There Are Eight in Croatia

Kandise mounted her colorful Dragonfly within and also extending outside an 8" metal Hoop.  This not only added stability to her project that would pull apart over time but added another layer of charm to it as well.  By making the wings all different colors she appended more complexity to the amount of work that had to be done but the end result shows that it was all worth it.  

 

 

 

Lorrie came in with a goal in mind-- to begin and finish this cute Kitty Mirror for her Grand daughter's Birthday. She cut glass, ground it, foiled it all and then soldered it. At the end of the night she walked out the door with this cute wall hanging mirror (the mirrors are the eyes, btw).

 

 

 

 

Next up we look at the Sand Dollar Suncatcher that Lara made to be placed into a Bookend. Here we get to see exactly what that looks like as a completed project. It's great work all around but we always expect that from Lara.

 

 

 

Here is a group shot of the last 20ish or so Cross Hearts that Cindy has made. You know what they look like close up and I believe that this pile of them looks impressive enough to merit inspection!

Nettie is hard at work on her Nativity Teardrop but we aren't thrilled with Joseph's face so we are leaving that blank and then tacking everything else together so we have a steady work space so we can then redraw it.  Mark my words, this is going to look just fine after Joseph gets a bit of a face lift.

  

Catherine has traced out her next pattern, cut out the pattern pieces for it and has selected some of the glass that she'll be using. The actual glass cutting will begin next week. 

 

 

Here we reveal the stained glass Crown Window that Linda F has been working on in secret as a surprise. Alas, she had to work on it while at home to complete it in time and she was caught red handed by her daughter who this window is being made for. With only the second side left to solder I think that well be looking at this as a finished piece when we see it again.

 

  

 

 

Julie has moved from a Heron Window to a unique Curving Geometric Window with flowing colors. She's already begun cutting glass and is working with the colors that she knows that she wants to use first.  She'll fill in other colors along the way so she can see the actual 'weight' that each color brings to the window.

 

  

  

Bee has been working on this while she's been at home and brought it in this week with everything cut and ground.  She spent her night foiling glass and is moving along at a nice steady speed. It's an impressive design and I do believe it's one that she came up with on her own. Color me impressed! 

Lara is out of blue for her background on this but during the week we found a sheet of it hidden away because it's the same blue glass that I had used for a window that I recently made.  It would appear that I never put the unused blue glass back into the rack so in the end we didn't have to order any and wait for it to be shipped which means that more of this background will be cut when Lara comes back in. 

  

Paula's Unicorn Box has its top almost completed. Once this is soldered the five piece box bottom will go together lickety split! I love Paula's work and colors on this-- you'd swear it was a real unicorn.  Beware of rainbows! 😉

   

 

Cindy's large Cobra Suncatcher is taking shape rather quickly. She's another student who works at home between classes and that's why she gets so much done in a rather speedy way. Her use of color is striking to say the least. I can't wait to see more of this completed.

 

 

Here's another example of a 'Worked On At Home' project. This Celtic Knot Cross has officially been ground and is now awaiting some foil. MiMi doesn't waste any time at all and her symmetry on this is extremely impressive. Repeating patterns are always tricky to do because just one error in grinding creates a problem that stands out like a piece of coal in a sugar bowl.

 

  

 

 

Jan managed to fill in the missing pieces for her Three Dog Window and after it was all tacked together she selected and cut the pieces that make up the border to surround her dogs. I know what Jan will be doing when she comes back in. She'll be grinding and foiling border pieces. 

  

 

With the background all cut and ground for her Alligator, Martha then set upon foiling each of those background pieces. By the end of the night she not only had them foiled but tacked into position as well. That's what I call progress!  I see a border on her horizon.

 

  

 

With her Flower and her Bee tacked together Elaine has decided to tie them both together into one window along with a name. The pattern we came up with ended up looking like this. It looks like she'll be cutting and grinding the letters for the name when she comes back in.

 

 

 

  

With all of the glass for her Flowering Geometric Window ground and fitting together perfectly, Let then moved along to foiling all of her glass. There are a lot of pieces in this so it may take a while to get to the tacking stage but knowing Let it will be 'Worked On At Home'.   Let never fails to surprise me!

 

 

 

Mary has almost completely ground the center oval for the Address Window that she is making. With less than a quarter of the pieces left to grind I suspect that she'll begin foiling this when she returns to class.

 

 

 

 

With the front of her pink Flower Window all soldered (and looking great!) all Keri has left to so is to flip this over and solder the back side same as she did the front. For all intents and purposes I'm thinking that this window will be a done deal when we see it again.

 

 

Check out this chicken head!  Sheri's Rooster has completely taken shape even though it hasn't even been ground yet.  Sheri also plans on doing a little work on her project while she's at home so we might see some of these pieces having been ground and pinned into position.

 

 

Susan R's Watering Can has been soldered and it only needs some touching up before she can wash and color this.  Alas, that won't be the end of this project.  Next she will then cut out 26 leaves which will then cover the front of this after they've been tacked onto wires which will form stems that the leaves are flowing from.  In other words, what you see below is only the beginning.

 

 

Lastly we see that Tracey is back at work on her Rose and Dragonfly Picture Frame. She's just about ready to begin foiling this and once that is completed the rest of it should go together fairly quickly.

Susan D ran out of class so fast that I didn't get a picture but I won't hold that against her.  When you're as busy as she is you don't waste time when it's time to cut and run!

Carry on, mates!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

No More Wire Cutters (But More Cowbell)

Julie only has a few projects under her belt which made her Heron Window a bold choice of patterns to pick but now that it's finished I know that she feels she chose wisely.  She has learned so much while making this and she never shied away from the more tasking sections of the pattern.   She could have omitted all of the flowers that stretch across the top of the window but in the end she decided to keep them and it honestly balanced the window wonderfully.  Then she decided to make a double border as well which, yes, increased the time it took to finish the window but which also made it so much more aesthetically pleasing.  Julie did a marvelous job on this for sure! 

  

 

 

Lorrie's Address Window is stylish but all the extra's don't detract from the most important part of an Address Window--the numbers themselves. She was locked into a color scheme but she went to extremes with it to create a wonderful earth toned window that no one would ever call bland or boring!

 

 

Bee's Long Tall Iris looks stunning especially with the multicolored glass that she used as an inner border. Alas, I don't think you can go wrong with this pattern because as many times as I've seen this made I've never seen it done looking anything but striking. Bee's rendition is no exception.

  

 

 

 

Catherine's Spiderweb was made from a single sheet of an iridized clear texture which she accented with a Spider made of glass nuggets for the body and wire for the legs. The construction of the spider is certainly tricky but like everything else there's a trick to making it easier to assemble. A wonderful Halloween design for sure!

 

This is the first of Barbara's three beveled center Crosses.  The dark royal blue is right up my ally so of course I like it!  There's an art to putting the nine piece Crosses together and Barbara knows what it is now so I'm expecting more Crosses brilliantly made by her.  

 

 

MiMi is working on a Cross in the form of a Celtic Knot which is really looking spectacular already.   If memory serves me well (which it usually doesn't) this is the first of a pair of these fine pieces of art!

 

 

 

Elaine was back and in just one night she cut out a bumble bee and even managed to get it ground as well.  That's pretty darned amazing for someone who is essentially a new student! 

 

 

 

Cheryl is hard at work on her Mardi Gras Pelican Window and is currently working on grinding all of the pieces that she's got cut out.   We've decided that she'll cut the background after she tacks all of this together to help with squaring things out and aligning the top section around the crown which looks like it might be a little tricky for her.

 

 

 

Cindy is working away on a somewhat complex suncatcher of a Cobra.   The pattern itself just misses fitting on a piece of standard sized paper so it's fairly large for a suncatcher, but when you look at the number of pieces you realize that it entails a lot of small pieces regardless. 

 

 

Meanwhile Sheri is hard at work on her Rooster Head.  In this post you can really see how it's all coming together.  This is going to be vibrant in the sunlight for sure.

 

 

Kandise has all of her Dragonfly cut and ground. I'm still amazed at how easily she handled the most difficult part--the segmented body! Those tiny symmetrical pieces usually slow people down and elicit  some cuss words, but not Kandise!

 

 

 

 

Susan D is just about set to assemble her three dimensional Bird Bath. Since this will be holding some water (which is a lot of extra weight) we are going to have to give the roof some extra attention to make sure that it's secured as strong as possible. I suspect that we'll be using wires for some extra strength.

 

 

 

Jan is back and is working on her Three Dogs Window. We've had an issue or two involving missing pattern pieces so she's going ahead with foiling and tacking what she's completed before she cuts out and missing pieces.  This will prevent things from sliding around and allow her to cut new pieces by simply tracing out the holes that she has when it's tacked together.

 

 

 

Betty's Luna Moth has been assembled and is ready to be soldered. As you can see (if you look closely) she also has one of her Butterfly Silverware pieces just about finished. She's bent the wire for the antenna all by herself and it came out perfectly.  Betty is one of our premier wire benders and that's no lie!

  

 

Let has her Circular Flower Piece well under control now even if she believes it looks a bit of a mess sitting here in its unground state. The thing is that ALL stained glass windows look disheveled before the grinder touches all of the pieces. I think this is going to look lovely.

 

 

Here we see two more Crosses that Barbara has ground and ready to take home with her to be foiled. I've shown her how to ensure that the Crosses balance perfectly so that they don't hang crookedly so she'll be fixing the one on the right before she tacks it together.

 

  

 

 

I somehow didn't manage to get a picture of Susan R's Watering Can and Flowers project but it's all foiled now.  That means that Susan is about to cut out her 24 or so leaves which will be tacked on wire vines and then tacked all throughout the front of her Watering Can.  Here's a picture from last week to refresh your memory.

 

And that is what we call THAT!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Let's See What We Have Here

MiMi's Lamp was competed this week and to say that it is simply spectacular would be an insult to it!   It's been 22 months of on and off work on 1200+ pieces without a single compromise.  The end result speaks for itself.   I  am most impressed with her ability to solder this hulking 3D behemoth.  In the end I think she had only four run-throughs which is actually EXTREMELY brag-worthy when dealing with the soldering of a lamp.   Here it is, revel in its beauty.

 

 

Tracey's Cross Window is beautiful as well as uplifting and as I've said before the addition of a second border really knocked it out of the ball park. By using the same glass that she used for the cross the last border pulls color from the center of the window and frames it out perfectly

 

Just for fun, Here's a look at what Tracey's window would have looked like without the second (final) border. As you can see it's still beautiful but it just sort of lacks something. This is why I always say that if you REALLY want your window to stand out, adding a second border can really do the trick easily.

 

Nettie drew up this stunning religious pattern all by herself and you can certainly call me impressed! I love this Cross and Bible design and I have a sneaking suspicion that our other students will as well. Also, her quick start-to-finish work on this is equally impressive!

 

 

 

Let's Coffee Cup was (as I semi-expected) completed while she was at home last week. She brought it in for me to look over and then washed it, colored it and hung it up for this closeup. It's good to the last drop!

 

Cindy's got another dozen Heart Crosses under her belt leaving her with about 24 more left to make. This may very well have just become the most mass produced stained glass project that we've ever had.  Oh and FYI, there are more on the way!

 

Let has also begun working on a geometric styled circular piece with a slight flower motif.  She got all of this cut in just one class which is no mean feat but let's face it, we've come to expect things like this from Let.   

 

 

Barbara is making more Crosses starting with this Blue single bevel cross. I've shown her the simplest way to make this which involves splitting each 'extremity' of the cross after it's been ground as a solid piece first. It sounds odd but when you see the process in action it all makes perfect sense and alleviates the workload by about half.

 

  

 

 

Sheri's begun a Rooster and she's started by grinding the eyes and some of the comb. She did this on her own and when I saw what she was doing I was impressed because I myself like to do the eye's of living things first so you can build the rest of the pieces around them and they don't end up twisted out of position. 

  

 

 

Lorrie, as you will see, has got two irons in the fire. Her Address Window needs to be foiled and tacked together before she can add the final border. She's much rather foil while at home since she hates to waste class time wrapping glass.

 

  

After taking her Address Window out to the car Lorrie brought in her Bee and Flowers Window and resumed cutting glass for it. She's noticed a slight issue with the glass for her background blending in too closely with the glass that she used for the Bee's wings. We discussed it and she's come up with a new (and better) glass for the bee's wings which she'll cut out when we see her next.

 

  

 

 

Betty has all of her Luna Moth cut and mostly ground as well.   She's put her two two silverware Butterflies on hold so she could get this finished.  I've got to say that she's muscled through the cutting and grinding wonderfully.   She'll be keeping this one for herself and by the looks of things it will surely be completed soon.

 

 

 

Mary has begun making her Address Window by working on the oval center with the numbers in it as it that were the entire window. Once that is tacked together she'll be able to work on each side separately which makes storing the window between work sessions much easier. I have to say that I love the deep blue numbers against the streaky wispy white background glass. Yes, there is a streaky white background cut for this but it's just hard to see against the white of the pattern.

 

  

 

 

Martha has got her Alligator and the leaves that it is 'hiding' behind ground and hopes to come back in with all of those pieces foiled so she can then cut out her background glass quickly and efficiently.  I have no doubt that will happen and if it all goes well (why wouldn't it?) she may even get a border cut for him/her! 

 

  

 

 

Paula is now at a standstill on her Foxglove Window only because the person she's making it for has yet to decide on a color for the stem. With only two pieces left to cut (plus the border) I'd say that this will be finished shortly after a decision has been made.

 

 

 

Susan R has all of her Watering Can with Flowers cut as well as ground so she'll be foiling this and soldering it before you know it. She's really moved quickly through this which isn't surprising so much as it is impressive because there's actually a lot to this piece. Susan simply set herself to work and wasted no time at all. Next up will be the 22 leaf pieces that she'll accent this water can with!

 

 

 

Julie is soldering the back side of her Heron Window and doing an amazing job on it.   Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to soldering but this window is quickly nearing its completion.   I'm expecting to see this hanging up with light behind it when Julie comes in again next week.  Be excited.  Be VERY excited! 

 

  

 

 

Lara's African Woman was back in class and now that she's been ground, foiled, and tacked together Lara was able to get the background glass cut out. It was a tight fit since we didn't have any more of this glass and it's no longer being made but where there's a will there's a way!

 

 

 

 

Bee's Long Tall Iris now has it's final  border attached as well as the brass channel that surrounds it. She's got most of the front side soldered which leads me to believe that this could possibly be completed as soon as next week.  I'm thinking that's HIGHLY likely!

 

  

And in the end here's my call out to Linda F. That's all I'm saying because I want it to be a surprise.


This is Paul saying, "Over and out."

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Paul