at home and she's just about ready to get it cut into her background glass. A lot of people are saying that this reminds them of a Coat of Arms and I have to agree that I see what they are talking about. This is a very unique design and it's already turning a lot of heads.

Remember Patty's 260 window? Well this is the window that Roxie is making that inspired Patty to make hers. Roxie has the front all soldered now so without a doubt we'll see this one completed next week. Look! Does anyone else see the heart in her 5?

Myrt is really moving quickly on this window. She has a deadline to get it completed by and I'd say that she's going to get it done on time. About 40% of this is now ground and if Myrt keeps up this pace we'll be seeing this completed before you know it.

Julie has started cutting her glass for her quilt window and used the "Magic Tool" pretty extensively throughout the night. "Magic Tool," you ask? Its technical name is a pistol grip cutter. She's been using it along with a straight edge to get precision lines in these (mostly) straight cut panels.

And Fran's Duck window has a new behind! Maybe I should reword that. Frans Duck window has a new background! Now that the ducks are completed we've redrawn the back so that nothing else detracts from the centerpiece of this window. There are less lead lines in the sky and the leaves have been lowered to give these 2 birds the center stage all to themselves.

We'll have more completed projects next week and some more students as well. Roxie is going to have her window finished and Jane has a birdhouse or two that she wants to see hanging in her yard. But the biggest news is the fact that Janice is literally back on her feet and feeling as though she can make it through a class. That means we'll being seeing Janice and Grace again. It will be just like old times. :-)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Monday, February 14, 2011

You Mean That's NOT an Identifying Number?

The weather was still awfully cold this week but not nearly cold enough to close things down which means that we had more students make the trek down to the bayou to resume their classes. (Bayou Salé GlassWorks is not just an interesting name- it actually exists behind a bayou.) Some of our students were anxious because they were finishing projects and others were just glad to get out and have some fun.

Terry was one of those people with a project that was nearly completed. She had soldered the back side of her window at home and brought it in for me to do some touch ups on it before she colored it and called it finished. Her soldering was good on the front side but I must say that her lines were even better on the back of her window. She's really getting the hang of the soldering process. After I smoothed over a few rough spots we gave this window a bath and then colored the lead and waxed it to a shine. It looks great, doesn't it? Very colorful much like Mardi Gras is supposed to be. That's a great job Terry!

Jane was anxious to start this birdhouse whose pattern came from a small Votive candle holder that she brought in a few weeks ago. We started off by doubling the size but that was too big and in the end what you see below is just 25% larger than the original. And it's the perfect size. We've decided to make 1 or 2 adjustments on the next one (the first first project in any series is always the 'Guinna Pig' so to speak) but in all honesty I can't find any flaws in this design. When it was finished I fell in love with it and copied the pattern in case anyone else wants to make one. What impressed me the most was that Jane not only started this project on Wednesday but she finished it before class was over. She really knows her stuff.

Anita has 98% of her window all cut out and has moved on to the grinding stage of this project. We had lost a few pattern pieces which explains why only 98% of the window is cut out but that isn't going to slow Anita down. It's far easier to just leave a few holes in the window and then fill them after this is tacked together rather than trying to redraw a pattern piece and end up with something that doesn't quite fit right. Anita has taken this home so she can get a head start on grinding. With the toughest part behind her I think she'll find this window is going to become easy work from here on out. And just wait until it's finished and she gets a look at it with some light behind it. She's going to be amazed at how nice this looks.

While Anita was cutting a sandy sea bottom Myrt was busy cutting out the pieces to her butterfly. Once that was finished she moved on to grinding her window. I set up a square on the upper right of the window to make sure the window has perfect 90 degree corners and when I returned a little while later I was very impressed at how perfectly she had ground her flowers where the sun will be placed later. Her grinding is impeccable to say the least. I really like the way this is shaping up for her.

Patty was going to work on an address sign for her front porch but she needed a gift and decided to do a variation on our standard cross pattern that's so popular. But she wanted to give it a little extra something rather than follow the standard pattern. A while back I had sketched out a version of the cross that added concave curves to one side of each of the arms on the cross which gave it a less symmetrical look. I never got around to making one myself but when Patty saw the design change she decided that was what she wanted to do. She also added some quarter circles between the arms to 'round it out' so to speak. By the end of the night she was finished soldering the front side and will just have to do the back when she returns next week.

Paul was in again and got the bottom panel cut for his terrarium. It's all tacked together and now he can place it on its side without having it collapse into a flat pile of glass on the table. Once he had it on its side Paul began soldering the outside lines and then took it home to see what he could get accomplished there during the week. This is really coming together now.

Roxie has cut and ground the background to her address window. She's taken the pieces home with her to wrap so next week this will be all together and she'll be headed towards the finish line once she starts soldering. Her fancy corners were a little extra work but they're well worth the effort. She's still unsure of the color that her final border will be but once this is tacked together she'll have a better feel for what colors will work and which ones won't work on this window.

And to bring this to a close we're going to leave you all with a first glance at what will soon be Julie's Stained Glass Quilt window. It will consist of nine 9" x 9" quilt squares made out of stained glass. Once all the squared are assembled she'll cut some border glass to go between each of the squares. This Quilt won't keep her warm during those cold nights but it will warm her heart when she gets to see it completed and hanging up. One of the paper squares (the one that's missing from the picture) is cut up and ready to be traced onto glass. Julie worked on picking out all of the glass that she'll be using to give the overall window a consistency that wouldn't exist if she just made each square with random glass.

And that's all that happened that was fit to print last week during classes. Next week Fran will be back and we'll get to see the new background for her duck window so come on back and see what else there is to look at when we update this Blog yet again.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Freezing Icy Weather

The weather here was awful this past week. Icy roads and freezing temperatures kept most people home but we had more than a few students who managed to brave the icy roads and show up for class. We even managed to get 2 projects completed.

Here we get to take a look at Ray's first window. Not only did he do a great job on it--he even finished it a week earlier than planned! It's a geometric design that at first appears to be a mirrored or symmetrical image but there are subtle differences between the top and bottom if you look for them. Ray had some worries about his abilities while he was making this but he's not worried anymore. In fact, he'll be starting another project when he comes back!

Jane came into class with the pieces to 2 bird houses all cut, ground and wrapped. She just needed to see how it all went together to finish them. Working together we assembled the first one as a team which gave her the knowledge to assembled the brown one herself. The Blue Birdhouse is pictured below completed and ready to hang in a tree. I have to say that these really turned out nice.

This is a look at the brown and amber Bird House that Jane took home with her to finish. She also brought in a small Votive Candle holder that was in the shape of a bird house that she would like to try to make bigger next week. I think it's going to look really good but you'll have to check out or next post to see just how that one turns out.

Here we get a look at another 3 dimensional project-- Paul's Terrarium. The bottom section is all tacked together now and the only thing left to cut is the bottom glass and the top cover. This is the first time we can really see this project starting to resemble its completed shape. All together Paul has just 15 pieces left to cut to complete this. I'd say that he's just about done now.

Meanwhile Myrt was busy cutting glass all night long. All that's left to be done is to cut out the butterfly and she'll be ready to start grinding. We're going to leave the sun uncut until we have this all ground and wrapped. Myrt is moving quickly on this one and her confidence level is quite high as it should be.


Terry's window is just about complete. She's got the front side soldered and has taken it home with her so she can work on the back whenever she gets a chance during the week. It's convenient being able to work at home but the problem most people have is finding the time to do it. I have no doubt that Terry will manage even if she has to stay up all night. I'm sure this will be finished when we see it again next week.

Anita cut out her water for her Aquarium Scene and it's all coming together now. There are a few filler pieces that need to be cut yet but she's almost to the point of grinding this window. She also has the crab cut and wrapped so once the pieces to the sandy bottom are in place Anita will be grinding. And once you start grinding you know that the hard work of making the window is over with..


And lastly we have a look at the Duck Window that Fran is making. The feathers got a bit mixed up and we can't quite get the tail of the bottom duck to fit together so Fran has taken this home where she will wrap and then tack what she has. Once it's all one solid piece she'll draw out the tail feathers again (there's less than 15 pieces in the tail) to make sure they fit just right. The colors are beautiful in these ducks.

Hopefully the weather will be warmer next week and we'll get to see more of our students. Plus, Grace, Janice and Cheryl should be making their way back into the shop soon. Janice has been recovering from knee surgery and Cheryl is recovering from Christmas, New Years, and her latest Cruise which she just got back from. And we're about to start our next set of church windows so keep your browser opened to this Blog to find out what's happening as the weeks go by.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Come on back soon to see just what's happening in the shop.

Monday, February 7, 2011

It's a Pinkish-Brown. It's Prown!

Bonnie came back in and picked up some more supplies this week. She brought along some sun catchers that she and her husband have been working on at home and they're looking very nice. She's managed to come up with 2 new variations of Fleur De Lis' that I haven't seen before. The Crawfish version and the Breast Cancer Ribbon. I've made a few of the Ribbons over the years but have yet to see a Fleur De Lis ribbon until Bonnie showed up with it. And then less than a week later I saw it on someones shirt while I was in town. Go figure. Bonnie is doing excellent work at home.


Myrt has all of her background sky cut out for her Flower Window. She'll cut the sun by cutting 1 round piece of glass and then trace the ground, wrapped and tacked flowers into it so the grain of the sun will all flow perfectly. This way it won't look 'cut up' and will really give a look and feel of one sun rather than a series of cut up pieces of glass. It takes a little more time to do it this way but the end result is worth the extra 15 or 20 minutes.

Anita has been busy as can be while she's been at home, and I'm not talking about housework! Look at all the fish that she has managed to complete during the time in between classes. She's doing a great job here and pretty soon there will just be background left to cut out. She really wanted to take the background glass home with her but it was such a large piece that we convinced her that it would be best to cut that here during class. If something happened to the glass on the trip back and forth it may take a while to get another sheet in.

Fran was in this week and look at that-- her ducks are really starting to look like ducks! She's got the top one almost completely ground and some of the bottom one completed as well. Once these are tacked together she'll redraw the background so that the sun is rising rather than already being up in the sky. Once the ducks are completed the rest of this window will be a piece of cake.

Terry's Mardi Gras Mask Window is just about completed. The title of the Blog comes from the color of Terry's Background glass which Myrt christened 'Prown'. I see more of a pale purple bordering on pink myself, but it's one of those colors that practically defies description because you can see so much in it. Besides, I like the name Prown. So anyway, all of Terry's glass is cut and wrapped so she'll be able to start soldering this next week.


That pretty much sums it up for this past set of classes. Hopefully we'll see you all again next week when we continue to work on our windows.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks