A Gnome and a Leprechaun Walk into A Bar

Since we've had a week off and we're slightly behind I'm going to just jump straight ahead into our students' work this week starting with Jeff who put the finishing touches on all six of his insert panels.  Here they are displayed in a fake frame so you can see just how they are laid out in the window that he is about to install them in.  As Jeff made the repeating panels he figured out ways to make the creation process simpler.   This is what we like to see, students who not only learn what we teach but who think things through on their own.   Beautiful work!

 

Becky B put the finishing touches on her African Violet this week and walked out the door with a completed window.   Also, I always like to point out when a student designs their own window and this is 100% Becky's pattern.   Loosely based on a Magnolia, Becky made it all her own.

  

Betty finished the first of her pair of cabinet Door Inserts and it is spectacular!  When she started this project she was worried that the bevel wasn't long enough to cover the door.  The thing is, a door like this would look incredibly cluttered if the bevel ran the full length of the door.  Using two small accent bevels, one near the top and the other near the bottom was truly the way to go.  Pure elegance.

  

Take a look at Patrice's USA inspired Fleur De Lis.   The colors may change but the pattern remains the same.   This is an excellent example of how colors can completely change a window and how easy it can be to make a pattern your own just through the use of color.

 

Well now, this is embarrassing.  I'm pretty sure this is Tracey's finished Butterfly Lawn Ornament but the colors are throwing me off so I could be wrong.  If I had to put money down on it I'd say that this is Tracey's latest Butterfly.  At any rate, whoever made it did a beautiful job! 

 

In our last post we saw Angie's 4519 Address Window and this week she walked in the door with a 4523 window just needing two borders and a channel.   As you can see, Angie walked out the door having achieved her goal.  This will surely be finished upon her return.

 

Is it a Travelocity Gnome?  Nope, it's Susan R's latest Lawn Ornament and I have no clue why, when people have asked me what other Lawn ornaments they can make, I've never thought of a doing a Garden Gnome.   I have to say that this was a stroke of genius on Susan's part.

 

Jan is making a Wedding Box and she's got the top completed already.  That means that she only needs to cut 5 more pieces of glass to finish this elegant wedding gift! It already looks great but wait until you see it finished.

 

Annette is steadily working her way up from the bottom of her Cardinal Window and you can already see how the pieces are starting to fit together to form a finished piece.  Learning how to grind pieces can be tricky but Annette is working her way through her window at a nice steady pace.

Belinda got her Sun and Moon Window completely ground and has taken it home so that she can have it wrapped when she comes back in. The final border will only take a few minutes to cut and with a little luck she'll be able to tack it all together when she returns.

 

Next up we see that Carol has put her own spin on the ever changing Fleur De Lis  Suncatcher.   She cut one complete FDL out of purple glass and then another out of Yellow/Gold.  Then, by mixing up the pieces she ends up with two mirror image suncatchers!

 

This week Becky S made an extreme amount of progress on her Egret Window as all the feathers have been cut out as well as a good majority of the pieces in her tree and sky.   As she did with her last window she's taped all of the small feathers together so they won't fall out of place before she grinds them.
 

 

Cindy's Faux Mosaic  Birds are really coming together now.  Her background has been cut out and she's fast approaching an interesting aspect of this window that will be done after she gets both sides soldered.  I'd tell you what it is but I'd rather surprise you in the weeks to come!

 

MiMi's Seafood Window has big plans in store for it as she attempts to incorporate an interesting use of background glass.   It's not in there yet but before you know it we will see something spectacular happen in this very Louisiana window.

Jeanne M spent her night wrapping the pieces of her Virgin Mary Window and getting quite a lot accomplished.   This window will get a border attached to it very soon and then there will only be the soldering left to go.  It's already an internet sensation on Facebook thanks to her wonderful work.

 

Jeannette essentially made this window in one class.   She only had the beveled 'C' wrapped when she walked in the door and before we knew it this window was ready to be soldered!  I see that she has a beveled 'G' in her box of tools so I'm thinking that her next window may be very similar to this one.

 

Kerry's Crane Window already has it's border attached and he's moved on to the soldering phase.   The border color perfectly compliments the colors central to the design and that's exactly what you want from a border.   Look to see this completed before you know it.

 

As you might recall, Lara's been working on the bottom portion of her large Peacock window.   In a round about way she's reducing the amount of pieces in the tail feathers by grinding each of the four pieces that make up the teardrop portion of the feathers.  Once they fit she'll wrap and tack them together thus reducing four pieces into one larger piece.  Grinding the surrounding pieces will be much easier this way since there will be fewer loose pieces that could shift out of place.

 

Shelley's Peace Flag Window is nearing completion as she prepares to cut her border.  She had a little issue where her pattern pieces didn't line up with the actual pattern but we've solved that and are now moving along to the final stage of this project.

 

Mary is also wrapping glass and she's foiling her pieces in a very methodical way to allow for growth during the foiling process.   By foiling every other piece her window will stretch proportionately if it grows allowing her to skim pieces on both sides of the window to allow for perfect symmetry.

 

With most of her wrapping completed, Melissa is about ready to tack this Le Pieta Window together and add a border to it.  It won't be long now and you have to admit that the background looks stunning.

 

Patrice worked on another Fleur De Lis Window Using a black, white, and gold color scheme.  This is a pattern that can made so many different ways depending on the colors that you chose.

 

Shawn was so very close to finishing her colorful Flower Window and then we found a break which stopped her from achieving that goal.  We've already knocked out the offending piece (do you see it in the photo?) and next week this will surely go home with Shawn.

Sheri's got all of the actual butterfly cut out for her latest Butterfly Circle and it's been ground as well.  As you can see she's already wrapping it and once that's done she'll tack it together and then place it on top of her background glass and then use the butterfly as a pattern piece!

 

Speaking of Butterflies, this is Tracey's newest Butterfly Lawn Ornament (this one I'm sure about) all set to be wrapped and soldered.  It's departure is scheduled for next week!

 

Finally, we sort of take a look at Susan D's latest window.  As you can't see she's making excellent progress on it.   I love the way the Elephant's Ears-- wait... never mind.  Don't expect to see what it is until after it's been gifted.  :-)

 

And that brings this to and end.  We're a week behind due to Easter but this post actually brings us up to date because we took the week off to head out of state for a vacation.   We WILL be back next time same bat time, same bat channel, so we'll see you then! 

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks