Friday, August 26, 2011

It's The Eye Of the Tiger, It's The Cream Of The Fight

Anita has completed her Louisiana Eye Of the Tiger window and she's got other people thinking about similar projects. There's a lot of pride down South here and aside from the letters L, S and U the only thing that spells it out just as well is a tiger eye or two. And when you combine them you get this:

And since we're looking at the completed center piece for Terry's 3 windows it's a safe to assume that she's started another project this week. (Check that one out further below.) As for this window I have to say that the outer tan border surrounding the ovalish center really made a difference in the overall design. I've photoshopped the tan out of the second picture so you can see just how much flair 12 little pieces of glass can add to a window. Good call, Terry.


Here's Terry's window as she had original drawn it. We both agreed something was missing.


I'd have to say that Susan's daisy box is moving right along since the top is 100% completed. With only 5 pieces left to go I'll bet she takes this home next week. And since I'm more than a week late in posting this you really shouldn't be making bets against me since I can see the future on this. :-) Susan was originally going to use the same glass that she used in her background for her border but we found a piece in the rack that was just a tad bit darker and it was PERFECT for this box since she didn't want to bring another color into play.

Sonia's Peacock window is really taking shape now. Not only does she have it completely cut but she has the body section ground already. She's going to surround this with the fancy 3 section border so you just know this is going to be a show stopper when it's completed.

Roxie's Yellow Camp window is looking good too. She came in with her letters all foiled and then set upon tacking them together. Once that was done she cut the white background glass behind the word YELLOW and ground it all to fit. Then before she left she got it foiled! Next week she'll be working on her Camp section.

There are so many pieces to Patty's window that she feels like it will never be completed but look at how it's filling up now! And you have to remember that it isn't just cut-- it's cut, ground, foiled and tacked together. When you take all of that into consideration you have to admit that Patty is doing wonderfully on this. Next to Grace's New Orleans window I'd have to say that this is one of the most ambitious projects that a student has made yet. :-)

I promised that we'd take a look at Terry's newest window before this update was over with so here it is. She's working on a Bass Window and it has always been one of my favorite designs. Wait until you see this with some light behind it. The glass has a texture that really lends itself to this fish pattern.
Frans Ducks are not only in flight but they're now over water as well. With nothing left but a border to go I'd say that Fran has set a new speed record for making these Ducks in Flight. Some solder and a black border will round this out and then she'll be making a first in class: A Donkey Window.

Cindy's front door is almost complete now. She only has 2 long thin panels to go before she can install these and call it a finished set. It's been hard to get a good picture of this window since it's so long but here it is all in one shot so you can get the full effect. Next week she'll be soldering this one.

Bonnie P's Rooster window is also shaping up now that it's all cut out and mostly ground. The only thing left to grind is the section to the left of the Rooster and then she'll be foiling this one. I'm impressed with Bonnie's cutting (and grinding). She hasn't been in class all that long and she's really moving quickly and efficiently.

Ann is back and ready for some stained glass action. She picked out a pattern last week and we 'kneaded' it to fit the window she'll be installing this in. When she begins her second window (which will be real soon) you'll easily see how these two windows tie together. With her center piece completely cut and half of it ground I'd say she'll be cutting the background glass during her next class.

Borders. You don't think much about them but they honestly are a very important part of a window. A simple window with a fancy border can sometimes outshine a fancy window with a plain border. Myrt saw this border style on another window and decided that it was what she wanted surrounding her Fleur De Lis. It took a complete class to get it cut and ground but it's almost completely wrapped as well. So next week she'll begin cutting the background glass for this and we'll really see her window take shape.

There has been a lot going on here which has made this update get posted later than it should have been. We're still behind one week but that will be fixed shortly before classes end this week. Come back soon to see Susan's Daisy Box and Ann's Accent Window completed.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Monday, August 22, 2011

The Party That Never Was

Anyone want a cupcake? We had a plate of 6 cupcakes for everyone attending class Thursday night to celebrate Sonia's birthday but Sonia got sick so Russ and Paul did some MAJOR damage to the stash of cupcakes (Bonnie didn't have any-- What will power!) We ending up going home with only 6 cupcakes in tow. We really hope that Sonia had a great Birthday because we sure enjoyed her cupcakes!

Peewee came into class expecting to solder his window and when I saw what he'd accomplished on his first side I knew that he'd be taking this home with him before the class was over. This window is a nice combination of colors and textures which means that there wasn't any chance that this would come out looking anything but great.


Pam's been busy while she's at home. She came in with this suncatcher all put together with everything but a final soldering. We looked it over and then finished soldering it so she could hang it up when she gets home. She has her next project started and you'll see how quickly she's moving on that one a few entries down.
Two down and 1 to go. That's what Terry was thinking when she left class knowing that her second window in her set of 3 was completed. After making her last project Terry wanted to be sure to use some glass with color in it and she's succeeded. The pattern is her own design and it really flows nicely. And her soldering is among the best of all our students. I only had to touch up a few joints on this before it was washed, colored and photographed. Terry's soldering is superb and I really want to make sure she knows it.

This is the last of Terry's windows before she moves on to something new. It's all tacked together and she'll be soldering this at home.

Susan wanted to make a Daisy box and it's coming together nicely. With the flower cut and wrapped she only has about 8 pieces left to go before she finishes the top of this box. The current plan is to go with a clear background and then a solid color for the border and the box sides.

Pam had finished her Butterfly and Flower suncatcher and moved along to her next project which is this duck window. The head still has to be cut but the lions share of work on this project is done. I think she's going with a granite back root beer glass for the final border. A very nice panel indeed.

When Janice came in she was hoping to put a border on her window but the glass was out of stock so she moved on to her 3rd window. I'll be the first to admit that we're making these patterns up on the fly so what we did was laid out a piece of paper the size of her background, place the flowers and leaves where we thought they looked best and then traced around them. After making the flowing vines that connect everything we added grain lines flowing horizontally on each pattern piece and then cut the pattern up. Here's what she had about a half an hour into the class.


And before Janice left she had all of her background for her third window cut out and most of it ground. Even I was impressed at how quickly she's moving on this! Next she just has to wrap and tack it all together. I hope that border glass gets here soon!


Dianne filled in the few missing pieces to her window and then set upon getting her border cut and attached. By the time she left she was all set to begin soldering. She'll be returning from vacation in a week or 2 so we're going to have to wait a bit to see the first side of this soldered. Since I find soldering to be relaxing I hope this rest of this window is nice and easy for her.

And speaking of roosters, here is Bonnie's Rooster window. You can see a similarity between the 2 windows in subject only as the interpretations are completely different. I love the little barn on the hill. Adding the door and hay loft in the barn created more work but as I always say, the extra work you put into a window always pays off in the end.


Here's Cindy's front door insert all cut, ground and ready to be foiled. I suspect we'll see this one tacked together real soon. She also has most of her other window ground but she left that one at home. Cindy always has to be doing something with stained glass so while this one is stuck here in the shop (it's too big to be transported weekly) she works on a second window at home.


And Anita has begun soldering her LSU window. With the border now in place I'll bet that this one is finished next week. Anita already has about 4 other patterns picked out and lined up to start on so I doubt she's want to spend too much time on this window now that it's so close to being completed.

It's hard to see the fancy trim that Myrt cut and ground for her Fleur De Lis window because the glass matches the pattern paper but of you look closely (or click on the picture to make it bigger) you'll see that she got a lot accomplished this week. She's taken the pieces home to wrap so that means she'll be cutting background glass when we see her return.

Can you believe I did it again? Fran took her Duck window and left before I managed to get a picture of it. This week, well, look out because I'm going to be snapping pictures of Fran's Ducks every 5 minutes! Rather than repost the same picture 3 times in a row I'll simply tell you that they really look great and the window is taking shape nicely.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Spot The Difference!

We're going to start off this entry with a look at Susan's first stained glass window. She picked a Fleur De Lis pattern and added a double border which, if you have the extra space, makes any window a lot more interesting to look at. Her border and Fleur De Lis were cut from 2 different textures of a very rich looking root-beer glass. At the end of the class she walked out the door with was this beautiful window. And I have to say that her soldering was almost perfect which is not an easy feat for a first timer!


When Roxie forgot to bring the letters she had wrapped the week before she decided to make something quick and simple. This Beveled Charm Chain seemed to be the ideal project since she had some spare bevels in her bag of tricks. Last week we saw her bead the bevels, and tin all the copper wire that she would then wrap around a length of tubing to make circles which she then cut and twisted into various wire decorations. This week she randomly soldered the wire and some glass globs to the bevels and ended up with this great Charm Chain.


Forgive the picture quality here but Roxie also made this stand alone beveled suncatcher when we all decided that it added too much length to her Charm Chain. On it's own it's a wonderful gift for any window where sun comes through.

Myrt completed her Grape/Wine and Cheese window this week and while it was sitting there waiting to be cleaned Russ looked at it and said, "There's a problem with this window." I can't believe I didn't spot it myself. Can you see the problem? It's corrected in the second photo so you can play the old "find the differences in these 2 photos" game. I'll give you a hint, it's not the color of the glass. Those differences exist only because the two photo's were taken at different times during the day.
Well, the problem is that the right wine glass in the top photo is both in front of the wine bottle and behind it at the same time! It would appear that when I drew the pattern I erased the wrong hidden line. It certainly was easier to do it the first way but easier is not always correct. Either way you look at it this is a really nice window that has received a lot of compliments since Myrt started it.

Next up we have a look at Terry's 2 windows. As you can see, the top one just needs the border to be attached and then a bit of soldering that Terry will undoubtedly do at home.

The second picture is the wider center piece without the background or top and bottom borders. While I was working on the photo of this last week I felt as though something was missing. After pondering it for a while I decided that Terry needed another row of tan trim bordering the center oval of the design. And when Terry came in this week she told me that she thought something was missing as well! I told her that I'd been thinking the same thing and when I showed her what I'd do to fix it she agreed. Here it is with the added row of tan surrounding the center oval. And now, it's perfect.


Sonia left her class with her Peacock all cut out. It looks like it's going to light up really nicely (although that's hard to tell from the photo). Sonia will be grinding this when she comes back in and then when it's tacked together she'll add the 5 pieces of background glass and then decide what colors to use for her elaborate border.


Sadly, the glass for Janice's border had not arrived so she did some soldering on her window this week. At least her time wasn't wasted. Borders go on quickly and when her glass does come in this window will be completed rather quickly.

Fran came in with her ducks all wrapped but she needed to add a row of white trim on the feathers. She tacked together what she had cut and foiled and then we filled in the missing pieces with white glass giving her the 2 perfect ducks that you don't see below because I didn't get to snap a picture of them before they flew out the door with Fran. :-( Instead you'll have to look at her ducks from last week once again.

Cindy worked on her front door insert and hit a slight snag. Unfortunately we were unable to turn up another piece of the main color she was using so she found another sheet that was similar and is now replacing the pieces she cut. She started cutting this Hummingbird Flower window out while she was at home this week and when she left class she had the background glass all cut and ready to be ground into place.

Bonnie P. wanted to do a rooster window for her kitchen but she wanted a specific Rooster with specific colors. So we drew it out, found a nice farm painting online and put the two together to make this pattern. I was thoroughly impressed when Bonnie got all of her Rooster cut out in one class. And as you can see it's fitting together nicely before it's even touched the grinder! I suspect that with the hardest part of this being completed we'll see it all cut out next week.

Anita's LSU Window is coming out nicely. She has the tiger eye sitting on top of the letters and as you can see she has it all just about cut out now. In fact, the eye is all done and ready to be foiled. I suspect she'll be ready for a border when we see her next week and then it will just need some soldering.

Grace is BACK! And since Grace doesn't like to do things the easy way she's making this detailed Medical Window. The rhythm section is cut and ground so she's moving along on the hard parts first. This is shaping up to be a real eye catcher when it's completed.

It certainly was a busy week for classes with a lot of projects started. And it doesn't look like anything is going to be slowing down any time soon.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Monday, August 8, 2011

♪ ♫ Just Bead It, Bead it! No one likes to be defeated! ♫ ♪


Anita's Heron or Egret window (take your pick) is completed. I'd say a good 90% of the work on this was done at her home in between classes. It cost her soldering iron its life (which went out with a POP!) but the end results are wonderful. I like the way her border picks up a color from the center of the window.

Terry finished the first section of her 3 piece window and it all went together perfectly. Terry isn't afraid to design her own projects and this is another example of her handiness with a pencil and paper as well as with a glass cutter.

And before you think it will be a while before her other 2 windows are complete I'd like to show you just how far along they actually are. Her center piece is in need of some foiling and a backgound but the hard part is done. And the matching panel to the one above only needs a border and some soldering. Terry is most certainly into stained glass!


Susan had taken home her inner border and wrapped it there. When she came in we tacked the border into place and then cut strips on the strip cutter for her final outer border. It's all together and that means that when she return next class we'll add a brass channel around the edges and then move on to the soldering process.



Sonia got the bottom half of her peacock feathers completed with just the background feathers of the tail left to go. They're all traced out onto the glass so I suspect that she'll begin grinding this when she returns to class (another year older!)
Myrt is ready to solder her Wine and Cheese window. And knowing how quickly she solders I'd say it a fair assumption to say that this will be one of our featured finished windows in the next Blog post. We still need to add a brass channel to the edge but that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes at the most.



Roxie made a Faux Pas this week when she accidentally came to glass without the letters she wrapped while she was home this week. She put them in her car but forgot to transfer them into the car she was carpooling with. Rest assured, Roxie, this has been done numerous times by other students. So rather than sit around she started making a hanging Beveled Charm Chain. She re-foiled some bevels that she had, put a bead on them (Just Bead It!) and then tinned a LONG piece of copper wire. The wire was twisted into full circles and cut up into half circles. Right now things are just laid out here but it all has to be soldered together yet. This will be finished next week for sure.


Peewee's Fleur De Lis is all cut and tacked together. He replaced the missing piece and added his border which means that when he comes back he'll be ready to solder this. Expect to see this one wrapped up shortly-- possibly when he returns in 2 weeks.
Janice came in and foiled all of the pieces that she had cut and ground last week. We didn't have any of her border glass due to a miscalculation but she was able to continue working on this by soldering what she has completed to this point. When she returns she will be one of many students who will be adding a border to their windows.

Dianne's Rooster window is tacked together. The only thing left to cut is the border and then she'll be soldering this. There was a lot of grinding to do in a window this complex but she managed to get through it wonderfully. Before the class was over we had it all foiled and ready for solder. There's a small fence post (?) that the rooster is standing on that will cut into the border but it still won't take long to get the rest of this cut.

Cindy is as completely cut as she can be at this point in the game. The only pieces left are from a glass that match the color of the room this window will be in and the glass has been discontinued! Go figure. Luckily it's a recent discontinuance (is that even a word?) and we think we've hunted some more of it down. While she's waiting for the glass she's begun grinding her largest section seen here.

Patty -- Seafood. Patty -- Shrimp. Patty -- Oysters. Patty -- Crabs (the good kind!!!). Moving at a steady pace now this window is coming together. But, she says, "NEVER AGAIN!" Me, I say "Never say never".



Grace is back! She started off making a small, simple Star Of Life with a Staff Of Ascelepius (sometimes referred to as a Caduceus) but it sort of mushroomed into this fancy pattern with a rhythm and fancy background that's going to look really nice. Next week we'll see the glass that Grace has cut for this design.

Anita not only completed her Egret window but she also began another project this week. I feel like a fool saying that it's an LSU window when that's so readily apparent, but that's what she's making. And she's put a tiger eye on top which may be a little hard to see right now but once it's all ground it'll show nicely.

That's it for this, the first week of August. We'll have more projects completed and new ones started when we return.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks