Can You Read The Thought Bubble Above My Head?

Lisa's Sugar Skull is a work of art for sure.  She not only made this stunning large Suncatcher-- she designed it as well!   Her choice of purple for the hat is a color choice that I would never have thought of but certainly will now that I've seen the hat in place atop Lisa's stunning piece of art.

 

 

 

 

 

MiMi's first of two different Notre Dame Windows consists of all straight lines which is actually very difficult to do (correctly).  You can clearly see that there's not a line out of place in this window which is even more impressive considering that she began this just last week.  It's amazing work all around but that's just how MiMi handles her stained glass making.

 

 

 

Zoe finished her Longhorn Skull and her end result looks amazing.   Her attention to detail and her strive for perfections shows in each and every one of her projects with this one being no exception.  The best part about this is that she is more than pleased with the fruits of her stained glass labor!  It's always nice to love what you've created.

 

 

 

 

Jeannette certainly made short work of her Sunset (Sunrise?) Window.  It was just two weeks in the making and her soldering on it is just as incredible as her glass choices are.

 

 

 

Linda's Three Birds On a Branch were completed and then accented with glass beads for the bird's eyes.   This is a quick, simple and elegant solution to the troublesome process of grinding small eye sockets and then dealing with cutting tiny round eyes to fit into the tiny round opening.

 

 

 

 

Let's Christmas Poinsettia was finished and her choice of fractures and streamers background glass adds so much with so little in this piece.   It's a simple design made all the better by terrific glass choices.

 

 

Steve began this Fleur De Lis last week when he cut it out and this week he's taken it home as a finished project.   He's colored the lead with black patina which means that he foiled any of the clear pieces of his glass with black backed foil.  This ensures that the inner edge of the foil that you can see through  the clear pieces match the black lead so that everything blends together seamlessly. 

 

 

 

 

Lorrie is another student who not only works on stained glass while in our classroom but at home as well.  Last week we saw her fox which still needed eyes and this week she has the Fox as well as a Cross completed.   She keeps busy, that's for sure.

 

 

 

Betty finished another Cat Suncatcher with the redesigned tail (the older pattern has been officially retired now) as well as a White Pumpkin of her own -- or is it a gourd?  I must admit that I don't know for sure!

 

 

 

Linda F also cut the remaining pieces of her Beach Themed Teardrop Suncatcher.   All of the glass has been cut out now and she's even managed to grind the bottom portion of it. 

 

  

 

 

 

Susan D worked at the grinder on her two Geometric Suncatchers and got one completely ground with the other one just 2 or 4 pieces away from being completely ground as well. The end is near.

 

 

 

Lorrie also began work on another Box featuring a pair of roses, one in red and the other in pinks.  She's fast becoming the box queen!

 

  

 

 

Cindy made some excellent progress on her Holly Heart largely due to the fact that she finished the actual holly leaves and was able to spend most of her class working on the much larger pieces that make up the background and the border that forms the heart.   She used white iridized for the border and it's a perfect match for the rest of this beautiful piece. 

  

 

 

I can remember when Melissa first began classes and made three or four beveled crosses and practically swore that she'd never do Crosses again.   Last week she completed three more and this week she has a different variation cut and ground.  She may have also started something in the Wednesday night class because Annette also wanted the pattern and the bevels to make one of her own.

 

 

Judy's Deer Window has been completely ground and now she's working on foiling all of her pieces so she can tack it all together and then get a border cut out.  I'm thinking that we'll see the color that she picks for a border in our next blog post.

 

 

 

Annette's Sacred Heart Window is impressive for sure.  She did almost all of the work on this while at home and only needs to get the sword cut and positioned into the window before she can begin soldering.     

  

 

June's Goat Window is coming together piece by piece and I do know that it IS a goat and not a donkey.   I heard Cheryl call it a donkey last week and it subconsciously came out of my head and into the blog last week when I talked about it!

 

 

 

Bee got all of her Cantina window ground and foiled and then decided to actually paint the lettering onto the glass that will form the banner of the window.  Once the enamel glass paint dries it will go into the kiln where it will fire onto the glass permanently.   After the paint goes through the heating process the letters will turn into a dark red color instead of being the pink that they are now.  Also, Bee painted the letter so quickly that she even got a border cut and tacked onto her window.  Now that's what I call a productive night! 

  

 

 

Let also worked on her Beveled Heart Panel and it is very near completion needing only solder on its back side to finish it off.  It's always a bit of a let down when someone is THIS close to finishing something but runs out of time.

 

 

 

Cheryl's Suzuki Motorcycle Window is missing a few pieces but to make things easier she's going to tack together the parts that she HAS cut which fit together nicely already.  This will prevent shifting and make the grinding of the replacement pieces go much easier.  In other words,  Cheryl spent her time foiling letters this week.

  

 

 

Angie's Pelican Window kept her busy as she replaced the neck of the bird to cover a small missing chip in the background glass. Once the background and the new neck was tacked together a border was cut, ground, foiled and attached as well.   Soldering is the only thing left to do on this one and then Angie will move on over to a new project. 

  

 

 

Lastly, Martha's got her Franklin Streetlight well under control as well as under way.   After previewing MANY different sheets of glass for a single border and not being happy with any of them she went with the tried and true method of using two borders.   She began with a clear thin inner border and then followed that with the same glass that she used for her background.  She even had enough background glass left over to allow the grain of the border to flow consistently from left to right rather than radiating outward from each side.  It's a subtle difference but those in the know will spot the advanced grain placement instantly. 

 

 

 And there ya have it-- everything that happened during the first week of September.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Music To Lure Pigeons By

Lorrie's first wedding box was completed this week and now she's ready to begin another. I guess it's Wedding Season!  Using blue baroque glass for the box sides works perfectly with the solid blue borders of the box top because it allows more light to enter the box to illuminate the flower pattern next to the invitation. This Invitation Box turned out perfect and I have no doubt that Lorrie's next one will also.

 

Annette's Flower Window came out of nowhere as we haven't seen any hint of this until this week when she brought it in only needing a little bit of solder to finish it off.  The colors are vibrant, her work is astounding, and this is also going to be a much appreciated wedding present. 

 

 

 

MiMi's Mallard Suncatcher is a suncatcher of a larger variety.  He colors are spot on including an iridized green head but it's the careful positioning of pattern placement that make this so tasty. Her grain lines aren't simply running in the correct direction-- she's also looked for patterns in the glass that resemble feather patterns.  This is most evidently seen in the right rear tail feather.  Great job!

 

 

 

 

Steve's Santa Face Table Decoration is perfection and his decision to use black patina on the lead was a great choice.   Black lines on 'cartoonish' figures help make the finished piece look as though it was drawn with a pencil or pen.    After Steve dotted his eyes with a paint marker his Santa really came to life. Ho Ho Ho.

 

 

 

 

Melissa's got three more Crosses under her belt and her assorted colors make each one special.   She did all of the cutting at once for the three of them and then did all of the grinding at once as well. Then there was the foiling and finally the soldering.  This is by far the fastest, most efficient way to handle the making of multiple iterations of the same design.

 

 

 

Betty was busier than ever in class this week as she managed to knock out four teardrop suncatchers and two more Cats.  You can see that the Cat has a new tail design which alleviates the need for a piece of clear glass between the body and the tail.  Although she made two Daisy teardrops as well as two Sunflower teardrops I only took pictures of one of each since they were essentially identical.  Alas, the pair of Cats are a slightly sad story because as Betty waxed one of the cats she discovered that its head was cracked.  It's a simple fix but one that will happen next week. 

With all of her Pelican and its Sun cut and now ground, Angie is ready to begin foiling her pieces.  She's worried about a small missing corner and was thinking about re-cutting a large piece of the sun but I think we can get away with re-cutting the bird's neck and slightly reshaping it.  We'll see how nicely that works out when Angie returns!

 

 

 

Kandise began her first 'real' stained glass piece and decided to go with an Art Deco Woman.   The style is stunning and judging by her work so far I more than suspect that this will turn out to be an eye catching window as well as a popular pattern in class.

  

 

MiMi completed her Mallard Suncatcher and then moved on over to this Nortre Dame Logo Window.  She had the entire window cut out within an hour and even in its un-ground state it looks like it fits together perfectly.   That's because a straight edge was used to make ALL of the cuts in this window.   There's not a curve in this.  Also, the line was cut off with each and every cut which means that this window only needs some minor grinding to obtain a perfect fit.

  

 

Steve also found the time to cut out this circular Fleur De Lis Suncatcher after completing Santa.  The man wastes no time at all when it comes to stained glass.

  

 

 

Jeannette began work on a window that features a blazing sun over rolling ocean water.  In just one class she almost got the entire window cut out!  That means that she'll surely be grinding when she returns.

 

 

 

Let always has more than one iron in the fire and here we see that her round Christmas Poinsettia Panel is ready for it's final soldering.  But that's not all-- she also has a new beveled heart panel cut out and ground. The blue pieces only need to be foiled and then she'll be able to solder this to completion as well!

 

  

 

 

Susan R is working on grinding out the holes in her feathers for the decorative colors that reside near the ends of those feathers.   After contemplating many color options she settled on what you see below but before settling she lit a feather by placing it on a light box of sorts to be sure she liked the color combination.  She even had multiple pieces in assorted colors cut so that she could mix and match them until she came upon the feather that you see here.

 

And here's Susan's Peacock in its entirety.

  

 

 

Lisa's sugar skull needed teeth and the best way to achieve precision in those tiny pieces was to tack the surrounding pieces of the mouth together and then slide some white glass underneath and trace out the entire opening.  After that large piece was cut and ground to fit into place she put a horizontal score line across the piece to divide the top teeth from the bottom- but she didn't separate them yet.  Next she made all of the vertical scores to create the individual teeth.  Finally she separated each of them BEING CAREFUL TO KEEP THEM IN ORDER!  Mixing them up would be devastating.  She put a large dot in the center of each tooth so she would know what side was up and then she placed a smaller dot on each tooth to show what was up and what was down.   She carefully wrapped everything (the dots are hard to see because of all of the handling that occurred while she foiled them which is why we put  two dots on each tooth).  Within an hour her Sugar Skull's teeth were ready to be tacked into place.

 

After the teeth were tacked into position she began and finished grinding the flowers that frame her Sugar Skull.

 

 

 

Zoe is nearing the completion of her Longhorn Skull.   She got the eyes and the horns cut this week and then she soldered the front side as well.  With just the back to go, we will surely see Zoe begin her next project next week.

 

 

 

Cindy's Christmas Holly Heart is filled with tiny pieces which are her favorite things to work on.  this project should make her very happy!  It's moving along nicely and each week we see more and more of this gorgeous large suncatcher come together.

 

 

 

Lorrie has also been busy at home working on a Fox and a Cross suncatcher.  The fox is for her daughter who hasn't picked out the color for the fox's eyes hence the blank expression currently on his face!

 

  

 

 

Martha's background glass for her Franklin Streetlight Window has been cut and ground out of one perfectly sized piece of glass so that the pattern of the glass remains contiguous.   It makes for tricky cutting for sure, but the end result is a seamless, beautiful sky.

 

 

 

Bee is following a straight and steady course towards the finish line of completing her Cantina Window.   It appears as though she's going to have to make a decision on what to do for the lettering next.  Will she paint the lettering on and then fire it in the kiln or will she cut the letters out of glass and melt them into the banner?  I can't wait to see what she adjudicates upon when she comes in again next week.

 

  

 

Mary Grace resumed work on her Mardi Gras Mask Window and she's got a good portion of it ground already.  I have to say that this isn't a pattern for the faint of heart due to all of the long thin pieces that make up the feathers.  That said,  Mary Grace is doing a wonderful job getting things to fit nicely.

 

 

 

Cheryl's letters for the center section of her Harley-Davidson Window are moving along one piece at a time.   She's discovering that a few of them have been cut too short and that she'll have to re-cut them but for now I say skip the problematic pieces and plow on through the rest of the center portion of this window.   She can fill in those missing pieces after she tacks what she has together and get a more perfect fit this way.

 

  

 

And that's what we like to call a wrap!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Death From Above

Let's Christmas Bells Window is stunning with a color scheme that you don't usually see in a Christmas window.   It's all about pastels rather than vibrant colors and the end result is amazing.  She's used the lead covered glass technique for the bell clappers and a double line of trim on each of the bells.  Let's decorative soldering on those pieces were the final accents that make this window stand out so much.

  

 

Jeannette said she saw a White Pumpkin on the internet and decided that she wanted to make one.  We took the standard Spectrum Pattern, removed the leaves (because Jeannette had an idea in her head) and then she cut the pumpkin out of an off white glass.  When it was done she hung two wooden leaves from around the stem of the pumpkin sort of like a scarf.  It's uniquely different and wonderful at the same time.

 

 Betty made these two delightful Cat Suncatchers but she had to make a bit of a change to her original design because of  two hinge points that caused the cats to be somewhat flimsy.  To fix that she added a piece of clear glass between the tail and the body which solidified thing nicely.  In the future she's going to redraw the tail so that it touches the cat's face thus eliminating the hinge points and negating the need to add clear glass into the mix.

 

 

 

Kandise is our newest student and her Butterfly was made almost effortlessly.   She's already  got a firm grasp on all of the steps required to make stained glass windows and I can't wait to see whet she decides to work on for her first window.

Martha's Franklin Street Lamp is all cut and ground and the good news is that she already has a second one cut out just waiting to be ground.  I think she can knock these out in her sleep of she wants!

 

Angie's Seagull has taken shape and now that her glass has been cut she's ready to begin grinding.    Since this started off life as a large suncatcher there isn't a background drawn for it (yet).  The easiest thing to do here is to assemble what she has cut and then place it on top of her background glass and trace around it.

 

 

 

Steve began work on this Santa Face Bookend and by the end of the class he had traced the pattern, cut all the glass and then ground it as well.  That's a quick pace and as you can see his pieces fit together perfectly.

  

 

Susan D has her two newest Geometrical Suncatchers picked out and cut out.  Two at a time is the perfect way for her to work her way through the pattern book that she got these from.  Luckily these aren't as 'involved' as one of the last ones that she made so the grinding on these should go quicker and easier. 

  

 

 

Lorrie has her Wedding Box well under control now.   With the lid completed she got the four sides of the actual box cut to size and then skimmed them and foiled them.   When she returns it won't take long at all for this to go together which means that she'll be starting something new next week.

 

 

 

Betty has another pair of Teardrop Suncatchers almost completed.  With the front sides soldered she only needs to finish things on the back side to wrap these two up.

 

 

 

 

Lisa's Sugar Skull is moving along in the fastest way possible.  Everything has been cut save for the teeth which she will tackle upon her return next week.   We could have cut them during class but we don't want them to get mixed up at all so it's best to tackle it all in one class so we can start them and finish them before Lisa leaves.

 

  

 

 

Kerry's Swedish Chef is a Muppet made of glass. Everything has been cut save for the border which he picked out before calling it a night.  The border itself will take no time at all to add so this will easily be getting some solder on it when he returns.

 

 

 

Susan R spent her time at the grinder grinding out the openings in her Peacock's tail feathers that will surround the intricate three piece accents.   Susan has always wanted to make this and she's not going to hold back at all on the amount of work that it will take to make this look like the stellar piece that she wants it to be.

 

 

 

After completing her Christmas Bells Let moved on over to a large circular Poinsettia Suncatcher.  She's not only using glass blobs for the flower center, she's also using a christmas fractures and streamer glass for the background that you can't see here but you'll be able to when it's hanging up.

  

 

 

Judy's Deer Head Window is almost halfway ground now as she spent some quality time over at a grinder.  Whether Judy likes to admit it or not, she's quite good at this entire glass business as the evidence below proves.

 

 

 

June liked Judy's background so much that she used a similar glass the same way for her Donkey Window.  She got everything cut out this week and will be ready to hit the grinder upon her return.

 

Mary Grace's Mardi Gras Mask is coming together as the mask itself has now been completely cut out.  There are only a few edge pieces to cut for her background glass and I know they won't take long for her to knock out.   She'll be grinding this before you know it.

  

 

 

Linda F's got a small Birds On A Branch project going on and she's very near the end already.  She simply took the large pattern with eight birds and selected three in a row that she liked while ignoring the rest of them.  She had to complete some lines where the two end birds over and under-lapped their 'neighbors' but as you can see that was very easily done.

 

 

 

With each passing week Bee gets further and further along on her Cantina Window.  With the lion's share of the work done on this perhaps it's time to tack together what she has to avoid any problems with either slippage or pieces getting mixed up.

 

  

 

MiMi was so close to finishing her Mallard Suncatcher that she'll be starting a new project in her next class.  There's just a hook or two to attach to this and then MiMi will wash hit, color it, wash it again and then apply a light coating of wax to shine it all up.

 

 

Zoe managed to get out the door with her  Longhorn Skull after touching up some of the grinding that she accomplished last week.  She worried about her lines not being straight but that's the way the pattern was drawn because in real life the lines that are formed in skeletons are always irregular.  I was so busy with our newest student that I somehow managed to skip getting a picture of Zoe's work. 

 

Lastly, Melissa worked on three Cross Suncatchers and got them all cut and possibly even ground but I forgot to snap a picture of them as well.  Shoot me!  That means that Melissa will be showing a LOT of progress on her Crosses when she comes in again and I DO remember to take a picture!

 

And that's all that happened in our neck of the woods this past week.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks