Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Martha made a Wedding Box that didn't feature any flowers that she could recreate in a side panel so she went with a single letter to represent the couples last name.  It matches the invitation in color and in text without over shadowing it which is perfect in this setting. 

 

 

Our next wedding box was made by Nettie who had a similar invitation which lacked flowers. Although this included some art, the idea of reproducing the house that was on the invitation out of glass was not practical so Nettie went with a beautiful double bordered box which matches the invitation wonderfully.

 

 

 

 

Tracey got the second wing for her Butterfly Lawn Ornament soldered quickly once all of the pieces made it into the shop. The two wings were then tacked together at an angle and the black body that was tacked on top hides the seam where the wings join as well as the solder where the antennae connect to the wings. The end result is a beautiful Butterfly!

 

Let put the finishing touches on her Virgin Mary Panel and her final choice for the border matched Mary's robes wonderfully.   I always prefer my border choice to align with another color in the window while not matching it perfectly and that's just what Let did here hence the exquisite result.

Bee has begun a window that she has designed herself featuring Roses and Hearts made of intertwining vines. It's fairly large but she's already muscled through most of the first of four flowers in this by having it all cut out with most of the pieces having been ground as well.

 

  

 

 

We haven't seen this done in a while but when Paula decided that she wanted to make a Cross and saw this pattern she just knew that it was the one she would be making. The angle of the cross and Paula's perfect choice of glass give this a wonderful 3D effect even though it truly is a flat suncatcher.

 

  

 

 

June began cutting the glass for her Seahorse Window and has decided to grind her pieces as she cuts them. Just a cursory glance easily reveals how precise June's cutting and grinding skills are.

 

  

 

 

Meanwhile Cheryl has begun cutting the glass for her Buffalo Bills Football Helmet Window. She started by cutting our her background using a white baroque that swirls and flows in every direction imaginable. 

 

 

Keri's large Skull Suncatcher was all cut out last week and this week it was ground in its entirety. She said that grinding it was difficult only because she realized that the skull wasn't perfectly symmetrical and it took a lot of effort on her part not to grind them to match. Still, she got the job done and it will actually look much better like this. The skull would look 'odd' if done perfectly symmetrical.

  

 

Kandise is, as always, just whipping through her new Circular Magnolia project. The flower petals are almost completely cut out and she has them almost completely ground as well. She'll most likely begin working on cutting out the leaves when she next returns.

 

  

 

 

And speaking of Circular Magnolias we see that Tracey not only finished off her Lawn Ornament Butterfly but resumed work on her Magnolia as well. She's hard at work on the leaves and you can easily see just what she has left to complete because the pattern pieces really stand out when resting atop the pattern.  Because of her speediness on this you might suspect that Magnolias are easy to make but rest assured they are no easier than any other window.

 

 

 

Let also finished up the work on this large Teardrop Suncatcher made from assorted clear textures. She would have finished it off completely but she plans on hanging a crystal of some sort in the center. We'll see just what she picks when this comes back next week in its completed form.

 

  

After her Irises had their leaves redrawn Barbara sat down and not only cut the leaves out but the background as well. She's about to begin grinding all of these pieces but you can already clearly see what the finished window will be looking like. 

  

In all honesty I'm not sure what side of this Butterfly that Cindy is making is harder to work on. She's already got 95% of the left flower side cut out as well as ground which I initially thought would be the hardest part but after looking at the right side I believe that there IS no easier side! I'm still thinking that Cindy will make it all look easy though.

 

  

 

 

With the last of her four birds nearly completed Susan R will next be working on the branch and the birds feet. These are the smallest pieces in her project and the more I think about it I believe that the best thing for her to do is to tack the birds together to make grinding the remaining pieces so much easier.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie would have had her background completely cut AND ground but one of the longer pieces snapped in half and she didn't have any glue chip with her to replace it.  No matter, she simply began foiling and will replace the broken piece when she gets home. This is a window that just bursts into life with color.

 

 

 

With each passing week MiMi's perfect soldering travels further and further down her lamp. She's beyond the halfway point now but as she moves downward the lamp gets wider which means that she can't spin it as fast due to the fact that there are more lines to solder in each revolution. That said, she's impressively spinning away on this!

 

 

 

Lastly again, I though it would take Mary months upon months to make this window but she's so excited about it that she never stops working on it! And I have to commend her for deciding to replace all of the background glass that she cut out while she was at home last week. She asked everyone what they thought if it and almost everyone agreed that the gray she had used was not the best choice in a window this vibrant. She agreed and will be cutting new background pieces out of a gorgeous clear light blue.

 

  

 

 

So there you have it.  Remember, don't just dream it-- make it happen!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Linda and Her Rats

Bee's Cross / Heart is stunning due to her workmanship and her use of bold rich colors.  The border is a deep purple that makes everyone oohh and aahh especially when seen in direct sunlight.  Bee did 99% of this window alone at home and her work is exquisite.

 

 

 

Cheryl's Mr. Bingle Christmas Window is completed and she loves it so much that she's hanging it in April rather than waiting until Christmas rolls around. In a unique twist, Cheryl has glued small gems onto Mr Bingle's face to form the mouth and nose.

 

 

 

This is Let's Flower Butterfly to which she applied some additional extra steps to fancy it up. First of all she added decorative solder drops throughout her solder lines and then she added wire pestles complete with solder dotted ends to give this Butterfly some stunning character. And she did of of this project completely on her own. 

 

 

 

 

Susan D's Woodpecker Panel was completed and all of those tiny, thin pieces of glass make this bird look more like a painting rather than a cartoon drawing of a woodpecker. At only 6 inches in diameter this is not as large as you might assume from the picture. Her tree is also impressive because of her wonderful use of brown reeded glass.

 

 

 

 

Betty finished the work on three small Beveled Crosses as well as a pair of large Virgin Mary Suncatchers. She says that larger items will be making up the bulk of her upcoming projects which probably translates into more windows, less suncatchers.

 

 

 

Sheri had to put her Scissor Tailed Flycatcher window on hold since she got an order for a Geometric Window that she's already flying through in just one class.   She only has the two sets of borders left to go on this and they could both very well be cut upon her return.

 

 

 

Kandise is making a Circular Magnolia but this one will omit a border and it will also not be 'truly' circular as the magnolia will be slightly larger than the rounded background. This makes the window appear to be more free flowing while still having the (required) extra strength of some background glass. As you can see, Kandise is already into the cutting phase of this window.

  

  

 

 

Keri cut out her large 'Skull' suncatcher after tracing out the pattern and already has everything cut out. There's going to be some grinding in her future but that's always the case. Nothing is ever made without having to grind.

 

  

 

 

Cindy is making a Butterfly / Flower of her own but hers is larger than Lets and features Cindy's Stained Glass Trademark: Tiny Pieces! As you can clearly see she's well under way on this so it shouldn't take her very long to muscle through it.

 

  

 

 

MiMi's soldering is most impressive.   With each revolution of her lamp as she winds downward towards the bottom her soldering just gets better and better as you can easily see in the photo below.

 

 

 

Let has a Virgin Mary of her own well under way. Interestingly enough she assumed that this would be a borderless panel for two reasons: 1) the pattern didn't show a border and 2) the top is arched rather than straight. When I asked if she would be adding a border she was a bit surprised but instantly gave me an emphatic YES! And that's why you now see a border surrounding Mary! 

  

 

 

Linda F has all of the background cut out for her Transom Window and has begun grinding those pieces to fit in between her flowers and vines. There are far more background pieces than you might initially assume so it won't be an overnight job but Linda is already making serious progress due to her wonderful cutting.  

 

  

 

 

Susan R has another Bird cut and ground for her Birds On A Branch and she even picked out the color for the next (final) bird. The branches and feet will come after that and then this project will really come to life. 

  

 

 

Barbara tacked her Irises together and then the two of us sat down to drawn a new background for her window since she didn't care for the way the leaves looked in her original drawing. 15 minutes later she had a new pattern that lined up with the flowers of the last one that she liked much better.

 

  

 

Lorrie's Humming Birds and Flowers Window is taking shape more and more with each piece of the background that she cuts out. She's using glue chip glass which gives her the benefit of not having to worry about the placement of her pieces because glue chip has no grain. That means that she can fit more pieces in a tighter space while wasting far less glass than she would if she had to arrange pieces in certain positions.

 

 

 

Julie has most impressively caught onto the entire process of this whole stained glass making thing in very little time because she's already ground the thin and small flower petals for the Irises in her Heron Window. I don't think this window that she believed would be a challenge is challenging her at all.

 

  

 

 

Well, it's official. Linda L has cut every last piece of glass for her Mickey and Minnie Mouse Window and also has them all tacked together as well. Allow me to tell you that the last piece that she filled in was one heck of a piece measuring under 1/8th of an inch! I wrapped it for her in 5/32 foil that I trimmed down even smaller to allow the glass to show! When you put all of your heart (or in the case HEARTS) into a window you don't skimp on the details. Soldering will begin when Linda returns from Disney World.  How appropriate!

 

 

 

Martha's got the lid to her Wedding Box Completed and it will be joined to its box bottom next week. It hasn't been assembled yet or even cut out but it only consists of five pieces of glass so it will surely be completed upon Martha's return. 

  

Then Nettie got the top lid portion of her second Wedding Box together and even soldered it. All that remains on this is the box bottom. As I said earlier, since that only consists of five pieces of glass that part of the build will come together quickly.

  

 

 

Tracey has a Butterfly Lawn Ornament that just won't allow itself to be assembled! She brought in the pieces for the wing that she had left at home last week but apparently two of her pieces had fallen out of the bag she had them in and we didn't have any of that glass in the shop so it's next week for sure! Therefore, rather than working on her butterfly Tracey began cutting out her newest Circular Magnolia Window. She actually got a great deal of it cut out but I forgot to take a picture of it which seems to becoming a habit for me. At least I have a picture of the pattern.

 

 

Lara's working on touching up the soldering on a window that was started long ago by our former student Jane. There were only a few rough spots left to go on the back side and although it wasn't finished this week it certainly will be when Lara returns.

 

 

June is about to embark on a Seahorse Window. She's traced out and numbered her pattern and will have some glass cut out and placed onto it when we next see this.

 

 

 

Lastly, just as she was last week, Judy was hard at work grinding on her Doggie Window.  Good things take time!

 

You certainly can't say that our students are slackers! 

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

I Feel A Song Coming On

June's Multi-Colored Cat is complete and now that it's hanging in the light it looks as snappy as it ever could be.  Not only do all her pieces fit together flawlessly but she also took her time coloring her window and waxing it giving the lead a wonderfully uniform copper coloring all throughout the window both front and back.   Too many people color their windows too quickly and end up having dark and splotchy  results.   

 

  

 

 

Paula finished up the work on her Girl with a Pearl Earring Suncatcher and it's a knockout. There's a certain beauty that can come out of simplicity and in this case the size of the piece also comes into play. There's always an implied but personally interpreted size that patterns should be made to. You can make a project so large that it appears clunky, or you can make it so small that it appears cramped. This Woman, however, is the perfect size.

 

  

 

 

Next we have Keri's Hand Mirror which was completed within two weeks and came together without a hitch.  I've saved the pattern because, well, you know how our students are when they see a new hand mirror being made!

 

 

Cindy's 3D Cactus and Flower Turned out wonderfully but getting that 'simple' flower together was a two hour affair. That said, it IS rewarding to see that the end result was well worth the time and effort!

 

 

 

 

 

Lara has official wound up all of the assorted sized Honeycomb Suncatchers that she's been making. I'm only picturing two of them here but she's put together just under 20 of them to decorate a friend's business!

 

 

 

 And here's a look at some of them hanging in their front window.

 

 

Mary Grace's Rider Spine Window was completed this week alas, Mary Grace remained at home. It turned out wonderfully and we hope to see Mary Grace back in the shop soon!

  

 

  

Susan D's Circular Woodpecker panel is almost completely foiled now which means that soldering will be happening before you know it.  Once the foil is applied to all of the pieces you can really see what the project will look like after it's been soldered.

 

 

 

Let may not have anything completed this week but she's got two projects in the works beginning with this Flower Butterfly that just needs wire work to finish it off. Let took it home with her because she really wants to do all of the wire work herself without feeling rushed due to the time restraint of our classes. I'm sure that we will see this completed upon her return.

 

  

 

Let is also working on a small Virgin Mary Window that she had seen Tracey make just a few weeks ago.  I'm currently unsure if she'll be putting a border on it or not but we will have a definite answer to that question when she comes back in.

  

 

Linda F grabbed the sheet of glass that she decided to use for her background and traced out and then cut out all of the pieces in just one short class. She has a little grinding to do before she wraps and tacks this together but wow is she flying through this project.

 

  

Here's a top down view of MiMi's lamp. She has the top half of it almost completely soldered (which is why I chose this angle) and she's only had one run through so far. That is amazingly good soldering! 3D pieces are tough enough to lead but balancing a large lamp in your lap and not allowing solder to run through is one of the toughest things you can hope to master! 

 

  

Martha has all of the glass cut for the lid of her Wedding Box and even has the side panel tacked together. The top will certainly be completed upon her return which means that she may be cutting a box bottom when she comes back in. 

  

 

Mary's been cutting away on assorted greens to make all of the stems and leaves in her Sunflower Window.   I'm thinking that it's time to consider border color(s) for this so we can order anything that we might not have in stock for her when she needs it.

 

 

 

Susan R has the second Bird for her Birds on a Branch Suncatcher all cut and ground. These are going to feature some wire work which will give the birds added detail which will bring them to life when they are completed.

  

 

 

Barbara's got her Irises all ground and has taken them along home with her to foil. I believe that the leaves will get drawn in next week after she quickly tacks her flowers together and she may even begin cutting the glass for them as well.

  

 

 

Julie decided to get her Irises cut out so she could end what could be the most tedious part of her window. Like Barbara, she's used a single sheet of purple glass for the Irises and has carefully positioned each piece so that there are easily discernible dark and light petals. Although you can see that here in the picture it will be much more apparent when there's some light behind this window.

 

 

  

Tracey soldered the second wing for her Butterfly Yard Decoration but inadvertent left the wing she had completed last week at home. That just means that the butterfly will be joined together next week.

  

 

With all of the background cut and ground Sheri's Scissor Tailed Flycatcher only has three pieces left to cut. She's currently on the fence about putting a beveled border on this. I think it looks great without one but if she really wants this to sparkle in the sunlight then bevels certainly won't hurt. 

 

  

 

 

Jan's Virgin Mary is nearly complete and certainly will be upon her return. She's done some nice work on this so I can't wait to see it with some light behind it.

 

  

 

Betty, as always, has a multitude of suncatchers under construction here. Although they aren't finished yet they very well could be next week because every single one of them is very near completion. Do you remember what I said about patterns having a definitive size to make them look either clunky or cramped? Well, I do believe that the smaller beveled crosses you see Betty working on here are the definitive size for that particular pattern.

 

  

 

I knew that Bee had traced out a pattern last week and I knew that I didn't get a picture of the pattern believing that I'd simply remember what it was and snap a pattern picture afterwards. Alas I'm old and I couldn't remember what she was making to save my life. This week she showed up with her Cross/Heart window (which I recalled the instant I saw it again) all completed save for the border which she now has all set for soldering.

 

  

And to wrap hings up here I will report that Judy's Dog Window got his face ground. I wish I could show it to you but them's the breaks!

 

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks