Sometimes A Mistake Is A Win

We're going to start things off here with a little stained glass tip.  The bottles that most Flux comes in tend to turn over easily.  It's a very well known design flaw because they (and I'm not sure who THEY are, but you hear about THEM all the time) even sell a 'no-tip flux stand' that you can purchase for about eight dollars.  It's stylish, can be used over and over, and does
the job well, but I have an even better way of keeping flux from tipping over with something that you certainly have laying around the house.  Get an old coffee mug and put your flux bottle in that!  It fits almost perfectly and also provides you with a handle that makes moving your flux less susceptible to spilling which is something the slick plastic 'professional' one doesn't help with at all.  Most times the easiest solution is the best and this is one of many tips I plan to start passing along.   That said, the only caveat I can see is that you have to be careful not to drink your flux!



Okay, here's a look at Linda F's completed Mardi Gras Crown for a Woman that she completed last week.  We all got a laugh at how I found the missing camera in my pocket when I got home and, sadly, it almost happened again this week.  But I found my bright red camera and managed to snag this picture. Linda did a great job keeping things balanced on this window.  And look at how straight her borders are-- the sign of a true glass crafter.

 

This is the first of two windows that Terry completed this week.  This is her 'L' window that makes me think of Lavern and Shirley ever since someone in class mentioned it (Myrt or possibly Martha).  The L flows beautifully and lines up perfectly where the down stroke cuts through the horizontal bottom.  That's very important, and often over looked when constructing windows-- but not in Terry's case.

 

And this is Terry's second window-- a Cut Glass Vase.  I guess that it's sort of a play on words since she had to cut glass to make this.  Now to be honest, Terry said she wasn't thrilled with this window but I really like it.  It's not often you see windows made of all clear glasses and I have always enjoyed the look.  Myself, I see NOTHING wrong with this.

 

Janet came up with the design for this Cross Suncatcher on her own and then assembled it all on her own as well.  All I can say is, GREAT JOB!  She soldered it in class and it was completed before an hour had gone by.  After this she moved onto her Transom Window which you'll see further down the list.  And the beauty of this suncatcher is that she managed to make it entirely out of scraps and that's an excellent use of material.

Betty, as always, has been as busy as a beaver.  Or maybe we should change that phrase to 'Busy as a Betty'!  She has 2 windows in the works this week-- Her Cowboys Star which will just need some solder now, and her Stylized Fleur De Lis Window which will need a border attached to it.  She has a third window in the works but I didn't get a picture of it because it was off to the side and overlooked (like my camera often is).  I promise we'll see her missing Lily Window when it comes back in to class.

 

Speaking of Stylized Fleur De Lis' Windows, Carol's is all cut and tacked together.  She even has the brass channel on and has the bottom portion of it soldered.  There's a chance she'll be taking this home with her when she comes back in and that means that she's going to need to pick out another pattern so she can be ready to start her next project.  She's done wonderfully on this and I can see many good things coming from Carol.

 

Myrt's Beveled Fleur De Lis window looks great.  I'm going to attach some channel to it before she comes back in and she'll be ready to solder which will make for a nice relaxing class for Myrt.  And let me tell you,  she deserves some relaxing time.

Ann's really flying through her second Fleur De Lis Initial window.  This one has the letter 'J' in the circle rather than an 'L'.  It's a little hard to see but it's there.  Let me tell you, there are some wicked-deep cuts in the red background circle  to make the 'J' look good.  It's going to take a quick but steady hand to solder those thin sections without breaking them but I'm sure Ann will manage just fine.

This is Becky B's Window and I love what she's doing with it.  Her color choices have changed the name of her window from a Stylized Fleur De Lis to a Lily De Lis because she's colored the top section to look like a callalily.  And this is the window where the name of our Blog comes into play because Becky accidentally placed the pattern piece for the yellow sections upside down on her glass.  When she cut them out the glass would only fit in if it were upside down.  She was going to recut them be we all agreed that having the bumpy side up looked much better than having it face down.  Sometimes a mistake can be your best friend!

 

Unfortunately the glass that Becky S picked for her background didn't arrive yet.  Luckily, she loves the look of this Rose Bud Window so much that she decided to cut out a second one with the excess glass that she had.  And again, Becky position her patterns onto her glass to get the perfect shading in her design.  I love her choices.  Becky got this Rose Bud all cut out and ground in just one class which proves that a second windows always gets done quicker than the first.

 

Last week Bonnie took her LSU Tiger Claw Window home with her to wrap and I didn't get a picture of it (she came in the night the camera was in my pocket).  Here's what it looked like when she brought it in all wrapped and ready for solder at the beginning of class this week.

 

And this is what Bonnie's window looked like when she left at the end of class this week.  As you can see, a whole lot of work occurred during the three hours she spent with us.  Only the last purple border needs to be tacked onto the window and then she'll be able to cut the 3 fill-in pieces and solder this tiger!

  

Brenda continued working on her Beveled Fleur De Lis Transom Window.  She decided to replace the small square accent pieces with small bevel clusters and got all of her background cut and ground.  She wasn't sure what was going on at first since we weren't using patterns to cut this all out, but she now has a good understanding of how you can make a beveled window without a pattern.  We'll be adding borders to this when she returns although I'm unsure of the color.  I guess that will be a surprise for me when she comes in next week.

 

And Cindy's newest Dog Window is looking great.  She's grinding as she cuts so everything is fitting together nicely and look at the perfect shading on the dog's snout.  The light sections really give a three dimensional feel and help you see the depth of the nose even though everything is black.  I know the name of this dog but I have it written on a paper at the shop and my memory isn't what it used to be.  I guess we'll see what that is next week also.

 

Janet's Transom Window is incredible.  I can't believe how easily she's been working on her own.  Everything lines up perfectly and we were able to get her border attached without any problem at all.  This is her first window of FOUR Transoms not three as I was previously saying!  I guess I just haven't been paying attention.  :-(  Janet has the second one almost completely cut out and she'll be ready to move over to that window once this one is soldered.

 

Jeanne's managed to grind her Horse Head to perfection.  Now that all the superfluous glass has been removed you can easily see that this window is a silhouette.  Once the head was completed she cut the sections for the sun/moon and ground them into place as well.  Jeanne also positioned the pattern for the horse's head precisely on the glass to get the maximum effect of the swirls to form a mane.   Chance would never allow that to happen.   She's taken this home to wrap and then she'll start adding background and borders.

 

Linda L has the backgrounds for her two Teddy Bear Windows all cut out and ground.  She used clear artique glass and is yet another student who has taken her pieces home with her to wrap.  Wrapping at home saves a little time in class, that's why so many of our students do it.  So she'll be adding borders when she comes back in and then she'll begin soldering these two cute windows.

  

Linda F saw this Ladybug window online and loved it.  She had a problem scaling it to the size she wanted but I was easily able to do that for her there on the computer in the shop.  And then when I printed it out I made a few changes in the spot placement to give it better 'flow'.  You'll see that once the spots are cut and fitted into place.  All in all, Linda did a great job while she was in this week.  Her confidence level is high and that's what making stained glass is all about.

Abita!  With all of her Strawberries in place Susan has begun filling in the spaces in between them with green glass and some of the background glass.  Things are moving along nicely here but yet again I forgot to include something to give you an idea of how big this window is.  It's a fair size but in this case I want people to see just how tiny the pieces of glass are that Susan is working with to make this.  Tiny is something we never want to deal with in Stained Glass but Susan decided that is she was going to be in for a dime she might as well be in for a dollar.  And this is going to be spectacular.

Mary grace has almost all of her window cut out and most of it ground.  She's decided to put a border of inner bevels around what you see below and then follow up with a second border of clear baroque glass.  Mary Grace will most likely start wrapping this when she returns and then we'll get ready for borders!

 

Martha's glass is completely cut out which means that her window is just about finished.  Her border is a red/maroon waterglass that looks incredible when it's lit up.  On the table it looks dark but this window won't be sitting on a table when it's completed (which won't be long).  We'll be adding channel and lead when Martha comes back in to glass class.

 

And here at the end we're looking at Lynn's Black Swan Ballerina Window.  She came up with the design herself-- I just scaled it up to size for her and then screwed up the top of it!  Lynn had what looked like fabric draped across the top and when she left I thought that she said that she DIDN'T want it to look like fabric.  So when I scaled it up I replaced the fabric with a stone arch that fit perfectly with the stone columns on both sides of the window.  When she came in and saw the pattern she was a bit confused as to why the top had changed but in the end Lynn has decided to go with the stone look.  But I want to tell her again that it wouldn't be a problem to change that for the curtain effect that she originally had.  I just want to make sure that she's happy with the window that she is about to make.

 

This post is a little late but there's been a lot happening here.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!  We have a new student starting next week so expect a butterfly...

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks