Bayou Salé GlassWorks: Bow Down

Let has a new Flower Window under her belt (figuratively speaking, of course) and like all of her previous windows there is nothing to criticize on this. She's used shading between the inner and outer flower petals of the flowers perfectly and her transparent green background ties everything together beautifully.

Susan R completed her Pair Of Chefs Panel and accented it with two wire work mustaches and dots of black glass paint for the eyes. Her purple border ties in with the purple wine perfectly. I always say that when in doubt you should pick the least used color in your window and then echo it in the border. It doesn't have to match perfectly-- in fact, most times having a slight variation works even better than a perfect match!

Linda L's Drake Panel may become a snowball rolling down a snowy hill because now other members of her family are asking when she will make them a panel with their name in it. As always, Linda's cutting and grinding are wonderful which resulted in perfectly scripted letters.

Annette's Rose and Cross Window was made throughout the month that we took off for vacation. She brought it in this week with only the soldering left to go on it and she completed it well before class was over with. Her use of a pastel pink gives this window a nice soft, calming effect.

Let also made and altered the pattern for this colorful Heart which features a heart bevel off centered inside of the Heart itself. A perfectly aligned perimeter is of the utmost importance on this pattern because you can't use channel on it due to the curved edge. This pattern is about tap-tapping a leaded bead along the outer edge after making sure that everything lines up perfectly.

Sheri got her two Tropical Leaf Flowerpot Decorations finished by adding a brass rod to the back of each leaf. I actually cut the rods off while editing the picture and realize now that I probably shouldn't have. She found a brass rod at Tractor Supply which was long enough to cut into four lengths that are each suitable for Flowerpot decorations. That means that she's got two left over so perhaps we will see more of these in the weeks to come.

Lorrie made this Stained Glass Feather from start to finish while she was in class and then moved back on over to one of the windows that she was working on last week. We'll see that a little further along in this post. As for her feather, well, it's perfect!

Wow, wow, WOW! Check out the face that Steve painted on his Southern Belle Window! He used Pebeo Vitrea 160 Glass Paint and will allow it to dry for 24 hours. His next step is to put the painted face (just the piece of glass, not the entire window- this 'firing' process must be done before the window is soldered together) into his oven at home where he will heat it to 325°F for 40 minutes. After that those eyes, nose, and lips will only come off if you scrubs at them with a a razor blade, and who would want to do that to this Beautiful Southern Bell!

Susan D got the bird cut for her Autumn Tree Hoop as well as getting all of the glass globs ground. Now comes the fun wrapping phase for this beautiful circular window. The tree trunk and the ground will be cut and attached AFTER the globs have been tacked into position so that they attach perfectly.

MiMi has started her Five Birds On A Branch Window Hanging and her color choices are currently superb. She has only one bird left to cut out and to pick colors for but I have no doubt that it will match perfectly in the marvelous color scheme that she's already defined here.

Lara began cutting her Three Tulips Panel and before class was over with she had everything cut as well as having some of this tiny 4x4 window ground. She's making this look easier than it really is because 4x4 means that she is dealing with a lot of tiny pieces and they are the hardest things to deal with when it comes to grinding (and foiling).

Melissa did a lot of cutting throughout the week which is evident by the fact that she's already grinding the pieces for her Tulip Window. Her background (as well as all other color choices) is perfection because it's a wispy blue glass that's somewhat transparent. Because of the transparency her flowers are going to be the focal point of the window and they have been cut from glass that is just as wonderful a choice as Melissa's sky was.

Lisa is back and we're glad to see her smiling face again. She started grinding on her multi-colored Corner Cat and then foiled it as well. At that point she called it a day because she didn't want to tack it together and let it sit for any length of time before she could actually solder it. That means that this will surely be completed upon her return next week.

Let is never one to stand still (unless she's working at her grinder). She made this Circular Flower Window and will be soldering it so that she can start another new project next week when this becomes finished. This is another example of a perfectly aligned perimeter that can't get a channel around it to hide any flaws. And as always, Let has achieved an extremely high degree of accuracy here.

Cheryl is feeling VERY adventurous because this week we got to see her begin a very detailed Harley-Davidson Window. There's a lot to line up here but Cheryl is going to take things one section at a time. She's started things off by cutting out the letters for the words HARLEY DAVIDSON and when she returns she'll cut out the background glass for those letters. Once they've been ground and wrapped in foil she will tack that section together and then wash all of the flux off of that section before moving on to either the MOTOR or the CYCLES word section.

This is the second project that Lorrie worked on this week. She had the center with the Hen and the Laurel Wreath ground and mostly wrapped when she came in. After completing her stained glass Feather she resumed work on this by tacking everything together and then cutting, grinding, and foiling the border. That's what you call making the most of your class time.

Last week I told you all that I was going to suggest that Cindy re-cut the arms and the hair of Snow White and this week Cindy agreed. And now that she has some color to her and you can see the end result of making that change. I think that I can safely say that I was correct yet again. LOL

After getting her purple background glass cut out Judy then took to the grinder where she had no trouble at all getting everything fitted together perfectly. She's pinned all of her pieces down and when she comes back in she will begin foiling everything. Once it's wrapped and tacked she can begin to work on her border.

This is the back side of Annette's New Orleans Scene. Why are we looking at the back? Well it's because she has all of the front soldered already! This has been a test for her but a test that she's passing with flying colors. She worries that it's taken so long to get to this point but you can't rush a window like this. It gets made slower than most other windows simply because it's made up of so many tiny, intricate pieces. Besides, it's never about speed-- it's ALWAYS about quality!

Zoe's Deer Window is so closed to being completed that I hate not being able to post the finished picture of it here. But at least that means that I'll get a beautiful picture of it for our next post when I don't believe we will be seeing a lot of completed items which will give this window the spot light. Zoe's work is amazing and I can't wait to see what new project she begins when she comes back into class.

Since we are speaking of windows that are very nearly finished let's look in on Bee's LSU Plaque. She's got it all ground and foiled and ready to begin soldering. This is about 12 inches wide which means that there really isn't a lot to solder so expect to see this completed when she returns and expect to see what she plans on making next.

Sheri has a pair of Flower Crosses under construction with one of them being wrapped and tacked together while the second one is ground and ready to be foiled. These went together pretty darned quickly for Sheri which is a testament to how far along she's come as a glass artist.

And to wrap things up we look at the Corner Owl Pattern that Barbara is about to embark upon. She wanted to do a Bookend piece and really liked the Owl Pattern that everyone else loves to make as a large suncatcher. We scanned it into the computer, scaled it down to 5 inches wide and then angled him so he would fit into the slots of one of the wooden Bookends. This is the end result and Barbara will begin cutting into her scrap glass next week.