Oh My, I'm A Stained Glass Mess

This week we'll start with a quick but very simple tip.   Before tracing your pattern pieces onto your glass be sure to wipe the glass off with a slightly damp paper towel.  This will clean away any dirt and allow the marker to set better on the glass which will help prevent your fingers from rubbing off the line as well as the water from the grinder.  You don't have to go crazy with glass cleaner and in a pinch even wiping over the glass with a dry paper towel is better than nothing at all.  Try it-- I guarantee that you'll see a difference.

First off in our completed project this week is a beautiful Magnolia Window that Gale made from a pattern that Becky S designed.  This is the first window that Gale has made since she came back and although she was a tad anxious about recalling what steps were involved this window proved my point that soldering is like riding a bike.  Once you know how to do it you never forget.  I love Gales use of colors in this window-- it's perfect.

Sheri put the finishing touches on her Stylized Fleur De Lis Window this week and all of the effort that she put into this window shows in the end result.  I love the striking blue FDL which contrasts so vividly with the clears that make up the rest of the window.  and the use of just a few bevels along the border worked out wonderfully as well.  Sheri should be very proud of this especially since her first window with us.

 

Bonnie started and completed these five Business Card Holders in record time.  She even put them all together herself with no help whatsoever.  What I love most about them is the fact that she used the factory irregular (but smooth) edge as part of the actual design!  Pay attention to the tops of the Lavender, Aqua-Green, and Blue Card Holders to see what I mean.  These are wonderful.

 

Linda F's Turkey Panel has been completed and I have to say that the change of color in her background glass DID make a big difference-- for the best!  Linda's been doing excellent work and this piece proves what I've been saying.

 

Susan's got all of her ducks Eggs in a row and they are all completed.  She came in and spend the day tacking and soldering them together and then getting them attached to their stakes as well.  By the time she left she had eight Eggs completed.  What's next for Susan, well, I have no clue (even though I distinctly recall asking her) which means that it will be fun to see what she comes up with when she returns.

  

And Sue's American Heart Panel has been completed this week and what a wonderful piece of work it is.  The design has more than turned a few heads in class and Sue deserves all of the credit for that.  Great work all around makes this one very patriotic head turner. 

  

Judy's completed her three Butterfly Lawn Ornaments (just as expected) and she's just realized that she needs to make one more.  I don't know when that will happen but I must say that Judy did a wonderful job working on these.  They're perfect all around.

  

Betty also made a version of the standard Butterfly Lawn Ornament which she made in the same color scheme that she used for the new butterfly that she completed two weeks ago.  Betty's becoming a real pro at these and her color selections have all of our students looking for the same glass!

 

Rowena's Beveled Transom Window is well under way already with the entire right side of the bevel having its background glass cut.  There were a few close calls along the way to cutting this out because somehow I managed to screw up the center line while drawing the pattern, but since we always measure twice before cutting we discovered the mistake right way.  Now it's perfect and Rowena will get the remaining four pieces on the left side cut when she returns.

 

Carol's got two projects in the works.  The first is a Nativity Scene which is almost completely cut out and ground already and which will most likely get 'borderized' when it returns.  The second project she's working on is a Fleur De Lis window that she's converting from a Door Insert to a stand alone window.  Due to the design the window was made 'off center' which sounds odd but looks perfectly fine when you see this placed in the door it was designed for.  To change it to a stand alone window Carol had to cut off almost two inches of background glass from the left side of the Fleur de Lis.  That was done while the glass was still attached and I like to believe that Carol was impressed when she saw how easy it was to do.  Now the Fleur De Lis is perfectly centered in the window.

 

Jeannette's Peacock Window is so closed to being completely cut out that it's not even funny.  The border glass she picked is the perfect color for this window and the bevels look great cut into it.  She'll be finishing up the border pieces when she returns next week and I have no doubt that she'll have this ready for soldering by the following week.  This is just as spectacular as I thought it would be.

Jeanne has started cutting and grinding her Mickey Mouse Window and as you can see she's moving right along.  She's added a second button on Mickey's pants in keeping with the original design of Mickey Mouse and I suspect we'll see him fleshed out (or 'moused' out) even more when she returns to class.

 

Shelley came into class this week with all of her Red Fish Window cut out and ground.  Everything fit together beautifully so she began the arduous task of wrapping all of her pieces.She's made some major headway into foiling this window and she's taken it home with her to continue the job throughout the week.

 

Janet's pair of Butterfly Lawn Ornaments are both ground with one of them being almost completely wrapped as well.  It certainly won't take long before we see these completed.  I'm even tempted to say that it will happen next week...

 

Vickie's Geometric Window is all soldered and ready to be washed and colored.  In just one class she was able to solder the entire window (front and back) which is easy to do if you don't care what your soldering looks like, but her work shows that she DID care what it looked like.  Expect to see this among our completed windows next week.

 

Cindy somehow lost two pieces of her upper left corners but that didn't stop her from tacking what she had together and getting started on the triple border of her LSU Fleur De Lis Window.  And wouldn't you know it-- a few days after she left I found one of the pieces in the yard.  Things always turn up when you lose them, but generally AFTER you've re-cut the piece.

 

And here's Betty's version of the same LSU Fleur De Lis.  She's decided to grind as she goes along so it's fitting together spectacularly already. I'm pretty sure that Betty will be going with a single border on hers though.  Also, Betty insists that this is one window that she won't be making two of.

Linda L's three Easter Rabbit Panels are almost completed with all of the soldering completed and the brass channels added.  The only thing left to do is to add wire whiskers, patina them and then clean these windows.  Look for a Mickey Mouse lamp to be started by Linda when she returns next week.

 

Jan may be our newest student but that doesn't mean she can't keep up with the pro's. The fact is that she's keeping up with students that have been here for months already!  Her rendition of a Study in Straight Cuts is moving right along.  She completed all of her grinding and she's even begun wrapping her pieces already.

 

Ann's Cross Transom Window is nearing completion already.  She's got all of the final intricate border cut out and more than half of it ground already.  Ann is a practically a grinding and wrapping 'machine' so I have no doubt that she'll be wrapping pieces when she returns to class.

 

 

With a smaller test run under her belt Becky S has dove head first into this larger and even more elaborate version of the Spiral Window.  This one is twice the size of her last one and will add another lead border into the mix complete with decorations embedded into the solder.  I know that she had a great time making the first one and I'm absolutely positive that she's going to love making this one because the cuts will be less demanding and the amount of lead she gets to 'decorate' with will be on a larger scale.

 

Myrt has started this small Cardinal Window and has all of the red glass cut out and somewhat ground already.  She had seen Terry and Martha's versions of this design and decided to make one of her own.

 

Linda F's latest Study in Straight Lines is all cut out and mostly ground to boot.  She doesn't have the border cut to size yet but the strips are cut to the correct width which means that the hardest part of the border is done.  Linda's got an excellent eye because every line in this window is perfect.

 

Sue also managed to work on her own version of the newest Butterfly Lawn Ornament that's been making waves throughout our classes.  As you can see she has this almost completely ground which means that we'll be attaching this to a stake when Sue returns.

 

Last but not least we have a look at the pattern that Brenda will begin working on next week.  This week saw her combining two different fish patterns resulting on the pattern that you see here proving that Brenda's a reel expert and can tackle anything.

That wraps thing up for this week.  We had an amazingly busy Weekend Workshop on Saturday and Sunday and wait until you see all that was accomplished in that two day class.  I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I Can't Wait For The Peacock To Be Finished

Let's start off with a great tip that I use all the time.  Grinders will spin either clockwise or counter clockwise.  My grinders have only ever spun counterclockwise but there's a chance  that other manufacturer's grinders don't.  In the pictures below I'm showing a wheel that is spinning counter clockwise. 

The water you add to your grinder acts as a coolant and is picked up and thrown in the direction that the head is spinning. The grinding head on my grinders throws water to the right as shown by the red arrow in the picture.

 

If you have a lot of grinding to do and there is a lot of marker on your glass you'll want to position the piece on the grinding wheel where the water won't spray onto your line, thereby washing it off before you get to it.  In the picture below you can see that the water spray will follow the arrow and begin to wash away your line before it even touches the grinding head!  This isn't good at all.

By positioning the same piece of glass with the line to the left of the grinding wheel the water won't spray onto your glass until you've already ground the piece.  Proper glass placement on the grinder can stop you from having to re-mark your glass over and over again.

Also, as a side note I feel the need to state that you should never grind your glass in a back and forth motion unless you are smoothing out a piece.  (There are exceptions to this rule but those conditions are very rare.) If you have a considerable amount of glass to grind you should keep the glass on the wheel until the line is gone before sliding the piece along.  Also, if most of your pieces have line visible you need to slow down while cutting and focus on cutting off that line!   


Well now, let's look at what what our students have accomplished this week starting with Becky's Spiral Window.  Tell me that this doesn't look absolutely amazing.  The tiny twisting pieces weren't easy to work with but Becky is very much like myself when it comes to enjoying a challenge.  I always say that you get back tenfold what you put into a window and this project just proves my point.   Becky used pieces of clear glass wrapped completely in foil to achieve the solid lead look (you can see it better in the next picture) and she really had a good time soldering those pieces in a purposefully unpolished manner.  And the icing on the cake was when she got to rough coat the thick zinc channel that surrounds the window as well.  

 

Here's a detailed view of the background pieces in Becky S's window.  That's not glass, it's lead!  And what an interesting effect it is.

 

Brenda's JP Window is a wrap  and she's got herself a beautiful looking window.  Text is a funny thing when done in glass because if it isn't cut and ground perfectly then you end up with a window that looks like it was done with bad penmanship.  As you can see, Brenda's penmanship is wonderful.

 

Judy came in with four Butterfly Lawn Ornaments all cut, ground and wrapped.   While she was in class she got this one soldered and tacked together.  You can't see it in this picture but the wings are soldered together at an angle and now that Judy knows how this is done she'll be able to move along more quickly when it comes to completing her remaining three butterflies.

 

Myrt's Cross De Lis was another finished window this week and as always she's done a fantastic job on this.  Her cutting, grinding and soldering are all top notch which easily shows in this picture.  And for the record, I didn't do any touch-ups  on the soldering for her.

Carol put together the last of her Fleur De Lis Door inserts and then she got the border cut for three other sides on the FDL that she decided not to use for this project.  She had to trim off a little from one side of the window to get everything centered, but she discovered that was easy.

 

Gale's Magnolia Window has it's front side all soldered and she turned it over to start soldering the back side before class was over.  She only has a few lead lines left to go on this and then it will be completed.  Gale has found that soldering is like riding a bike-- it's something that you never forget how to do.

 

Paula's New Orleans Scene is looking incredible.  This has always been a favorite of mine and all of the students tend to agree.  Paula decided to ignore the number of thin, small pieces in this window and just hunker down and do it.  And she's making beautiful headway. 

  

Up next is another large scale window that's being made by Jeannette.  Everything in the picture you see below is tacked together.  That's right, Jeannette will begin attaching her final border to this when she comes back in.  She isn't going to be adding all of the half circles that were drawn on the original pattern but she's adding more bevels so there's no way that this looks anything other than amazing when it's completed.  She's even got Carol and Rowena talking about making one! 

  

Ann's Transom Window is almost entirely cut out now and it's another window that's far beyond the reach of a beginner student.  The center is flawless and Ann will be grinding the final border to match when she returns to class.  This is going to be a very beautiful window.

Terry's got the first border on her spiral window and she's going to put it aside and work on the top section of this design before she attaches the final border.   She already has the front of this soldered so when she comes back to it there will be little left to deal with. 

Linda's Turkey almost had a very different look to it but the background glass that she originally picked was so brittle that it was breaking all over the place. After the third wild break Linda decided to re-think the glass for her background which, according to her, ended up being a much better fit for this panel-- and I agree.

 

Bonnie started soldering the front side of her Study In Straight Cuts after getting all of her pieces tacked into place.  Pay close attention to how everything lines up because even after wrapping she still had wiggle room between all her pieces.  Carefully positioned of each piece makes it look absolutely perfect.  Tacking is about positioning all your pieces exactly where you want them and then securing them into place.  Proper positioning is something that makes or breaks a window and in this case it certainly makes it.

 

And in a similar vein we have Jan's own version of a Study In Straight Lines Window.  She completed all of her cutting using the pistol grip cutter and definitely has it mastered.  She's already moved over to the grinder and is using pins liberally to keep things lined up.  She's a good quarter of the way through grinding this already so things are moving along nice and smoothly for her.  It's all about using the proper tool for the job. 

 

Martha got all of the background completed for her Fleur De Lis Window and what a great job she did cutting and grinding it.  She had cut out two pieces (slightly) ahead of time but they literally dropped into place so my hat goes off to her for a job well done.  She's worked out the colors for her double border which involved one simple change from her original idea-- reversing the colors.  We'll see them added next week.

 

Cindy's got all of her glass cut for the center part of her LSU De Lis window and it's all ground as well.  She's taken it home with her to get some wrapping done and once this is tacked together she'll begin her fancy triple border.  Triple borders are a pain in the butt, but they're so worth the extra effort as you will see when this is completed.

 

Here's a look at Vickie's Geometric Window which is 100% cut out now.  Vickie learned that filling in missing or broken pieces after a window is tacked together is the best way to handle a break.  There's no chance of accidentally reversing the piece and it fits perfectly the first time you cut it.

 

Sheri has almost all of the soldering done on her Fleur De Lis Window leaving her with just a line or two left on the back of the window.  That will go quickly and then Sheri will learn how to tin the brass channel and add hooks to it as well.  This window is practically a done deal so look to see this completed when we return next week.

  

Sue Worked on a Heart Flag this week which is her own design.  She cut her strips at home and then made a blue heart which she placed in the upper left corner to really give it a flag like look.  She was originally going to center it but when we saw it placed in the corner we both knew instantly that was where it belonged.   She's got all but the back side soldered making this one very quick project for her.  Sue will certainly be starting something else when she returns next week.

 

Rowena's working on a Transom Window of her own involving a lot of bevels and a a house number thrown in the middle of it for good measure.  She got her numbers all cut, ground, wrapped, and tacked together while she was in class this week and when she returns she'll start cutting the background for this (large) window.

 

And Shelly has all of the glass cut out for her Red Fish Window and has moved onto the grinding phase of her project.  She's doing great and I love how sure she's become of herself and her glass making skills.  This is going to look great and it's all coming together before our eyes.

 

Janet has returned and came in with a larger pattern of 'our' new butterfly Lawn Ornament pattern.  She's already got both of her butterflies cut out so she'll be grinding when she comes back in.  These are a little larger than the one that Betty made which brings up an interesting observation that I've made.  Each class appears to have its own idea as to what size a Lawn Ornament should be.  We always end up with three sizes: Small, Medium and Large.  This one that Janet is making now is a large one. 

  

Betty began working on her own LSU De Lis Window and remembered how hard it is to see marks on dark glass!  She also learned that tiny, curvy pieces tend to waste a lot of glass since you have to position them far apart to be cut-able.  But even with all of that Betty is doing  a great job and this FDL is going to look wonderful.

 

Finally (and by 'finally' I mean 'in conclusion') Jeanne has started working on her Mickey Mouse Window and has all of her glass picked out.  She's got his yellow shoes cut out as well but I didn't get a picture of it so you'll just have to look at this rough sketch  of her pattern. We'll get a real picture next week when she comes back in.

And that's it for the last week in March.   Time is certainly flying and we have another weekend Workshop coming up so expect and extra post sometime during the next week.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks