Small Moves

Something that confuses our students a lot is determining whether the channel that surrounds their project needs to be covered with solder or not.   Remembering that Zinc Channel does NOT get coated with solder and that Brass Channel does can be tricky unless you know this simple secret to remember it by.   If the channel you are using is NOT silver colored before you patina it then you will need to put solder on it.    Thus, zinc channel (which is silver) does not need to be coated with lead, while brass channel (which is brass colored) needs to be covered with lead.  Everything should be silver before you apply patina.  It's really THAT simple!

Belinda finished her Humming Bird Window and it's stunning.  This is smaller than you might think measuring only 13 inches tall.  That's a lot of detail in a small space but Belinda got everything fitting together beautifully and her soldering is nearing complete perfection.

 
Rowena's Pumpkin Window is as seasonal as a window could possibly be.   Everything is perfect about this which is normal for Rowena.

 

Mary Grace completed her Air Force logo and the baroque background glass sets it off wonderfully.  I only wish it would photograph better.   I like the subtle use of red, white and blue colors as well.  All of the patriotic colors are there, but having red in the border breaks up the symbolism.

 

Jan started and finished this Air Plant Panel which she's getting quite skilled at making!   The twisted wire will support the small plant and the panel itself can hang just about anywhere.

 

Linda L completed two of these clear Beveled Heart Suncatchers and will be MIA for the next month as she gets her shoulder rebuilt.  We wish her well and will miss her shenanigans in class!

 

These are two small pieces that I made during the week.  The first being an American Flag Star and the second being a unique Crystal Hanging that uses 6 star bevels.  Both are new designs and perhaps we'll see some student make their own.

 

In the last of our completed projects, Betty finished up her work on 3 more Jeweled Hangers and another Bevel Framed Heart.

  

Kerry got a lot of the red glass cut out for his tractor window and even though the pieces aren't completely in place you can easily see what this window is.  His colors are perfect and I believe this will be one impressive window when it's finished.

 

Carol was busily plugging away at her Wine's A Solution Window and she's moving along with incredible speed.  She's already grinding her pieces and some of them even have etched bubbles!   I hope we get to see that next week as a closeup picture.

 

Tracey 's Grinch That Stole Christmas is all ground and the frown lines have even been painted onto the glass as well.   Doing the painting BEFORE  the window is soldered allows us to fire the lines onto the glass thus making them more permanent.

Cindy got her final border attached to her Clear Beveled Window and will get a large zinc channel (which does NOT get covered in solder) added to it when she comes back next week.   I have to say that this is turning out great!

 

Jeannette came in with all of her Humming Birds Window tacked together save for the border.  She wanted to somewhat match the border that she used on her large Peacock Window from a few years back so the two of us set to work and recreated a similar border for this window.   By the end of class it was all tacked together!

 

Susan R was busy cutting out a Trout Suncatcher and she's all set to move over to the grinder to get this fitting together.

 

Angie worked on 5 different Dragonfly Flowerpot Decorations and is ready to begin soldering them.   That's a lot of work for just one 3 hour class!

  

Becky S is back and her Egret Window is back on the grinder!   It was good to see her again and hopefully she was able to get her mind off things and relax a bit.

Rowena spent most of her time in class cutting out and grinding this Iridised Butterfly Window.   She got everything cut and ground in one class so I have no doubt that this will be completed next week.   Rowena doesn't waste a minute!

 

Patrice is all set to tack together her Umbrella Lady Window.  She wrapped the bevels that will form her inner border and made sure that everything fits BEFORE she tacked things together.   When working with bevels you can't assume things will fit-- you have to check and double check.

 

Jeanne M has all of the glass cut out for her Heart Window now.  She came in and tacked the heart together and then made pattern pieces for the background.  Once that was all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked she cut out a border and that she'll tack onto this next week when she should also finish her window.

Sheri has almost all of the glass cut out for her Bees and Honeycomb Suncatcher.   With just the wings left to go she'll easily begin grinding this upon her return.  This is one of the larger suncatchers due to the detail and number of pieces.

 

Linda's Sunflowers window got its border attached and tacked together.  Once that was completed she got her brass channel in place and began soldering.  This is just about finished now.

 

 

Martha's wrapping bevels for her Rose Window and is taking her time to ensure that no foil is visible from either side of the window.  That's a very important part of foiling clear glass and bevels.

 

Barbara H was busy wrapping the pieces of her Wisteria Window so she can work on cutting out her background glass.  The background should go easily enough so once this is tacked the majority of the hard work will essentially be completed.

 

Mary made incredible headway on her Egret Window as almost all of the bird has been cut out.   It looks like the toughest part of this window was figuring out what was what on the uncolored  pattern.   That's a standard problem though.   The way I figure things out is to start coloring in the pieces that I'm sure of with colored pencils on the pattern itself.   Slowly but surely things become apparent once you start eliminating the unknowns.

 

Melissa's got most of her Birds On A Wire Window ground and I hate to say it but someone cut her off on the way home and all of these birds ended up as a pile of ground glass on the floor of her back seat.  She's reassembled them and as far as I know there's nothing broken but it's still something that you never want to have happen to a window that you're working on.

 

Annette completed cutting out the glass that make up her Poodle and even got about a quarter of those pieces ground.  She's discovered a few missing pieces but she'll cut them after this is tacked together.  That will ensure a perfect fit with minimal grinding.

 

Jeff has more of the Hummingbird/Flower/Dragonfly section of his window tacked into place. Next up for him are some leaves, skies and Dragonfly pieces.

 

Lara has her final border attached and just needs to fill in the two circular corners.  In the bottom corner she'll place a peacock feather and in the upper corner she's going to use a rose.  She's taken this home to begin soldering it so she's wasting no time at all.

MiMi's almost finished cutting out her newsprint background glass.   Everything lines up beautifully and the effect is already striking.  Next week I promise to have a close up of the effect.

 

And last but not least we look at Shawn's Autumn Leaves Window which now has half of its background glass and all of the branches cut out.   At this rate she'll move on over to a grinder upon her return. Because what's left to go is minimal compared to what she accomplished this week!

And there you have it, all the news that's fit to print at Bayou Salé GlassWorks!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Gucci Glue Chip

It's so good to be caught up again.   And this post really makes it official because it's out on the correct night (a few hours early even!)  Let's jump right on in here.

Jeanne L finished her Circular Rose Window and as I always say, a window ALWAYS looks better once it's cleaned up.   I got the impression that Jeanne wasn't entirely pleased with this as she was soldering it, but now that  it's been cleaned up and back lit there is absolutely NOTHING to complain about!  I love it and Jeanne does as well.

 

 The Dark Side Of The Moon.   That's what this is.  It's a classic and Angie captured it perfectly (google it if you don't know what it is).   I'm gonna make one of these myself because this will go quickly at a show! 

 

Jeannette completed her Guitar Window and it's a winner.   I'd like to point out that the guitar cuts into the border which could be problematic since they are both made out of very similar brown glass.    To stop the two browns from blending together into a nondescript brown blob she used a light piece of brown for the top of the guitar and then made sure that the pieces of the border that touch the guitar were the darkest sections of her border glass.  As you can see, the end result is perfect and the guitar doesn't disappear into the border at all.

 

Susan R has her Swan Window completed and the outer edge has been surrounded by flexible Lead H Came.  You have to stretch it before using it (like any other came) and if your outer edge has any inconsistencies it will allow them to show.   As you can see, Susan's Swan has no inconsistencies.

  

Sheri's Autism Puzzle Piece is perfection.   Look at all of those intricate cuts that fit together like, well, a puzzle!  It takes a lot of time to make this four piece suncatcher because of the inside curves that have to be ground out rather than cut out.  Sheri's fits together perfectly and this proves that the size of number of the pieces doesn't make something easy to do.   It's all about the complexity Of the cuts.

 

 

Betty made two suncatchers this week.   She put the finishing touches on a Mary, Joseph and Jesus Suncatcher and also completed a large bevel Heart Frame which is normally made with 3 x 1 bevels.   This one is made out of 1 x 6's so it's a BIG difference indeed.

  

Jeannette was as busy as can be this week as she also finished 3 Dragonfly Flower Pot Ornaments, a Butterfly, and a beveled Dove.  That's what I call making the most of a single class!

 

Angie's LSU Window is ready for hanging and her use of Oceanside water glass gives this a slightly different look from other LSU Windows that we normally see done in rough rolled glass.   This is a gift that will surely be appreciated.

 

Linda L began and finished this lovely circular Saints Fleur De Lis.  She has only one more class to go with us before she turns up MIA due to down time after a shoulder rebuild so her final project will be something small again. We'll take a look at what that is a little further on in this post.

 

Mary started and completed another Butterfly Lawn Ornament.    I don't think it's possible for her to finish these any faster now.

 

 

Tracey's Grinch That Stole Christmas Window is moving smoothly along save for one little hiccup.  See that missing green spot?  She had accidentally flipped the pattern before tracing it so it was backward.   She has more green glass at home and will cut a replacement piece next week.   The same things happened to me just this past week as well.

 

 

Cindy came in with her bevels wrapped and then assembled all of the bevels to form a cluster in the center by merging 3 different bevels and adding some diamond bevels to join them together.  She then traced it onto her background glass and got that cut and ground as well.

 

Becky has her Springfield Fish, or Swamp Thing, tacked together and next week she'll get the green pupils (all three of them) cut into the whites of its eyes.  After that she'll be ready for background glass.

 

Mimi finished wrapping all of her seafood and tacked it together as soon as she walked in the door.  Then we slid a piece of white glass that we fired a newsprint pattern onto it underneath the seafood and began cutting a few pieces at a time so the text would all line up.   It's looking incredible already!  You'll never see another window like this again.

Susan D is gearing up for Halloween as she gets some decorative corner spider webs made.   I can't help but wonder that if she just stopped cleaning perhaps her corners could look like this naturally! Well, maybe not as sparkly though.  Once these are finished she'll work on jeweled spider to set it all off.

 

Shawn completed cutting out the last of her leaves, moved over to the two acorns, and then began cutting out the branches for her tree.  This is another window that's moving along nicely and Shawn's cutting is getting better and better, week by week.  Maybe it's that Prada Cutter she has now....

  

Martha has started working on a Rose Window and her cutting is beautiful.   Things are already fitting together and these pieces haven't  been anywhere near a grinder yet.  Slow but steady may win the race but when it comes to cutting Martha cuts with great accuracy AND with speed!

  

Belinda got a nice deep blue border cut for her Hummingbird Window and then set upon soldering it.   Once it was attached she got the entire front side of her window soldered as well.  I'm pretty sure that she'll likely wrap this up on her return.  

  

 

Jeff has all of his flower cut and ground along with most of the background glass surrounding it.  He's steadily working his way through the middle section of his window and the remaining pieces are fairly large so it should go easier for him now.

 

  

Annette has cut her last piece of Poodle glass and is now grinding all of her pieces.  She grinding quickly and efficiently and I think she'll be finished grinding this quicker than she thinks she will.  It's not a race, it's about perfection!

 

Rowena's Pumpkin Window is nearing completion as everything has been cut and tacked together including the border.  She's already begun soldering this and if I know Rowena she'll have this completed when she returns.  She already has her next pattern so she's all set to start something new..

 

 

Mary Grace has her borders attached on her Air Force Logo Window and even has most of the front soldered already.   This is probably going to be completed when she comes back in so we'll be seeing something new started by her next week..

Barbara H got all of her Wisteria pieces ground before leaving and hopes to begin wrapping all of those little pieces while she's at home. Once these are foiled she'll tack them together and trace them out onto her background glass for a nice perfect fit.

Here's Linda L's next two projects.   These are beveled Heart Suncatchers and she has two of them in progress right now.  With everything  cut and ground she'll easily solder these next week and have them in the finished section of our next Blog update at the top of the post!

Lastly, I never got a picture of Patrice's Umbrella Lady! I watched her walk out the door with it but never thought about the picture until she was long down the road.   It looks like next week you'll get to see a LOT of progress done on it.

Until next Monday, may all your cuts run smoothly and your grinder wheel not chip you glass.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks