Monday, June 26, 2017

Short Cuts Always Take More Time

Classes ran somewhat small this week due to a storm out in the Gulf called Cindy.   Although we saw very little rain or wind it did cause a lot of cancellations due to the fact that our students come from all over Louisiana.  Hopefully things have settled down and things will resume as normal next week.

So then, Linda F came up with the gorgeous new 3D Butterfly lawn ornament that I think is sure to be a hit here in our classes.   Everything about this is perfect from the colors to the cutting.  I love it!





This is a repair that Susan D worked on this week and all she did to repair it was to disassemble the original window, re-cut one piece of glass and then re-assemble it. 

 

Susan D also completed this 3D Humming Bird which will become part of her next Flower Cornucopia Project.  The pattern is all Susan's and she also assembled this entirely on her own (including the 3d wings!)

  


Carol completed another 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornament this week and has another in the works.   She's assembling them all by herself save for the antenna's which she'll do on her own when she does her next Butterfly.



Bonnie's latest Cross Suncatcher is an exercise in perfection as one off angle results in a VERY crooked looking cross.  Perfection!


 
Rowena saw the previous Multi Colored Fish that we've seen completed in the shop and decided that this was the best way to put her scrap glass to good use.   You have to love this pattern.



Sheri resumed work on her Heron Window by continuing to cut glass.  This week she some green background cut and her window, as you can see, is starting to take shape.



Spring is in the air and all of the glass has been cut for Susan R's Spring window.  She's already begun to wrap all of her pieces so this should be ready to be soldered before you know it.



Betty has started working on a large flowing Iris Window and really made great headway on it during her first 3 hour class.   She came in, traced out her pattern and then started cutting the leaves for her window.



Tasha  had a slight mishap at home when Charlie broke one of the pieces in her sky but it was a simple fix once she came into class.  Rather than re-cutting the piece from her pattern she tacked the window together leaving the spot opened.  Once everything was solid we set the window on top of a piece of blue glass and traced around the opening which makes for a perfect fit with minimal grinding.   After that was done Tasha tacked the piece into place, got her border cut and attached as well as her channel.

 

After spending the night wrapping her glass pieces, Melissa is officially ready for a border on her Semper Fi Window.  The border will take maybe a half hour to complete so when she comes back in she'll be no doubt begin soldering it and thinking about what she's going to pick to work on next.
 

 
Paula had a productive night and got the entire top of her newest Wedding Box assembled and soldered.  The only thing left to go on this is the box bottom and she already has the sides for that cut and ground.   That leaves only some minor assembling to go and then she'll be through with this project.   



Lara resumed work on her Ballerina Window and now that the ballerina herself is completely ground and fitting together you can see just how wonderful this window is going to look.  It's surely one of my favorite designs I won't be surprised to see this window being made again.



Jeannette has all of the glass ground for her Mallard Window and she's taken it home with her to possibly wrap throughout the week.   It's a stunning window and the workmanship is beautiful.



Ann had a single piece of background glass that covered only about 75% of her window but with careful placement of her pieces she was able to get all but 2 pieces (circled in green in the picture) of her background cut from that one small sheet.  Part of the secret to this is by keeping things bumped together as much as possible.  This minimizes waste to its fullest extent and actually stretched the glass out somewhat.   Next week Ann will surely be moving along to borders.

  


Susan D has another 3D butterfly Suncatcher almost completed and this will also adorn her Flower Cornucopia.   With just the back to solder I'd say this is practically completed.

 


Becky S is working diligently on her pair of Birds On A Wire Windows.  Her work is about as exact as can be and everything fits together absolutely perfectly. 

  


Linda F has been busy with butterflies and these two are very close to being completed.  The one on the left just needs to be wrapped while the blue on on the right still needs to be ground.   Linda has been working extra hard at cutting off her lines as she cuts her glass and you can see that's working amazingly well for her by the way her blue Butterfly fits together with NO grinding at all.  Great work!

  

 
Rowena spent her class cutting, grinding and wrapping another Sunflower Flower Lawn Ornament  the bottom section is all tacked together already and all she needs to do to finish this is to tack the 6 smaller petals to the flower center.



Lastly, here's Carol's next 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornament.  She's making this one with more Van Gogh glass so it will look just as great as the last one that she did.

 


Hopefully the weather will allow us to have more students next week!  Things were a little slow in the shop (as you can tell by the amount of pictures we have in this post).  I can't wait to see all the faces I missed last week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Monday, June 19, 2017

Say, "This Is A Platter"

Back to grain.  The first thing you should do before tracing out your paper pattern pieces is to wipe off the glass with a moist paper towel.  This will remove any surface dust that will make your marker lines wash off easily.  The next thing you should do is put a line on the glass to show which way the grain is running.  In the picture below my line didn't show up so I've 'enhanced' it with a red photoshop line which you can see on the left side of the glass.   Next position your pattern pieces so all the lines on the paper match the line you drew on the glass.  Positioning the pattern pieces as in the photo below is a good start but the lines are still very much off from the red line that I drew on the glass.  This is wrong
 
 
Below I've straightened my pattern pieces to perfectly match the line I'd drawn on the glass.   You may think that you don't need to mark your glass with a grain line but 50% of our students have issues with grain because they refuse to do this simple little step. 



Okay then let's look at something completely different.  Jan came up with something completely unique and boy have the caught my attention.  these Stained Glass Air Plant Holders are the BOMB!  I really love how these turned out and Jan has already started making more of these.


Carol put the finishing solder lines on her Peacock Window and completed it this week.  Meanwhile, we are all trying to get her to make another peacock (but much, much, much larger).   She says she wants to make one but she isn't ready yet.  Until then everyone in our Thursday morning class will  continue holding their breath until she makes that window which will turn her into a true stained glass professional!   Judging by the work she did on this, a larger version will be a piece of cake when she decides to tackle it.



Martha's three Fleur De Lis Windows were all completed this week and she's done a great job working on a very advanced design.  Pay attention to the cuts that make up the arms of the Fleur De Lis and you will see some incredibly deep cuts.  I know that Martha is happy to see these completed because making three of anything is a mentally exhausting task.



This is our newest 3D Flower Lawn Ornament and we are officially calling it the Row Flower. It's based on the Sunflower design but features petals with a lot more flow to them.  Now that I'm really looking at it it's almost a flower within a flower.   No matter, you can easily see that Rowena did a great job with it and it's sure to look great in her yard.   I'm expecting to see more of these being made soon.

  


Brenda's Orange and Black Stylized Fleur De Lis Window was completed this week and there's not much more I can say about this that I haven't said before about the others that she's made.   Her curves all flow gracefully and her soldering is nothing short of impressive.  So there you have it!



Carol also turned out this 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornament which features a lot of Van Gogh Glass (it's the deeper purplish colored glass).   Van Gogh  glass is Glue Chip class with a mirrored backing Which doesn't allow light to come through from behind but allows light to reflect from the front side to reveal it's colors.  Without flash photography this butterfly would actually look as though there were gray or black glass in it, but when the picture is taken with a flash its true beauty appears.



This 3D Butterfly was made by Susan D this week and although you can't see it at all it is full of curved sections that she did on her own.  This is yet another piece of her Flower Cornucopia Lawn Decoration.




Lara's newest window is taking shape with just one class of work in on it.   This highly stylized Ballerina is set off by a distinctive use of shadowing throughout the design.   I know this is going to be one BEAUTIFUL window and since the Ballerina herself is all cut out I'm thinking that this will be finished before you know it.

 

Cindy is back to work on her Panel Lamp and is grinding the first panel already.  She's made a minor adjustment to the pattern that I think makes a world of difference to the overall look of the design but I'm not telling you what it is quite yet.  Below you can see how we use the same board to do multiple lamps.   Cindy's pattern has been traced vertically on the board while a lamp that Janet once worked on can be seen running horizontally across the same board.



Mary has all of the glass cut out for her Assorted Birds Window and she's already moved on to the grinding process.   Before I could get over to assist her she had nine pieces ground and fitting together perfectly.   If Mary has any doubts about her abilities she can surely lay them to rest.  This is going to be beautiful.




Terry got her Heron Window all ground and spent a good deal of her night wrapping pieces of glass.   This pattern has always been a favorite of mine  but Terry put her own personal spin on it by making changes here and there so she could utilize the limited amount of glass she had by increasing the amount of colors used elsewhere in the window.   This design change made things work out just right for the amount of glass that she had and the pattern holds up perfectly with the changes that she's made.

  


Myrt is making a new and different large suncatcher that is wholly original.  It's a Sunflower with a peace sign in the middle of it!  To make things easy she's going to assemble the piece sign and then tack that together so it can't shift about.   Once that's tacked the petals to the sunflower will be cut and things will be ready to go.

  


Next we have another novel window idea and this one is being made by Tasha.   It's a balloon in the shape of the letter 'J' floating in a nice summer sky.   She's still a little unsure of how the knot on the bottom of the balloon is going to work out but she'll see once she's wrapping all of the glass pieces that she's already ground (which is about 95% of her window if not more).   Next week she'll see how the lead lines will form the string and knot.

  


Sheri's Crane (or Heron) is coming together as the bird, the water and the leaves in the water have all been cut.  She's been marking out the grain lines onto all of her pattern pieces and is learning the rules to grain lines which we'll discuss in a Blog Tip in weeks to come.



Susan D is so close to having all of the glass cut for her Spring Window that it isn't even funny.   I can't wait to help her wrap this because I love working on pieces that are thin and long (most students don't really enjoy it nearly as much as I do though!)



Bonnie had a lot of irons in the fire this week as she finished doing all she could on her Peacock Suncatcher and then moved along to an Angel Suncatcher.   Once that was all cut and ground she started working on a Blue Football which was also cut and ground before she left class.  Whew!



Melissa was worried that she was going to miss class this week and not be able to work on her Semper Fi Window but as luck would have it we had an opening on another night and Melissa was able to get her window ground and fitting together perfectly,  She's begun wrapping all of her glass and has taken this home with her in hopes of coming back into class next week with everything wrapped and ready to tack together.



Jeanne has one Lawn Ornament Bee ground and one more just about ready to go.  Once these are wrapped she'll start tacking them together in a way that allows the wings and the body of the bee to have a slight curve to them.  It's not a huge curve but it's VERY noticeable and makes this design really catch people's attention.




And here's yet another Butterfly that Susan D spent time working on this week.  She got this all wrapped and pretty much tacked together before she left class and even managed to put a curve on it as well.   Again, all on her own.   Me thinks the girl has it all worked out.




And in wrapping things up we see that Linda L has another Cardinal Suncacther all ground and ready to be wrapped.  But if you look really carefully you'll see that there are pieces to yet another Cardinal hiding out in a zip lock bag to the left of the cardinal that she has pinned to the pattern.  That means that she'll get two more of these completed when she comes back into class.


That's it for this week and I know I've promised and promised but expect some Front Page News within the next three days.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Monday, June 12, 2017

Because I Do Not Cook

Lately we have been having a lot of students second guessing their grain lines when tracing the paper pattern onto the glass.   Grain lines were drawn onto those paper pattern pieces to stop you from having to worry about how they should be positioned.  If you start angling them incorrectly you will lose the individuality of each piece by having everything run together.   In the first flower you can see how the grain should flow.  In the second picture the grain lines were ignored and everything was run left to right.  The flower petals look terrible because everything is 'connected' which makes the lines stand out more.   In the third image we placed the grain lines of each pieces so that the lines on the pieces matched the grain of the glass (I also stayed away from too many harsh straight lines.) When assembled the third flower has a much more natural flow.  Remember, don't second guess yourself-- just follow those grain lines!  You marked them so you could avoid all the giessing about pattern placement.



Judy's Seafood Fleur De Lis is finished and what a work of art it is!  Measuring a HUGE 28 x 30 inches she still has pieces that measure as small as an eighth of an inch wide.  Can this pattern be made smaller?  Sure, but the look would be completely different due to the lack of detail that makes this look as incredible as it does.   It may have taken a while but this is EXCEPTIONAL work.



Linda F has completed her Dragonfly and Waterlilies window which is her largest creation to date.   She took her time and concentrated on the quality of her work over speed and the end result is not only stunning but something that she should be proud of.  There are a lot of pieces in this window but if you tackle them one at a time you end up with a finished project before you know it.



Lara finished her mothers Tree Of Life Window and all of those colors really make this piece a show stopper.  Normally I'm against using multiple colors in borders but this is one of those exceptions since the tree is so rich with color.  The border just ties it all together, don't you think?



Myrt has her Humming bird window finished and to properly complete it we had to add a eyeball to the hummingbird using a  black glass bead as an overlay.    We were originally going to cut the eyeball into the glass but Myrt forgot and soldered the head into place before before drilling the hole for the eye!  As you can see the situation was handles wonderfully and Myrt's bird has sight!



Paula's Wedding Box has been completed and she did a really spectacular job on it.   She completely understands the process of making a box now and has already begun work on a new box.   I've always felt that these make great Wedding gifts and I'm thinking that Paula agrees with me.  




Rowena's latest Beveled Transom Window was completed this week and as expected it turned out beautiful.   She's gong to have to get into the Transom Window Business if she keeps up this pace!



Here's Linda L's latest Cardinal Suncatcher.  She's got one more of these to go so I'm pretty sure we'll see this pattern one more time next week and then Linda will move along to an Address Window of her own.



Susan D has more pieces for her Flower Cornucopia Display under way and these two were completed before she left class.  I'd say that slow and steady wins the race but Susan isn't moving slowly-- just at a nice steady and even pace that gets things done.



So Terry walked in the door with another window all cut out and ready to be ground.   This is an Egrets and Magnolia Window whose colors look phenomenal.  She ground a good portion of this while she was in class so who knows how far she'll be along on this when she returns.




Cindy's panel lamp has hit a slight snag as the person she's making it  for wants to change some of the colors.  Since there is very little glass cut out it's a good time to change things up.   So while Cindy's lamp is on hold she's begun working on another Crab Tray that I'd forgotten all about.  She made one of these ages ago and it turned out great way back then.   From the looks of things this will will turn out great very shortly!

  


Mary's made major progress on her Birds Window and only has  the berries and her background left to cut.   We're going to pretend that there aren't any berries in this window and grind everything together before adding all of those small round berries.  This will ensure an absolutely perfect fit.


Sheri has begun cutting glass for her Crane Window and she's started by cutting out the subject of the window first. On a window with this many pieces you cut out your pattern pieces as you prepare to use them because cutting the pattern up all at once will result in slew of pieces that are too easy to lose and mix up.

  


Bonnie's Peacock suncatcher is really coming together and she's now on a holding pattern waiting for a piece of glass to come in.  Since she's making a few of these peacocks she'll be able to begin cutting a second one as she awaits the arrival of her glass.



Tracey's begun work on a large Cardinal Window and she's just plowing through the creative process with it!  With almost all of the cardinal cut there isn't a lot left to go on this.



Here's the next Wedding box that Paula is making.   She came up with the design herself after watching me draw up the first one that she made.   Nothing slips past Paula and I have a sneaking suspicion that this will turn out every bit as good as her first Weeding Box (if not better).

  


SusanR continued along whith her spring window.   With just the sky left to cut out she'll be finishing this up in no time at all.



Carol's work on her Small Peacock Window is fast approaching an end.  With her background cut out and her bevel border already attached,  Carol was able to get her final border strips cut.   Once those pieces are cut into place this window will just need a quick solder job.



Jeannette's Duck Window is looking nothing short of amazing.  With about 70% of this ground she'll certainly begin wrapping these feathers when she comes back in.   Look at how beautiful her grinding is!   And Rowena is correct--- as beautiful as the sky looks the picture here on the Blog, it pales in comparison when you actually see it in person.



Melissa continued working on grinding all of the glass for her Semper Fi Window and she's moving along at a nice even pace.  She's fast approaching the end of this window and her grinding skills are as sharp as any of our 'professional' students.

  



Shelley started a Fleur De Lis Window when she walked in the door and by the time class was completed she had already begun grinding her pieces.  This is one of those rare windows where you complete the center subject matter without cutting out the background pieces.  


Jan has her two Flower Holders all wrapped and ready for solder.   Without a doubt these will  be completed upon her return and I cant wait to see how they look.



Becky S would surely have her Birds On A Wire Project completed if she weren't cutting out two of them.  In the picture below she's seperated the glass that makes these into two distinct windows  so all of her work is plain to see rather than stacked up on top of one another.



Brenda resumed work on her Stylized Fleur De Lis Window and has all of the glass cut, ground and wrapped.   With only soldering left to go I'm sure that she'll be wrapping this up when she comes back in.

  
  

Martha has the first of her three Fleur De Lis' (the red one) all soldered and has a second just about completed.  I'm fairly sure that we'll see at least two of these washed and colored when she returns.



Barbara officially has all of the glass for her trees cut and ground into place.  She's taken it all home with her so she can hopefully wrap them in copper foil over the next two weeks (she'll be missing class next week) and once that's done we'll tack it together and then cat a sky to match the treeline.



Rowena has started working on a  new Flower Lawn Ornament.  This one has curved petals but will also have the 3D rim of petals around the center just like the Sunflowers Ornament does.

 


Linda L completed her second cardinal just as class was ending.   She making quick work with this one and quality is NOT an issue here.

And that wraps things up this week!  Come back again next week when a new slew of window will be completed and we go over grains lines in more depth.


Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks