No One Believes My Jeans Are Shrinking...

We have quite a few finished projects this week. We'll start right off with Cheryl's Cross window. It's about 12 inches tall which means that all those pieces (especially the leaves) are fairly small. She'll be working on a Peacock of much larger proportions next week and I suspect she's going to like working on that project as much as she enjoyed working on the Hot Air Balloon Window she made last summer.


Next we have 2 Butterfly suncatchers that Jane made with scrap glass she had considered throwing out. She liked this pattern and decided to use the glass rather than waste it. Although the patterns are similar the Butterflies wings are very different. Jane made these at home during the week and as always has done a great job.



Jane also put together this beveled cross suncatcher while she was home. The clear glass used to trace out the bevels is an iridized glass which really makes this sparkle.


So what did Jane do during class this week? Well, she got the rest of her glass cut and ground for the large window she's working on. She's taken the glass home to wrap so I suspect this window will be all tacked together next week.

Janice has just 4 pieces to go and this window will be all cut. She's taken it home to get some soldering done before she comes back to class next week when we'll fill in the 4 corners and then finish this window off with some channel.
And we can't forget Lea's work this week. She has one of these cabinet door inserts finished and the other is ready to be tacked together and soldered. This will finish off one side of her kitchen so she's halfway there! I believe she said that she'll be working on some larger doors next so expect to see some full sized doors in the nesr future.


Rumor has it that we'll be seeing Gerald next week. It's been a while since Gerald has been around to keep us laughing so we're looking forward to next Tuesday.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Cutting Up

As always we'll start with a few finished projects this week. We'll start with Janice's 2nd window in a series of three. And the amazing part will be when you see how far along she'd gotten on the 3rd one already!


Denise took a little time off from classes but she's back and in full force. Here's an LSU window that she made at home. She wasn't sure about adding another color into the mix so she finished it off with a beveled border which suits this just fine. And check out the fancy hangers she made.
Denise also made some ribbon angels but my picture didn't turn out too well. I'm using a new camera and wasn't sure about the camera's focal distance. After blurring this angel I now know when to turn on the Marco...

Grace made incredible progress with her Angel window. She's added the sky, the clouds and the angle's dress (and a sun and horn as well!). All she needs now is some hair and a face before she gets to the borders.

Jane had picked up her pattern late last week and traced it out while she was at home. Her glass arrived on Friday and she got all of the background traced out and cut before she took everything home with her to grind there. We'll see her cutting the blue sections next week and this 3 x 3 window will be nearly complete!

Well, we started this post with Janice's finished window and we're going to end it with another window that she worked on this week. With most of the background cut, ground and tacked into place we'll be seeing this one finished soon. We have the pattern for her next three windows all drawn out so we'll be revealing that one in2 or 3 weeks.


Check back later in the week for another update!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Happy New Year

We're ringing in the new year with not one but two more completed doors by Lea. Since bevels wouldn't fit in the limited width of these thin doors Lea had to cut smaller versions of the bevels out of Flemish glass. She'll be working on 2 smaller (but wider) doors during her next class.

Cheryl finished wrapping the remaining pieces of her Cross window and then filled in the missing background pieces after tacking what she had completed together. It's a little more work this way but it makes for a better fit with less grinding. This window will be finished next week after she adds her black baroque border pieces and then solders it.


Jane wasn't sure what she was going to do when she came in but she knew that it was going to fit in her bathroom window. After combing through many patterns this is the one that caught her eye. We spend the rest of the class drawing it up to the size she needed but next week we'll see some cut glass laid out on the pattern!


Fran designed a new Mardi Gras mask while she was at home and asked for input on how we thought it looked. We made a few minor changes in it for stability and then she started working on a wedding invitation box. After attacking the invitation with a razor blade we were able to make a plain text front and then a fancy backside that will be revealed when the glass box is opened. Here is rough drawing of the top of the box:
And here is a drawing of the box top lifted open so you can see the fancier side of the invitation. Simple text invitations are easy to do because you only have to deal with one side, but when you have a fancy invitation you want to make sure that all of it is preserved in the box for safe keeping.
That was about it for classes this week. We'll see more student coming in next week though!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

December In A Nutshell

December was a busy time at the shop and I've been EXTREMELY neglectful of the Blog because of it. Rather than trying to sort everything in the weeks that they occurred I'll just roll everything up in this one posting. I regret that I don't have finished pictures of everything. People where in a rush to get their projects completed and would rush out there door or pack them up before I could get my camera out. But things are quiet and calm again so we'll be seeing more completed windows soon.

That said, we're going to start things off looking at a pair of beveled windows that Lea completed about 2 weeks before Christmas. She's averaging a window a week (or better) now. Practice makes perfect I guess. :-)

Jane made another of her ever popular bird windows in December. This was all we go to see of it because she finished it while she was at home. And it's sold already as well!

This was a finished Mardi Gras mask that Fran made. Made from Black Baroque glass the pattern was created by Fran herself (as are all the masks she's been making).


Christine finished off her Indian Window just in time for Christmas. I sort of jumped the gun on this one because after it was washed off I put patina on it to turn the lead copper colored. Luckily I didn't get very far before Christine stopped me from going any further-- she wanted to leave it silver! A little steel wool removed the coloring and now you'd never know...

Cheryl completed her Angel window. It came out so nice that Grace decided to do the same window herself. And in a strange turn of events Cheryl has begun working on the cross window that Grace was working on in December. Talk about admiring a fellow students work!


Here are 3 Fleur De Lis that Grace completed just before Christmas. They were finished with black Baroque borders (like the Mardi Gras Mask that Fran made up above). I know this sounds strange, but look how they all match perfectly. Grace works quickly and efficiently now days. Beginning students have a lot of trouble making identical pieces. As you can see, Grace doesn't have that problem at all...

And we can't mentioin Grace without mentioning her mother, Janice. She was hard at work making the second of 3 windows for her house. Here you can see it almost all cut out and ground. When I last saw it Janice took it home to finish soldering. She'll be working on the final window of this series next week.

This was a Fleur De Lis window that that Cheryl made for her sister in Baton Rouge. I'd swear I took a picture of the finished window but I can't find it on the camera's memory card.


Here we have another self designed Mardi Gras Mask from Fran. She's really on a roll with these things. She's working on one now that is MUCH larger and more intricate than

Does this door look familiar? It's the last of the doors this size by Lea. She's got 2 thinner doors to do after this one and she just brought in 2 more smaller square doors so I could have the pattern drawn up for her before she comes to class.

This is the Cross window that Grace originally made that Cheryl started. What you see below was accomplished in one class. All the cutting, grinding and most of the wrapping! We WILL see this one when it's completed.


Fleur De Lis' are popular here in Louisiana so it's not uncommon to have one made every few weeks here. This is the last one that Fran made just before the Holidays. As you can see we really got a good picture of it.



And lastly we have the Angel window that Grace is working on. You can see a finished version of it up above because it's the same pattern that Cheryl made just 2 or 3 weeks ago. Grace has almost all of the wings cut out but it's hard to see the clear glass on top of the pattern. What impressed me was how exact her cutting has become-- there's hardly any reason for her to grind the pieces that she cut here!


So that brings us almost up to date here. Expect a second Blog posting on Monday night which will cover our first classes of the new year. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Halloween Aftermath

I'm going to take this minute to remind all of our students out there that we will not be having classes on Tuesday the 11th or Wednesday the 12th (of November). Classes will resume the following week though.

Well, we have quite a few finished projects this week so let's jump on on and take a look at them.

Lea finished the last of her long, tall cabinet inserts and will be moving back to working with bevels during her next class. She's easily finishing a door a night and possibly even two of them (depending on their complexity) so I don't think the project will take her all that long to finish. Here's her latest.

Fran finished her first Mardi Gras mask and it's a beauty. She designed it herself so you won't be seeing this one anywhere else. The mask was soldered in a curved fashion that doesn't show in the photograph but rest assured this is one of the nicest masks I've seen.

Janice has completed the first of her three windows for the front of her house. The windows are actually a set of 5 for which she'll be doing 2 different patterns that will alternate. Each window will have the diamonds running along both the top and the bottom. The pattern for the second set of windows has yet to be decided on but it will be similar to this one that she's already made. Janice has the other two centers cut out for this pattern so we'll see some immediate results on her second window when she returns to class in two weeks.

Sheila was kind enough to send us these pictures of the windows that she made. It's one thing to see them pictured in the shop but it's always a treat to see them installed where they were made to be viewed. They really add a lot to the furniture they are installed in. We hope to see Sheila soon. :-)


We had Jane begin work on her latest Birds and Birdhouse window. I believe this is the third time she's making this one. It's a lot of tiny pieces but it really pays off in the end. Jane's next project will be a fireplace screen. I have the pattern just about drawn up for it.

And lastly we have Michael Ann's window. With the center all tacked together she was able to cut out a lot of her background glass as well as the diamond pieces the run along the edges and center. She's taken the pieces home to wrap and I suspect that the rest of her background will be cut out during her next class.
And that about wraps it up for this week. Once again, there is no class scheduled for next week. I'd hate to have anyone show up only to discover that the shop is closed. Have a great 2 weeks, we'll see you when we return!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Let's Do The Time Warp

Rocky Horror was in the air during classes as a number of us were about to head out to see Janice's son (and Grace's Brother) in the lead roll of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. More details will appear in next weeks posting.

Lea finished another Cabinet door and has a second just about completed. We'll see her finish the matching door to this one one during the next class. Because the door was so narrow the standard bevel cluster would fit in it. So Lea used the Flemish glass to cut out smaller clusters and then skipped the border altogether. Beveled or not, you have to love the style.

Michael finished grinding her pieces and then managed to wrap them all. Her wrapping is immaculate and this window is really shaping up. Next week we'll begin cutting the diamond sections followed by the background.


Janice filled in the missing pieces of her background and then added her final border before settling down to solder her window. Isn't this a classic design? ANd she's got 2 more to go! I suspect we'll see this one finished soon.

Grace is working on three 12 x 8 Fleur De Lis windows very similar to the last one she worked on. She took three Fleur De Li's home with her to wrap since she managed to cut them all and grind them while in class. I guess she'll be working on backgrounds next week.

This is one of the Mardi Gras masks that Fran designed and cut out this week. If you enlarge the picture you'll see that there are white pieces surrounding the purple glass-- it's just hard to photograph against the white pattern paper.

And while Fran was working on the mask she was also working on a Fleur De Lis window of her own. In fact, the only thing left to finish this window will be the 6 pieces of border glass and a quick solder job.

Lastly we have Cheryl's Angel window. All the glass is cut, ground and wrapped. She's taken it home with her to solder and next week we'll put a zinc channel around it. Once it's hung up You'll get so see what these colors really look like with light behind them. I can't believe how different this window looks in it's photographs.


Truth be told, we've seen the RHPS already but mum's the word until the next posting. We all have to confer about it Tuesday night!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks