Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Time For A Break

2012-01-31T11:55:00.009-06:00

Terry's LSU Tiger Window is really something else. From the design to the colors and especially the workmanship, this window is hard to knock. The outer border is the same as the background glass and the only program she had making this was that 5 of the border pieces got cut out of an EXTREMELY dark section of the glass and looked completely out of place. Everything looked fine until we held it up. We all knew that something had to be done and Terry had no problem changing the 5 pieces within 15 minutes or so. All in all, a job well done.

Peewee has completed his latest Fleur De Lis Window and like the others this one is perfect. He still has either two or three left to go before he can retire this pattern. At this point in time I can't really recall how many he's done already but rest assured you'll see at least 2 more of these.

Susan's latest Hand Mirror has been completed. She's altering the design of the hand mirror and has come up with a new pattern which you'll see in the next Blog Update. It's not that she doesn't like this pattern, she just wants something that goes together a bit faster than this. Looking at this mirror I'd say that she's mastered the pattern for this one.

Next we get to take a look at Denise's latest Fleur De Lis. It's her own design commemorating the winning season that the Saints had in 2009-2010 right down to their Super Bowl victory. The XLIV is cut from mirror and really doesn't show well in the picture but you can clearly see Denise's attention to detail.Roxie has her hand mirror all cut out and it's ready to be ground. Everyone loves the color scheme of this mirror because it's a completely different take on a familiar theme. It's amazing how much colors can influence a pattern.

Whoa! Look here! The border is cut, ground and wrapped on Patty's Seafood window. This means that all the glass has been cut for this and there's only soldering left to do. Since Patty was dealing with such tiny pieces she wrapped this in 3/16ths foil which means that the soldering process should go nice and easy. This one has just 1 more week left in the shop because when patty returns this should be completed!

What a boar. Donkeys and Tigers and Boars, oh my. This place is starting to look like a glass menagerie! We've also done a Moose, and Elk, a Cow, and too many birds to even shake a glass cutter at. Cindy's got the 1st of her 2 latest Boar Head Windows almost completed now. She'll be making these in her sleep next!

And since Terry completed her Tiger Window she started on this VERY fancy Fleur De Lis window. This from the woman who says she doesn't like making Fleur De Lis'! in fact, for accents she plans on putting smaller FDL's in the 4 corners of this window! Just imagine what she'd be doing if she loved making Fleur De Lis! Honestly though, this is a very nice design with a lot of work involved in it. The tricky part is keeping the diamonds aligned after you start foiling them and things start shifting. But I have no doubt that Terry will prevail!

We're almost caught up now. I believe there are only 2 postings to go before we are caught up with things up to the first week of classes in February. And my New Years Resolution is to keep this Blog current! (Of course I just made the resolution now on the last day of January so does it really count??)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Them's The Breaks

2012-01-26T22:47:00.008-06:00

Anita has been keeping her nights occupied by making sun catchers in her spare time. She's made a cross or 2 before and now she's made her own version of a stylized cross. I like how nicely she got her gold diamond points to fit in the "wooden" parts of the cross
And here's a Fleur De Lis that Anita also made one night while she was at home. She always has 2 or 3 projects going on at once so we never know what we'll see next when she comes in.

And speaking of not knowing what we'll see next, well Denise hasn't stopped making glass and she surprised me with a few pictures of items she's made lately. And this Angel Cross is one of the finished projects that appeared in my email. We'll be show casing a few more projects by Denise in the next few Blogs updates so you can see what she's been doing at home.

Denise also sent along this Teddy Bear sun catcher that she made. She's another one that doesn't stop for a break. :-)

Susan still has the Hand Mirror Fever and this is the latest one that she's been working on. The good news is that it's almost completed. I'd say it's got about a week left to go before someone gets to look into it and ask who's the fairest of them all...

All of the glass is cut and ground and only the last green border has to be wrapped before Fran can pretty much call this a completed project. There's still the soldering, of course, but Fran hasn't had much of a problem handling that on her own. A few touch ups in an area here or there and she'll be able to take this home and begin her next project.

Terry's Lion Window looks incredible. This thing looks downright ferocious so I'd say that she managed to capture the fighting spirit of LSU , wouldn't you? Then again, all of Terry's projects come out pretty darned perfect. I guess you could say that "They're Grrrrreat!" (Oops, wrong tiger!)

And let's not forget about Myrt's Flower/Dragonfly Window. As you can see she's got this flipped to the back side now which means that she pretty much has this window in the bag, so to speak. I like the way she took the initiative to change parts of it on her own and I can't wait to see it lit up from behind. I'll bet you can't wait either.

Peewee's latest Fleur De Lis window is also close to completion. All this needs is some solder and it will be hanging above a door in Peewee and Dianne's house.

Pam worked on a Fleur De Lis of her own this week. She's always coming up with her own patterns and walking in the door with projects that she's started at home on her own. She's certainly a lot more confident now and no longer afraid to tackle anything. Like so many other windows this week, this one just needs some solder before it sees the light of the sun.

I remember when Cindy made this window as her first project. When it was finished she put the pattern in the drawer thinking she'd never see it again but here we see she's not only working on it yet again but she's almost got it halfway completed. And the funny thing is that she has another one to do after this is finished! Never say never...

Lastly we'll take a look at Ann's two cabinet windows. We assumed that they were the same size but it turned out that there was almost a half inch difference in the width between the 2 of them. Luckily we had room on the sides to take off a bit here and there to make one slightly smaller. I must say that luck was with us because if she had cut out 2 of the smaller versions we would have had to recut all the edge pieces on one window to make it larger. At any rate, they're both ground and sized perfectly now. She's got one almost completely wrapped and the other isn't far behind so working on soldering these will be the next thing to do...

Wow, I can't believe how many windows we looked at that are so close to completion. I think we're about to see a lot of projects headed out the door for the last time very soon now.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Saints Or Sinners

2012-01-25T19:54:00.006-06:00

Wow, I have to say that Cindy scored a touch down with this window. She started this knowing that she would use purple and gold for the tiger eye and the LSU but she had no idea what to use for her background. In the end she decided to use green to make it look like the LSU Football field and boy does it ever work on this window! What a great job she did on this.

And Sonia's Fleur De Lis Box is a winner as well. These boxes seem to be the perfect size because they all turn out looking very classy. Sonia was under the gun when it came down to completing this in time for Christmas but she managed to do it without sacrificing any of the quality of her work.

Pam added another of her over-sized sun catchers to her list of accomplishments when she completed this Water Lily design. Her confidence is high and her projects are getting more and more complex with each accomplished project.

Susan's latest Hand Mirror has pink undertones throughout all the glass which tie it all together perfectly. These really are a great gift and we've seen many of them made for Christmas recently. And since 3 more students have mentioned making these I think we'll be seeing different variations of the flowered hand mirror for a while.

And since Susan has become a professional at making Hand Mirrors and Business Card Holders she decided to really break out this week and complete one of each. This is her 'spur-of-the-moment' Blue Baroque Business Card Holder.

And Susan wasn't ready to call it a day with 2 projects completed so before Susan left she also started grinding her next Hand Mirror. She had cut it out at home and when she headed back home it was more than half ground and fitted together.

Fran's Donkey is just about complete! And when I say 'just about' I mean that the hard part is most certainly over with with. It's all tacked together save for her double borders which she'll work on when she returns. This window reminds me of Donkey from the Shrek movies. He's really got character.

With her added oysters, Patty can almost officially call this Seafood Medley Window complete! There are possible a few background pieces left to cut (I say possibly only because some of them are so small that we may lose them under solder and if that's going to happen then why should she bother cutting and wrapping them in the first place?) so this window is going to get a border on it next! And to think that Patty thought that she would never finish this window.

Ann's Butterfly Cabinet Doors are looking to be quite beautiful. This is the first one all ground and fitted together perfectly. She'll be doing some wrapping at home and then she'll begin grinding the mirror image of this window for her second cabinet door.

Lastly we'll take a look at this detail mid-sized window that Anita is making. It's not exactly a small project but it's small enough to make working with the tiny pieces a bit of a problem. But problem or not Anita managed to grind it all, wrap it and then tack it together. She'll be finishing this one at home for sure.

For those of you keeping track of the time frame on these posts, this update takes us up to Christmas of 2011. That means there are only 1 more set of classes before the New Year starts and things get a little less hectic around here.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Don't Learn Safety By Accident

2012-01-23T21:44:00.005-06:00

I knew I was going to like this box when it was finished-- I could just feel it in my bones. True, it's not you would call a conventional item but it's the perfect Christmas gift for the guy who has everything. Sonia did a great job on this-- even though at first glance you might think, "There's no way that's a skull in a top hat" it only takes a second glance to realize that there's no mistaking that's exactly what it is.

Roxie finished her 2 frames in time for the Holidays and I've put some nice pictures in them to show them off. They looked sort of plain and boring with nothing in them. For the record, they're both the same size-- I just pictured them in both Landscape and Portrait orientations so you can see that they work in either direction.

Close you eyes and tap your heels together three times. And think to yourself, there's no place like home.

And while we're on a movie theme here, I can't help but call Anita's 1st project this week the 'Finding Nemo' sun catcher. I'm not sure if this is a clown fish or not but it's certainly the correct colors.

And here's a look at Anita's Bordered Glass Window. She just really liked the design in this clear textured glass and decided that it was pretty enough to hang as is. Well, she did add a double border to give it a little extra something...

Also, Anita made this small sunflower window as well. But her real project for this week is the next one...

This is Anita's Seagulls and Sunset window. Her Seagulls have a very contemporary look about them making this a classic stained glass window with a modern twist.

Next up is this week's featured Fleur De Lis. This one was made by Terry and if you haven't noticed, her black border and the actual FDL are made from the same glass used by Roxie in her 2 frames up above. This is always a popular glass and you can see why everyone likes it. Whether she likes making them or not Terry certainly has a knack for Fluer De Lis windows!

Dianne has completed her 1st Victorian Styled Window. Throughout the building process of this window she's learned a lot and seems to have lost most of the worries that plague students initially. She made this window with a good deal of confidence and very little help at all. This will end up above one of the doorways in her house.

And Dianne already has her second companion window just about ready to be soldered. As I always say-- if you're making more than one of the same window it's best to cut them all out at the same time. When you get on a roll you don't want to move onto another step and lose your momentum.

Wow, look at Terry's Tiger. It's yet another pattern that she drew up herself and I have to say that it is a VERY nice pattern at that. It's almost completely ground so she'll be working on a background and a border next. Talk about a window with personality! Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Susan got one of her hand mirrors together this week. This one is ready to be soldered but since the mirror was cut at the end of class we decided that it would be best of she tracked it into place next week so the mirror wouldn't sit with chemicals on it for any length of time. Mirrors are tricky to work with because the backing can get damaged fairly easily and once that happens you have a mirror with black rotting edges rather than a bright shiny mirror.

After Sonia completed her Skull box she immediately went to work on making a second box. She had some of this completed last week but this week her entire box top is completed. That means there are just 5 pieces of glass to cut and tack together before she attaches this top and calls this finished. Something tells me that she really liked the boxes Roxie made since this was cut from the same pattern and the same glass. Imitation is the highest form of flattery!

There are about 5 pieces left to go on this before Patty adds her border. There's a spot on the lower right where the pattern calls for the top part of an oyster but Patty was ready to just fill it in with background glass so she could get this done. Alas, I intervened and have insisted that since she's gone this far with her window I don't want to see her wimping out at the very end and having a big hole in it. Next week we'll fill in an oyster and finish the background.

And here's yet another original pattern. Cindy wanted to see if she could come up with something on her own and she's done a marvelous job! This is a big window at 30 inches long so she'll have to use some zinc channel to finish it off. The zinc channel is far heavier and makes a sturdier window but it also much wider than the lighter brass channel. A window this size needs the extra stability that the zinc channel will add.

Ann has begun grinding the first of her 2 mirror image cabinet windows that she's making. Wait a minute, how can she start grinding them is we didn't even see her start these???? Well, I missed out on taking pictures last week when she began cutting her butterflies. Then she did a lot of work at home and that means she's grinding these already. And when you next see these I think they'll be completed! Ann has been working very diligently on these windows and they are coming together quickly.

And rounding things off here at the end we'll take a look at Peewee's latest Fleur De Lis Window. It's the same design that he made before just with slightly different measurements. He needs a few filler pieces in this one but I'd say he'll be adding a border when he comes in again.

There is only 1 week to go until Christmas 2011 gets here (yeah, I know I'm behind here with the updates but we're getting there!) so come back shortly to see just what gets finished before Santa needs to collect these windows to make his deliveries.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Band-Aids and Paper Towels

2012-01-16T21:39:00.008-06:00

This update brings us into the month of December. I have plenty of pictures and I believe I have everything sorted by week now. My biggest problem is remembering who made what project when I look back at these month old pictures.

There's no need to fear--Blue Dog is here! I have to say that Cindy's window really came out nice. It's so vibrant that there's no way anyone can ignore it. In fact, it really reminds me of a comic book panel. Cindy knocked this out on record time but you can't tell that from the quality of the finished project.

Anita's Symmetrical Geometric Design has really caught a lot of the students eyes. Something like this isn't that difficult to make and it always manages to be an attention getter. These are the kind of projects that we love around here.

Wow, where do I start with Pam? Pam was as busy as she could possibly be hammering out 5 large suncatchers in between classes. This is her Purple Calla Lily.

This is her geometric design.
This is her fancy cross
This is her Fluer De Lis.
And this is Pam's Orchid. All of these were made at home by Pam and she finished them all off during class this week. I can really see an improvement in her work as she's finding it easier and easier to keep the glass within the lines on her patterns.

Terry completed her Saints Window and I would have been shocked if she hadn't completed it this week. It just wouldn't seem right if Terry didn't finish a project during class. :-)

And Susan has another Business Card Holder under her belt. I don't even think she needs the pattern to cut and grind these things anymore! One thing is sure, she has the process down pat.

And when Susan finished her Card Holder she began working on a new Hand Mirror. Here you can see her pieces have been traced out onto her glass where she will begin cutting them at home.

Sonia's Skull Box is really taking shape now. The top is complete-- all it needs is to be cleaned up and colored. That means that there are only 5 pieces left to cut and solder together so she can attach this top and have it featured in the Blog.

Who do you suppose is making this Fleur De Lis? None other than Terry. For someone who's burned out on making Fleur De Lis' she certain has enough people asking for them. Maybe if she makes them upside down it will appear to be something other than a Fleur De Lis and make it a little easier to work on...

Peewee started on 2 more Fleur De Lis Windows which are essentially the same as he made before only sized up differently. This is one of the FDL's that he cut and ground. The other was at the grinder with him while I was snapping pictures.

Myrt's been wrapping her glass and it looks as though this window is just about done. Once it's tacked together she'll fill in the sun and cut it into 5 pieces. Then it's just a border and some soldering!

Dianne has the front side of her Victorian styled window soldered and only has the back side left to go. It's amazing how fast people get things done during the month of December-- especially if what they're working on is a gift!

And when Cindy finished her Blue Dog Window she immediately started working on the first of 2 more Boar Windows that she has orders for. Don't get me wrong, I loved the window when she completed it but I never thought that she'd have to make 2 more!

And speaking of animal windows let's take a look at Fran's Donkey window. With only the mouth left to go she's about to wrap this project up shortly. I guess you can say she has her ass in gear!

Anita made this window at home and brought it in to solder it. This is another project that is soldered on the front side but not the back side. We'd finish things much quicker in here if we could find a way to do both sides at once. But for now she'll have to tackle the back side next week.

And as a quicky project Anita decided that she had to do something quick and simple with this piece of clear glass embossed with Bamboo leaves and stalks. She just squared it up and added 2 borders around it to frame it all out. These borders need to be wrapped and then they'll only be a little solder to do before she completes this window.

And that will wrap things up in a retrospective look at what happened during classes during the first week of December 2011. Expect a second week update VERY shortly.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A Child Of A Man Who Eats Biscuits

2012-01-15T17:08:00.005-06:00

A sign of excellence in any art is the ability to be precise. Story has it that when asked by the Pope for an example of his artist skills, Italian Renaissance artist Giotto di Bondone freehanded a circle so perfect that it appeared as though it was drawn using a compass. That perfect circle got him a job commissioned by the Pope himself.

Keeping that in mind, look at these 3 Fleur De Lis' that Bonnie made. All cut and ground separately with a week in between some of them yet I can't see any difference save for the colors. I'd say they're perfect and that doesn't come easy with stained glass. Great job, Bonnie.

Whoa! Look at all the Hand Mirrors that Cindy has made. I count 22 of them but there's no telling if all the mirrors she made managed to make it in for the class picture or not. Nonetheless, Cindy's got the patience of a saint because making 22 of anything always has me ready to be put in a straight jacket and hauled off to the funny farm. Hey, if she had dropped the box of them on the way to the car and they all broke she would have had 154 years of bad luck. But she didn't...

And up next is the last of our completed windows this week. Terry finished her Red Fish and it looks like it's about ready to clean and eat! When her dear friend Sir Donnchad Horace Wellington, more commonly known as the Duke of Wellingtonshire, was looking to commission a stained glass window Terry cut out a perfect convex quadrilateral which impressed Donnchad so much that he had her make this fish window for his Den of Iniquity. (Come on now, you don't REALLY believe that do you?) :-|

Terry, who's getting burned out on making Fleur De Lis, decided to make a Saints Football Helmet Window which incorporates a... (wait for it) ...Fleur De Lis as the helmets emblem! Well, at least it's not the focal point which could explain why she's managed to get through this window so quickly. The brass channel is on and there's only the backside left to solder.

As well as making numerous mirrors, Cindy has been working on her Blue Dog in the Bayou Window. As you can see it's almost finished now with only the back side left to solder. The teeth of the 'gator are going to be interesting as we'll be making them with foil and then covering the foil with lead. Stay tuned to see how that all works out.

Okay, here's the part of the Blog where we cover Anita's THREE windows this week. We'll start by taking a look at her circular Geometric Window. It's all together now and like Cindy and Terry's windows this just needs some solder on the second side and then a channel to surround it before she wraps up this project.

And it looks like circles agree with Anita because she cut out this cute Finding Nemo-like suncatcher during the week and brought it in to class to grind.

Lastly, to wrap things up we take a look at Anita's Sunflower Window. She cut the border in class and got it ground, attached and then channeled. She'll most likely complete this one at home so expect to see this one completed during her next class.

So that's about it for this edition of our updates. Look for a follow up tomorrow as we try to catch up to what's been happening with our students in 2012.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Look! He's Planking!

2012-01-08T22:41:00.006-06:00

"Little darling, It's been a long, cold lonely winter. Little darling, It feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say, It's all right."

You just can't go wrong starting things off with a Beatles quote. And I can't help but think of 'Here Comes The Sun' whenever I see this window made. I've always found the border of this window to be interesting in it's simplicity because it doesn't even completely surround the sun. the sad thing is that although I can recall the drawing the face comes from the border itself may or may not be my own design. Anyway, Anita made this window almost completely at home and she did a great job at that.

Anita also made this Fleur De Lis one night when she was looking for something quick and simple to do. If I'm not mistaken she drew the pattern herself.

Ann has completed the second of her small Accent Windows. It's the same of the first but she changed the colors to match the larger, more complex version she just finished. The original small window will just be a hanging piece while this one goes into a wooden frame.

Susan finished her 3 Card Holders and how professional do these look to you? This is another example of how such a simple pattern can become a stunning gift. And did I mention that they're functional as well as beautiful? :-)

Sonia has begun working on something that will very well turn out to be a big attention getter. It's not every day that you see a skull in a top hat looking out the top of a stained glass box. With the skull all cut out and mostly ground Sonia is well on her way to having this finished before you know it.

Bonnie saw Roxie's Fleur De Lis box and loved the top so much she decided to make the small Fleur De Lis windows using the same pattern. There are only 2 borders left to cut and then Bonnie will be soldering these and getting them ready to hang.

Dianne has made some quick progress on the first of her window with a hint of Victorian flair. She'll be soldering this one before you know it.

Roxie's frames are almost completed. While I was taking this picture she was skimming the black border of the second one. Rest assured that everything is cut and all she has to do is solder these together to finish these off.

Cindy is just about through with all the cutting and grinding for all of her Hand Mirrors. This is one of the last ones so expect to see a ton of these completed soon! And kudos to Cindy for using so many pins to keep her project secure while she's grinding. If you stop your project from shifting while you are grinding you are almost 100% assured of a perfect fit when you wrap everything and tack it together.

Cindy has also been working on this Blue Dog Window with a red Alligator. It's all cut out and almost completely ground already. And do you see all those little yellow dots? Those are pins holding everything in place. Cindy has certainly seen the light and her windows have been fitting together perfectly!

Next we look at yet another project being worked on by Anita. This is her first circular window and the pattern seems to be a big hit with all the students that see it. I've always liked working on geometric windows and this one looks like it's a fun one to start with. There's beauty in Symmetry and this window proves it.

Myrt is really moving along now with her Flowers and Dragonfly Window. With the bulk of her pieces ground she'll be soldering this before we know it. She's left the sun section blank so she can tack everything else together and make sure that nothing shifts so that the stems of her cat-tails line up perfectly with the stems that cut through the sky. It's a simple precaution that makes for a perfect fit when her window is completed.

Okay, I know I said that Sonia's Skull in a Top Hat box was very original but Fran's Donkey Window is right up there when it comes to being memorable. Fran's worried about getting the teeth lined up so she's going to save that part for class. The rest of this will be pretty well completed.

Patty has a lot of background filled it now. Sadly, you just can't see it in the picture below. She still needs to decide on a color for her border which will be attached quicker than she might think.
Terry's Red fish window is just about finished. She got the front all soldered and then attached the final border. She's going to take this home and solder up the back side there. Expect to see this completed in the next update.

Since she couldn't solder the back side of her window without having the border attached Terry decided to start another window. This is another one of her own designs and if you can't tell what it is then you don't watch enough Football!

And that abut wraps things up here. We're a little more than a month away from Christmas (here in the Blog) so expect things to heat up as our students work some long, hard hours to get their projects done in time to become Christmas gifts!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A Week Cut Short By A Cruise

2012-01-07T20:43:00.006-06:00

This was an easy post since classes were basically cancelled due to our vacation. We returned on Thursday morning so Thursday night classes went according to schedule. And since that was the only class we can feature prominently on our first finished project.

Sonia had wanted a Peacock window since before she started classes and I think she managed to walk out the door with something that would impress anyone. And the best thing about it is that she made this herself. It's about 3 foot tall so it's a nice size and not easily missed when hanging in a window. I'd say that Sonia has outdone herself.

The seafood is finished! The shrimp, corn, crawfish and crabs are all cut out. Now Patty either has to lay this out on some newspaper or cut some background glass for it. And the funny thing is that we have and idea on how to do both. Stick around and see how this all turns out.

Roxie started 2 frames this week. With both of them being Christmas gifts I know she'll be working overtime to get these done on time. And since I already know that she got them done in time I can confidently state that we'll see these finished soon. What you see below are 2 double border frames. The inner border is white and the out border is a wispy black.

All I can say is, Wow, Blogs are easy to do when you only have 1 class per week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

To The Dogs

2012-01-06T21:53:00.009-06:00

We're backed up again with our posts here but not nearly as bad as before. The Christmas rush is through and all of our students have completed everything that they needed in time for the Holiday. Let's get started looking at what's been accomplished.

Peewee finished his 2 Fleur De Lis Windows. Since they're identical I only took 1 picture but they both look like this. They'll go above 2 different doors in his home and he has a few more to make before he moves on and retires this particular pattern.

Roxie completed her Fleur De Lis box and since this was a gift for Christmas that was certainly a good thing. She kept saying that she wanted to make a classy box and I think her choice of colors made her wish come true.

Anita's Calla Lily Window is out the door and hanging where it belongs. Her background glass and border are both perfect choices making this window really snap. If you look closely you can see that the background glass gives the appearance of rain.

Here's Terry's Fish Window. While she was making this one she decided to make a Red Fish window for her next project. Like I always say, When you're on a roll...

Here's a look at one of Cindy's completed Hand Mirrors. She's been knocking these out at an almost alarming rate so expect to see the entire lot of them soon!

And since Cindy can't seem to get enough glass work into her week she also works on other projects which include this cute little dog tray. It's Cindy's first 3 dimensional piece.

Cindy's last 2 pieces were done at home so I feel obligated to show you what she did during her class time. Here's yet another one of her mirrors going through the grinding process. Only 6 pieces to go and then she'll add the mirror.

Susan was in the midst of making 3 more card holders. The design is slightly altered from the first one she made but by and large these are more or less the same. The biggest difference would be the color schemes. Look to see these completed shortly.

Here's a look at the Red Fish Window that Terry started cutting and almost completed at home. She ground most of this in class and then took it home with her to wrap during the week. As always, Terry works very quickly and efficiently.

Seafood. Patty is getting tired of it but she's a trooper and now that the end is near she's getting more excited at finishing this project. Me, I get hungry looking at this.

Pam changed the shape of this from an oval into a square and needed a little help squaring it up. Once we had it true she wrapped it, tacked it and even got the front soldered. Pam's cutting is getting better with each and every project she does and I can honestly say she really has the hang of it now.

Myrt's been working steadily on her DragonFly Window. The wings have gone through a few changes but she's settled on what you see cut out. She'll add a sky blue to the background be done with this one soon enough.

Grace has been taking night classes for Nursing so getting to Stained Glass Classes hasn't been easy. Still, when she gets the time she comes in and makes great strides on this, her latest window. Grace never takes the easy way out always making windows with little, thin pieces. But in the end they look spectacular.

And I must note that I didn't get a picture of the work that Grace's mother, Janice, did this week. She's hard at work on cutting out all the flowers for her next set of 3 windows. When she left she had put all of her work into separate baggies so she wouldn't mix anything up. And nothing looks worse than a picture of some cut up glass thrown into sandwich bags...

Sonia's Peacock Window is so very close to being completed. She's really excited about this window so I can't wait to see her face when she gets to see this washed lit from behind.
Bonnie has begun cutting out 3 small Fleur De Lis Windows and this is the first one of the batch. It's already cut and ground so the lions share of the work on this one has been completed already.

Ann is very close to finishing the second of her Accent Windows. If you look at her last project you'll see this very design mirror imaged in two of the corners of her larger window. She changed the colors since she made this last so this will now match the large window perfectly.

Anita has been working on this Sun window while she's been at home and this week she finished grinding it in class. If you look closely you'll see that she's already started wrapping this.

And lastly we have a look at Diane's 2nd window. She had cut 2 of these out at once and now they're both ground. She plans on wrapping them when she goes on vacation so she won't waste any time getting these completed.

Look for another post tomorrow night. Now that out next Church windows are drawn up and the Holiday has past us I can sit here in front of the computer at night and get things organized in my Stained Glass Class folder.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Trashy Wh....Waaannn!!!!

2011-11-20T10:26:00.006-06:00

Our Blog titles almost always come from something that was said in class. Most times they make no sense to the casual reader but if you were there in class when they were originally spoken I can guarantee that a smile will cross your lips when you spot the phrase here atop the Blog. I just wish I could remember all the things that are said because sometimes I think we're spending more time laughing than cutting glass!

This week we're going to start with a look at Bonnie's Medium sized Fleur De Lis Window. Bonnie has caught on quickly and is making some quality windows, don't you think? These Fleur De Lis windows are always stunning if the student takes the time to make sure everything lines up perfectly. As you can tell, Bonnie took the time.

This is the 3rd and final panel in the large set of windows that Janice is making. As you may recall she's currently in the middle of making more flowers to be cut into the same color background, the only difference will be the size of the window. Her next set of 3 will sit atop these large windows and be about a third of the size of these.

And here's another Fleur De Lis window, this one made by Terry. She wasn't sure what to think of it when she saw it completed but I like the design. She simply quartered off the pattern and used 4 different colors in a way that most people wouldn't think of using them. And as I said, I think it's a novel approach to a standard window that makes you take notice.

Terry's Wild Kingdom Window (formerly known as Fish eating a Shrimp) is so very close to completion that is isn't funny. There's just the back side to solder so we'll be seeing this one with light behind it next week.

With the front of her Peacock window almost completely soldered I think that Sonia will be wrapping this up within a week or 2. We still need to add the Zinc Channel and make touch ups but the bulk of the work is done on this one.

PeeWee has also completed all the cutting on his windows. Making 2 at the same time was a smart move because you get to keep your work rhythm. For example, why would you cut the 7 pieces that make the Fleur De Lis, grinding them, wrap them and then tack them together, only to start the process over again? It's far easier to simply cut the 14 pieces that make up the Fleur De Lis and grind them all at once. When making multiple items I always advise making more than one at a time.
And cutting things out all at once is exactly what Dianne did with her 2 windows. This week she got the first of her 2 windows ground and next time around she'll have the second one ground. In between grinding sessions she'll be wrapping these pieces while she's at home. I have to say that I was very impressed with the way she got this window to fit together. I watched her start grinding, then walked away and when I returned later on she was completely finished with it. Good job Dianne!

Patty's adding the final Shrimp to her boil. She better check to make sure that Terry's fish isn't eating any of her shrimp. Those things are hard to cut and grind!

Cindy resumed working on her hand mirrors. She has about 9 left to go and what you see here are 3 mirrors cut and ground to the pattern all lying on top of each other. (Another example of doing many of the same pieces at the same time.) She was grinding the blue petals on the upper right flower when I snapped this picture which explains why you are seeing multiple colored flowers.

And Roxie's Fleur De Lis box top is all set. Next week she'll make her box bottom and hinge it together to make a completed box. I have to say that Roxie's soldering is superb! Roxie is talking about making some more butterfly faeries when this is completed.

We're almost up to date again. I wonder how long it will last this time around. We have the new drawings for the next Church windows that we're making almost completed so I'll be spending a lot of time in the shop again real soon now.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Good Eye!

2011-11-18T19:17:00.009-06:00

With a lot of hard work and determination Cindy has managed to complete her front door panels with time to spare (about 1 week) even with the setbacks she encountered along the way to her deadline. She brought the actual wooden door into class so she could insert the last 2 panels as soon as they were washed and waxed which gave me the perfect photo opportunity. Here is Cindy's front door.

And while she was at home Cindy was keeping busy making her Christmas presents which happen to be nothing less than a slew of hand mirrors! These are here first batch and she's got just as many ready to be soldered at home yet.

Take a look at Ann's first full sized window. It's hard to believe that it's been about 3 years since she made her last full size window which proves that making stained glass is just like riding a bike-- you never forget how to do it. Her window is beautiful but the photo doesn't show the hint of color that runs throughout the background glass. It's visible in the upper left of the window but for some reason it's just not photographing well at all. Nonetheless, the work on this speaks for itself.

Anita and Myrt's Duck window was also completed this week. After changing 2 or 3 clear pieces this window is now flawless. A lot of times 2 people working on 1 window can be a problem but Myrt and Anita did it the best way possible-- one at a time. Two people working on one window at the same time just causes confusion especially if there is grinding going on. If it's a fact that too many cooks can spoil the soup then this is clearly the exception to the rule.

One good duck deserves another. This one that Pam made is about 1/8th the size of Anita and Myrt's Duck window but it's nothing short of charming. I think Pam may be working on something a little bigger next time around, but you never know-- she works a lot on her glass at home so she may just return with some other cute panels completed or just about ready to be finished.

Terry, who also manages to do a lot at home, finished up this Fleur De Lis window this week. The ambers and browns along with the diamond cut background give this window a nice tudor like feel.
Down here in Louisiana you can't go more than a day with out seeing a Fleur De Lis or two. And I've seen a lot of stained glass Fleur De Lis in my 5 years of teaching down here. Terry used up a variety of glass that she had lying around and came up with this modern view of a classic design.

Terry is extremely prolific with her glass work which is evident as we view the 3rd window she's been working on this week! It's another fish window with a bit of a variation from the last one she completed. This one is about to eat a shrimp rather than go after a fishing bobber. Talk about a subtle way to say Louisiana! Nice work all around, Terry.

Roxie decided that she needed to make another box and came up with this Fleur De Lis design for a box top. All it needs is some solder and a bottom and she'll be taking this home with her. Most glass is labeled by number but there are more than a few pieces are known by a name. In some cases our students or even a customer will 'name' a glass (unofficially of course). Roxie has dubbed the brown Spectrum Rough Rolled glass "Cinnamon" and we already have other students asking for it by that name now. It's certainly easier to remember than 110.8RR.

PeeWee is working on his FDL windows. It's a set of 2 and the FDL's are made out of Cinnamon glass. :-) This one has its background almost completely cut save for 3 pieces that he'll cut after it's tacked together. This will ensure that his edges are lined up perfectly. It would have been easier has the glass been large enough to accommodate the entire width of the window but it wasn't. But as always, we manage as you can see in the picture of his window below.

While PeeWee worked on his window, his wife Dianne cut out 2 more transom windows with a different design. We've stretched it a bit to get it to fit the opening but the design is completely recognizable when compared to the picture she originally brought in. I love her choice of colors along with the red in the center as larger accent pieces. And she's moving along quickly! She'll begin grinding this in her next class.

I smell Seafood! I wonder if Patty will smoke a cigarette when this is finished or if she'll have a beer to go with it! (Perhaps both!) With only a handful of shrimp to go this window is about to take a permanent residence in Patty's home soon. Since all the pieces were so small Patty wrapped it all with 3/16's foil which means that soldering it will be a breeze. She's close now!

Janice was cutting and grinding her new sets of flowers and as she finished each one she bagged it. When she left I found she had 9 flowers cut, ground and all put away. I'd love to show you the work but it would take a half hour to piece them all together and lay them out for you. So look at the contents of these 4 zip lock bags. Aren't the contents wonderfully colored? Just wait until you see them all assembled!

And Graces Medical window is REALLY taking shape now. there's only the final thin border left to go before she can start wrapping this and then solder it all together. It's an interesting shaped window as it isn't rounded or rectangular. I don't think we've seen anything quite like this in class before. I can't wait to hold it up.

After Anita finished up her Mallard window she came back to her Purple Calla Lily Window. With the front side soldered there's only the back side to go so I'm sure we'll be seeing this one completed soon. I love the blue-green border glass she's used on this.

Myrt made a few minor changes on her pattern (don't you just love White Out!) and began cutting it apart and separating by colors. She'll be cutting glass before you know it and I think this will be one colorful window. If you look back in time here in the Blog you'll see her original flower window that this pattern is based on. There have been a lot of changes but the sun in the corner will help point the way to the original design.

Lastly I need to apologize to Cindy for mislabeling her work as Pams a few weeks back. When Pam came in and asked who the other Pam was that I mentioned in the Blog my mind went blank as I searched for an answer. When she said that she hadn't made the 2 bird suncatchers as I said she did I got even more confused (which isn't hard to do) and it took me forever to realize that it was actually Cindy who made these two pieces. They say the mind is the first thing to go but with me it appears to be everything all at once!
That's about it for this entry. Come back soon and see what gets finished next down here in the bayou.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Superglue- Your New Best Friend

2011-11-01T23:34:00.006-05:00

We'll start off looking with Roxie's Yellow Camp Window. The workwomanship is flawless and I must say that I'm going to miss playing with the letters of this window. It was always a challenge to see what else I could make this say on the Blog each week.

Myrt finished her Fancy Fleur De Lis Window and took it home. I believe she said that she wasn't giving this one away and that it was going to be found hanging out in one of her windows. So many of our students don't keep the windows that they make-- it's good to know Myrt will be able to enjoy this considering all of the extra work she put into it on the fancy scrolling inner border.

And here we have a look at Susan's first Business Card Holder. And it won't be her last one either. She'll tweak the pattern a bit for the next one but I can honestly say that there's NOTHING wrong with this as it is. (I've saved the pattern....)
This design came from a trophy that Cindy had. Terry saw it and said, Hey, that would make a GREAT window! So she drew it out on paper and started cutting it at home. When she brought it in last week it was all done save for the border and this week it's 100% complete. What a great design. Terry seems to have no limits when it comes to stained glass.

Now, Roxie finished up her Yellow Bayou window about midway into her class so she decided to start a Fleur De Lis box. She wasn't sure about making such a small FDL so we've decided to make it large and simply display the box in portrait format rather than landscape. It will still be hinged on the top and she can make the FDL large. She cut it out of a dark brown glass (Root Beer) but until there's some light behind it you would think it's black glass so don't let the picture fool you

Patty is down to the shrimp. This window is so close to having the lions share of the work done that I can safely state that there's a visible light at the end of this Seafood Medley's tunnel. And it even smells delicious! Expect to see some background being cut soon now. And that will be easy.

Fran's Donkey Window is coming all together now. It's almost completely cut out and Fran has been grinding at home. If it weren't for a delay due to travel plans I'd say that we'll be seeing this tacked together shortly. Fran will be rejoining us for classes in about 3 weeks so her Donkey is going to be placed on hold for a bit.

Bonnie has her borders cut and the inner one all tacked into place. She has half of the last clear border wrapped and the other half she's taken home with her so she can come back next class with it ready to be tacked on so she can start soldering this. In fact, I think she'll finish this next time around.

Lastly, Sonia has 4 pieces of border to cut and she'll be ready to solder this Peacock. Since blue is my favorite color I'm partial to this window. Truth be told, I've always loved the stained glass peacock windows that out students have made and this one is no exception.

I'm not going to bother explaining the Superglue title of this post because all of our students know what it means. And no, we don't use Superglue to fix breaks in glass. :-)

Catch you all soon!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

What's a FID?

2011-10-31T22:49:00.007-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I saw one of these Hand Mirrors made. Christine made a slew of them a few Christmases back and Cindy had the exact same idea. I have no clue how many she's making but she appears to have about 15 cut out in various states of completion so there are a lot of them. This is her first completed Hand Mirror, expect many more to follow. :-)

This is Susan's second box but to me it resembles a chest more than a box. And since it was made for a man I think the fact that it reminds me of a chest is actually fitting. And speaking of fitting, I'd say her top fit the bottom of this box rather perfectly. Susan has an eye for detail and perfection as you can see from her finished project.

And as I suspected, Terry brought in her Fish Window and wanted to know what I thought of the work. After nit picking at the solder (I want her to think she needs me to finish a project!) I gave it my seal of approval and she washed it and colored the solder copper. After another bath and a little bit of wax she took it home after I snapped this picture of it. I love her choice of glass for the water.

And when that was finished Terry resumed work on her Fleur De Lis Window. She has the front soldered already and all she needs to do now is grind and attach the border glass. Terry drew this pattern herself (as she does with most of her windows) and it looks great.

Sonia worked on the 3 layer border for her Peacock Window and now has the inner 2 borders complete. She's wrapping the clear center border at home and I forgot to take the picture of while those pieces were in place so you'll just have to use your imagination on what it will look like. Or you can come back and see what it looks like when she returns for her next class. :-)

Roxie's window is so close to being finished that it isn't even funny. The Zinc channel has been cut and tacked and the front side is completely soldered. The back side is about halfway soldered so this is going to be complete during her next class. I can't wait to see it lit up and I'm glad she didn't listen to me and use green glass for the letters. How she came up with yellow is beyond me. :-)

Pam was in and worked on this Mini-Duck Window. It's just about complete and only needs to be soldered now. We may need to put some brass channel on the edges since there are two long pieces of glass on 2 of the sides that may make soldering those lengths problematic. This is actually a very charming design and I may need to get me a copy of the pattern.

This next window is another one of Terry's and all it needed was a border. She tried a number of different colors with it but in the end we all agreed that Root Beer was the perfect color glass to suround this window. She got it all tacked together and has taken it home to finish up the soldering there.

As I promised, there's a lot more to see of Fran's Donkey window this week. She's got it all cut out and has begun grinding it from the top down. With the sky and the leaves all set there's not much more to go to get this donkey on the road!

Bonnie decided that a Fleur De Lis was what she needed to work on next after completing her Rooster Window last week. She picked this fancy but tasteful Fleur De Lis design and set it into a crackle background. She's going with a double border with the last border matching the background glass. There's something about an inner colored border that really makes a window POP! This window will be no exception.

Ann's window looks GREAT! I love the design and her choice of colors. Since the front is all soldered and the back has already been started on I'd say that this may very well be completed next week. And I have to say that Ann really has caught on quickly to the soldering process. Aside from perhaps a little extra solder on some of the joints I'd say that this is a top notch job. I know students who have taken months to get as good as Ann already is soldering.

And Myrt came in and spent the class working on her and Anita's Mallard Window. One small piece of the sun needs to be knocked out and replaced because the grain is running in the wrong direction but other than that this window has worked out well for Myrt and Anita. It's all about teamwork.

Myrt wasn't sure what color Anita would like for the border of this window she she decided to leave that ball in Anita's court (so to speak) this week. Like Terry, Anita ended up picking a Root Beer colored glass for her border. It's a color that is almost always safe since it resembles a wooden frame.
I have only 3 more Blogs to go before we're up to date. We're really making progress now. I hope to get at least 2 more finished this week but we'll have to see how that goes. And this time I'll never fall behind again. (Yeah, right.)

And before I leave I'll answer the question I started this Blog with. I commented that a FID was visable in one of the pictures in the last post and someone asked just what a FID is. Well a FID is used to flatten down the foil after you've foiled your piece they come in plastic now but back in the 70's (when I started doing this) they were pointed wooden dowels with a rounded end that made it easy to hold. The catalogs all called them FID's and when people would ask me what it meant I'd jokingly say that FID stood for Flatten It Down. Years later I saw a show about sailors and while they were untying knots they used a tool called a FID. Sure enough, it was a pointed wooden dowel with a rounded end to make it easier to hold. (look here) Go figure.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Where's My Square?

2011-10-30T21:25:00.003-05:00

Bonnie's Rooster Window is complete! She really moved quickly on this and her soldering is getting nothing but better and better. Soldering has always been the toughest part to teach but Bonnie is really picking up on it now-- I barely had to touch this with the soldering iron to get it looking picture perfect.

Here we have a look at Janice's 2nd window all completed and ready to install. The third and last one is almost finished as well so we'll be seeing this theme again shortly. Next up Janice will start cutting the flowers and leaves for 3 windows that are the same width but only about half the height of this one.

Roosters seem to be a popular idea here in class. Diane's Rooster is the second window this week done in this theme. Although the patterns are similar you can see they are 2 very different interpretations. This particular pattern was done a few years back when Kim was taking classes but I'd be hard pressed to pick which Rooster Window is my favorite.

Terry has all 3 sections of her windows completed now and has already moved on to other projects (as you will soon see). Although this window is somewhat small it certainly has enough pieces in it. And being that it's symmetrical Terry had to take her time to make sure every thing fit perfectly or you'd surely see the placement errors. All in all it's another job WELL done by Terry.

And speaking of work done by Terry here's a look at the completed first side of her Fish Window. All that she has to do on this is solder the back side and give it a bath. This has always been one of my favorite patterns and I have yet to be able to turn up the spare time to make one for the shop. I'm glad to see Terry's turning out so well.

Oh, and don't think we're moving on just yet. Terry is also working on this Fleur De Lis Window as well. I'd ask her what she does during her down time but I don't think that she has any! You can see that the left side of her background glass is cut into a diamond pattern. The right side is also cut but it's been ground and fits together so perfectly you can barely tell it's been cut. That's a testament to the quality of work that Terry does.

This is the Anita/Myrt Mallard Window and this week I know for certain that Myrt got to work on it first. I'd say that more than half of it was ground when Myrt left for the night. Tomorrow night Anita will swoop in and pick up where Myrt left off.

So, just as I was saying above, Anita came in and finished grinding the rest of her Mallard Window. One of the feathers was extremely transparent so she's leaving that out and replacing it when we have the glass here in the shop next week (she left it home thinking she was through with it for this project). There's also a missing piece of sky that we'll re-cut next week as well. Anita is taking this home and foiling all the remaining pieces there so I'm sure we'll be seeing solder on this when it returns. I just hope I remember to take my square off the board before she takes it home again! :-)

And once Anita finished up grinding her Mallard window she moved on to her Purple Callalily Window. It's hard to see the clear textured glass she picked for her background but it's all cut and ground now. It sounds to me like Anita will be doing a lot of foiling at home this week.

Peewee's latest Fleur De Lis Window is moving right along. He's got the background almost completely cut, ground and foiled. The only snag was that we didn't have enoung of the background glass in stock to cut all of his pieces so the upper right and left sections are missing right now. The glass is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and that means that next week Peewee can tack together what he already has cut and then fill in the 2 missing pieces perfectly. Oh and that red thing on the upper right of his window is the FID that Peewee was using. Somehow I didn't see it lying there while I took the picture.

Susan's got her box top completed and I believe she took the sides for the box bottom home with her to wrap. That means that this box will certainly be finished for next week. You can see that all of the straight lines meet up with the angled lines perfectly which tells us that Susan took her time to make sure that everything fit well when she ground this piece. I can't wait to see this all together.

Cindy's front door panels are really shaping up now. With 7 panels completed and 2 left to go I'd say she'll easily make her deadline for getting these windows installed. Here's a look at the general layout. The bottom of the door would be the left side of the picture.

And these are the 2 remaining pieces of Cindy's door. As you can see she has the bottom one completely ground and the top one is well on its way.

And while Cindy is home and unable to work on her doors she's been making mirrors to give as gifts. Here's a look at one of the hand mirrors that she's started. The mirror has to be dropped in place in the center and a few of the flower petals still need to be cut but you can clearly see what these will look like when completed.

Fran's newest window was hard to get a picture of this week. It's a Donkey complete with background scenery-- and a very large one at that. Only a few of the donkey pieces have been cut out but the rest have been traced out onto the glass so I'm confident that this will be much easier to view when she return with it next week.

Grace has really been knocking out pieces while she's been in class. You can see that her latest Medical Window is moving along nicely. She's been grinding this from the inside out as she's been working on it so it's actually a lot further along than you might think. There's really only the large red pieces and the borders left to grind on this window.

Lastly we'll look at Myrt's second project-- her Fleur De Lis Window. With the front completely soldered and the back almost completed it's safe to assume that this project will be headed out the door and to her house shortly. The background was cut from one piece of glass with no spaces between the pieces so all of the grain matches together perfectly. Well, that's a bit of a lie. There were 2 pieces that she had to cut through to get it to work but they were small and she was able to find 2 pieces that look exactly as if they belonged there. In fact, I defy anyone to tell me which pieces were replaced!

And that wraps up another edition of the Blog. All that you read here today happened during the classes that occurred on September 20th, 21st, and the 23rd. Up in our next post will be the first week of October!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The FI Option

2011-10-29T00:12:00.002-05:00

This week we've got quite a few finished projects. We'll start off looking at Fran's latest Duck Window. The change we made from last week involved the lines in the sky running from left to right. The original pattern had a heavily slanted cut on the right side that looked like the glass had been cracked and repaired. Now that we've removed the slant everything flows more smoothly. The reason for the top piece having angular cuts is simple: the window was wider than the sheet of glass so we had to piece it together. We thought about adding a cloud or two but Fran was afraid it would take away from the ducks.

Cindy completed her 'At Home' project this week. Her Humming Birds and Flowers Window was done almost exclusively outside of the classroom. About the only thing that she did in class was to cut the background out one night. Another job well done.

Anita said she wanted to do something quickly one night while she was at home so she cut this Cross Suncatcher out of scrap glass that she had lying around. You can't lose when you made projects out of scraps!

And Cindy also came in with these two suncatchers just about completed. The first is this round Bird in Flight that she wasn't sure how to put an eye on. We used an old trick of mine and cut a glass head pin down to about 1/4 inch in length with some wire cutters and then soldered the pin section into the lead line nearest the eye. The we repeated the process on the second side.

Cindy's second suncatcher of the week is her Pelican. I have to say that I like this one a lot. It's simple but very charming. And it went together perfectly for her. All we had to do was show her how to add a hook to hang this and it was ready to go.

I have to confess and admit that I don't recall who worked on this Mallard Window first this week. I'm pretty sure that Anita started grinding the window and then Myrt continued on it the next night. Or it could be the other way around. Nonetheless, the Mallard Window is being ground and this is what it looked like after the first night.

Meanwhile Terry soldered the font side of her Fish Window after her border was cut she'll be finishing this one up at home so I expect we'll see this one completed any day now. She'll just walk in the door with it ready to be colored so I can take a picture of it. Terry's soldering is nothing short of superb and touching up her windows is no work at all.

And that wasn't all that Terry accomplished. She also worked on this last section of her newest set of 3 windows. With the background and the borders all cut she's well on her way to finishing this as well as her Fish Window.

Ann is another student who's moving along quickly on her window. I was amazed when she had it all cut out before class ended. And not only did she cut quickly but she cut precisely which means that she won't be spending more than a class an the grinder getting this to fit together.

She's close now! There are only five shrimp on the far right of Patty's Seafood Window left to cut. Her Crawfishin' days are over on this window! Once she starts cutting the background she'll be rounding 3rd base and headed for home plate. Hmmm, have you noticed there aren't any potatoes in this window?

Cindy not only completed her Humming Bird window this week-- she also made some serious progress on her front door panels. These are the last 2 sections and she's got them all cut out now. She'll be at the grinder during her next class getting these to fit together.

This is the back side of Janice's 3rd window. It's just about finished now save for the brass channel that will go around the outside edges. There's still a smaller section that will sit above this window and the vines and flowers will all line up perfectly . We'll post them all so you can see how the borders line up when the last 3 windows are complete.

And here is our second look at the Anita/Myrt Duck Window. I think Myrt took over the grinding duties from Anita the next night and she got a lot of the feathers completed. She's thinking about re-cutting one or two of them due to the color variations in the glass but we'll make a final decision on that when we have everything fitting together better so we can see the big picture.

Roxie has the window that changes names every time we see it! I have to confess I've been messing with her a bit and that this is her real window. It says Yellow Camp and that's where it's going to reside when she finished it. With the border all cut there will only be some soldering left to go before she packs this away in a sleeve and takes it home.

Next we see that Susan has all of her pieces lined up perfectly. She spent her class grinding every piece and making sure that her lines weren't cock-eyed and that everything flowed together just right. She's bringing it home with her to wrap which means that next week she'll have this box top soldered and will possibly begin working on the sides.

Sonia has her background cut. After she cut it she ground it. After she ground it she foiled it. After she foiled it she tacked it. After she tacked it she went home and called it a job well done. :-) Next week she'll start on her fancy 3 layer border that will really set this window off nicely.

And lastly we have a look at PeeWee's latest project. He's making 2 more Fleur De Lis Windows so rather than cutting them out one at a time he's cutting everything out in sets of 2. That explains why you're seeing double when you look at the FDL's he worked on this week. He got them both cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together before the class was over. He'll be cutting some background glass to set these in next week!

And this brings us yet another week closer to getting caught up here. I was amazed at how many projects we have started here. It's no wonder I have no room in the shop! Have a great weekend, expect another post before it's over.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Why Are My Pieces In The Garbage?

2011-10-25T10:39:00.001-05:00

We are officially 6 weeks behind and this post will drop the umber by one. Of course, classes for this week are starting tonight so that will sort of negate this posting. Still, this is my second post in as many days so I guess it's safe to say that we're on a roll here.

First off we have to look at a project that got skipped in the last update. Somehow (it couldn't have been my fault, could it?) the picture got thrown into the wrong folder and I just realized that I have 2 projects this week for Susan. This is her first box and it came out looking beautiful. How could anyone complain about receiving this as a gift?

This week Susan has begun working on her second box. This one is a geometric design and it's a little hard to see here since it's un-ground but this is a brown on brown box top made up of 35 pieces. there's a lot of work in this one and making sure it all lines up is essential to making the design work. I have no doubt that Susan will be able to pull this one off.

We're going to start things off by looking at Anita's latest project. She's jumping around a bit but that's the way it goes when you have many irons in the fire. This is her Mallard Window and it's going to be made by both Anita and Myrt. Both of them had a hand in getting it this far because some of the glass was cut by Anita and some by Myrt.

Meanwhile, Myrt was also working on her Stylized FDL window. She had everything ground last week and while she was working on cutting duck feathers she was also wrapping and tacking this together. You can see the glass she's chosen for her border on the bottom of the window. That will be cut next week.

Bonnie's Window is just about ready to crow. The clear krinkle border is all cut and ground and the bottom row is even wrapped already. The rest of the pieces have gone home with Bonnie so she can come in next class and get to work on soldering this window. It looks great!

Patty has added some crawfish to her Seafood Medley Window. I'm telling you-- this is going to be something else when it's completed. I think that this window and Grace's New Orleans scene are the two most complex windows ever done in here. All the tiny pieces can really get to you but Patty isn't letting that happen and is working at a steady pace on this.

Sonia's Peacock Window has found it's groove! Now that it's all wrapped and tacked together she'll be cutting her background glass. She picked a really nice sheet of textured clear that will make this bird SNAP! (as if the feathers already don't!) Her colors are flawless and her work is precise to the point of her re-cutting a piece when the foil around all the glass shifted things a bit. She could have left it go but she went for perfection instead.

And now we look at the second Rooster of the Blog. Dianne's Rooster and Sun window is a more lighthearted scene than Bonnie's but it is not any less charming. Dianne has come a long way already while making this first window and her soldering on this first side is really nice. She'll flip it over next class and finish this window then.

Fran's Ducks are so close to being completed that it's not even funny. After adding her border we knocked out 3 pieces of the sky so we could redo the lead lines. I'll post a picture of both of them side by side so you can see how a simple line can change the entire flow of a window. We would have replaced the glass in class but Fran left her sky glass at home where she'll fill in these 2 pieces during the week.

Wow, Terry came in with this Fish Window all cut and ground and managed to knock my socks off. She's really been burning the midnight oil at home to get all of this work done-- I didn't even realize that she had started this! And it fits together perfectly. There's a little wiggle room between the pieces which means that when she foils her glass the window won't grow or possibly twist out of shape due to thickness of all the foil. Great job Terry!

And that brings us to the end of this post. I won't mention any names to help protect the guilty, but one BIG tip I can give anyone is that you should place your cut pieces on your pattern as you cut them. This will help stop them from being swept into the trash with the scrap glass that accumulates along side your good pieces!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Back Again With a Vengence

2011-10-23T20:54:00.004-05:00

Well, we're finally back in action here. With all the rush in getting our latest batch of windows for St. Jules completed we've sorely neglected these Blog postings. Now that we're in between Church windows we'll catch back up here again. It seems to be a never ending theme and I do apologize.

So let's travel back in time to the first week of September when Ann completed this small yet elegant windows that will match the larger one she'll begin next week. This is her first project upon returning to stained glass classes and I have to say that she didn't miss a beat at all. IN fact, it's almost like she never took any time off between projects.

Roxie has the two words in her "Mellow Camp" window completed and when she returns for her next class she's going to put a piece of the white background glass in between the 2 words so it becomes one long window. Then she'll add a border, solder it and call this a completed project!

Myrt worked on her stylized Fleur De Lis window by cutting out the gray background glass and grinding it to fit. The missing forth quarter exists but when I took this picture Myrt was at the grinder making sure it fit perfectly. She traced her FDL on top of one sheet of gray glass so that grain matches perfectly through out the window. It's hard work but it always pays off in the end.

Janice got the border attached to her window and then she finished it off with some brass channel around the edges. All that this window needed was a bath and some patina to color the solder but I talked her into letting me do that outside with the hose the next day-- it wasn't hard to convince her that it would be the easiest way to handle the job. :-)

So rather than wash and color her window Janice began working on her second Rose Window by wrapping and tacking her background glass together. All this needs is a border.

Sonia has all of her peacock ground and it's ready to be wrapped. I really like her choice of colors and think this will be every bit as nice as Anita's peacock was. (Not that this is a competition) Sonia will pick a background glass and work from there when we see her next. She's already sold on the fancy border-- she wants this to be a standout piece and it looks like she has one already.

Cindy has the largest window for her door almost completed now. The front is soldered and the back will be handled next. She only has the two thinner side panels left to go and this project will be completed. Everyone in the classes has been following this project and I can't wait to post the picture of these windows installed in the door.

Since Cindy can't work on her door windows at home (they're too large for easy transportation) she's been working on this Humming Bird window while she isn't in class. And this home project is just about completed!

Bonnie has her Rooster window all ground and fitting together perfectly. Once this is wrapped she'll tack this together and pick out a glass for her border. Wait until you see this one with light behind it.
Anita began grinding her Purple Callalilie window. She's not one to sit still for very long so she has a number of patterns at home all traced out and ready to go. It's always interesting to see what she'll bring in to class with her and how far along she is on it. All of the cutting for this window happened at her house during the week. :-)

Fran's duck window just needs a border now. I have to say that when I looked at this picture I saw something that didn't look very pleasing to me so expect a minor but important change to occur next week when we make a change to the background glass. The lines just don't flow as smoothly as they could and it will be simple to correct it. But other than that slight design flaw I'd say this is really shaping up.

So that wraps up this edition of the Blog. I'll be doing 3 a week until we're caught up again. And I'll also post pictures of the windows that we installed at St. Jules that made us fall so far behind here.

See you soon!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It's The Eye Of the Tiger, It's The Cream Of The Fight

2011-08-26T17:04:00.009-05:00

Anita has completed her Louisiana Eye Of the Tiger window and she's got other people thinking about similar projects. There's a lot of pride down South here and aside from the letters L, S and U the only thing that spells it out just as well is a tiger eye or two. And when you combine them you get this:

And since we're looking at the completed center piece for Terry's 3 windows it's a safe to assume that she's started another project this week. (Check that one out further below.) As for this window I have to say that the outer tan border surrounding the ovalish center really made a difference in the overall design. I've photoshopped the tan out of the second picture so you can see just how much flair 12 little pieces of glass can add to a window. Good call, Terry.

Here's Terry's window as she had original drawn it. We both agreed something was missing.

I'd have to say that Susan's daisy box is moving right along since the top is 100% completed. With only 5 pieces left to go I'll bet she takes this home next week. And since I'm more than a week late in posting this you really shouldn't be making bets against me since I can see the future on this. :-) Susan was originally going to use the same glass that she used in her background for her border but we found a piece in the rack that was just a tad bit darker and it was PERFECT for this box since she didn't want to bring another color into play.

Sonia's Peacock window is really taking shape now. Not only does she have it completely cut but she has the body section ground already. She's going to surround this with the fancy 3 section border so you just know this is going to be a show stopper when it's completed.

Roxie's Yellow Camp window is looking good too. She came in with her letters all foiled and then set upon tacking them together. Once that was done she cut the white background glass behind the word YELLOW and ground it all to fit. Then before she left she got it foiled! Next week she'll be working on her Camp section.

There are so many pieces to Patty's window that she feels like it will never be completed but look at how it's filling up now! And you have to remember that it isn't just cut-- it's cut, ground, foiled and tacked together. When you take all of that into consideration you have to admit that Patty is doing wonderfully on this. Next to Grace's New Orleans window I'd have to say that this is one of the most ambitious projects that a student has made yet. :-)

I promised that we'd take a look at Terry's newest window before this update was over with so here it is. She's working on a Bass Window and it has always been one of my favorite designs. Wait until you see this with some light behind it. The glass has a texture that really lends itself to this fish pattern.
Frans Ducks are not only in flight but they're now over water as well. With nothing left but a border to go I'd say that Fran has set a new speed record for making these Ducks in Flight. Some solder and a black border will round this out and then she'll be making a first in class: A Donkey Window.

Cindy's front door is almost complete now. She only has 2 long thin panels to go before she can install these and call it a finished set. It's been hard to get a good picture of this window since it's so long but here it is all in one shot so you can get the full effect. Next week she'll be soldering this one.

Bonnie P's Rooster window is also shaping up now that it's all cut out and mostly ground. The only thing left to grind is the section to the left of the Rooster and then she'll be foiling this one. I'm impressed with Bonnie's cutting (and grinding). She hasn't been in class all that long and she's really moving quickly and efficiently.

Ann is back and ready for some stained glass action. She picked out a pattern last week and we 'kneaded' it to fit the window she'll be installing this in. When she begins her second window (which will be real soon) you'll easily see how these two windows tie together. With her center piece completely cut and half of it ground I'd say she'll be cutting the background glass during her next class.

Borders. You don't think much about them but they honestly are a very important part of a window. A simple window with a fancy border can sometimes outshine a fancy window with a plain border. Myrt saw this border style on another window and decided that it was what she wanted surrounding her Fleur De Lis. It took a complete class to get it cut and ground but it's almost completely wrapped as well. So next week she'll begin cutting the background glass for this and we'll really see her window take shape.

There has been a lot going on here which has made this update get posted later than it should have been. We're still behind one week but that will be fixed shortly before classes end this week. Come back soon to see Susan's Daisy Box and Ann's Accent Window completed.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Party That Never Was

2011-08-22T20:12:00.006-05:00

Anyone want a cupcake? We had a plate of 6 cupcakes for everyone attending class Thursday night to celebrate Sonia's birthday but Sonia got sick so Russ and Paul did some MAJOR damage to the stash of cupcakes (Bonnie didn't have any-- What will power!) We ending up going home with only 6 cupcakes in tow. We really hope that Sonia had a great Birthday because we sure enjoyed her cupcakes!

Peewee came into class expecting to solder his window and when I saw what he'd accomplished on his first side I knew that he'd be taking this home with him before the class was over. This window is a nice combination of colors and textures which means that there wasn't any chance that this would come out looking anything but great.

Pam's been busy while she's at home. She came in with this suncatcher all put together with everything but a final soldering. We looked it over and then finished soldering it so she could hang it up when she gets home. She has her next project started and you'll see how quickly she's moving on that one a few entries down.
Two down and 1 to go. That's what Terry was thinking when she left class knowing that her second window in her set of 3 was completed. After making her last project Terry wanted to be sure to use some glass with color in it and she's succeeded. The pattern is her own design and it really flows nicely. And her soldering is among the best of all our students. I only had to touch up a few joints on this before it was washed, colored and photographed. Terry's soldering is superb and I really want to make sure she knows it.

This is the last of Terry's windows before she moves on to something new. It's all tacked together and she'll be soldering this at home.

Susan wanted to make a Daisy box and it's coming together nicely. With the flower cut and wrapped she only has about 8 pieces left to go before she finishes the top of this box. The current plan is to go with a clear background and then a solid color for the border and the box sides.

Pam had finished her Butterfly and Flower suncatcher and moved along to her next project which is this duck window. The head still has to be cut but the lions share of work on this project is done. I think she's going with a granite back root beer glass for the final border. A very nice panel indeed.

When Janice came in she was hoping to put a border on her window but the glass was out of stock so she moved on to her 3rd window. I'll be the first to admit that we're making these patterns up on the fly so what we did was laid out a piece of paper the size of her background, place the flowers and leaves where we thought they looked best and then traced around them. After making the flowing vines that connect everything we added grain lines flowing horizontally on each pattern piece and then cut the pattern up. Here's what she had about a half an hour into the class.

And before Janice left she had all of her background for her third window cut out and most of it ground. Even I was impressed at how quickly she's moving on this! Next she just has to wrap and tack it all together. I hope that border glass gets here soon!

Dianne filled in the few missing pieces to her window and then set upon getting her border cut and attached. By the time she left she was all set to begin soldering. She'll be returning from vacation in a week or 2 so we're going to have to wait a bit to see the first side of this soldered. Since I find soldering to be relaxing I hope this rest of this window is nice and easy for her.

And speaking of roosters, here is Bonnie's Rooster window. You can see a similarity between the 2 windows in subject only as the interpretations are completely different. I love the little barn on the hill. Adding the door and hay loft in the barn created more work but as I always say, the extra work you put into a window always pays off in the end.

Here's Cindy's front door insert all cut, ground and ready to be foiled. I suspect we'll see this one tacked together real soon. She also has most of her other window ground but she left that one at home. Cindy always has to be doing something with stained glass so while this one is stuck here in the shop (it's too big to be transported weekly) she works on a second window at home.

And Anita has begun soldering her LSU window. With the border now in place I'll bet that this one is finished next week. Anita already has about 4 other patterns picked out and lined up to start on so I doubt she's want to spend too much time on this window now that it's so close to being completed.

It's hard to see the fancy trim that Myrt cut and ground for her Fleur De Lis window because the glass matches the pattern paper but of you look closely (or click on the picture to make it bigger) you'll see that she got a lot accomplished this week. She's taken the pieces home to wrap so that means she'll be cutting background glass when we see her return.

Can you believe I did it again? Fran took her Duck window and left before I managed to get a picture of it. This week, well, look out because I'm going to be snapping pictures of Fran's Ducks every 5 minutes! Rather than repost the same picture 3 times in a row I'll simply tell you that they really look great and the window is taking shape nicely.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Spot The Difference!

2011-08-20T23:43:00.007-05:00

We're going to start off this entry with a look at Susan's first stained glass window. She picked a Fleur De Lis pattern and added a double border which, if you have the extra space, makes any window a lot more interesting to look at. Her border and Fleur De Lis were cut from 2 different textures of a very rich looking root-beer glass. At the end of the class she walked out the door with was this beautiful window. And I have to say that her soldering was almost perfect which is not an easy feat for a first timer!

When Roxie forgot to bring the letters she had wrapped the week before she decided to make something quick and simple. This Beveled Charm Chain seemed to be the ideal project since she had some spare bevels in her bag of tricks. Last week we saw her bead the bevels, and tin all the copper wire that she would then wrap around a length of tubing to make circles which she then cut and twisted into various wire decorations. This week she randomly soldered the wire and some glass globs to the bevels and ended up with this great Charm Chain.

Forgive the picture quality here but Roxie also made this stand alone beveled suncatcher when we all decided that it added too much length to her Charm Chain. On it's own it's a wonderful gift for any window where sun comes through.

Myrt completed her Grape/Wine and Cheese window this week and while it was sitting there waiting to be cleaned Russ looked at it and said, "There's a problem with this window." I can't believe I didn't spot it myself. Can you see the problem? It's corrected in the second photo so you can play the old "find the differences in these 2 photos" game. I'll give you a hint, it's not the color of the glass. Those differences exist only because the two photo's were taken at different times during the day.
Well, the problem is that the right wine glass in the top photo is both in front of the wine bottle and behind it at the same time! It would appear that when I drew the pattern I erased the wrong hidden line. It certainly was easier to do it the first way but easier is not always correct. Either way you look at it this is a really nice window that has received a lot of compliments since Myrt started it.

Next up we have a look at Terry's 2 windows. As you can see, the top one just needs the border to be attached and then a bit of soldering that Terry will undoubtedly do at home.

The second picture is the wider center piece without the background or top and bottom borders. While I was working on the photo of this last week I felt as though something was missing. After pondering it for a while I decided that Terry needed another row of tan trim bordering the center oval of the design. And when Terry came in this week she told me that she thought something was missing as well! I told her that I'd been thinking the same thing and when I showed her what I'd do to fix it she agreed. Here it is with the added row of tan surrounding the center oval. And now, it's perfect.

Sonia left her class with her Peacock all cut out. It looks like it's going to light up really nicely (although that's hard to tell from the photo). Sonia will be grinding this when she comes back in and then when it's tacked together she'll add the 5 pieces of background glass and then decide what colors to use for her elaborate border.

Sadly, the glass for Janice's border had not arrived so she did some soldering on her window this week. At least her time wasn't wasted. Borders go on quickly and when her glass does come in this window will be completed rather quickly.

Fran came in with her ducks all wrapped but she needed to add a row of white trim on the feathers. She tacked together what she had cut and foiled and then we filled in the missing pieces with white glass giving her the 2 perfect ducks that you don't see below because I didn't get to snap a picture of them before they flew out the door with Fran. :-( Instead you'll have to look at her ducks from last week once again.

Cindy worked on her front door insert and hit a slight snag. Unfortunately we were unable to turn up another piece of the main color she was using so she found another sheet that was similar and is now replacing the pieces she cut. She started cutting this Hummingbird Flower window out while she was at home this week and when she left class she had the background glass all cut and ready to be ground into place.

Bonnie P. wanted to do a rooster window for her kitchen but she wanted a specific Rooster with specific colors. So we drew it out, found a nice farm painting online and put the two together to make this pattern. I was thoroughly impressed when Bonnie got all of her Rooster cut out in one class. And as you can see it's fitting together nicely before it's even touched the grinder! I suspect that with the hardest part of this being completed we'll see it all cut out next week.

Anita's LSU Window is coming out nicely. She has the tiger eye sitting on top of the letters and as you can see she has it all just about cut out now. In fact, the eye is all done and ready to be foiled. I suspect she'll be ready for a border when we see her next week and then it will just need some soldering.

Grace is BACK! And since Grace doesn't like to do things the easy way she's making this detailed Medical Window. The rhythm section is cut and ground so she's moving along on the hard parts first. This is shaping up to be a real eye catcher when it's completed.

It certainly was a busy week for classes with a lot of projects started. And it doesn't look like anything is going to be slowing down any time soon.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

♪ ♫ Just Bead It, Bead it! No one likes to be defeated! ♫ ♪

2011-08-08T09:19:00.010-05:00

Anita's Heron or Egret window (take your pick) is completed. I'd say a good 90% of the work on this was done at her home in between classes. It cost her soldering iron its life (which went out with a POP!) but the end results are wonderful. I like the way her border picks up a color from the center of the window.

Terry finished the first section of her 3 piece window and it all went together perfectly. Terry isn't afraid to design her own projects and this is another example of her handiness with a pencil and paper as well as with a glass cutter.

And before you think it will be a while before her other 2 windows are complete I'd like to show you just how far along they actually are. Her center piece is in need of some foiling and a backgound but the hard part is done. And the matching panel to the one above only needs a border and some soldering. Terry is most certainly into stained glass!

Susan had taken home her inner border and wrapped it there. When she came in we tacked the border into place and then cut strips on the strip cutter for her final outer border. It's all together and that means that when she return next class we'll add a brass channel around the edges and then move on to the soldering process.

Sonia got the bottom half of her peacock feathers completed with just the background feathers of the tail left to go. They're all traced out onto the glass so I suspect that she'll begin grinding this when she returns to class (another year older!)
Myrt is ready to solder her Wine and Cheese window. And knowing how quickly she solders I'd say it a fair assumption to say that this will be one of our featured finished windows in the next Blog post. We still need to add a brass channel to the edge but that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes at the most.

Roxie made a Faux Pas this week when she accidentally came to glass without the letters she wrapped while she was home this week. She put them in her car but forgot to transfer them into the car she was carpooling with. Rest assured, Roxie, this has been done numerous times by other students. So rather than sit around she started making a hanging Beveled Charm Chain. She re-foiled some bevels that she had, put a bead on them (Just Bead It!) and then tinned a LONG piece of copper wire. The wire was twisted into full circles and cut up into half circles. Right now things are just laid out here but it all has to be soldered together yet. This will be finished next week for sure.

Peewee's Fleur De Lis is all cut and tacked together. He replaced the missing piece and added his border which means that when he comes back he'll be ready to solder this. Expect to see this one wrapped up shortly-- possibly when he returns in 2 weeks.
Janice came in and foiled all of the pieces that she had cut and ground last week. We didn't have any of her border glass due to a miscalculation but she was able to continue working on this by soldering what she has completed to this point. When she returns she will be one of many students who will be adding a border to their windows.

Dianne's Rooster window is tacked together. The only thing left to cut is the border and then she'll be soldering this. There was a lot of grinding to do in a window this complex but she managed to get through it wonderfully. Before the class was over we had it all foiled and ready for solder. There's a small fence post (?) that the rooster is standing on that will cut into the border but it still won't take long to get the rest of this cut.

Cindy is as completely cut as she can be at this point in the game. The only pieces left are from a glass that match the color of the room this window will be in and the glass has been discontinued! Go figure. Luckily it's a recent discontinuance (is that even a word?) and we think we've hunted some more of it down. While she's waiting for the glass she's begun grinding her largest section seen here.

Patty -- Seafood. Patty -- Shrimp. Patty -- Oysters. Patty -- Crabs (the good kind!!!). Moving at a steady pace now this window is coming together. But, she says, "NEVER AGAIN!" Me, I say "Never say never".

Grace is back! She started off making a small, simple Star Of Life with a Staff Of Ascelepius (sometimes referred to as a Caduceus) but it sort of mushroomed into this fancy pattern with a rhythm and fancy background that's going to look really nice. Next week we'll see the glass that Grace has cut for this design.

Anita not only completed her Egret window but she also began another project this week. I feel like a fool saying that it's an LSU window when that's so readily apparent, but that's what she's making. And she's put a tiger eye on top which may be a little hard to see right now but once it's all ground it'll show nicely.

That's it for this, the first week of August. We'll have more projects completed and new ones started when we return.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A KILLER Dip!

2011-08-04T22:56:00.004-05:00

Roxie was feeling a little bit depressed because she read the Blog last week and said that she kept reading about how other students cut, grind, foil and tack things together all in one night. But Roxie got all of the Letters for her Camp Maypop window traced out on her yellow glass, and then cut and ground them. Now that's not a bad nights work at all. Plus, she went into the house and came back a little later with a dip for the Tortilla chips she brought with her that was SOOOOO good....

"HOW GOOD WAS IT???"

Well, it was so kickin' it made the Pope knock out a stained glass window when he tried it! So all in all it was a very good night for Roxie. Here's a look at her letters thus far. It won't be long too before we read about how she has cut, ground, foiled and tacked her border all together (in one night!)

Susan cut, ground foiled and tacked her background pieces this week (sorry abut that Roxie!) Susan, like everyone else just starting a stained glass class, is concerned about all the little things she sees 'wrong' in her window, but she has nothing at all to worry about as it's fitting together perfectly. Before class was finished she also got her inner border cut and skimmed. She's taken it home with her to wrap so that next week we can just tack it on and move on along with the final border. You can see the first piece of her inner border in the picture below.

Dianne is really moving quickly with her Rooster window. There are a lot of pieces in this and she's got them all cut out and has begun grinding them already. Everything to the left of the rooster is ready to be foiled so there are only a few large pieces left to go before she gets into the wrapping process. What a nice and colorful window this is shaping up to be.

Meanwhile, Dianne's husband, Peewee, got almost all of his background cut, ground and foiled. I say almost because we had a slight incident where we broke a piece while cutting. As always, it was at the very end when the difficult cuts where already done. Since this was cut all from 1 piece of glass without a pattern we're just going to tack it together and then trace out the missing piece so it will fit in seamlessly as the original would have. Isn't this an nice design?

Well, Fran certainly came in with her ducks all in a row! Well, maybe a column. :-) When we last saw her she had just a pattern and the sheets of glass she planned to use which she took home with her. This week she comes in and the ducks are all cut and ground. And they look GREAT! What a good job she did on these. Next comes the background.

Actually this window was supposed to be posted last week but I forgot to take a picture of it so it never made it into the proper Posting. This is Janice's newest Rose Window. She came in with just the roses tacked together and laid them out somewhat randomly on a pattern paper. We traced around them, cut a few single leaves and traced around them as well. She added some stems and then cut them all out and got them all ground just as class finished. She'll tack these and then add a border.

Terry worked on most of this while she was at home and there are a lot of colorful pieces in it. It's the first of 3 windows (she likes making windows in sets of 3) which are all tied together. This is one of the end pieces and she has the design for the center piece completed now. It was kind of a group effort in class to come up with a design for the center and I think we did well. You'll see how that window is shaping up in our next post...

Patty is moving along with her seafood window but I'm worried it's going to leave a bad taste in her mouth! Honestly, it's coming together nicely and now that we've decided to work on all these pieces with a break here and there for other projects I think she'll have a much easier time with this. Like I said though, it's really shaping up nicely! I get hungry just looking at it.

Cindy is also moving right along on her front door window. She's started the center panel and has a lot cut already. Her smaller end panels are complete and ready for solder. Since this window is so large she can't easily transport it back and forth so it's a project that she's working on solely in the shop otherwise I think she's have this all assembled already! The window is a bit too long for me to fit in the camera-- the ceiling is in the way so I can't fit the entire pattern into the picture. You'll see it when I can set it on the floor though. For now, here's the middle 3/4's of her window.

Ahh, how relaxing. Cheese, Grapes and Wine! Myrt has her voice back this week and has brough a touch of class into the class on Tuesday night with her window. It's tacked together but the 4 darker corner pieces are just cut and haven't been ground to fit yet (you can see a section that needs to be ground out under the right-most wine glass). Once they're ground and tacked into place there will just be a border left to cut and then we can share the wine!

This week was a bit odd because for the first time in months we have no completed projects to show this week. You would think that happens often but it's actually the exception to the rule. Our students can really knock out the windows! Next week I know we'll have something finished to show you but until then, foil all your glass evenly and don't forget to cut off all of your marker lines!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Look Ma, No Glass!

2011-07-26T22:01:00.006-05:00

Welcome back! This post will bring us up to date (at least until Thursday night rolls around when I'll have a new weeks worth of progress to report on).

This week we're going to start off with Bonnie P. who has completed her 2 Flower Boxes just as I suspected she would. The bottoms are only made up of 5 pieces of glass but figuring out how to cut them and assemble them is the tricky part. You have to admit that these turned out really nice. Maybe if I'm nice to her she'll make one for me... :-)

Alright, now this is a first. Patty is the first student EVER to make a completed project that required no glass cutting. I know what you're thinking: Bevels. But you'd be wrong. See, Patty had this leftover wooden frame and decided that if she could make a framework that popped inthe back side with 2 bars going across she would have a nice place to hang her ear rings. And this is what she came up with. She even had a small metal flower to hot glue in the corner to give the frame a little more POP!

And now we take a final look at Terry's 2 small Clear Beveled Windows. Yes, it's a pain working with clear glass but in the end you can't help but admire the results. The two window are identical so don't knock yourself out trying to determine where the difference lies. There's just something about clear glass and bevels that's really elegant.

Terry didn't want to waste any time getting on to her next project so she started working on this at home. Whoa! Look at all those pins! I LOVE IT! When this is wrapped and tacked there will be no doubt as to how it will fit together. Terry drew this up herself and is doing a great job with it.

Dianne went all out and decided to make a Rooster Window for her first project. I wanted to see her get the Rooster all cut before class ended but she also got the green hills in the background cut out as well! She has only 2 colors in the sky left to go so I think she'll begin grinding this next week. Talk about moving quickly!

Sonia picked a beautiful iridized blue glass for the neck of her bird. she's also using it as the rounded sections of the feathers that fill the bottom of her window. I really like the choice. She has a lot of other pieces traced out onto glass just waiting to be cut during her next class.

Peewee is making a long Fleur De Lis window that will be accented with 2 small bevels. With the center Fleur De Lis all cut, ground, foiled, and tacked together Peewee will begin his next class cutting and grinding his background. He's moving quickly and doing wonderfully.

Cindy has begun working on her front door. It's a standard size door sectioned off into 9 panels that looks something like this:

Well, what you see below are the top and bottom rows all cut, ground, and wrapped. She'll be working on the middle sections next so we'll start to see this taking shape soon now.

Susan decided that she wanted to make a Fleur De Lis window also. She liked the one we had in the shop but it's orientation was wrong. She wanted something wider than taller. In the end she settled on this pattern and like Peewee, she managed to get her center Fleur De Lis cut, ground, foiled and tacked together. Once her background is cut during her next class she'll be down to borders which will be simple on the strip cutter.

Anita, never one to be sitting down relaxing, has more than put a dent in her second Egret window. By the time she left class it was all set and ready for solder except for 1 small piece that needs to be dropped into place. See, as she was foiling she discovered a large chip on the bottom of her water. She hadn't bothered to bring that glass into class with her since she thought she was finished with it, so what she did was cut a large section of the chip away. I hoped to fill it with th e other blue she had used in the water but as luck would have it we were out of that one as well. So in the end she will simply drop another piece of the water glass into the opening and no one will ever know that she deviated from the pattern. Stained glass is all about making changes on the fly.

Roxie is branching out a bit. A few months ago she made a window with the numbers for her house and now she's making a sign for the Yellow Camp! Whoever took the picture should have straightened out the last 2 letters, huh? And can you guess what color the letters are going to be? Chartreuse? Feldgrau? Malachite? Burnt Umber? Fallo? Gamboge? Perhaps she's decided on Jonquil? Nope-- she's going with boring old Yellow. As it SHOULD be! We'll see some color in this next week for sure.

And that about sums it all up for this, the 3rd week of July. But we'll be back again soon-- you can bank on that.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

National Stained Glass Safety Week

2011-07-25T23:33:00.009-05:00

Roxie's Faeries came out perfectly! I said I had high hopes for the clear one and it turned out to be everything we all thought it would be. The silver lead lines against the clear wings along with the shiny silver Faerie body just sparkles away in the light. Of course, her green Faerie is nothing less than stunning as well! But the best part about these two pieces is that the wings went onto the bodies almost perfectly from the start. (Getting them to be symmetrical can be more than a little mind numbing at times...)

As you may already know it's National Stained Glass Safety Week. To help demonstrate the rights and wrongs of personal safety we have Naughty Margret's slow but lovable cousin Mickey-Mitchell showing us what he likes to do in his spare time. Do NOT try this at home kids. It's probably the reason why Mickey-Mitchell sits in his rocking chair in the corner drooling away the day. But HEY! Did you notice the nice frame that Mickey-Mitchell is in? Yep, Patty has completed her frame and I filled it with another one of her lovable sock monkeys just for this picture. Patty thought about putting a flower in one of the lower corners but she would have had to go with something bright to stand out against the black border and she wanted to make sure that the frame wouldn't clash with the room it would be going into so she opted out on the flower. Still, it's a wonderful frame and a good lesson on why Outlets and Paper Clips should never come together.

Cindy has completed her Leaves with Cat Tails Window in record time. Her choice of yellow for the border really made this window pop! The importance of a border color can't be stressed enough because most times it's the border that sets the tone for the window. Without this yellow border all of the colors would appear to blend in with one another giving the window a muted look. Now its anything but muted. Cindy is moving along wonderfully with her stained glass skills.

And as a quick "I Need a Present" project, Cindy threw together this stained glass butterfly. It was made from the same pattern that she made her first project from but this time around Cindy did ALL of the work herself and had it completed well before the end of class. Once she was done with this she began working on the pattern to her door which we'll see next week.

Susan is one of our 3 new students that started this week. She made her butterfly in Amber and Brown. From the minute she held her glass cutter she had a good understanding of what was going on. She'll be working on a Fleur De Lis Window next and I know it's going to turn out nicely. Here's here Butterfly.
Peewee came in and had the standard lesson on cutting glass. From there he moved over to his Butterfly pattern and made it all look easy. He took to the grinder perfectly so I'm sure that his first window will fit together just fine. I always know when someone is seeing the big picture when they worry about symmetry. Peewee will also be making a stained glass Fleur De Lis window but a different pattern than the one Susan will be working on. And this is the Butterfly that Peewee took home.
Dianne is the third of out new students and she ended up having no problem with her butterfly either. Its always nice to see the first project go together so smoothly. Over the years I've tried 3 different Patterns to start students with and I have to say that the Butterfly is by far the best one. 99% of the students feel comfortable with their cutting when it's completed and Dianne was no exception. She'll be working on a nice colorful Rooster Window when she comes back for her next class. Meanwhile, let's take a look at her Butterfly.

I have to admit that I was thinking that Myrt's grapes looked a little plain but I've done them the same way in the past so I assumed it was because there weren't any leaves on the top of them yet. Now that the leaves have been tacked in place I can honestly say that her window has really come to life. The rest of this is just filling in background pieces and adding a border so it should go pretty quickly from here.

Terry now has the first of her 2 smaller clear beveled windows completely soldered. All this needs is a quick soak in the black patina to change the color of the lead from silver to black and this will be finished. Her second window is a good 90% soldered now also so that means we'll be seeing these windows completed next week. It also means that Terry is about to get some color into her life!

Sonia decided to do the smaller Peacock window that Anita had just completed. The larger Peacocks are certainly pretty but there are so many pieces in them that you can't practically re-size them to be smaller. And as we all know, you shouldn't make a piece of stained glass bigger than the window you plan on putting it in. The paper pattern is cut out and the glass she's going to use has all been selected. Sonia is now ready to start cutting glass.

And I'm going to end this by telling you that Fran started her new Duck window by making adjustments to her pattern ( changing the sex of one of the ducks) and then tracing it out, cutting up the pattern and tracing pieces onto the glass. I only now realized that I didn't get a picture of what she did. I promise to do better the next time we see Fran.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

How to Make Those Windows POP!!!

2011-07-24T23:25:00.007-05:00

It's been a while since we last saw someone do a peacock and now that Anita has completed hers Sonia is considering making one also. There's something about peacock windows that I've always liked, maybe it's the fact that you can go hog wild with color if you really want to or you can be more demure and go with a less flashy but equally impressive version of the pattern like Anita did here. You can see that she took the time to cut out a fancy triple border which is NEVER easy to do but in the end she gets to go home with this window.

Fran's been busy while she's been home. She came in this week with these windows all ready for solder and when she left at the end of class they were 100% completed. She's really knocking out these Fleur De Lis windows quickly now and I'll bet she can just about make these with her eyes closed. Next up for Fran will be another one of her duck windows.
Roxie was going to wait and finish all 3 of her Faeries at once but she needed a gift and had this one just about completed so with just a slight change in her scheduling she was able able to finished this one first and then spend the rest of her class working on the last 2 Faeries. People have asked me if I'm spelling the word 'Faeries' wrong in the blog and I just explain that it's more colorful to spell it the Old English, or British, way (Faerie) rather than the American way (Fairy). It just looks classier. Oh, and from the back side you can clearly see this Faerie's arse!

Once the soldering was done Roxie finished wrapping her other 2 sets of wings which means that next week Roxie will be doing some more soldering. I can't wait to see the clear one completed!

Pam was back in this week and she made this suncatcher while she was at home. She brought it in to let me look at it before she soldered it all together and I have to say that she didn't need to wait for my OK on this-- it was perfect! And I might add that her soldering is also!

Once Pam completed the soldering on her hummingbird suncatcher she began cutting out the glass for her next project: A butterfly with Tulips. I like the way she's not afraid to use pins to hold things down as she grinds them! She has the background cut out for this also, but I guess I snapped the picture before the glass was cut. My bad!

And here we have a look at Terry's last clear beveled window. It's all together and just needs some channel and some solder for her to call this job OVER! I think Terry has taken away a lot working on this project. She learned a lot of good stained glass tricks on how to get something squared and centered as well as making windows that match. Like Rosie, Terry will be soldering during her next class!

Taking a break from her seafood window, Patty has taken a slight detour into the land of stained glass frames. She needed a gift and she needed a break from tiny pieces so a frame seemed like the way to go. This is pretty much completed since all of the glass is cut and ground. She only needs to tack the final border into place and then attach the hardware behind it before she washes it and colors it. The real beauty of this quick little sidestep is that next week Patty will have a project completed. We all like to be able to bring things home! :-)

Well now, look at this. Cindy has her window all wrapped and tacked together! She fixed her problem pieces at home and added her border during class where she then began soldering it. I'd say she's on a roll here! Expect to see this completed next week along with the other projects I've already mentioned. Cindy's moving really quickly now and really seems to have the hang of this..

Bonnie has her 2 box tops completed and is ready to make the clear 4 sided bottoms. It's a simple process but tricky the first few times through it. Like anything else it gets easier the more you do it. No matter how tricky the bottoms might be I'd expect Bonnie to have these completed during her next class. They may look sort of plain now but wait until you see them washed up and shiny!

That sums up what happened in our classes during the 1st week of July. If our ISP let's me get on the internet again tomorrow we'll get to look at 3 new butterflies in another blog update. Butterflies mean new students so things will be getting interesting around here with some fresh blood (perhaps even literally!) into the mix here.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Canned Corn?

2011-07-13T22:02:00.005-05:00

We're going to have to call Fran the Fleur De Lis' Lady. She's got this pattern down to a science now and can make these with her eyes closed. Nice colors, nice glass, a unique shape and pieces that fit together perfectly make this another stunning entry in Fran's portfolio of glass.

Here's a quick look at the next 2 Fleur De Lis' that Fran will have completed during her next class. As you can see one of them just needs to be soldered while the second one still needs to be wrapped before she can cut the border for it. But that won't take long at all.

This is Terry's second window all ready to get its outside border added. Her corners and the connecting bevels are all tacked together now. You can see there's a piece of clear glass under the bottom right hand corner waiting to be traced out so it lines up perfectly with that corner. She'll tackle all four corners when she returns during her next class.

Roxie has all 3 pairs of her Faerie wings cut and ground. She already has the teal wings tacked together so they just need a final soldering before she attaches them to the pewter Faerie body. She's also done something a little different with the clear wind set that may not be obvious on a first glance. Some of the pieces are placed with the rough side up and others with the rough side down. This will give a slight texture difference to the wings that I think will really set them apart.

And just look at Patty's corn! She's gone for a very photo realistic look here and... wait a minute, she brought these in for us to eat-- not to use in her window! I think Patty is worrying too much about that extra ear of corn she found in her window pattern. Maybe we can swap it out for a can of corn...
And here's Patties Seafood window. She now has some shrimp added to the mix. Next week Patty is going to start working on a frame and take a bit of a break from this window. It will give her a chance to work with some larger pieces and get to see something completed. :-)

Wow, did Anita burn the midnight oil when she took this home with her or what? She got this complex border assembled all by herself. Nice job! She's soldering it now which means that we'll see this one completed next week.

And up next is Cindy who will wrap up our post for this week as we see how nicely she did grinding all the glass that makes up her blue sky. Everything is falling together for this window save for 2 pieces of green that she ran short on which she has at home. She also picked out a nice bright yellow for her border- yellow and green always go together well so it's a safe assumption to say that it's going to look nice. I can't wait to see this next week when it's all foiled and ready for solder.

And that about wraps up things this time around. He have 3 new students about to join us so expect to see a few more butterflies shortly!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Rapping with Glass

2011-07-11T20:03:00.008-05:00

♫ ♪ Ladies struttin' their stuff ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ comin' into class, ♫ ♪
♫ ♪ Blowin' our minds with ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ their fine stained glass! ♫ ♪

♫ ♪ They know how to work it, ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ They know how to shape it ♫ ♪
♫ ♪ And if things are goin' right ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ They never ever break it! ♫ ♪

Janice has her first window completed and it's looking GREAT! Again, note that the border only travels along 3 sides. This is because the window will continue into a smaller section that sits above this one. Since we want people to notice that the scene is one large picture split between 2 windows we avoid breaking up the flowing pattern as much as possible. Which means that the top window won't have a border along the bottom edge.

Sonia started this Oil Kaleidoscope last week and Rapped it all up the following week. It's a fairly easy project but figuring out just how it all fits together the first time can be daunting. In fact, after making about a dozen of these in class, I think I'm going to modify the pattern a bit to make it easier to solder the final lines which close in the mirrors. Now I can't wait until someone else wants to make one of these. :-)

Roxies Faeries or Fairies or Wood Nymphs or Butterfly ladies or whatever you want them to be (I prefer Faeries myself-- it makes them sound more mystical) are most certainly in the making ere. She has 2 more almost completely cut out now. The top one looks like a blank pattern but that's only because the glass she cut is a clear textured glass. It's going to be stunning when it's all together. Trust me.

Speaking of clear glass, Terry has half of her second smaller window all tacked together. She closing in on the end of this project and she said that she's looking forward to working with color again soon.
Wine and cheese, anyone? Myrt certainly wants some so she'll be hanging this window in er own house rather than giving it away like she does all her other windows. This is really coming together nicely if I do say so myself.
Fran's been making Fleur De Lis windows again. She has 3 in the works here with one of them ready to be tacked together. There are 2 other backgrounds cut out but she left her Fleur De Lis centers at home so she couldn't grind them here in class. She was moving along quicker than she thought she would.
Cindy's window is ready to have a background cut for it. All the leaves and cat tails are cut out now so she's picked a nice shade of blue to give it a sky-like background. I'm starting to think that Cindy has a thing for stained glass leaves since she added leaves similar to this in her last window.

Bonnie got the flowers for her 2 stained glass boxes all cut and wrapped. When she saw how we hung one of the Iris petals down low she decided she wanted to do the same for the rose. Adding a simple leaf to the bottom extended the design lower than the background glass and will give the box owner a place to lift the lid when it's closed. It may not make sense now but it will when toy see it all together.

Patty's making progress on her seafood window. Yep there are a lot of small pieces but in the end this is going to be SOOOOO worth it. you mark my words. She's picked out the glass for her shrimp and will start working on that before you know it.

And that should Rap things up here this week. Come back tomorrow for a second pasting (if the internet wants to work for me)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

This Post Just Might Boar You To Death

2011-06-25T21:28:00.011-05:00

We've had a few people make some comments that told me something that I hadn't thought about. The Bonnie that is taking classes right now and who did the Ballerina Slippers last week is not the same Bonnie who made all of the Fleur De Lis windows and the Magnolia Window last summer. I figured that I'd best state something here about it since I learned that the Tuesday night class was shocked to learn that Bonnie had restarted classes. Sorry ladies, it's a different Bonnie. :-)

Ok, first up we have a look at our first ever Boar window! Yep, it has now been completed and Cindy got it done just in time for father's day. There's a lot of work in this window and it's definitely NOT a beginner project but Cindy made it look rather easy. Even her color choices are spot on!

Pam was concerned about biting off too much for her to chew on her first project so she decided to do 2 suncatchers. Both were more elaborate than the butterfly but as you can see, this Dragonfly suncatcher is really nice. And she had NO problem at all making it. I'd say that her fears were completely unfounded. :-)
Here's the second suncatcher that Pam decided to do. This is is one of the standard stained glass humming bird patterns that are always so popular. Pam took it and ran all the way to the finish line with it. Another job well done and she gets extra points for remembering to start and stop her foil on sides where another piece of glass is touching.

Terry has been hard at work making her first small(er) clear beveled window and it's all coming together now. This one only needs to be soldered and then have some zinc channel added to the edges and it will be complete. Terry took this home to work on and has already started cutting the second one out.

Roxie has decided to add wings to the 3 stained glass faerie bodies that she has in her bag of things to do. This is the first one all cut, ground, and wrapped. In case you haven't noticed, it's already June already and Roxie is thinking about gifts for the holidays. I guess it's safe to say that Roxie is not a procrastinator!!
This is the center piece of Myrt's Fancy Fleur De Lis windows. It's now all ground and ready to be wrapped. She also worked on wrapping all of the purple globs for her grape window but I don't seem to have a picture of that project. I guess I'm slipping! Look for an update to that one in our next post.

Bonnie P. has decided that her next project will be 2 boxes. Both will be flowers, one being a rose and the second an iris. She had her rose all cut out and ground so she took it home with her to wrap. Next week she'll be tackling the Iris. And then she'll be close to doing the bottoms of these.

Anita's peacock is REALLY coming together. It's all tacked together save for the rather elaborate border that will surround this. It's a difficult border to work on because you have to make cuts based on sections that aren't cut yet, but when it's done you'll see that it was worth all the extra effort. Pay attention to stained glass windows and you'll noticed that the ones that garner the most attention all have fancy, extravagant borders. This peacock will be one of them.

And Sonia has her stand completed and all the glass cut for her first Oil Scope. I'd say that this means she'll be completing this during her next class. This was an excellent choice of glass for this project. When I first saw the glass I liked it but was unsure of what it could be used for. I think Roxie all showed us what we could do with it. I'm betting that Sonia's going to be thrilled at how this turns out.

So there you have it. All the news that's fit to Blog about.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

No Laughing Matter

2011-06-10T21:40:00.012-05:00

A Bird in ballerina slippers walks into a bar and orders a sot of whiskey. The bartender looks up at him and asks, "Hey, what's with the long face?"

Wait a minute, that was supposed to be a HORSE in ballerina slippers. Or maybe it was just a horse-- I'm not really good with jokes. But I do know that Bonnie's Ballerina Slippers Window went home with her this week and they looked GREAT! The Pink Baroque glass that she used added a lot to the look of this window and her workmanship was nothing short of perfect.

And on the same night we got to see Sonia complete her Sunflower window as well. You couldn't find the change that we made to the pattern if your life depended on it (unless, of course, you read about it last week). It just goes to prove that you can alter your pattern on the fly and still have a window that comes out perfect. Great job, Sonia!

Roxie is going to make a 5 foot by 6 foot window made of nothing but tiny little butterflies. Each butterfly is less than 3 inches tall and made up of 22 pieces of glass. Mathematically that comes out to 480 butterflies in 1 large window! The butterfly wings that she cut out this week are much larger than the ones she'll be cutting for her 5x6 window but she's hoping that she can add more pieces to each wing. I say we up the ante to at least 30 pieces for each butterfly. What do you think?

I hope that no one really believed all that stuff in that last paragraph because Roxie is NOT doing a 5' x 6' window filled with insanely small butterflies. Instead she's making 3 fairies and this is the first of 3 sets of wings that she'll attach to the pewter fairie bodies once they're soldered together.

And moving on over to this table we get a gander at Janice's Rose Window. It was hard to see what was going on with it last week since it wasn't wrapped and the background still had some uncut sections but this week it's all perfectly clear to see. The border doesn't go across the top of the window because there's a smaller section that will sit above this. The smaller window will have a border on the top , left and right sides but not the bottom. When the windows are installed the scene will run together and even though it will be made up of 2 windows the border will allow the viewer to look at it as one complete scene. Pretty tricky, huh?

A boar walks into a bar with a horse and a ballerina and orders Whiskey Sours for each of them. The bartender looks at them and asks, "Is this some kind of a joke?"

Well here we are with Cindy's Boar window and it's just about complete. The front side is soldered and the back side will be done when it comes back in next week. I think it's safe to say that this is not only going to be finished next week but that it's the prettiest looking Boar I've ever seen!

Anita is working on her Peacock window and it's moving right along. With only the background and the borders left to go this will be nearing completion pretty quickly. Normally the border is a quick simple process but Anita is going with 3 borders that are very fancy. It will add time to the window but the end result will be worth it. Mary Lynn and Jane have both done these staggered borders in some of their work.

Terry has just the 4 corners left to go before she starts soldering this clear glass beveled window. And when it's finished she'll be starting up another one of the same design. But the second one should go a little faster for her -- it almost always does. Terry says she wants to do something with some color in it next.

And that will do it for this week. Oh, and did you hear the one about the blind carpenter who picked up a hammer and saw?

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Striving for Less Bulky and Funky Solder Lines

2011-06-06T21:12:00.006-05:00

We're nearing the end of a number of projects here in the shop. and I have a funny feeling that the next 2 weeks are going to be very busy during classes.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we don't have any completed projects this week though. Cindy wrapped up the soldering job on her last window and after she washed and colored her 3 windows I managed to remember to take a picture of them just before we lost the sunlight outside. Aren't these nice? The funny thing is that this is Cindy's SECOND project but her first to be completed since she had to wait for some glass to come in for her first project.

And Roxie had a friend who saw Terry's Pittsburgh Steelers logo here on the Blog and asked Roxie to make a smaller version for him. So this is what she came up with. The picture you're looking at is almost the exact size of her finished project give or take a quarter of an inch or so.

Bonnie is ready to add the border to her Ballerina Slippers Window and that won't take more than a half hour to do. Then she'll solder it and dance them out the door. I like how Bonnie wasn't afraid to but blue into the window. Pink and blue go together so well yet a lot of people are afraid to put blue in a window for a girl. In my opinion it really makes the pink stand out.

Speaking of blue, here's a look at Sonia's window now that it has its border attached and the front almost completely soldered. She deviated a bit from the original pattern when the leaf on the left lost about a 1/4 inch of it's tip. Rather than re-cut it we simply made it touch the border instead of cutting into it (like the sunflower petals do). And there's nothing wrong with that at all. Look to see this one completed in our next Blog update.

Terry has the center cut for her 1st small beveled window. With the corners attached she'll be cutting straight bevels and a final border for this window during her next class. I'm going to confess that we (Terry, Russ and I) made a miscalculation and forgot to order the end pieces to her bevel centerpiece. Rather than waste a week or more waiting for the pieces to come in we improvised when we discovered a small bevel cluster made of 4 identical pieces that we were able to drop in place for the original bevels. And I'll bet you can't guess which bevels are the replacements because they match perfectly. Sometimes you can still score a goal even on a fumble and this is one of those times.

Wow, I really like the way this Boar's Head looks. It's all cut and ground and there are only a few pieces left to wrap before Cindy tacks it together and then adds her final border. This window is just about finished now and I know that Cindy is anxious to get her first (technically her second) project completed.

Patty's Seafood Medley Window (meow!) is really taking shape here. This week she finished up her oysters, her two lemons, and she even had her last piece of corn on the cob. I think that she's down to the seafood now (and once again I'm hungry due to looking at this).

Myrt started the Grape/Cheese and Wine window that she's been talking about doing since the first class she took. I wasn't sure how many purple Globs she had found so the pattern I drew up only had one cluster of grapes but when she came in I saw she easily had enough for 2 clusters so the pattern has been altered to make room for more grapes. This is going to be a nice window but I'm not sure if I want to be around when Myrt cuts the cheese... (groan)

And Myrt also brought in her Fleur De Lis that she cut out while she was home last week. All it needs now is some grinding and then the majority of the work will be completed on this window. It's actually cut from a deep, rich red glass which will really stand out quite nicely when it has a little light behind it.

Well then, that's it! We're up to date again and just waiting for our students to arrive on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so we can show you what goes on this week here in the bayou at the Glass Studio.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Buzz This Week

2011-06-04T23:05:00.009-05:00

Well, Roxie wanted to make something completely different and she did. I think this is the first Mobile that a student has made and who knows, it may not be the last. Those 3 bees were hard to keep still for the picture but as you can see we managed. I think Roxie had fun making this and I know we improved on the pattern that Vicki Payne provided for this project.

Sonia is all tacked together and ready for her final border. She's decided to use the same blue that she used to make the birds feathers with which will give the border something to tie into color-wise. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be seeing this window completed within the next 2 weeks. And like Roxie, Sonia seems to be having a fun time making this.

Terry has begun working on the first of her two companion windows to the large Beveled window she finished last week. These are much smaller but the centers have a lot more work in them. With the center piece to the first one cut out Terry is well on her way to completing this one.

Pam has begun to work on her first project. She was concerned about getting in over her head so she decided to start with something a small. After seeing her cut and grind this in one class I'm going to go on record and say that Pam has NOTHING to worry about. She's doing just fine. This humming Bird will be finished when she next shows up for class.

Janice really jumped out ahead of the class with her window this week. Not only did she cut out all of her background but she even has it all ground already! If you look at the enlarged photo of this you'll see 5 small holes where single leaves will be cut to fit. After those 5 pieces are cut Janice will be adding her border and then she'll solder this one.

Myrt began working on the Fleur De Lis that Terry had drawn up and made a few weeks back. She altered the pattern a bit and then set out cutting the FDL in a nice dark Red glass. The only problem with the red glass is that it's hard to see your lines on it. But I know Myrt will manage. As you can see on the top part of the photo she's already got a number of the pieces cut out already.

Now would you look at this. When we last checked in on Cindy she had 6 pieces of glass cut and 3 square bevels picked out. This week she walked in the door with all 3 of her windows cut, ground and wrapped. By the time she left class she had 2 of the windows completely soldered and the front of the third window completed. Talk about moving along!

Bonnie has her ballerina slippers all ground and tacked together. She has the background glass for the oval section picked out and will have that part completed next week as well as her four corners that will turn this from an oval into a rectangular window. This window is very near completion and Bonnie is doing a wonderful job with it.

That pretty much sums up what happened during the last week of May except for the fact that I forgot to show you what Roxie did after her Bee Hive was completed. She began working on this Pittsburgh Steelers emblem. It's a quick little suncatcher that only needs 7 more pieces cut before she calls this finished.
I'll leave you all with these words of wisdom: If you don't have any blood on your project you're being too careful!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

These Three Bees

2011-06-03T21:13:00.006-05:00

Terry's window is now out and about. Using nothing but clear glass and bevels Terry opted to color the lead black which creates excellent contrast against all the clear for a striking look. Measuring 48 inches wide this isn't a small window by any means. It took a steady hand to make sure everything lined up evenly but she was up for the challenge. Next up for Terry are the 2 companion end pieces that will bookend this window.

Anita's Egret window was another project to walk out the door this week. I think Anita has a thing for feathers because she's got another bird window all lined up to be started next week. She handled the feathers on this window one at a time and found that it wasn't nearly as hard as she had originally thought. Small steps is the key to everything in stained glass.

And Myrt also brought home a window this week. Wow, I just noticed that all of the projects completed this week were done in our Tuesday night class. Myrt's use of bright colors make this a window that's hard to ignore. The antenna on the butterfly was made by tacking on some thin gauge wired after the window was completed. Making actual cuts into the glass to for the antenna would be far too tedious to even consider.

And speaking of moving along, Sonia is making big progress also. Although her window isn't complete (yet) her background is. It was all cut from one sheet of Krinkle Glass so it pretty much just dropped into place and requires barely any grinding at all. With just a border left to cut the hard work on this window IS completed.

Oyster Patty! That's who is making this window. This week she saw her oysters take shape and I think her colors are perfect. She wasn't sure of the colors should have been reversed or not but I think these look better than fine. There will be no mistaking what they are when this window is complete. Hmmmm, suddenly I'm hungry for some crab legs.

Janice managed to get all of her flowers and leaves fitted, and tacked together. She'll be making 3 windows this size with all of the flowers being different colors and in different positions. I'd say its safe to assume that she'll be doing some background work next week and that we'll see some MAJOR progress on this 1st window. Here's the basic layout of this one.

Bonnie has finished cutting all of her ballerina slippers and ribbons and still managed to find the time to begin grinding them. Once these are tacked together she'll cut out the oval background. And then once that's tacked together she'll cut out the rectangular background. It's sort of like working in layers and it's how we make sure that everything lines up perfectly.

Look out! These three Bee's are completed and their hive is just about ready to bee finished as well. Next week Roxie will surround the hive with a thin wire which will be embedded into the soldered edge so you'll never even see it. This will give the hive the strength to hold the 3 bees from small hooks along its bottom edge. Once the hooks are in place she'll just attach the bees with some fishing line and call this another completed project.

Lastly, we have a look at Cindy's newest project. She was waiting for a specific piece of glass to come in for her Boar window and although the glass arrived in time for class we forgot to make sure that Cindy brought her pattern pieces with her. So rather than waste a night Cindy started her next project by designed 3 small windows to be inset into a door. The pattern has a distinct Mission style about it. And talk about a stroke of luck--when the pattern was completed she said that she'd like to put a bevel in the center and wouldn't you know that bevels we happened to have in stock fit in perfectly! Why don't things ever work out that way for me????

That's all the news that's fit to be printed this week during our classes.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Ducks On The Water

2011-06-01T22:10:00.005-05:00

Ducks on the water,
and flying in the sky!

Fran's Duck window is finished and it's been quite a trip getting here. We've seen different ducks and backgrounds and patterns and colors but in the end it turned out looking beautiful. And she's even sold it already. Now sit back and take a gander at this.

Meanwhile, Bonnie has begun work on her latest project. This will be a a pair of ballerina slippers and you can already see that they've begun to take shape with just one night of work done on them. The ribbons and slippers are almost completely cut already. Bonnie is a natural at this!

Ok, this Boars Head window is REALLY looking good. When Cindy said she wanted to add leaves to the background I thought it would be a look good but that it would also add a lot more work for a first time window. But now that they're almost completely cut out and ground into place I have to say that Cindy has handled herself wonderfully on a complex first project.

With the front of her window soldered and the back almost completed I'd say that we'll see Anita's latest piece of stained glass finished next week. For some odd reason I took a picture of the completed front rather than the 75% completed back side. Trust me when I say that this project is just about ready to make it's debut in a window next week.

And Sonia is moving right along as well. She's also got a fairly complex window for a first project and she's really doing a great job. Her flower is ground and wrapped and the only thing left to grind before she cuts her background is the bird on the left and the leaf that it is resting on.

Patty's ear of corn is ground and wrapped which means that she's managed to keep it all together (both herself and her project) which can be VERY difficult with tiny pieces like this. I'm telling you, this window is starting to take shape and it's going to be a show stopper. Mark my words.

Myrt came in and finished wrapping her pieces. Once that was done she tacked it all together and then she cut her border out of the same orange glass that appears briefly in her butterfly. I always recommend that the border be a color that has already been used in the window-- preferably something that was used minimally as an accent color and which doesn't actually touch the border itself. These orange border pieces have all been ground and Myrt will be taking them home to wrap.
Janice has been cutting out flowers left and right and this week she's cut all of the leaves that surround them. She has 15 flowers and the leaves for half of them have been ground to fit. It won't be long before these will be tacked together and traced out over her background glass.

And here we take a look at Terry's beveled window. It's all ready for solder now-- even the zinc channel has been attached. It's a beautiful design and I can't wait to see this completed. Talk about impressive...

And there you have it.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I'm Bringing Home A Baby Bumble Bee

2011-05-24T13:08:00.008-05:00

Well now, look at this. Within 2 classes Bonnie has finished her first project. She's made this Wedding Plaque as a present and she got it completed just in time for the wedding. This pattern had some nice inner curves for Bonnie to practice on including the top piece of the background glass. Had that broken while we were cutting it the grain of the background would never have lined up as perfectly as it does now. Bonnie's next project will be Ballerina Slippers.

Pam is our newest student and that mean we have a butterfly to look at this week. She used a bluish/purple glass for her wings and a lavender body with swirled purple head. Pam did extremely well during her first class and I can't wait to see what she plans on making next.
Look! All the bees and the hive that Roxie cut out last week are ground and ready to be wrapped. She's moving right along on this and next she'll be tacking and soldering these together. This is another project that is moving along REALLY quickly. In fact I say this will easily be finished within 2 weeks.

Sonia now has all of her Sunflower window cut out and half of it ground and fitted together. She's taken home her ground pieces so she can wrap them and then she'll really be on her way to finishing this. The background glass will just take a few minutes to cut and only a few more to grind.
Well, Terry's window certainly is impressive. What you see here is all tacked together which means that there are only the four corners left to cut and attach to this before she starts soldering. And as I'm typing this I just realized that at this point one of the corners IS already cut and at home with Terry to be wrapped.

Myrt is also moving along at a very brisk pace with her Butterfly window. This is much more complex than the butterfly that she made during her first class. This window is all ground and next week it will tacked together and ready for a quick border and some solder.

Fran's Ducks window is so close to being complete I can just about see them hanging in a window. Everything is tacked together and it all looks good so the border was attached and the brass channel was added to square it all off. Fran will be soldering this window at home during the week and will then wash and color it next week here in class. Look for the finished version then!

Niblet Corn? That's what it looks like now but when these pieces are ground and fitted together you'll see that Patty has made her corn ON the cob. I have to say that these pieces are NOT fun to cut or keep track of-- they all look the same until you mix them up and then they'll never fit back together. That's why you see numbers on these pieces. Most times we don't bother with numbers because they can cause as many problems as they help prevent, but in this particular instance we're resorting to numbers. And after each piece is ground the number will be rewritten on the piece so we don't lose track of where we stand.
Well now, this Boar head window is coming together! Cindy has decided that it's a bit too plain so she's added grass to the background which will add considerably to the amount of work in this project but as I always say, the more work you put into a window the more impressive it will be when it's completed. When it comes to stained glass any extra work you put into a window comes back in spades when it's completed. And Cindy and Patty's windows are prime examples of this.

And Anita nears completion on her Egret window. All the pieces are in place, the border is attached and the channel is on. That means that Anita will be doing some soldering to finish up this window. And Anita isn't afraid of it so it's going home with her to get that solder on it before she comes in next week.

Ok, we're only 1 class away from being up to date here. Here's hoping I can keep up with the weekly classes and keep this Blog from falling behind again.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Personal Pictures Taken Also

2011-05-23T22:54:00.004-05:00

Ok, as soon as I start catching up I slack off here and fall behind with our Blog posts. That means that this will be another multiple post week (hopefully 3 of them which will then bring us up to date). I do know that a second one will be posted tomorrow so we're well on our way. Now let's see what happened 3 weeks ago in the shop.

Grace has completed her Aeroscope Kaleidoscope and it certainly is colorful. She went ahead and took her time making the much more elaborate propeller color wheel for the front of it and it really does make it look like a real bi-plane. This is another job well done by Grace.

I took picture after picture trying to get a good view of the inside of Grace's Kaleidoscope but this best shot was provided by Grace herself who came up with the solution to taking these kinds of pictures. As for what the secret is, well, I'll never tell. Grace also takes Facebook profile pics and 'personal' pictures for a nominal fee. :-)

Roxie is making something completely different. It's a stained glass Mobile of 3 Honey Bee's flying under their Bee Hive. She has everything cut and ready to be ground when we see her next. There are one or two issues I have with the pattern but I think I know what we'll do to make this much sturdier than the original blueprints would end up having this.

Here's Patty's Seafood Medley Window (meow!) She's got one of the crabs completed and will be taking this window a little at a time. Slow and steady wins the race (and it stops you from pulling out your hair).

Meanwhile Janice completed wrapping all of her flowers. Next up for her will be cutting and attaching all of the leaves. Then she'll be ready for cutting out her backgrounds.

Bonnie has begun making a wedding plaque with interlocking rings as the side panel. She's not wasting any time at all since she has the rings cut, wrapped and tacked together. The background is also cut and ground to fit so that means when she comes back in she'll be adding the borders and soldering this project.
And we're going to finish off this post with a look at Sonia's Sunflower with Birds window. When we last saw this only the yellow sunflower petals were cut out. Now she's only got bird feathers and her background to go!
As I said, we're falling a bit behind so expect another posting tomorrow. This will get us almost up to date again. A lot of our projects that you are just looking at here are already completed. So come back when you get our update notice!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Cutting Corners

2011-05-09T22:59:00.007-05:00

Since we took most of Easter week off we only had a handful of students come in. That doesn't mean that nothing was accomplished though as you will soon see.

Since the Oil Scopes are such a big hit Russ and I decided to try something a little different and go for one of the other OilWand kits. This one is called "The Lost Planet" and I have to say that I really like the idea of the LARGE opening used to view the image (as you can see, the camera takes a great picture of the image) but it does require more light than the regular Oil Scope. At any rate, here's what "The Lost World" looks like from the outside.

And these are 2 shots of what you see when you look into the bottom viewfinder. Remember, you only see one of these images at a time but it's constantly 'exploding' which is why I've included 2 different views.

Cindy has cut out most of her Boar Window and has begun grinding it. She's decided to spruce up the background a bit with a lot of green grass which really will add to the look of this window. Here's a shot of some of Cindy's cutting. All those scalloped edges means that the small grinding wheel and Cindy will become good friends!

Terry's made some big progress on her Beveled window. She has almost all of the bevels cut and will begin adding the final border when she returns. I know this is hard to see right now but in just a few more weeks this is going to knock your socks off!

Anita hasn't been sitting around twiddling her thumbs either. Look how far her Egret Window has come along. A lot of this had been ground and there's really only the sky left to cut before she begins tacking this window. And once you start tacking the rest is child's play.

Grace is moving right along with her Aeroscope. She's be finished with this one next week for sure since all she needs to do now is solder her color wheel (the propeller) and then make another out of clear textured glass. This project is going to fly right out the door.

And Janice has finished the last of her flowers for her 3 large windows. She's going to wrap these and then tack them together before adding the green Leaves. Once that's done she'll be cutting background!

That was what happened during the week before Easter. We had another small class the following week but now things are back into gear and moving right along. Check out a new finished project in our next post. Can you guess which one it will be?

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Ducks In The Wind

2011-05-02T21:31:00.006-05:00

I close my eyes, Only for a moment and the moment's gone. All my dreams, pass before my eyes a curiosity. Ducks in the wind. All we are are ducks in the wind.

Look at the very stylish and tasteful beveled box that Roxie made this week. There's no doubt that she has the hang of making these. And the great thing is that these boxes make GREAT Christmas presents. So if you're reading this blog and you know Roxie be sure to drop a int or two her way about getting one on December 25th (which will be here quicker than you think).

We had 2 new students begin classes this week. Cindy is a friend of Terry's and she made this green and yellow butterfly without a single problem at all. We've been on a roll with our students lately as no one has been having any problems. Cindy will be starting a Boar Window next week (you heard us right-- Cindy will be making our first ever Boar window!) I dare you to tell me that this isn't going to be interesting....

Bonnie is the second of our new students and this is her Butterfly. She went with the color purple and like Cindy had no problems doing any part of the stained glass process. She still isn't sure what she'll be making for her project but I know she's going to do just fine.

Next we take a look at the newest incarnation of Frans Ducks in the wind Window. As you can see the water and ducks themselves have been tacked together and it's just the new re-cut blue sky that needs to be ground and wrapped. We did a good job matching the new duck to the outline of the old one because the water just fell into place around it even though it had been ground to the old duck. Fran will most likely make a smaller window using the other duck.

Grace has gone all out with color on her newest Aeroscope. The outside is just as colorful as the inside will be. She's gone about as far as she can with this because we didn't have a kit in stock. We have the pattern and an axel kit but not the brass rods that anchor the wings together. That will happen next week.

Here we see one half of Terry's Beveled window cut and ground. It's starting to come together now and you'll see big strides on this next week (if I can fit the entire window into the camera frame!) There are just 2 pieces of glass left to cut on this and then the outside border.

Myrt went cutter crazy and cut out most of her latest window in one night. There are just a few pieces left in her butterfly to fill in and then she'll be working on the grinder. I guess I'm going to have to start putting tons of tiny pieces into her patterns to slow her down. LOL

Speaking of tons of small pieces....Here's a look at Patty's latest project. Yes, it can be very intimidating to look at but when you work on it a section at a time you start to see that projects like this aren't nearly as bad as you might initially think they are. And you can mark my words when I state for the record that this is going to be stunning when it's completed in 3 years. Actually I'm just checking to see if anyone is reading this far down! This window will be done quickly enough. Just wait and see.

Two new students this week means that things are really picking up in classes. We're overstocked with students and the projects are just flying out the door.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I'munna make some glass

2011-05-01T22:49:00.004-05:00

Well, here's a look at Graces completed Wedding Plaque. She purchased a heavy, black metal easel to display the stained glass that she's made and it does so very securely. The end result was even better than she anticipated because she hadn't even noticed the intertwined hearts on the top of the invitation which match the hearts in the lower stained glass panel. When it came time to decide if she should color the lead black or copper she decided to leave it silver to match the text and trim of the invitation. All in all it's another job very well done.

Meanwhile Patty was hard at work this week making herself another beveled box. She made this in one class so I'd say she's really hit her stride with these. She's using striking pieces of colored glass for the tops of these boxes which really set them off. Here's a look at the box both closed and with the lid slightly ajar.

And this week we get to see that Myrt has finished her Bumble Bee window. Like Anita, Myrt has decided to help Ceil out by completing a window for her classroom. Myrt really did 99% this window on her own so I think it's safe to say that she's got the stained glass thing down pat now. And you've gotta love that bee!

The final completed project this week was a pair of beveled boxes by Roxie. Like Patty, Roxie did all the work by herself using me only as a sounding board to be sure that what she was going to do next was the correct step. As you can tell from the picture below she did just fine. These boxes are always attention getters and once you know the secret to making them. But what really makes these particular boxes is the precision of the work that Roxie put forth in putting them together. Sure, anyone can make a box but not many people can make a box fit together so perfectly.

Sonia has decided to start making a Sunflower window complete with 2 birds. It's a nice size project with a fair number of pieces so this should be a project that teaches Sonia a lot. And I have to say that her flower petals are already fitting together nicely even before they've even been ground.

Janice is our reining Flower girl. For the past few weeks she's been working on flowers in sets of 3 and has been doing a great job assembling them. Wait until you see these windows once the backgrounds get cut-- they're going to be colorful, flowing and spectacular when they're installed.

Here's a look at the replacement duck that Fran made this week. It's all ground and tacked together save for one piece that she plans to re-cut and have ready next week. Forgive the hole in this ducks back because it will be fixed the next time you see it.

And now we get to see what Terry has begun working on. It's actually 1 of a set of 3 but the other two won't be identical to this one. Terry is going with Bevels and clear glass for all three but this is the biggest and the most difficult of the 3. There's no doubt at all that it will be striking when it's finished. And the nice thing is that once the corners are put together the rest of this should move VERY quickly. That's the benefit of working with bevels.

We have another Blog post coming up tomorrow so be ready for another update Tuesday morning.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Butterflies Don't Have Antlers?

2011-04-14T00:17:00.006-05:00

Well here it is. It was a lot of work but as always every bit of the effort put into this window shows in the final product. Anita did a wonderful job of picking up where Ceil left off on this and my hat goes off to her for volunteering all of her time and effort. Anita has picked out the pattern for her next project and it's another one with a lot of cutting but like this it will be beautiful when it's completed.
Terry finished off her Pittsburgh Steelers logo and it came out very nicely. She bordered it in a clear, iridized black baroque glass that really makes the white circle stand out. Just wait until you see Terry's next project. It has lots of clear glass and bevels which always stand out nicely.

Patty has completed her beveled boxes and Roxie has decided that she just HAS to get in on some of these boxes. These are perfect for just about anything (depending of course on the size you make them). Boxes are tricky at first but once you have 1 or 2 under your belt it all starts to make sense as to why certain steps must be done in the seemingly bizarre order you do them. As you can see the end result proves that it all comes together without a hitch.

And since we had a new student this week we get to look at a really spectacular butterfly that she made. I have no clue if Sonia saw the Oil Scope that Roxie made a few weeks earlier with a VERY similar glass but once again this type of glass has really made the project. But I don't want to belittle the work that Sonia put into it. She seems to really have a knack for this so I'm expecting big things from here on out from her. :-)

Grace's invitation plaque is moving right along. It's all cut and ground and wrapped and tacked but I only have this picture of it in pieces because somehow I forgot to take a picture of it when it was all together waiting to be soldered. I'm expecting to see this finished next week. Grace doesn't waste any time on her projects. :-)
And Myrt jumped in to help Ceil finish up the windows in her classroom by making this flower and bumble bee window. Before she completely solders this she's going to take it to the classroom and see if it fits in the window (which isn't a perfect circle). So I'd say it's safe to assume that we'll be seeing this completed next week.

Janice was on the ball again cutting out more flowers for her windows. There will be 9 windows in all of varying sizes. She's got a lot accomplished now and pretty soon we'll be cutting these into their backgrounds.

And lastly we have Roxie's 2 boxes. They have beveled sides and a glue chip bottom and they are all set (complete with feet) and are just awaiting the colored glass lid which she'll attach next week.

In our next post well get to see these two boxes, Myrt's Bumble Bee window and Graces wedding gift completed. The update should be happening sometime during the weekend. See you then!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A Deep and Vibrant Significance Is Reflected in her Art Form

2011-04-08T10:08:00.009-05:00

This is the 4th and final Oil Scope wand in the set that Roxie cut out a few weeks earlier. They're easy enough to make but there's a lot of extra work that you don't really see when you look at these. The stands take extra time to make and then there's the added steps of assembling the double sided mirrors and then affixing the mirrors to the inside of the scope. And you can't finish the body of this until the mirrors are in place. So it all boils down to a lot of work. But completely worth it in the end.

Here's an example of the ever shifting view that you see when you look inside one of these Oil Scopes. It's sort of like a firework show with no pauses between the bursts.

Terry was hard at work on a Pittsburgh Steelers Logo that she drew up. She's going to have this one completed next week without any doubt since she has this all ground and almost completely wrapped already. Terry's a real go getter!

And Janice isn't wasting any time on her new set of windows either. There are going to be 3 sets of 3 windows in the series. All will feature various colored flowers with twisting vines connecting them. The beauty of this pattern is that although they will all be similar (because of the flowers) they won't be identical. Janice is working on assembling all her flowers before she starts cutting the backgrounds. Once these start to go together they'll go quickly.

Graces Wedding Plaque is looking great. She has the lions share of the work completed and all that's left is joining everything together with the border now. Next week we'll add the actual Invitation and the picture of the Bride and Groom.

Here we are. This is the home stretch now and this window has REALLY come together. Everything is in place and the final channel has been added. The front is soldered and the back is nearly completed. Anita will be moving on to a new project very shortly now and I think that this window shows that all the time you put into a project really makes a stained glass window shine all the more.

Next we get to take a look at the new version of the lower duck in Frans Duck window. The colors were off in the first one she did and rather than saving 5% of the feathers from the other one it was easier to just redraw a new duck with the correct feather placement and then remake it with the proper colors. Now that this is cut out she'll just have to grind it, wrap it and tack it all together.

Patty had a few bevels hanging around and she decided to make a few boxes out of them. Here's a look at the bottoms of her boxes without the tops attached yet. That part will come next week. Roxie liked the look of these so much that she's about to start making a few of her own. I have to say that once you start making stained glass boxes it can be hard to stop. They're quick, inexpensive projects that are very functional. And they make great gifts!

We've got new students arriving shortly and we have plenty of new projects being started so come back and see what shows up next on the cutting table.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

She Thought It Was A Crack In The Glass

2011-04-07T23:08:00.004-05:00

Roxie was hoping to finish off her 3 Oil Scopes this week but making the stands really takes a lot more time than you'd expect. That said, she has her 3 Oil Scope almost complete. It just needs a stand and some soldering done which will surely be finished next class. She did a great job matching the glass body to the glitter in the Oil Wands, didn't she?

Terry's Stylized Fleur De Lis window is complete and ready to hang. In the end she went with 2 different types of Root Beer Brown for the accents and the borders. I think the mixing of the 2 glasses helped give some separation to the border and the fancy over sized corners. It's a subtle difference, but I've found that subtle differences are the ones that hit you on an subconscious level and work best. No matter how you look at it this window is a keeper. :-)

Janice completed her standard Kaleidoscope in just 1 class. I have to say that the camera angle on this is a bit odd. There's a second leg hiding JUST out of sight behind the image wheel. These 2 legs are what keep the front of the scope raised so the wheels aren't holding the body up at an odd angle. Although this is far easier to make than the Aeroscope the view inside is identical.

Meanwhile Grace began working on her Wedding Plaque. Rather than making a box she went with a larger design that has both the actual invitation and a picture of the bride and groom on the front along with two small stained glass scenes. Here's the basic layout.

Ok, Anita is IN the light at the end of the tunnel with this rather large undertaking. It's all tacked together and all the missing pieces have been filled in. The border is cut and the front has a good deal of the soldering completed. This is almost finished!

Myrt's Bumble Bee window is moving quickly. Her next step is to cut out a background and then this window will be ready to bee soldered.

And lastly we have a look at Frans Duck window. She has a rising (or setting) sun in a orangy yellow sky. Alas, she's decided to change the sky and redo the bottom duck with different colors so expect to see some major changes to this window before it's soldered.

So that's where all of our students stood on the 3rd week of March. The forth week will be coming up sometime during the weekend so keep your eyes opened.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Mardi Gras Week-- Everyone Partied!

2011-04-06T23:37:00.004-05:00

It was Fat Tuesday and just about all our students decided that they'd rather spend their time off having fun rather than slaving away working on stained glass. Patty and Roxie had the same idea but by the time Thursday night rolled around they were ready get back to the old glass cutter and grinder. Since they were both going to be finishing projects you just know that they'd be eager to come in.

As you can see, Patty managed to attach the final border to her address window (she had taken the pieces home with her to wrap during the week) and then set to work on soldering her project. At the end of the night she took this home where she will display it proudly in the front of her house for all to see. Especially the mailman!

And on the other side of the table we had Roxie working on the 1st of her four Oil Scopes. And I have to say that it's one of the nicest looking Oil Scopes I've ever seen. This is the first time we've had any of this glass which is aptly named 'New Orleans' and Roxie is the first to use it. It certainly makes for a vibrant Kaleidoscope. With 3 more lined up to be made Roxie will be busy knocking these out over the next 2 weeks.

And that was it for Mardi Gras week. Although not much may have happened we still managed to get 2 completed projects and a foot well in the door for 3 others on down the line.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Like a Fish Out Of Water

2011-04-05T23:40:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been a while but we're about to play catch up during the next few days. Somehow March has managed to slip away without my completing any Blog updates so I have 4 weeks worth of pictures to share with everyone. Let's start off with Paul's Terrarium. Here we get to look at it all cleaned up and ready for plants. The biggest question is, how do you get the plants in it? And the answer is simple-- you lift the top off of it. Once the plants are in place the lid gets snapped back on and from there on out it pretty much takes care of itself. This was a fun project for Paul to make and a very functional one as well.

Janice has completed her Aeroscope this week. If you recall, all she had left to do was to clean up the body, add the mirrors and make 2 glass wheels to reflect colors in the mirrors. Grace decided that she'd help make one of the wheels so by the end of the night this airplane was ready to fly (but not literally). These make such great gifts it's no wonder so many people make them.

This is Terry's completed Mallard window that she made almost completely at home. She brought it in so we could put some brass channel around it and to let us take a picture. Terry is really keeping busy with stained glass projects and she's getting better and better with each one. Great job!

As I said, Terry made 95% of her Mallard window while at home so now we get a look at what she's been doing while she's in class. Her highly stylized Fleur De Lis is very near completion. All that's left to go is a final border and she'll be able to start soldering this. There were a lot of intricate cuts in this window and it's all coming together nicely. I can't wait to see it completed which should be soon.

Julie has been working on sections of her quilt window and has her latest square not only cut but ground and half wrapped as well. She's taken the rest home with her to wrap so this one is just about finished which puts here more than a 3rd of the way through her entire quilt window.

This week also saw Patty get her background cut for her address window. She couldn't do the background until the numbers were ground and wrapped along with the corners. Doing it this way ensured that everything fit together snugly. All that's left is the final border and some solder and then this will end up on her front porch.

Wow, Anita's window is REALLY coming together now. It's pretty well tacked together and all that she needs to do is fill in some missing pieces and add a border before she starts soldering this window. Undersea windows have become very popular lately and I think the variety of colors that you can use in them has a lot to do with their popularity.

Roxie has begun making Oil Scopes. An oil scope is an interesting variation of a kaleidoscope that uses a clear tube filled with oil and glitter to make the symmetrical patterns. Since the speed and density of the falling glitter varies with each use you never get the same image twice and you don't have to manually move anything to make the image appear. I really can't wait to see the multicolored scope completed. Roxie is the first person to use this type of glass and it lends itself perfectly for a project like this.
And lastly we have Ray and Paul's combined project, the Court Jester window. The pattern is uniquely styled and I must say that I really like it. It's intricate without being overwhelming and you can really go wild with colors in this if you want. Look how nicely those pieces fit into place. The thing is-- they aren't even ground yet! I must say that Ray and Paul would appear to have wonderful teachers! :-)
There are only 3 more posts to go before we get caught up here, expect another update notice in a day or 2.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Don't Flux it All Up

2011-03-07T15:12:00.004-06:00

It certainly was a busy week here in classes. You always hear about the calm before the storm and last weeks small, cozy classes caught me off guard for the number of projects that ran through here this week. So let's start, as always, by looking at some completed projects and then wrap it all up with progress reports on everyone else.

Roxie's house will be instantly recognizable now that she has her Address Window completed. We've seen quite a few of these made during the years and they always look great. Numbers and letters are always challenging to work with because if your cutting is off then your window looks like you have bad penmanship. But as you can see that isn't the case here. Talk about a personalized item, huh? I wonder if it will stay with the house should Roxie ever move....

We got an email from Tommy this week and he send a picture of the latest window that he built while at home. I have to say that everything looks really good here-- The soldering, the subtle yet perfectly symmetrical curves and the even foiling all make this a beautiful window that Tommy should be proud of making all on his own. He must have really had a great teacher!

Jane is apparently in full Birdhouse mode. I believe these are houses 3 and 4 so if you know any birds that are looking for a home please send them her way. Although they're unfurnished they are clean and the rent is unbeatable. Not pets allowed, please.

We got a phone call this week from Janice and Grace asking if it was okay to show up for classes again. And you know what I always say, the more the merrier! Grace came in with a postcard framed in glass that had been broken beyond repair so she just pulled it all apart found some matching glass and remade it even better than it was before. I guess I should have taken a picture of it before it got ripped apart so we could see a 'before' and 'after' shot.

Meanwhile Janice began to work on her Aeroscope that got put off when she had her 'little' knee incident. I hated seeing her in her leg brace but it was good to have her back in class and cutting glass again. With the body of this Kaleidoscope complete I'm sure that she'll finish it next week because all that's left are the color wheels that make up the propellers.

Wow, Anita keeps wondering if this window will ever get completed but I don't think she has any clue as to how well she's doing on this. A large window can be very intimidating but the only difference between a small window and a large window is the amount of time it takes to make the larger project. And this one is REALLY shaping up now. Aside from the border there are only a few filler pieces left to go before she gets this project ready to hang.

Julie had a bit of a problem this week-- she forgot to bring the book with the patterns to her windows in it. Luckily she had a little more to go on this one so it kept her busy. This is square number 2 of 9 so she's almost a 3rd of the way there now.

Myrt is on a deadline and it looks like she'll make it. Windows like these can be deceiving when you first look at them. There are a lot of pieces here but now that it's all ground she's going to take it home to wrap and then tack it all together. The next step will be the sun and the border and she'll be headed towards the finish line with this window.

Patty got her corners completed and then cut a solid piece of glass for her background. The numbers on her window aren't cut into place yet (they're just resting on top of the glass) but they will be when she returns. She's moving quickly on this project. Let's just hope the numbers are in the right order...

Meanwhile, Paul is just about set with his terrarium. The top is put together and the bottom is ready for solder. He'll be taking this back home with him to finish since the soldering needs a little work. It's never easy to solder something that has 3 dimensions to it and this is without a doubt a 3 dimensional project. But in the end all of the hard work will have been worth it. It looks good now but just wait until you see this all cleaned up.

And then there's Terry. With her background all cut out and ground she just needs some foil around the edges so she can start working on her border. She had to sacrifice 2 pieces to get the background cut out of 1 piece of glass but that will make this pattern flow more naturally to the eye. Once it's all tacked together she'll just re-cut the 2 small pieces that we cut through.

And Terry isn't just working on a Stylized Fleur De Lis window. She's also working on this Duck Window while she's at home. And it's almost completed already. Terry is really keeping her nose to the old grinding-wheel when she's not here because not only does she have 2 projects in the works, but she's got 2 projects done in the same amount of time that it would take almost anyone else to make just one! I'd say that we'll be seeing this window completed next week.

So, as you can see, it was a busy week all around. Ray was in but he sort of sat back and watched Paul and everyone else work on their projects. He brought in an image of the window that he wants to start next week so we'll have a pattern ready for him when he returns. Make sure you come back to check that out as well as all the other projects we have going on here.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

What's Behind The Duck?

2011-02-28T23:21:00.005-06:00

It was a quiet week this time around- Jane's been busy helping out her sister (it's tax time), Janice and Grace are still MIA because of Janice's knee surgery, Cheryl is looking for that perfect pattern, Paul and Ray were on their way but got a flat tire and then discovered the spare was airless as well. And lastly we had Anita facing some big issues that had her missing this week as well.

But Patty was able to make it in and immediately completed her variation of our standard cross design. The brown glass gives this cross a wood-like effect and I think that the lack of overall symmetry really makes this look really good. I must say that I love the design and wish I had knocked out the first one myself!

So after Patty wrapped up that project she decided to set upon making an address window for her house. Since she really liked Roxie's design all she had to do was change the numbers (letters?) and she was on her way. She's taken her 2 and her 6 and her 0 home with her to wrap which means that next week she'll have these tacked and ready to be cut into the background glass.

Terry designed this stylized Fleur De Lis while she was at home and she's just about ready to get it cut into her background glass. A lot of people are saying that this reminds them of a Coat of Arms and I have to agree that I see what they are talking about. This is a very unique design and it's already turning a lot of heads.

Remember Patty's 260 window? Well this is the window that Roxie is making that inspired Patty to make hers. Roxie has the front all soldered now so without a doubt we'll see this one completed next week. Look! Does anyone else see the heart in her 5?

Myrt is really moving quickly on this window. She has a deadline to get it completed by and I'd say that she's going to get it done on time. About 40% of this is now ground and if Myrt keeps up this pace we'll be seeing this completed before you know it.

Julie has started cutting her glass for her quilt window and used the "Magic Tool" pretty extensively throughout the night. "Magic Tool," you ask? Its technical name is a pistol grip cutter. She's been using it along with a straight edge to get precision lines in these (mostly) straight cut panels.

And Fran's Duck window has a new behind! Maybe I should reword that. Frans Duck window has a new background! Now that the ducks are completed we've redrawn the back so that nothing else detracts from the centerpiece of this window. There are less lead lines in the sky and the leaves have been lowered to give these 2 birds the center stage all to themselves.

We'll have more completed projects next week and some more students as well. Roxie is going to have her window finished and Jane has a birdhouse or two that she wants to see hanging in her yard. But the biggest news is the fact that Janice is literally back on her feet and feeling as though she can make it through a class. That means we'll being seeing Janice and Grace again. It will be just like old times. :-)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Mean That's NOT an Identifying Number?

2011-02-14T23:05:00.010-06:00

The weather was still awfully cold this week but not nearly cold enough to close things down which means that we had more students make the trek down to the bayou to resume their classes. (Bayou Salé GlassWorks is not just an interesting name- it actually exists behind a bayou.) Some of our students were anxious because they were finishing projects and others were just glad to get out and have some fun.

Terry was one of those people with a project that was nearly completed. She had soldered the back side of her window at home and brought it in for me to do some touch ups on it before she colored it and called it finished. Her soldering was good on the front side but I must say that her lines were even better on the back of her window. She's really getting the hang of the soldering process. After I smoothed over a few rough spots we gave this window a bath and then colored the lead and waxed it to a shine. It looks great, doesn't it? Very colorful much like Mardi Gras is supposed to be. That's a great job Terry!

Jane was anxious to start this birdhouse whose pattern came from a small Votive candle holder that she brought in a few weeks ago. We started off by doubling the size but that was too big and in the end what you see below is just 25% larger than the original. And it's the perfect size. We've decided to make 1 or 2 adjustments on the next one (the first first project in any series is always the 'Guinna Pig' so to speak) but in all honesty I can't find any flaws in this design. When it was finished I fell in love with it and copied the pattern in case anyone else wants to make one. What impressed me the most was that Jane not only started this project on Wednesday but she finished it before class was over. She really knows her stuff.

Anita has 98% of her window all cut out and has moved on to the grinding stage of this project. We had lost a few pattern pieces which explains why only 98% of the window is cut out but that isn't going to slow Anita down. It's far easier to just leave a few holes in the window and then fill them after this is tacked together rather than trying to redraw a pattern piece and end up with something that doesn't quite fit right. Anita has taken this home so she can get a head start on grinding. With the toughest part behind her I think she'll find this window is going to become easy work from here on out. And just wait until it's finished and she gets a look at it with some light behind it. She's going to be amazed at how nice this looks.

While Anita was cutting a sandy sea bottom Myrt was busy cutting out the pieces to her butterfly. Once that was finished she moved on to grinding her window. I set up a square on the upper right of the window to make sure the window has perfect 90 degree corners and when I returned a little while later I was very impressed at how perfectly she had ground her flowers where the sun will be placed later. Her grinding is impeccable to say the least. I really like the way this is shaping up for her.

Patty was going to work on an address sign for her front porch but she needed a gift and decided to do a variation on our standard cross pattern that's so popular. But she wanted to give it a little extra something rather than follow the standard pattern. A while back I had sketched out a version of the cross that added concave curves to one side of each of the arms on the cross which gave it a less symmetrical look. I never got around to making one myself but when Patty saw the design change she decided that was what she wanted to do. She also added some quarter circles between the arms to 'round it out' so to speak. By the end of the night she was finished soldering the front side and will just have to do the back when she returns next week.

Paul was in again and got the bottom panel cut for his terrarium. It's all tacked together and now he can place it on its side without having it collapse into a flat pile of glass on the table. Once he had it on its side Paul began soldering the outside lines and then took it home to see what he could get accomplished there during the week. This is really coming together now.

Roxie has cut and ground the background to her address window. She's taken the pieces home with her to wrap so next week this will be all together and she'll be headed towards the finish line once she starts soldering. Her fancy corners were a little extra work but they're well worth the effort. She's still unsure of the color that her final border will be but once this is tacked together she'll have a better feel for what colors will work and which ones won't work on this window.

And to bring this to a close we're going to leave you all with a first glance at what will soon be Julie's Stained Glass Quilt window. It will consist of nine 9" x 9" quilt squares made out of stained glass. Once all the squared are assembled she'll cut some border glass to go between each of the squares. This Quilt won't keep her warm during those cold nights but it will warm her heart when she gets to see it completed and hanging up. One of the paper squares (the one that's missing from the picture) is cut up and ready to be traced onto glass. Julie worked on picking out all of the glass that she'll be using to give the overall window a consistency that wouldn't exist if she just made each square with random glass.

And that's all that happened that was fit to print last week during classes. Next week Fran will be back and we'll get to see the new background for her duck window so come on back and see what else there is to look at when we update this Blog yet again.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks