Bayou Salé GlassWorks: It's Semi-Permeable But Non-Osmotic

Although Christmas 2023 has come and gone this post reveals what happened in our classes that ended just a few days before Christmas (Yeah, I'm a little late posting this). With that said let's see what we have.

Lara came in with a Christmas Tree Cookie Suncatcher idea based on (of all things) a picture of a Christmas Cookie. It was easy enough to draw up instantly and by the time class was over with she had handily completed it. How sweet it is!

Let completed her large American Heart Suncatcher and even though the star isn't made of bevels as she had originally hoped for it to be, her finished work looks perfectly patriotic and lacking nothing. You've got to love her smooth outside perimeter edge . All of her pieces line up perfectly to form a perfectly seamless heart without any jagged edges at all.

Susan D made a Christmas Sleigh of her own and used Van Gogh glass for the runners under the sleigh. It's a great effect which anchors onto the sled in a very sturdy manor due to the curved right end reaching upward and connecting onto the front of the sleigh. Without that connection the runners would easily bend off. Hinge points can be hard to counter but this pattern provides a simple solution to a common problem. As she was leaving Susan told me that she would be adding some wire work to further accessorize her sleigh when she got home.

Cindy is wowing everyone with her patternless Bowl that she finished this week. It's an exercise in randomness that initially appears hard to execute, but in reality it's not THAT difficult at all. In fact, Cindy makes it look downright easy as you can see by the picture of her newest Bowl here.

Linda L finished her second Hanging Planter and did all of the wire work by herself. When it comes to plants the placement of the wires are determined by a simple formula: If you can see the center of the top of the leaf a wire should come out from that center and curve upward to the top of the planter. How it curves, well, there's really no right or wrong to it!

Betty said she planned on having a nice quiet Christmas Class without worrying about getting anything accomplished. That said, she still managed to complete a pair of Silverware Dragonfly Suncatchers. And these weren't the only ones done this week as you will see when you scroll down to our next picture.

Here we have Susan D's variation of the Silverware Dragonfly Suncatcher. She also made a pair of them but used an iridized textured glass for the wings and a complete spoon for the body and tail. It's simple to see that she's become very skilled at soldering the wings to the bowl of the spoon without creating a soldery mess!

Linda L is making something that we have yet to see created in any of our classes. This is going to be a standing 3D Table Clock complete with an inscription panel. And yes, it will keep time! Clock movements are actually readily available-- they run on a single AA battery and the movement hides within its stained glass surroundings. I can't wait to get a picture of this when it is completed.

Susan R is making another Squirrel Rain Gauge but she has cutt down the size of the tail this time around. She's already got all of the glass cut out and has even moved on to grinding her pieces. The second time you make a project it always goes quicker than the first time and this Squirrel is proving to be no exception.

Cindy is making another one of those patterns that strikes dread into most of our other students heart- myself included. These multi-colored Birds On A Wire are incredibly cost efficient to make because you can use up a lot of scrap to make them but all of those tiny eyes are a pain to cut and grind and even wrap. Unless, of course, you're Cindy who actually enjoys working with small pieces!

Let must have Hearts on her mind because she not only completed her American Heart, she also began a Sunset Heart. She's been choosing her colors carefully and is already grinding her pieces for a nice perfect fit. I'm expecting to see this completed upon her return because she loves to work at home throughout the week and in this case she's going to have not one but two weeks of free time in between classes due to our having no classes between Christmas and New Years. That's a lot of free time that I'm sure Let will fill with stained glass work at home.

Linda F's Snowman in a Snow Globe was completely ground well before class was over with so she began wrapping her pieces in copper foil. With more than half of it foiled I'm sure that this Frosty will be skating out the door very, very soon.

Kerry almost finished his Arrow Window that he began making last week for the Boy Scouts. In this class he tacked his arrow together, cut his background glass, ground it, and tacked it to the arrow. But that's not all. He also cut his border got it attached and then soldered the entire window. The only thing left to do is touch up the soldering a bit here and there afterwhich he'll move along to his next project.

As you can clearly see, Lisa is making excellent progress on her Texas Window. She has even more blue bonnets cut out and once that last bunch of bonnets is cut and ground she'll be breezing along nice and easy through the rest of this window.

Melissa's Gingerbread House is nearing completion as she got all of her pieces ground while in class. The chimney, the windows and the ginger bread man still have some cuts to be made within them but Melissa will do that after the rest of this has been wrapped and tacked together. The windows and the ginger bread man actually wouldn't be that hard to cut out in their individual pieces but cutting them as a larger single piece that can be more easily ground to fit into their respective positions and then cutting them down into their smaller pieces is going to make things (especially the chimney) so much easier and quicker.

Although this panel in Steve's Southern Belle Window looks pretty dark it's going to provide incredible contrast with the woman's almost white dress and beautiful red hair. Like anything else that is made here in our shop, this project will take shape more and more with each additional panel that Steve makes.

Nope, this isn't a re-post mistake. Susan D is already hard at work making a second Santa Sleight that looks very much like her first one which we saw completed earlier on in this post. She also made that pair of Dragonflies so I guess that making two of the same item is becoming Susan's new 'thing'.

I have got to hand it to Cheryl because she did a ton of brilliant work on her Address Window this past week. Her numbers have been ground to perfection and the fitting of her intricate Fleur De Lis is just downright impressive. She also got her numbers wrapped in copper foil so after she foils her FDL this will be be ready to get a background cut out for it.

And here we have Bee's Front Door Insert which has all been tacked together save for the second to last border. That will only take a minute or two to tack after which she'll get her final border cut and ground. This window is almost a done deal.

And with her final border cut, ground and more than halfway wrapped, June will be ready to begin soldering her Razorback Window when she comes back in. Her multicolored border works so well with this design because she's used the same two colors throughout the window thus keeping the palette small and simple. This is yet another project that will be finished before you know it.

Judy's Marshmallow Roasting Bears has all been ground save for three small fill in pieces that will be easier cut after this has been tacked together. Judy will need to wrap all of her pieces first but that never takes her long to accomplish so perhaps we'll see some border strips for this when she comes back in.

Martha's Turtle certainly looks as though it's ready to swim on out the door! With everything attached and some of the soldering completed on the front side I would be VERY surprised if she didn't complete this when she comes back in. I know that won't happen until next year but it's even closer than you think!

Betty is making a Celtic Knot Cross and will NOT be making the same mistake that I did when I made a dozen of these a few years ago. Only nine of mine survived because of how thin some of the glass was, especially in the pair of bottom (longer) pieces. To stop this Cross from breaking so easily Betty will fill the elliptical openings with clear window glass to provide some much needed strength to this design. By using an non-textured class the cross will still appear to have empty spaces throughout it which is exactly what a Celtic pattern needs.

And to wrap things up we're showing you the pattern that Sheri is about to begin when she comes back in. This will be made almost completely out of clear textures. Sheri is carefully choosing three different textures with densities that contrast strongly against each another. However, she'll also add a small spot of color in the center of each flower to give it some punch!