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

Get On Tinder, Girl!

Lorrie's Sunburst Window measures 34 inches across by 16 inches high and it's certainly impressive.  Lorrie's daughter picked out the glass colors and even traced the pattern pieces onto  that glass  while Lorrie would actually cut out the pieces.  It was a quick way to get a lot accomplished and the end result is, as you can easily see, amazing.  It's also one of an unplanned series of windows that were completed this week.

 

 

 

Next we have Lara's Sunburst but she's used a wide assortment of colors in hers.  She didn't use anything too dark or vibrant because she was looking for a window with a softer look about it and in the end I think that she succeeded wonderfully.  Had she gone with the bright aqua/blue border she was considering a few weeks ago it would have changed the entire feel of this window.

 

 

Our third 'sunburst' window was made by Martha and it's actually a Sunset Window.   She made this inside of just three weeks and I must say that she's done an exquisite job on it.  Those long straight lines worried her while both cutting AND the soldering this but she came through with flying colors and not a single broken piece of glass.

 

 

 

Melissa's Tulip Window features rich and vibrant tulips  offset by a beautiful pale yellow border.  The sky is barely-there-blue but it proves that lighter colors can be mixed with darker contrasting colors and still achieve an impressively pleasant balance of color and depth

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Let's Beveled Heart Suncatcher  came together perfectly and proves that stained glass doesn't necessarily have to incorporate color.  To make this even more striking she's used black patina on the lead.to give it some strong contrast against the clear glass.

 

 

Susan D finished her two latest Geometric Suncatchers and both are perfectly aligned to form beautifully symmetrical designs. It's small items like these that are among the toughest suncatchers to create because one hard press against the grinder wheel can easily throw off the entire suncatcher.   Repeating patterns make ill-formed line stand out like a red thumb but as you can see there's none of that here.

Steve made a quick Tipped Wine Glass which began with  a simple blank piece of paper.  By the time class ended even I was ready for a glass of wine.  This suncatcher was a quick build but it's also a very  tasteful piece of window ornament (pun intended).

Linda's LSU Plaque was completed after she soldered the piece expertly.  Now that she's completed her large Carousel Horse Window Linda is enjoying the relaxing pace of smaller, less mentally taxing projects. 

Lorrie also worked on a Wedding Invitation box that she began while at home during the week.  Unfortunately she broke a large piece of the background glass and we had no more in stock so she had to change out all of the background glass which was done effortlessly.  She'll finish soldering this box top when she returns and then get to work on creating the glass sides for the actual box section of this project.

 

  

 

 

Cindy began work on her Holiday Heart Suncatcher and has started by cutting and grinding the tiny, intricate holly leaves and berries.  There are still a lot of leaves to be done and they're certainly a handful to cut and grind  which only goes to show that the devil is indeed in the details!  

 

  

 

 

Zoe doesn't waste time when she comes to class and managed to cut and grind all of the pieces for her Longhorn Skull save for the horns.   She was a bit undecided on the color for those horns but I believe that she made a decision before her class was finished.   Without a doubt this will be foiled next week.

 

 

 

Angie has begun work on a Pelican and decided to use medium gray feathers with light gray accents.   We've seen this made both as a large suncatcher and as a lawn ornament but Angie is going to frame hers out in glass and make this a full fledged window.  

 

  

 

 

MiMi has started a large Mallard Suncatcher and got the pattern traced as well as all of the glass being cut in just one class.  The colors are superb and it already fits together nicely even in its un-ground state.  This will undoubtedly see some grinder action when MiMi comes back in.

 

  

 

 

Lisa's Sugar Skull is coming together quickly now as all of the bones (save for the teeth) have been cut and ground. She's going to tack this all together next and then fill in the teeth by cutting them out as one long piece which she'll then grind to fit into the mouth opening.  Once it fits it's a simple task to slice and dice the big piece of glass into smaller teeth pieces which will fit into place perfectly (unless they get jumbled up).  Maintaining the order of the teeth as they are cut will be of the utmost importance.

 

  

 

 

Susan R's Peacock Hoop is coming together in a big way as she's cut out the remaining pieces that make the body of this beautiful bird.  She's grinding it all together and will soon begin working on the inside decorative details of the larger feathers.   The pattern is still somewhat up in the air but she had an actual peacock feather with her this week and she now knows exactly what the look of her accents will be.

 

  

 

 

Bee's Cantina Window is coming together one tiny piece at a time.  She's diligent and unswerving in her pursuit for perfection and she also moves at a nice brisk pace as you can tell from what she has accomplished in the picture below.

 

 

 

Mary Grace began working on a Mardi Gras Mask Panel and even though it's a panel (which means that it's smaller than a window but larger than a suncatcher) it is chock-full of pieces.   And she even shrunk it down smaller than the original design making all those pieces even tinier.   You can never say that Mary Grace backs away from a challenge.

 

 

  

 

Kerry got the background cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together for one section of his Vert Der Ferk lettering for his Swedish Chef Window.   As you can see there's no background cut for either the left or right sides because he will cut those two pieces once he's tacked what he has onto the bottom of his window.  This allows for perfect centering as well as a perfect fit.

 

 

 

 

With her border now attached to her Christmas Bells Window, Let is ready to solder.  Her pink/green border matches perfectly with the only two colors that she used in the window-- pink and green!  It's a stunning fit for a lively window.  Add to it the completely leaded pieces that she's applying decorative solder to and you have a window that will turn heads for sure.

 

 

 

Lastly, Annette worked on her Sacred Heart Window and has the small flower section of one of the hearts all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  This is the toughest part of her large window so she wanted to get it out of the way.   I'd love to show you the rest of the window but once again Annette managed to get it out the door before I got a picture of it.   She's a tricky one!

 

 

So we're going to call this a wrap and we will look for you to return again next week!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks