It's Like Perky Boobs on a Raisin

Kandise completed her Art Deco Lady and as good as it looked while on the table it looks so very much better hanging up.  Having even just a little bit of light behind it you can clearly see that the darker colors she's chosen light up very differently-- especially next to any darker pieces that surround them.  All in all this is a stunning debut window and one that Kandise should be VERY proud of.

 

 

 

MiMi was in between projects and decided to throw together a cute Halloween Suncatcher which is new to us.   Her Broom features a spiderweb along with Cecil The Spider.   See Cecil spin a web-- watch ladies run!  It's impressive that MiMi completed this in one class from start to finish and it's easily one cute piece of stained glass.  

 

 

 

 

Cindy wrapped up the work on her Cardinal/Cross Suncatcher and I know that we'll see another one being made because Cindy has inspired someone from Tuesday morning to make one of these as well.

 

 

 

 

Betty made these two Heart Cancer Ribbon Suncatchers in record time.  One features fractures and streamers glass while the other a beautiful clear texture.  Both have been accented with solder dots on sections of the lead lines as an added bonus.

 

  

 

 

Lisa finished her Cloth Draped Cross and I've learned that the white cloth symbolizes the resurrection of Christ while doing a little research on this particular Cross.   Also, when Lisa was working on this I was viewing it upside down and thought to myself, "I need to tell her that the head of her Dove is too flat."  When I walked over and saw it orientated correctly I realized that it wasn't a dove but a cloth!  However, that has given me an idea for a pattern...

 

 

 

Let made a Heart Cancer Ribbon Suncatcher of her own using the same heavily textured clear that Betty used in hers.   And Let's features even more decorative soldering to brighten things up all the more.

 

 

 

The Wedding box that we feature here this week wasn't made by Lorrie but rather myself.  Don't look at the date on it, just know that some things are better late than never!!

 

 

 

Linda F is hard at work on her Halloween Tree Window and we've added an Owl to one of the branches on the upper right of the window (which isn't shown yet here).   The owl and the pumpkin add a lot of tiny pieces to the window but it's all of the detail that makes this so adorable.   But never forget that the Devil is in the details.

 

 

 

Lorrie is hammering out numbers for different Address Signs and she's moving through them quickly.  She got this pair of numbers cut out this week and she's taken the background glass home with her so she can cut, grind and then foil both of these windows.   If she does that while at home (which I'm sure she will) then we will see another pair of numbers get cut out next week.

 

  

 

 

Bee has begun cutting glass for her Dandelion Tribute Window and has picked a perfect clear textured glass for the dandelion itself.  Her original idea was to use a wispy white glass but with the grain only running in one direction it just looked off.  Using clear Florentine glass prevents any grain direction from showing and makes the dandelions look as authentic as possible using only one piece of glass.

 

 

 

Lisa never has just one iron in the fire so this week she not only completed her Cross and Cloth Suncatcher but began this Mountain Scene as well.   She's currently undecided as to whether she'll use bevels for the stars in the sky of if she'll use some iridized glass.  I guess we'll know the answer to that when we return next week.

  

 

 

Steve worked on a Humming Bird that will feature wire accents and it's been cut, ground, wrapped in foil and even soldered already!  All that's left is the wire work itself and that will go quickly enough next week so that we'll also see him begin a new project as well as a final view of this piece.

 

 

 

 

Cindy's making one of a pair of Cat Windows for a friend and Martha will be doing the second Cat Window (once she completes her Street Light).   In just one class Cindy has pulled into the lead since she has all of her colorfully detailed cat cut and ground already.  Cindy will omit the flower that you see in her pattern for reasons that will reveal themselves in the weeks to come..

 

 

 

Susan D is making great inroads on both of her birds.  The eagle's neck with its pointed feathers looks particularly impressive if I do say so myself.  Since the head is the most complicated part of the eagle  suncatcher I'm thinking that the rest of this project will move quickly for her especially since her other bird is already ground.

 

 

 

Mary Grace got all of the remaining pieces cut for her Mardi Gras Mask after she tacked together the pieces that she had already cut out earlier.   Next up comes all of the small triangular background pieces which she'll cut out one side at a time for two reasons.  1) there won't be as many similar pieces floating round loose on her pattern and B) because it will save a LOT of glass doing it this way. 

 

 

 

Susan R is working through all of those tiny inset Peacock feathers but it looks as though the end is near.  Soldering this will be a breeze and I'm sure Susan is looking forward to a relaxing day in class rather than a tedious one involving the grinding of miniscule pieces.

 

 

 

Annette is ready to start soldering her Sacred Heart Window now that all of her glass has been cut, ground, and wrapped in foil.   She'll tack this when she comes back in and then move on to the final solder.   I'd say that she has two more weeks to go on this and then her Magnum Opus can be proudly displayed in a window to highlight all of her work.

 

 

 

Martha has the front side of her latest Street Lamp pretty much soldered so she then added a clear inner border to her window.  It still has to be be tacked onto the window and once that's done we will see what she picks for her final border. 

  

 

 

Betty's Heron is very near completion with only a quarter of the back side of the window left to be soldered.   That means that there's no doubt at all that this will be one of our featured windows next week.

 

  

 

Let's put a lid on this pot and call it a day.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Right Church, Wrong Pew

Let finished her Daisies Window and we pretty much all agree that it brings back memories of the 70's.  We even had a  playlist of 70's songs to further heighten the nostalgia.  Let did another great job on this (as expected) and cut and attached her own channel as well.

 

 

 

Linda F's Teardrop Beach Scene is not unlike a droplet of peacefulness. Its pastel colors are anchored by a earthy brown shell which creates the rounded bottom of the teardrop.  She supposes that she could have done a little better following the edge lines but I think this is perfection as is.

 

 

Lorrie is making Address Windows and already has the first two cut and ground.   She has about seven of these to make before Christmas and once she each one ground and foiled she then moves along to a new set of numbers so that she can add borders all at once.

  

 

 

Susan D has her circular Bear all cut out but has moved on over to this Eagle Suncatcher which is an order.  Orders always come first and since she's got feathers on her brain she also managed to get another bird cut out as well.  She'll soon be working at the grinder to get all of those feather fitting together but judging by the looks of things she isn't going to have to do much more than a skimming on each piece because it  because so farthings are already fitting together nicely

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Jan spent the day cutting glass and picking out colors for her Sunburst Window.  She had brought a lot of her scrap glass in with her but didn't count on the pattern pieces being so large.  Still, so far she's been able to use glass that she had scraps of and what she found in our scrap glass box.

 

Cindy's Cardinal/Cross is truly in form now that it's all been cut and especially ground.  She's going to begin wrapping her pieces in copper foil which means that we'll most likely see all of this foiled when we see it again.  A new project is not that far away now.

 

 

 

Let also worked on these Christmas Candy Canes that now only need to be soldered on their back sides.   Let was the first and only person (thus far) to say that she was finished with Christmas projects for the year but when she saw Jeannette's  Candy Cane last week she decided that she just had to make an exception or two.  Never say never!

 

  

 

 

Susan R has all of her Peacock Feathers cut and ground and is ready to begin foiling all of those pieces.  Slow and steady wins the race but in all honesty Susan isn't really going all that slowly when you consider the size and number of the pieces that she is working with..  That said, she's still winning the race.

 

 

Kandise came in and immediately began tacking her Art Deco Lady together and then picked out a border for her.   It only took 3 minutes to cut the border pieces and then she was able to skim them on the grinder after which she foiled them.   All of that work took just over an hour to do which left Kandise plenty of time to begin soldering. Since this is her first 'real' window there was a learning curve involved in the soldering but for a first timer she's doing beyond wonderful.  In fact, this may even be completed when she come back in!

 

 

 

Melissa worked on grinding, wrapping and soldering the wheels for her Kaleidoscope.   By the time class ended she had everything soldered save for the bushing/hub centers which attach to the wheel centers andl allow them to rotate.   There are two wheels on the Kaleidoscope: one made of all different textured clear glasses, and the second made of different opaque colors.   The clear wheel goes between the mirrors and the color wheel so that the color is revealed through different textures as each wheel is spun independently.  If you made two color wheels you would never see the colors of the outermost wheel in the mirrors. 

 

  

 

Mary Grace finished grinding all of the colored pieces that she has cut out for her Mardi Gras Mask and is wrapping them now.   Once they are foiled she will tack everything together which will prevent anything from shifting while she cuts and grinds all of the tiny pieces that surround the mask and makes up the background.

 

  

 

Martha now has all of the background glass ground for her latest Franklin Streetlight Window and has even begun wrapping it.   I'm betting that she will go with the same border effect that she did on her last Streetlamp Window-- a clear inner border and then back to the background for the final outer border.  We'll know for sure when she returns next week.

 

 

 

Betty tacked together her Heron Window and found that the cat tail was cut just a bit too short for her approval which explains the opening in the window.  She'll re-cut that and fill it in while at home.  Her original plan was to use an orange glass that would match the legs for the thin inner border  but everyone agreed that the orange was SO bright that it was all you saw when you looked at the window.   Instead Betty went with a clear textured inner border and then went with a gray to match the feathers of the bird for the outer border.  And we all agreed that a final gray border was the best possible choice.

  

 

 

Barbara continued grinding her Magnolia Window and spend some time going through catalogs hoping to find the wooden Bookends that I saw a few weeks back and never marked down.  It may have taken a while but in the end she won the battle and found what she was looking for.  Now the colorful Owl that she made a few weeks back can be displayed correctly (or at least it will when the bookends arrive). 

  

 

 

Lara is working on a Stack of Books Suncatcher which is actually quite large.   The colorful flowers and leaves that are strategically placed throughout the pattern are what hold everything together by breaking up straight lead lines which would form hinge-points .   Lara actually has glass cut out for all of the book covers but she bagged everything before I took the picture.  She's also cutting out two of these at once with the only difference being the color scheme.

 

 

 

Sheri has begun working on her Koi Fish pattern and has all of her poster board pattern pieces cut out and separated so that she can begin cutting glass when she returns. Everything is numbered and ready to go!

 

 

 

To wrap things up here we see that Bee spent her night designing her next window which features Dandelions set amidst a background of a dove, a sun with a cross inserted into it which in turn has a rose inserted into the center of the cross.  Now that's what I call a lot of subject matter! 

And there you have it!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Smart Ass Doesn't Count

Lorrie got her newest, latest and greatest Wedding Box completed this week and her use of fractures and streamers glass for the box sides is really astounding. If Lorrie keeps giving these away as wedding presents she may find that she'll be getting invited to weddings for people that she doesn't even know!

  

 

Cindy's got a GREAT Halloween themed Hoop here featuring Bats and Spider webs.  It certainly went together quickly enough and that extra wire work really brought it all to life.

 

MiMi got her Autumn Colored Anger Wing Suncatcher wrapped in copper foil and then soldered.   After attaching two hooks to hang this from we took this picture to share with you.   MiMi's work is always precise and her soldering is a dream come true. If you wanted Autumn colored angel wings then this is surely everything that you might have envisioned them to be.

 

Let made this cute Nativity Suncatcher in plenty of time for Christmas.   She says that she's all caught up with that holiday and will move away from Christmas items until next year but there's plenty of time left in the year for last minute Christmas projects.

 

 

Lisa had and extremely productive day as she soldered not one but three suncatchers.  Her Woven Heart is perfection as are all the others but it's her Cross that impressed me most because of how her sharp points that meet near the central of the Cross are perfectly ground with none of them coming up short )which is usually an issue with points like this).   Her Red Heart may look as though it's a collection of hinge points but Lisa thwarted all of those problem areas by filling the center of the cross with clear untextured glass which makes it appear as though the suncatcher is hollow even though it isn't.  The trick to this illusion is to use untextured (window pane) glass. 

 

 

 

Sheri began these two Flower Crosses a while back and they've been sitting around just needing some solder on them.  Now that she's soldered them I wonder if she isn't regretting doing them sooner because they certainly turned out to be quite beautiful!

  

Judy's Deer Window trotted out the door as a finished Window after Judy spent her class time soldering it.   About an hour and a half after beginning the soldering process Judy wrapped up the work on this and then spent the rest of her time washing and coloring it.  All in all, a job very well done. 

 

 

 

Sheri's Korok Hoop was essentially completed when she walked in the door with it.   She only needed to add solder it and the facial features consisting of a mouth, eyes and a Leaf stem.   The stem itself was made of a thick wire which was coated in lead before attaching it and the eyes and mouth were simply cut from foil and then soldered into the lead lines lines that they overlaid.

 

  

 

 

Susan D got her newest pair of Geometrical Suncatchers soldered and ready for hanging.  The orange and green one has a jewel in the center of it that has been 'hanging' around the shop for at least 10 years now which proves that everything goes eventually.  But these suncatchers will surely sell much faster than the solitary jewel that Susan used as an accent piece.

Melissa's wrapped up the work on her second and last red and green Beveled Cross and it's pretty much a perfect replication of her first one (though I assure you that they ARE different). She loves the fact that she was able to use brass channel for the edges rather than doing the tap-tap method which she isn't a fan of and it provides a nice clean edge.

 

Steve finished what could be his last circular Fleur De Lis Suncatcher although he does have another one started so who knows when that could be completed.   I think he may be a bit tired of making this since this was his third one but I think it's safe to say that he's very good at these now!

 

 

 

Ann began cutting glass for her large Nativity Window and got even farther along then she hoped to.  All of the colors that she knew she was using where cut out and placed onto her pattern and the missing pieces (of which colors she'll be using are currently unsure) will be filled in after she grinds all of this to get a better feel for what all of the colors look like.

 

  

 

Let did all of the work on her Daisies Window while at home save for the border which she added while in class.   I have to admit that the green perfectly compliments the flowers and frames it out nicely, especially since there are no leaves in the pattern.   Using green was a great was to add some color balance without resorting to leaves which would only be half shown in this piece.

 

 

Cindy is working on a Cross with a Cardinal smack dab in the center of it.  The pattern was originally drawn by Terry and when Cindy saw it she decided that she wanted to make one of her own. 

 

 

 

Melissa is making a large Kaleidoscope which she hoped to decorate by adding a tree along two of the side.  We have an idea in mind so we'll be checking that out soon but meanwhile we will look at the two rings whose images will bounce back and forth between the three mirrors that will provide  the delightful visual aspect of this project.

 

 

 

Susan R is filling in the blank spaces of her Peacock feathers and working at a nice steady pace.   It's looking like the end is near now because there isn't all that much more to go on this before she can foil her pieces and then begin soldering (which won't take long at all). And I even remembered to take a picture of Susan's Peacock this week.

 

 

 

 

June's Goat Window has been completely ground and she has begun wrapping almost all of its pieces.  All save for three green pieces because she agrees with both Russ and myself that they need to be changed to gray.  These shouldn't be background pieces but rather parts of the goat.  I've pointed them out with red arrows and once they're replaced with grays you'll see this goat look even better than it already does.

 

 

 

Kandise blew through the foiling process of her Art Deco Woman by getting her entire window wrapped in just one class!  And her work is perfect as well.   Next week she'll tack this together and then get a border cut and even attached.  After that she'll begin soldering which she's nervous about, but that's only natural.  The best part about soldering is that you can always go over it again if you don't like how it looks.  If you simply relax and solder SLOWLY all is fine!

 

 

 

Barbara began grinding her Magnolia Window and managed to get the top flower almost completely ground.  There are still a few leaves left to grind but she made great progress this week getting her pieces to fit together so wonderfully. 

  

 

 

Annette has all of the glass cut and mostly ground in her scared Heart Window after getting all of her sword ground into place.  The clear pieces in the hilt of the sword will be covered in sheet foil and then foiled as any other piece of glass would.   When you next look at this window it will be tacked together.

 

  

 

Martha finished wrapping her Streetlight, tacked it together and then went to work on deciding what glass to use for her background.  She wanted something with a lot of swirling pattern in it because she wanted to cut it as one large continuous piece so that the grain would match perfectly  across lead lines.   The first sheet of glass she picked was absolutely stunning but when we tried to cut a right angle on the edge of the glass we discovered that it was very brittle and had trouble breaking along extended score lines.  Rather than push it Martha decided to use this piece of Oceanside glass which followed score lines perfectly.  

 

 

Jan was back this week and she's about to embark on a Sun Window complete with multi colored rays.   She selected the pattern, traced it, colored it to get a rough idea of what she plans to do with colors and then cut out the paper pattern.  Actual glass cutting will begin on her return. 

 

Wrapping things up here we  are happy to announce that Shelley has come back to join us after having three months off.  She worked on a few repairs to get her back into the stained glass routine and next week she'll begin a real glass project.  Welcome back Shelley!

 

And that's it.  We are officially up to date!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks