You Should Send Someone Candy in That

Lorrie's Circular Peacock has been completed and it really is spectacular.  It features an opened circular area in the background which prevented the need for a lead line coming from the beak.   A simple solution to a definite problem.  I just wish I could have gotten a better picture of this because what you see here does it no justice at all.  

  

 

Tracey's Virgin Mary Window was completed this week and what sets hers apart from others is the rounded top. Although it measures a demure 12 inches tall this really looks as though it belongs in a church!

 

 

 

 

Linda F finished off her mid-sized Butterfly Flower Pot Ornament and this is the first one that she's done that had a body added to it. In the past we just left the seam along the center but when I saw someone online cover their seem with a piece of glass to form a body well I knew we'd never go body-less again!  I only wish I'd thought of it myself because it adds so much to the finished butterfly.

 

Paula finished two Crosses that may look familiar but hide a small difference from what we're accustomed to. These are almost half the size of the normal. I always say that size matters when it comes to the look and feel of stained glass. You can enlarge something beautiful and have it look awkward within its new dimensions but shrinking things down ALWAYS works for the best. These crosses are delicate, beautiful and only about as tall as a dollar bill. 

 

 

  

 

Lara wasted no time soldering almost half of her assorted Honeycomb designs this past week. At this rate she'll have all of these completed in the blink of an eye.  Here's a look at just two of the six that she polished off while in class. 

 

 

 

Nettie finished her large Macaw Hoop project and I just can't stress enough how large this actually is. The fact that it's rock stable is something else to be amazed about as well. There's not a single weak spot in this entire 3 foot tall project.

 

Linda has begun cutting the glass for her Flowered Transom Window and she's moving along at a nice rate of speed while maintaining the perfection that she insists on delivering in her stained glass . She's waiting for her background glass to arrive but will be able to continue by cutting out the green for her leaves and her vines.

 

  

  

Betty is officially ready to begin soldering her Swirling Abstract Window which looks mighty impressive to me. You can now see the sections that she's covered with sheet foil.  These are the accent pieces that are few enough not to draw attention but enough to make a casual viewer wonder what was done to achieve such a unique effect.

  

Cindy has all of her Wolf Window tacked together and even added the straight sections of her border. That leaves only four curved border pieces left to go and then she'll begin soldering this beast.

 

 

 

MiMi has the third and final section of her lamp tacked together! After transferring the pieces from the pattern to the actual mold she then set upon adding a thin layer of solder to hold it all together. By the time that was done MiMi called it a night. Next we will see all three sections come together after which MiMi will add a 4" wire ring on the inside top of the lamp near the cap for added support. After that a thin nearly invisible wire will be soldered along the bottom edge for the same reason.

  

 

Susan R's Woodpecker Plaque and her Spider Plant Suncatcher were both on the grinder this week and she'll correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure that she has them both completely ground. I do believe that I'm seeing some foiling being done in Susan's immediate future.

 

 

Bee inserted the center Dragonfly oval into the background pieces that she had previously cut and then added more radial cuts for effect and (mostly) added stability.   She's going to be soldering this when she comes back in and then we'll get the zinc channel added to it since this won't be getting a border. 

  

 

 

June's border for her Multi-colored Cat Window is now foiled and tacked into place. She's begun soldering but due to the numerous health issues that kept June out of class and the fact that she hasn't soldered anything for a few months were going to have a quick soldering refresher lesson when she comes back in. Luckily soldering is just like riding a bike-- Once you have it you have it (but it may take a reminder). :-)

 

Susan R is nearing the finish line with her adorable Yorkie Suncatcher. There's little bit of foiling left to go on this and then she'll be soldering. This will be hanging up before you know it!

 

 

 

 

It's easy to see that Linda L is going to have perfect hearts making up the background of her Mickey and Minnie Window. With the top row completed Linda foiled the pieces and then tacked them into position. This ensures that these pieces will not be twisted out of position while she works on the next row. Lot's of pins do the trick as well but they tend to get in the way so this is a perfect alternative. She's also filled in the section between their noses to help keep the window nice and square.

 

 

 

 

Barbara has all of her Fleur De Lis Window tacked together after working on her border pieces this week. In fact, she has almost all of the front side of this soldered already! That means that she'll be soldering the back side when she comes back in which also means that we may very well see this completed in our next post.

 

  

 

 

Nettie has her new Tri-Cross Design ready to be soldered but she still isn't sure if she wants to turn this into a window or just make it as a large Suncatcher. I guess we'll see how she works that out next week.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie also worked on a new Macaw and it looks like this will be fully assembled when we see it again next week.  Oh and yes, this will indeed be mounted in a hoop.

  

Mary's a cutting fool and she's working through her Sunflower window with determination that you don't want to get in the way of! She's not only cutting but grinding as she goes as well. This is proof that when you are really excited about a project you can practically get almost over-involved in it! 

 

 

  

Keri is all set now that she has the last two of her Pink Princess Philodendron leaves cut and ground.  One has been foiled and she's taken the other along home with her to foil there.  She'll surely finish these up next week and then move on to a new project that won't include 3D leaves.

 

 

  

 

Jan has picked out a new pattern to begin and as you can see she's going to make Virgin Mary Window. I believe that she said that she wanted to square this off so that it's a window rather than a suncatcher and that's easy enough to do but first we're going to finish Mary and then decide on the window dimensions.

 

  

Sheri was in but I didn't get a picture of her window.  It's pretty much the same as it was last week save for the fact that she has numerous pieces ground now.   Next week she'll be cutting out her background pieces so we'll see a big difference in what it looks like from the time we last saw it.

Also, Judy's working on tracing out the pattern for a Dog window but since it's a surprise I can't post it here!   

And that as they say is that!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I Didn't Even Answer

Let's Circular Flower Window is stunning and I love the two strips of borders on each side of the window.  They're not only accent pieces because they are functional as well.   Do you see the lines that radiate out of the points of the flower petals and leaves?  Those beautiful beveled columns stop those lead lines from having to reach all the way to the edge of the circle where they would be very distracting.   Instead, they now direct your eyes to a stunning use of bevels!

 

Martha finished up the work on her Oval Hummingbird and Iris Window  and now that it is off the table you can clearly see that the border is definitely NOT too dark at all.   It's vibrant and it perfectly frames out the rest of the colors that she's used.  I know Martha was a bit 'over it' towards the end of this piece but the end result put a deserved smile on her face.

 

Paula's Sleeping Cat Suncatcher looks like he's dreaming of mice and fish!  The mouth was made with two pieces of wires that were shaped and tacked together by a dot of solder in the center of the mouth.   After that was done we attached it to the nose and there you have it.   He's cute as can be and is going to make a wonderful gift! 

 

 

 

This is the first pair of many Honeycomb Suncatchers that Lara is now assembling.  The nice part of these is that although there is a lot of 'tap-tapping' to do on them it's all on flat surfaces which makes the process much easier.

Keri needs to get three more of her signature Pink Princess Philodendron's completed and this is the first of this new set.  She's averaging one leaf per night and I have no doubt that next week we'll see her second leaf completed.

 

 

 

I may not be getting something done each week but I did manage to make this Bevel Ornament Inside a Bevel Ornament this week.   I made one of these before and sold it at a show before we had even officially opened our booth up to the public.  When I found a box of glue chip 3 x3 bevels that we've had sitting around for a good ten years I knew just what to do with some of them.  The trickiest part of making this is getting the hook on straight!  But it's worth it when you see it in person especially if it's in some sunlight. 

 

  

Bee is nearing the end with her Dragonfly window. Her background glass has now been ground to the perfect size and when she comes back she'll position the oval dragonfly section onto the glass, trace around it, make her final cuts then BOOM! Everything will fit together quickly and perfectly. 

 

 

 

Now that all of her glass has been cut and ground Cindy is foiling each of her pieces. She only has a few pieces of the hind section of the wolf to go and then she'll tack this together and work on her border pieces. Exactness is so important here since she's making this to place into a preexisting opening in a house.

 

 

 

Julie wasn't sure of exactly what she wanted to make when she walked in the door but she did know that it would involve a Heron. After sorting through the patterns that we had in our pattern drawers she found one that immediately caught her eye. It will involve a bit of work but I know that it will look spectacular when it's completed and that Julie is up to the task at hand.

 

 

 

Tracy has her Virgin Mary Panel all cut out, ground, foiled and tacked together! She's decided to put a border around this and the color she has chosen is absolutely perfect. We aren't going to cut out the top three curved sections of this border until the straight pieces are tacked onto the window so we can be sure that the curves line up perfectly with the edges since we can't hide any irregularities with channel.  

 

 

 

Kandise finished cutting out all of her Mountain Scene Window and as you can see her colors are deep, rich and vibrant. She's already begun grinding away at this because Kandise doesn't waste any time when it comes to getting things done.

 

 

 

Susan R has all of her Yorkie Dog Suncatcher cut out and is now foiling her pieces. It's a little tough to see here on the table since we have white pieces of glass laying on top of white paper but when this is up in the air and hanging in a window the design will shine through as plain as day.

 

  

 

 

Lara's work table looks like a full scale sweat shop with her being the only worker!   She's assembling all of the assorted sized Hexagons that she cut a few weeks back for a friend who has positioned the hexagons into roughly fifteen  different Honeycomb designs.  Lara has them all taped together so they won't shift and has averaged two on each tray.   As you've already seen she's got two  down which leaves her with six trays left to go.

 

 

 

Susan D has not one but two projects under way this week. With all of the glass now cut out for her Woodpecker Panel she then began cutting the leaves for her next project: a Large Spider Plant Suncatcher. I haven't seen one of these made in a long time and they always look great so who knows, we may see more of these in the future.

 

  

 

Linda L has Mickey and Minnie's faces tacked together and is not hard at work on grinding all of the hearts that will form the background of this delightful window.  This is really going to look spectacular when it's completed but then again--it ALREADY looks spectacular!

 

 

 

Nettie has her first Macaw all soldered and ready to be 'hooped' when she comes back in. It's a simple process and one that will happen within 5 minutes BUT the bird itself must be colored and waxed before the hoop is attached to it.

  

 

Lorrie has finished cutting, grinding and foiling all of the pieces for her Circular Peacock Window.  After tacking it together she decided to add a border to it even though she really didn't have to.   She ended up picking out a perfect color for the border and then getting the border cut as well as ground and I have to say that it was definitely the best thing to do for this.  The entire piece just came alive once the border was added.  I highly suspect that this will be completed upon her return.

 

 

 

Paula is also working on upping her stained glass talents by learning about decorative soldering.   She's in the process of making a 3D Succulent and learned how to apply little solder dots along the outside edge of the glass.  She's got two down leaving her with just two more to go before she can tack the four pieces together.  After that there's a small flower that goes on top. 

 

  

 

When Mary showed me the Sunflower pattern that she would be working on next I immediately thought that she would be working on it for months.  Not just a few months but lots of months.  I have to say that I was wrong because she is plowing through this at an impressive rate of speed.   It's something that she really wants to do though which makes all the difference in the world. With the top flower tacked together she's now begun cutting out glass for two of the smaller flowers.

 

  

 

It's official! MiMi has foiled the last of the 1059 TINY pieces in her Louis XV Lamp! When she walks back in the door she'll be ready to begin placing these last three hundred and fifty-three pieces onto the mold and and then permanently tack them together. After that it's Solderin' Time!    

 

 

See you in the funny pages!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Aftermath of Mardi Gras

Annette's Central Catholic Window was completed after she soldered both sides in just one class. I mentioned last week that Nettie worries too much about her soldering and this window proved it as all I did to fix things up was to re-flow a few joints and then touch up four run-throughs.  Her ability to correctly get a bead with her lead is better than what I see on lamps for sale in Lowe's or Home Depot.  This window is beautiful and Nettie did it all herself.

Next we look at Julie's stunning starburst Suncatcher and since she made it out of scrap pieces I'm suspecting that a lot of our students just learned of a new pattern that looks stunning using a random color scheme.  And the pieces are small enough that it allows you to use even the tiniest pieces of glass that you may have lying around.  Alas, the true beauty of it is in the completed project which Julie can be very proud of.

 

 

Let finished the Simple Cross that she began last week by bordering it with a heavily textured clear glass. The end result is inspirational as well as awe inspiring.

 

 

 

Kandise has begun a Sunset Window which will feature a curving path that traces out into the distance. It's hard to see it now but once this gets a little more color the path will become readily apparent.

 

 

Betty has the majority of her Abstract Flowing Window cut out along with having a good deal of it being ground already.  Her colors swirl around a circular bevel and the kicker here will be the leaded sections that are colored in black on the pattern.  That will surely happen when she returns and she relives her past by foiling pieces of glass entirely in copper foil.

 

 

  

Annette, or Nettie as we are going to be calling her here in the Blog from here on out, also cut and began tacking together a large Macaw that she'll be hanging inside of a hoop. The only problem is finding a hoop the correct size since the local Hobby Lobby appears to be out of them (thanks Lorrie!) Nettie will be traveling and checking out different locations throughout the week so we may very well see this completed when she comes back in. 

 

  

 

 

Let also has her Circular Flower Window all cut and ground which means that when she walks back in the door this will be ready for its zinc channel.  How do I know this? Well, because we're talking about Let who will ride a soldering iron until the bitter end!!

 

 

Betty also continued working on her Mardi Gras Mask Panel which is now ready to be tacked together. She has her border strips cut but we never break the strips down into their respective pieces until the center is tacked together so we can achieve perfect fits. This is what gives us such wonderfully aligned corners.

 

Yes, I agree that this was an extremely short post but attendance was down due to all of the Mardi Gras activity throughout the week.   I 'm sure that it's safe to assume  that we'll see many more projects next week as well as the weeks to come so be sure to come on back.

In the mean time, have fun storming the castle!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

I always say that the second one always goes quicker.  Case in point, when Lara left last week she still needed to solder her red stained glass Corset which she accomplished as soon as she walked in the door this week.   Then she went ahead and cut out a second Corset in a new color scheme and completed it before the night was through.  Since she had made them in two different colors I just have to ask: Which one is your favorite? 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan's Heart Plaque is nothing short of charming! The addition of two Curly-Q's just brought it all together perfectly. It's a minimal panel with a huge punch!

 

 

 

Judy's Woman's Head Window was completed just as class was ending. I think it's a very stylish piece and I won't be very surprised if someone else doesn't decide to make one as well. 

 

 

 

Keri's third and final Pink Princess Philodendron Leaf has been completed but it looks like she's going to be making three more of these leaves for another flower pot that she'll be giving to her mother. She's definitely on a roll here! 

 

In my quest for making at least one suncatcher a week to help restock the shop I've put together a quick Tulip Pendant which only measures 4 inches in diameter. Then I took some small leftover strips and cut them into angles to dress up a 2 x 2 bevel to form a unique looking Suncatcher as well. I still have some strips left over and another idea so expect to see something similar again next week.

 

 

Linda F has her Butterfly all ground and I only just realized that she's going to make this with angled 3D wings.  That will easily happen next week when  we'll cover that unsightly center seam with a butterfly body! 

 

  

 

Paula is working on a Cat Suncatcher and already has it all cut and ground.    The mouth will be made with wire which will be attached after this cat has been soldered which could very well happen next week.  I'll bet dollars to doughnuts on that!

 

 

 

Julie's Multi-colored Star is all foiled and ready for soldering. She really impressed me with her foiling abilities because these pieces are much smaller than you may think. The problem with foiling small pieces is that it's hard to surround the piece in foil while not crushing the foil on the edges that you have already covered. Luckily, Julie took her time and in the end she got the job done like she's done this a hundred times before.

 

  

 

 

Tracey was so busy that she got a HUGE amount of work done on her Virgin Mary Window! It's almost completely cut out already which means that she'll be grinding away when she comes back in. 

  

 

 

As you can see, Mary has also been a busy woman.  She's got all of the petals cut for the top most Sunflower and is now hard at work at grinding them.   After that she'll wrap and tack that flower before moving onto the next one.

 

 

 

Linda L has each of her Mice all ground and foiled but she's voted against tacking them together at this point in time since she's going to be on vacation and she doesn't want her window to sit with flux on it any longer than it needs to sit. So for the remainder of the class she worked on cutting out some of the clear glass hearts that form the background of this window (which you can see in a stack just above Mickey's nose). Linda says that working with clear window glass is "GREAT!" because it cuts so easily and she's certainly correct on that! 

 

 

 

Betty said that she knew that her Mardi Gras Mask wouldn't be completed in time for the big day but that just means that she's going to be ahead of the game for next year. With all of her background cut out she's now working on grinding her pieces of which there are very few to go.  

 

  

 

 

Cindy is flying through the cutting and grinding of her Wolf Window. This is another window whose size is misleading because this is almost to the point of being mammoth. Because of the size of this we had to add lead lines so that larger pieces would fit onto a standard sheet of glass. The wolf itself wasn't a problem but the Moon and the background had to be 'broken' down into smaller pieces.

 

  

 

 

Susan R has changed her little Yorkie's ear and has cut all but three pieces for this dog's cute little face. Also, I still need to find a nice pink for the tongue because the person who has the pink I wanted to steal a scrap from wasn't able to make it into class this week!

 

  

 

 

June has returned and her Muti-Colored Cat got its background all cut out, ground, foiled and tacked into position. Once that was done June still had time to pick out a matching muti-colored border color, get it cut into strips, and then into their individual pieces as well. That's a productive night for sure.

 

  

 

 

Let has got the background all cut and ground for her Circular Flower Window which is an impressive amount of work. Look VERY closely and you'll be able to see some purposeful gaps between the background glass which will fill with lead to form a much thicker line to better represent stems rather than lead lines. One of these thicker lines comes off of the main stem that runs up the center of the window to the flowers. Next week Let will cut her bevels and learn how to foil them because nothing is ever easy and that includes foiling a bevel that has had to be cut.

 

 

 

Martha is all tacked together and soldering away. She has the majority of the front of this soldered so perhaps this will be completed next week when we see it again!

 

  

 

 

Well look at this! Keri already has her next Pink Princess Philodendron leaf cut and ground!

 

 

 

MiMi is foiling her life away. There's also some good and bad news here--We have the cap for her lamp but I forgot to show it to her. Alas, it will here when MiMi comes back in. Next we need to decide on what kind of wiring this will be accepting which is dependent on whether this will hang from the ceiling of stand on a base. We have plenty of time for that though.

  

 

Mary Grace finished tacking together the rectangular Spine portion of her Window and then moved on to grinding the letters for the smaller text section that will reside under the spine. With the letters having been ground the next hard part of working on the text will be tracing the letters out onto the background glass and then cutting and grinding all of that background to fit nicely. I always say that when it comes to stained glass, text is a four letter word.

  

 

Cheryl got the final border attached to her Mr Bingle Window and then cut the hat out of the correct color of glass. Alas, while working on the hat we noticed that Mr Bingle's arm was cut out of the background glass color rather than white but it's a simple fix. We've knocked out the incorrect color and will replace it when she comes back in next month. Yep, Cheryl will be missing a few classes due to other obligations but rest assured she will be back in plenty of time to have this window completed in time for Christmas 2026!

 

 

 

 

Annette has got her border tacked onto her Central Catholic Window and even got a channel attached to it as well. This sucker is ready for soldering. I know it isn't her favorite thing to do but she's better at it than she thinks she is so I have no doubts at all that she'll do a great job. When it comes to soldering, slow and steady makes the smoothest lead lines.

 

 

Mardi Gras is upon us so everyone have fun storming the castle! 

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks