Proper Grinding is important for numerous reasons. The two most
notable being 1) to allow the foil to adhere to the glass better, and 2)
to prevent your piece from cracking when solder is applied.
Below is a piece of glass that has not been ground. The edge is shiny
and the corners are sharp enough to easily cut through any foil the you
might try to use on it.
The rough white edge that you see below shows that the piece has now been ground but not nearly enough.
Although there are sections that have been touched by the grinding wheel
(they appear white) it isn't a thorough job. You will still have
problems getting the foil to lay flat along the glass and there's still a
possibility that the glass will crack when the lead is applied. If
your glass looks like this you might want to try reversing your piece by
putting the top side down on the grinder and going over it again.
Sometimes that makes a big difference especially when skimming borders.
Lastly we have a properly ground piece of glass. Since the edge is
completely white (and therefore rough), the foil will stick to it easily and the odds are far
better that the piece won't crack due to heat. If all of your pieces
look like this before you foil them I can guarantee that your
finished window will be sturdier than if the pieces were just lightly
skimmed as above.
Okay, first up is Lara who was surely busy this week as she completed her Townscape Window. That unbroken sky really makes this stand out as does the aerial coming off the 'point' of one of the buildings. It's called wire work and it's sort of like adding a cherry on top of a dish of ice cream-- it may be unnecessary but it certainly adds so much to the end result!
Angie finished her Beveled Cardinal window but I have to confess that I'm only calling it a cardinal because of the deep red border that she surrounded it with. The bird is actually too generic to name but I kept seeing a cardinal after the border was cut and attached.
Sheri's pair of Ladybugs are wonderful but those legs and antenna make this a project that beginners should steer clear of. It's no so much the wire work itself that makes this so difficult as it is the need to make a heavy elongated blob of solder to connect the wire to the body. Let's just say that it's incredibly tricky but incredibly worth the time it takes to accomplish.
Linda L got three separate Suncatchers completed this week. Her Butterfly in a hoop worked out particularly well and since she left the lead silver she was able to skip the step were she would have to tin the hoop in lead so it would turn copper along with the rest of the metal had Patina been applied. She also made a gorgeous purple Butterfly Suncatcher and a Beveled Home Sweet Home plaque in the shape of a house as well!
Now even though I said Lara was busy did you honestly think that you would see her complete two full scale windows in just one week? Truth be told she only had to solder the back side of this Flower Window but she still got a ton of work completed in just 3 short hours. I'm also happy to get a final photo of this project which rounds out her series of three windows in this style.
Linda F's Multi Colored Owl is as stunning as it ever could be. People look at this and think that it's an easy pattern to male but it's far from a beginner's pattern-- Linda just makes it look easy by completing these Hoot Owls so quickly!
For our final completed project of the week we look at Lisa's beautiful Duck Suncatcher. She's gone the full nine yards by adding 2 posts and then affixing those posts into a piece of wood to make a stunning tabletop glass and wood sculpture. I've always said that glass and wood work together well and this finished piece by Lisa is my proof!
Next up we have Bee's Cardinal window which is truly stunning . I feel it's all because of those beautiful wing feathers that are spread so beautifully throughout the center of her window. This already looks amazing to me and it's certainly in capable hands as is clearly evident.
Betty's Easter Gnome is going to turn a lot of heads. She said that she has plans on making different versions of this little guy for different holidays by simply changing the item he is holding. I guess that means we'll have a series of the Garden Gnome Patterns developing!
Shelley's Dolphin Panel was cut out at home but it really came together while she was in class due her work at the grinder. This is ready to be foiled and I wouldn't be surprised to see it completed upon her return.
Jeannette also worked on this Suncatcher Heart with two dog paws in it. Now that it's all cut and ground she'll be able to wrap her pieces at home and finish it up quickly.
Jodie is ready to rock and roll with her Geometric Window as she got all of her glass cut, ground, wrapped and tacked. Soldering this shouldn't take long at all so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this will be completed when she comes back in.
Susan D's Winter Panel looks better and better each week as more and more of it gets fitted into place. Since this window won't have a border surrounding it (due to space restraints) she needs to make sure that there's enough room for 2 pieces of foil between every piece of glass or else the window will grow larger than the opening she is making it. So far though, everything looks great to me.
Kerry's Unicorn is fully taking shape now and you can see that he's left the yellow horn on top of the head in one piece. Once everything is ground he's going to cut the horn into its four separate pieces that will then fit together perfectly just as we discussed in last weeks tip.
Cindy's moving at breakneck speed on her Heron Window. She only has the water left to cut before she can start soldering and I know that water will be cut out when she comes back in. She wants to get it cut out of one piece of glass so that the grain of the glass is unbroken thus creating a rippling water effect. You'll see just what that looks like in our next post.
Mary's Heart Panel is also very near completion as it only needs to get some wires attached before she can color this and then move along to something new. I cant wait to see how this looks with all the wire work finished because we've never seen anything done quite like this before!
Melissa has her Circular Pair Of Cardinals ground and will begin wrapping and tacking them together when she comes back in. She wants all of the background glass to match up seamlessly which means that she's going to tack the birds together and then lay them on top of her fractures and streamers background glass to trace around them. It's a lot of work but in the end it will be worth it.
Ann has another Flower Hand Mirror under way and with everything cut and ground she moved along to the wrapping phase of this project. That means that this could very well be finished when we next see it.
Here's a look at MiMi's 4th Hexagonal Window as she was soldering it in class. As a bonus I've stolen her picture from Facebook so you can see a bit of what it looked like after she completed soldering and coloring it at home. Nice.
Tracey is utilizing all of her scrap glass by making this wonderful Southwestern Butterfly Lawn Ornament. She's a pro at these as is readily apparent in the picture below because she started cutting this when she came into class and already has all of it ground and half of it foiled.
Judy's Scales of Justice Window is all tacked together complete with its double border. That means that Judy will take her time and work on soldering this when she comes back in. Will it be completed next week? It's honestly hard to say at this point but time will tell.
Cheryl's Mr Bingle window is just about ready to get its borders attached. This week she completed grinding all of her pieces and then began wrapping everything with 1/4 inch foil. We're using larger foil to get some extra lead on this LARGE window for some added support.
Barbara H got the remainder of her small Louisiana Iris Panel ground and will wrap and tack this together upon her return. She was also able to play camera-woman during class when we needed someone to hold a camera for us. Thanks Barbara!
And to wrap things up we take a look at Jeannette's Heron Window which only has a few more lines left to solder before she can call it completed. This will surely be completed when she comes back in.
And there you have it. We hope to see you again next week!
Paul
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