Something that confuses our students a lot is determining whether the channel that surrounds their project needs to be covered with solder or not. Remembering that Zinc Channel does NOT get coated with solder and that Brass Channel does can be tricky unless you know this simple secret to remember it by. If the channel you are using is NOT silver colored before you patina it then you will need to put solder on it. Thus, zinc channel (which is silver) does not need to be coated with lead, while brass channel (which is brass colored) needs to be covered with lead. Everything should be silver before you apply patina. It's really THAT simple!
Belinda finished her Humming Bird Window and it's stunning. This is smaller than you might think measuring only 13 inches tall. That's a lot of detail in a small space but Belinda got everything fitting together beautifully and her soldering is nearing complete perfection.
Rowena's Pumpkin Window is as seasonal as a window could possibly be. Everything is perfect about this which is normal for Rowena.
Mary Grace completed her Air Force logo and the baroque background glass sets it off wonderfully. I only wish it would photograph better. I like the subtle use of red, white and blue colors as well. All of the patriotic colors are there, but having red in the border breaks up the symbolism.
Jan started and finished this Air Plant Panel which she's getting quite skilled at making! The twisted wire will support the small plant and the panel itself can hang just about anywhere.
Linda L completed two of these clear Beveled Heart Suncatchers and will be MIA for the next month as she gets her shoulder rebuilt. We wish her well and will miss her shenanigans in class!
These are two small pieces that I made during the week. The first being an American Flag Star and the second being a unique Crystal Hanging that uses 6 star bevels. Both are new designs and perhaps we'll see some student make their own.
In the last of our completed projects, Betty finished up her work on 3 more Jeweled Hangers and another Bevel Framed Heart.
Kerry got a lot of the red glass cut out for his tractor window and even though the pieces aren't completely in place you can easily see what this window is. His colors are perfect and I believe this will be one impressive window when it's finished.
Carol was busily plugging away at her Wine's A Solution Window and she's moving along with incredible speed. She's already grinding her pieces and some of them even have etched bubbles! I hope we get to see that next week as a closeup picture.
Tracey 's Grinch That Stole Christmas is all ground and the frown lines have even been painted onto the glass as well. Doing the painting BEFORE the window is soldered allows us to fire the lines onto the glass thus making them more permanent.
Cindy got her final border attached to her Clear Beveled Window and will get a large zinc channel (which does NOT get covered in solder) added to it when she comes back next week. I have to say that this is turning out great!
Jeannette came in with all of her Humming Birds Window tacked together save for the border. She wanted to somewhat match the border that she used on her large Peacock Window from a few years back so the two of us set to work and recreated a similar border for this window. By the end of class it was all tacked together!
Angie worked on 5 different Dragonfly Flowerpot Decorations and is ready to begin soldering them. That's a lot of work for just one 3 hour class!
Becky S is back and her Egret Window is back on the grinder! It was good to see her again and hopefully she was able to get her mind off things and relax a bit.
Rowena spent most of her time in class cutting out and grinding this Iridised Butterfly Window. She got everything cut and ground in one class so I have no doubt that this will be completed next week. Rowena doesn't waste a minute!
Patrice is all set to tack together her Umbrella Lady Window. She wrapped the bevels that will form her inner border and made sure that everything fits BEFORE she tacked things together. When working with bevels you can't assume things will fit-- you have to check and double check.
Jeanne M has all of the glass cut out for her Heart Window now. She came in and tacked the heart together and then made pattern pieces for the background. Once that was all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked she cut out a border and that she'll tack onto this next week when she should also finish her window.
Sheri has almost all of the glass cut out for her Bees and Honeycomb Suncatcher. With just the wings left to go she'll easily begin grinding this upon her return. This is one of the larger suncatchers due to the detail and number of pieces.
Linda's Sunflowers window got its border attached and tacked together. Once that was completed she got her brass channel in place and began soldering. This is just about finished now.
Barbara H was busy wrapping the pieces of her Wisteria Window so she can work on cutting out her background glass. The background should go easily enough so once this is tacked the majority of the hard work will essentially be completed.
Mary made incredible headway on her Egret Window as almost all of the bird has been cut out. It looks like the toughest part of this window was figuring out what was what on the uncolored pattern. That's a standard problem though. The way I figure things out is to start coloring in the pieces that I'm sure of with colored pencils on the pattern itself. Slowly but surely things become apparent once you start eliminating the unknowns.
Melissa's got most of her Birds On A Wire Window ground and I hate to say it but someone cut her off on the way home and all of these birds ended up as a pile of ground glass on the floor of her back seat. She's reassembled them and as far as I know there's nothing broken but it's still something that you never want to have happen to a window that you're working on.
Annette completed cutting out the glass that make up her Poodle and even got about a quarter of those pieces ground. She's discovered a few missing pieces but she'll cut them after this is tacked together. That will ensure a perfect fit with minimal grinding.
Jeff has more of the Hummingbird/Flower/Dragonfly section of his window tacked into place. Next up for him are some leaves, skies and Dragonfly pieces.
Lara has her final border attached and just needs to fill in the two circular corners. In the bottom corner she'll place a peacock feather and in the upper corner she's going to use a rose. She's taken this home to begin soldering it so she's wasting no time at all.
MiMi's almost finished cutting out her newsprint background glass. Everything lines up beautifully and the effect is already striking. Next week I promise to have a close up of the effect.
And there you have it, all the news that's fit to print at Bayou Salé GlassWorks!
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks
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