Extraordinarily Nice

Melissa's Kingdom Hearts Window is officially completed and she decided to color the lead with black patina rather than copper.  Why?  Well, it really helps to hide the lead lines that fall within the black background glass and it is also a GREAT choice for anything Logo or Cartoon related since both are traced out with black lines whenever you see them.  Melissa's work on this is flawless and the window is so very perfectly balanced.

  

 

Martha's Yellow Rose of Texas worried me slightly when I saw shades of green within the yellow glass that she used but now that it's been finished with some light behind it I see no green in the petals at all.   It just goes to show you that you can't trust glass when it is laying on a table.  To get the true color you MUST hold it up to see some light behind it.  And don't you just love the baroque background that Martha used?   She was able to assemble it so that the textured pattern of the glass fit back together perfectly!

 

 

 

My hat goes off to Mary Grace who made this Stained Glass 3D Succulent entirely by herself at home.  These things are a bugger to assemble and even though she said it took her a while, she still did it all on her own and ended up with a beautiful flower.  Then she made this stained glass Heart complete with a faceted crystal hanging in the center of it.

 

 

 

Speaking of 3D items, here's a look at the first of three(?) Flower Pot Succulents that Linda L finished this week.  It went together quickly and she's so impressed that she'll be making more of these.  Oh, and did I mention that she drew up the pattern for this herself?  :-)

Cheryl's LSU Tower only needed to get some solder on its back side and Cheryl accomplished that with ease. By the time class was over she walked out the door with this stately monument to LSU.  She initially wanted to match the original window that she saw but since that glass wasn't available she had to change both the yellow/gold and the purple.  This would be off putting to a lot of people but Cheryl didn't mind and ended up making a beautiful version of this pattern all the while making it her own.

 

 

 

Let finished her version of the LSU Tiger Eye also using shades of yellow/gold and purple of her own choice.   This size window (8" x 10.5") is becoming very popular in our Tuesday morning class because it allows you to maintain details while allowing the maker to complete the project pretty quickly.  Let's window is a perfect example of this.

Cindy knocked out another Wrought Iron Cross but changed the colors ever so slightly because she didn't have enough blue to cut all of the pieces that she colored blue in the last one.   Here we see that she used two shades of blue and placed them strategically throughout the Cross.   The end result is wonderful but the best thing about this is that she's sold it already!

 

 

Our last completed project is a new Frosty the Snowman that Betty made.   It obviously went together both quickly and efficiently partly because I think Betty could make this with her eyes closed now!

Let told me that she was looking for a Crab Window Pattern and I said that luck was with her because we had at least two crabs in the pattern drawers.   She found them both, settled on this one and began cutting glass for it this week.   As you can see, she's moving along quickly with it since the crab itself has not only been cut out but ground as well.

 

Martha got all of her Beach Themed Suncatchers ground and then moved along to the wrapping portion of her project.   With everything now foiled she'll begin soldering these and most certainly see most of them completed when she comes back in.

  

 

With all of the glass cut out for her Praying Santa, Ann then began grinding her pieces.   The bottom grass layer has been ground along with the baby Jesus in his bed of straw.  I suspect it won't take her long at all to finish the rest of the grinding and therefore the entire window.  I have absolutely no doubt that this will be finished in time for Christmas.

 

After getting the border attached to her Mari Gras Jester Betty turned her attention to her Nativity Scene Panel.  However, in the end she disliked the amber color she had picked for some of the robes and everyone told her "Change it now or you'll never be happy with it."  When she comes back in next week we'll see what she replaced it with.

  

Lisa is working on her Texas Collage in sections.   Right now she's grinding the Star portion of her window.   The yellow flower petals have yet to be cut but it looks that that will happen shortly.   Also, I found a piece of her star in the container of water next to the grinder that she was using so if she is reading this before class she can rest assured that she had, in fact, cut that piece of glass.

  

Next up we look at the first panel of Steve's new window.  True to his word he began cutting glass this week and it (well, this panel) is already about finished!   It's not much to look at right now but remember that this is just one sixth of the entire window which is being made in six (of course) sections.  What you see here is the ground found in the bottom left of the entire scene. 

  

All of those pins can only mean one thing-- that Susan R is grinding away at her large Christmas Ornament Suncatcher.  She's decided not to cut the top 'stem' of the ornament that the hook hangs from into four smaller rectangular pieces and to be honest I don't think that would matter one way or the other.  More on this when we return next week.

 

 

 

Our other Susan's Peacock has been tacked together and she even has her beveled inner border wrapped and tacked together.   With her new background pattern pieces all drawn out she'll be cutting her heavily textured background glass when she comes back in.  Once that's done the hardest part of this window will be behind her.

 

 

 

Angie's Clear Textures Tulip Window made major progress as she got her background glass cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  Once that was done she still had time to get her border attached as well as a brass channel.  With the front side of this window soldered I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that this gets finished upon Angie's return.

 

 

Sheri's Business Card Window is so very close now.  All of the glass has been cut and everything has been tacked together which just leaves Sheri with the soldering left to go.  There's been a lot of work put into this and it's all paying off now!

 

 

 

June's Razorback has been ground up to the eyes which means that she'll be dealing with larger pieces from here on out.   Larger pieces are quicker to grind since they are easier to maneuver around the grinding wheel which means that there's no doubt that this will be finished before Christmas. In fact, June will be well underway on another project by then.

 

  

 

As I said at the start of this post, Linda L is working on at least two more of her Potted Succulents and here are the pieces for her next pair which she already has ground and foiled.   She's currently 'tap-tapping' them with and that means that next week she will put these together.

 

 

 

Lastly we look at two more Frosty The Snowman Panels that Linda F is working on.   She's doing this correctly by cutting everything out at once and then grinding them together as well.  Working on one until it is finished and then starting a second always goes more slowly.  Last week these didn't even exist and this week- WHAM! Two Snowmen cut out and being ground already!

 

 

So that just leaves us with just one thing left to say:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks