Crackers In My Bed

Linda F has completed her transom window and the end result is exactly as I expected it to be: perfection.  Everything from the glass cutting to the soldering was handled with the utmost precision and the finished window is something that Linda can be extremely proud of.    

 

 

 

Cindy began and completed her Rose Cross which features bevels on the ends of her clear textured Cross (which makes the flower stand out all the more). There's only one thing to say about this and that's that it is stunning.

Nettie spent her time soldering the second of her three Nativity Scene Windows.   Once she has them all soldered we're going to frame them out and join them together with a special channel.   We've never done this before but it's a straight forward process that we aren't concerned about at all.  I actually had 2 of the windows to show you but I accidentally overwrote one of them!   

 

 

 

The 'undercarriage' on MiMi's lamp is filling up with lead, her cap looks like it's wonderfully secured and that's all I have to say!

 

  

 

 

Martha is hard at word precisely grinding the rose for her Rose Cross. I'm unsure what color she'll be using for the cross itself but I do know that she'll also have bevels in it. Our next post surely will reveal her color choice.

 

  

 

Susan R is making two Rain Gauges and has them both cut out and ready to grind.   These will certainly go together lickety split for her.

 

 

Betty's Blue Rose is all cut out and ground which means that she's come face to face with the foiling process. She's working from the outside in so it's really just the Rose itself that needs foil at this point in time and I'm sure she'll resume working on it while at home. She's very close now!

 

  

Kandise has all of her Peacock cut and ground so she'll be foiling this when she comes back in. She'll be placing this into a metal hoop so it's time to see exactly how this will attach. If worse comes to worse we will apply the hoop behind the bird but I think we'll manage to do it the same way that Lorrie and Nettie did their Hoop Birds. 

  

 

 

Jan's working on her Doggie Heads Window and it's really taken shape. It looks like she just needs to cut out a few background pieces and she'll be ready for foiling and a border.

 

 

 

 

Let has everything but her border cut out and ground but that won't happen until she foils and tacks together the pieces that you see b5elow (which fit together wonderfully). In other words, it's fare to guess that she'll have her border cut, ground and attached during her next class. 

  

 

Julie ground all of the flowers and the leaves that border the top portion of her Heron Window and then proceeded to foil them all as well.   Next week she'll tack this and get her background pieces cut out.  That should go very quickly which means that she's approaching the end of this impressive window.

 

 

 

June's Seahorse is coming together in a most beautiful way and her grinding, as always, is top notch. She's moving through this pretty fast as well and I think it may have something to do with the fact that she isn't having to worry about random color placements as she had to with her cat window.

 

 

 

Linda L has her pair of Bluebirds all ground and foiled. She soldered the front side and has flipped it over to complete the back side next. I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be completed during her next class.

 

 

 

Lorrie cut and ground the many, MANY pieces that make up her Turtle's head and flippers. Then she even managed to foil each of those tiny pieces. That means that the only thing left for her to do is to cut out the few large pieces of background when she comes back in. The most impressive thing about her work this week is that she did it all with a sprained and swollen ankle!

 

 

Mary came in with her Fish window all cut out save to the eye and a large piece of background glass that she had run out of. By the time class was finished Mary had everything cut, ground and foiled. She'll tack this together at home and get her double borders cut when she comes back in. 

 

 

Mary Grace has numerous Flower Suncatchers in the works and is grinding away on them. Alas, she's missing a few pieces so she'll just tack together what she has and fill in the missing pieces by tracing the openings out onto the glass. A perfect fit every time. 

 

Sheri has all of her glass picked out for her Triangular Abstract Window and has two of the colors all cut as well. Who knows what all else may be completed on this when she comes back in.

 

 

 

 

Cheryl is about to embark on a Mardi Gras Pelican Window. Why is it a Mardi Gras Bird? Well, check out the Crown on its head. That surely turns it into a Mardi Gras window. We'll see her color choices when she comes back in and begins cutting glass.

 

  

 

 

Lastly, Paula has begun a beautiful flower window with that ever popular curved top. The flowers are Foxgloves and they make for an incredibly delicate design that I know Paula will make easily enough. The only problem is that I didn't appear to get a picture of it this week. :-(

 It's come to my attention that I haven't been posting these Blog Updates on Facebook so starting tomorrow morning I will be posting one a day until we're all caught up here!

Later,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

It Was Stupid-- I'm Pretty Desperate

Mary put a lot of time and effort into this colorful Sunflower Window and did it ever pay off.   She's thrilled with it, other students are thrilled with it and I'm thrilled with Mary's work ethic.  She really came shining through on this!

 

 

Martha's Butterfly Window is another example of a student who comes in and gets the work done no matter how hard she might think it will be.   She's even gone the extra mile by re-cutting pieces just because she didn't like the way they looked.  From start to finish Martha has made this look easy.

Susan R was feeling Patriotic and was hoping to get this USA Lawn Ornament completed for the big 4th of July anniversary that's about to unfold around us here in America and lo and behold, she did did it!  The big question is, what was the piece that was colored incorrectly when we last saw this?   It was the cross bar of the letter 'A' which had been cut out of white glass because it initially looked like it should be the white stripe running all the way across.  Alas, it needed to be blue and now it is.  Once you saw it you couldn't unsee it but luckily it was a very simple fix since it hadn't been soldered into place.  Now it's perfect!

 

Cindy has completed her Teardrop Iris Suncatcher and is ready to move along to a new project. She's made this teardrop as symmetrical as possible which means that it hangs perfectly (as you can see). If it wasn't symmetrical it would hang cock-eyed.

 

 

 

And here's another teardrop with a different flower inside of it. Let made this Daisy Teardrop quickly and efficiently while also keeping things balanced. Teardrops look wonderful but only when they hang straight as Let's does here.

 

 

 

 

If you've glanced down at the next picture before reading this then you may well know that a Butterfly Suncatcher means that we have a new student.  Elaine is that new student and she appears to have a flair for this because she didn't break any glass at all during her cutting lesson or while cutting the five pieces of glass that make this butterfly.   I think we're going to see big things from her because this butterfly is beautiful!

This is the last of Nettie's 3D Butterflies (for a while at least).   Made with iridized glass this one really sparkles when the light hits it.  I like the way Nettie used all different patterns for her 5 small 3D Butterflies rather than making the same one over and over.  
 

 

 

Nettie resumed work on her three panel Nativity Scene by finishing the soldering on the front of the center panel.   Once that was completed she flipped it over and then worked on the back side.  When all three are soldered they will be joined together by a unique double sided slotted bar that will allow all of them to be joined together as one large window.

 

 

 

Mary dove right on into her next project and I have to admit that this is a pattern that always turns heads (as well as empties pocketbooks) when we bring it to shows!  This window never hangs around the shop for too long and I believe that it's largely due to the large number of greens that you use throughout the fish. Mary used the same multiple color technique in her Sunflower Window as well so she's getting really good at choosing colors altogether.

 

  

 

 

Check out Bee's Fleur Del Lis.  The border perfectly matches the glass that she used in the actual Fleur De Lis itself and the only other color in the window is a second earth tone that sets the feel for this minimal yet stunning design.  

 

 

 

Linda L's Bluebirds in a Hoop are so stinking cute! She's someone else who is going the extra mile by cutting the feet into individual 'toes' rather than just making a single blob of orange glass for a foot.  Although you can't see it here (yet) it really does make a big difference. The rays from the sun and the vines for the leaves will be formed from wire which is really going to make this stand out even more.

 

  

 

Let is working on an Art Nouveau Window and has gone with a pastel/soft color scheme that sets it off wonderfully. She'll be squaring (or 'rectangling') this off and I'm very interested to see what color she decides to use for the final border.

 

  

 

Well then, it would appear that June's Seahorse has really come to life this week! The last time we saw this it was mostly pattern under a few pieces of glass that she had cut and ground. This week it looks like a full fledged Seahorse cut from glass! I think this is going to look wonderful and if she doesn't have a background glass in mind I think I may know the perfect glass for the job!

 

 

 

Sheri's getting very triangular with her new window. What you see below is roughly two thirds of the whole pattern because it actually continues on past the right side of the picture. Since it doesn't fit on a board she's folded the pattern over and will make this in two different sections that will eventually be joined after the next smaller section has been cut, ground and foiled. Most times this is the best way to handle the creation of a large window especially of you are transporting it back and forth between the shop and your house.

 

  

 

 

Keri spent her night grinding away on her Flower Window and it's fitting together perfectly.   I love the colors in this and her use of iridised glass for the background because it picks up all of the colors of the flowers themselves.

 

 

 

Linda F is back and she's foiling away on her Transom Window. What you see below is the left side of the window which I chose to show you in close up so that you could marvel at her perfect foiling. Linda aims for perfection and I'm thrilled when she asks me if something miniscule needs to be re-done or not. THAT is attention to detail.

  

 

 

Julie came in and kicked some serious glass tonight! She had considered skipping the flowers at the top of this window when she first began working on this but over time she decided that if she was in it for a dime then she was in it for a dollar. The flower petal pieces are small and look confusingly similar but Julie was extremely well organized while cutting out the glass which then made everything come together much quicker than she ever would have imagined.

 

  

 

MiMi's soldering is getting closer and closer to the edge of her lamp with each passing week. I wonder if she'll know how to act when she moves along to a simple window when this is completed. We'll find out soon enough, that's for sure!

 

  

 

Lastly we look at a mystery project that one of our students is making.  I figure that I should show at least a little something of all of these 'hidden' projects that some of our students are working on or no one will believe they exist!

  

And there ya have it.  Have a Happy 4th everyone!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Write It Down

Bee has put a lot of heart and soul into her Roses and Hearts Window and it certainly shows.  This window has taught her a lot about stained glass pattern making and I have to comment on her soldering because it was certainly top tier.   She was a little upset that after washing it she found a few lines that she'd skipped but even I didn't see them and that's just the way it goes when you're soldering a window with a lot of line.   This is a job that was VERY well done!

 

 

 

 

Tracey's Magnolia Window is one of my favorite windows due to the shape. Circular windows aren't seen often and that could be why this pattern always catches people's eyes. Of course the workmanship clearly has something to do with that as well but let's face it-- that's to be expected from Tracey.

 

 

 

 

Let finished her Tribute Dog Paw Suncatcher which has Amie Lyn's little ID charm hanging below it from the center of the paw. We understand all about the proper placement of hooks so the charm is actually attached to a wire that runs along the span of the paw and joins firmly into the lead lines on both ends. Stability is very important in our work here in the shop. 

 

 

 

Cheryl's Buffalo Bills Football Helmet had a deadline for its completion and she was able to finish her window with time to spare for her to leave slightly early and hopefully miss out on the tropical storm rains that were headed our way. What's next for Cheryl? I'll never tell because I always like the big reveal! 

 

 

 

Nettie got two more Butterflies completed leaving just one left to go. Instead of finishing off the last Butterfly she put the finishing touches on one other project this week.

 

This adorable Frog Lawn Ornament is the 'other' project that Nettie finished off before calling it a night. Check out the eyes on this Frog because Nettie not only drilled holes into the glass-- she also managed to get foil in those small holes so she could inlay black glass to make the pupils without having a distracting lead line mar the eyeballs. It may not appear to be all that much but rest assured that is some impressive work!

 

Kandise has begun a large free standing Peacock that she will be adding a hoop to. I was thrilled to hear her idea of placing this in a hoop because it solves the problem of how to hang this without having the neck pull off off the body. I figured we'd do the hidden wire technique but that's very laborious when compared to mounting the piece in a hoop. With almost all of this already cut out I won't be surprised if Kandise begins grinding next week.

 

 

  

Mary Grace was back in the shop and she's decided  to make a nice triple Flower Suncatcher that is a bit larger than normal.   She's made the smart decision to eliminate some of the cuts that make up the leaves because all of those tiny pieces look out of place next to the less detailed flowers.  It's all about balance!

 

  

 

Lara is embarking on a 3 window projects featuring three different flowers.   The first is this beautiful Lily which in its first week of work is already far enough along to be recognizable as a wonderful flowing design.

 

 

 

Linda L began her Bluebirds in a hoop and has made incredible headway on it. This isn't a pattern for the weak of heart (otherwise known as 'beginners') because there are some intensely tiny pieces that make up this design. Alas, Linda always steps up to the plate and takes her best swing and connects in the best possible way. 

 

 

 

Lorrie's Turtle is moving along quickly but she also spent a lot of time making multiple items that she will become Christmas Gifts this December. We aren't going to reveal those until after Christmas however because we don't want to ruin the surprise! 

 

 

 

Susan R's Star and USA Panel has been completely ground as well as foiled. She'll be tacking this together and soldering it upon her return. Susan seems to have made this one much quicker than her first one and that's because practice makes perfect.  I do see a possible small issue that will take seconds to fix.  Sometimes mistakes hide in plain sight!

 

 

 

Keri got all of her background cut out for her Flower Window and if you look closely you can see that it has been cut out of a clear iridized glass.  The amount of pink and green/blue in the iridization makes it absolutely perfect in this application!

  

 

Mary is about to have completed her Sunflower Window in record time. When she began this I expected her to be working on it for the next 9 months but she was excited to make this window and because of that she put in a lot of extra time and effort. Although it still needs touching up I can guarantee that this will be completed when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Cindy finished off a repair and then went to working on cutting and grinding the flower petals of her Iris Suncatcher. With just the background left to cut Cindy will be moving onto her main project before you know it.

  

 

 

What is there to say about MiMi's progress. It's tedious and essential and MiMi is tackling the process at full speed. When making lamps everyone comes to a point where they say to themself, "The end must be near" but then when they look they see that it isn't quite near yet. That's the way it goes with lamps but believe me when i say that But MiMi has been making a lot of progress here. 

 

 

 

Martha's got the front of her Butterfly Window soldered and has moved along to its back side. I'm expecting to see this among our completed works next week.

 

 

 

Lastly we see that MiMi has been grinding the first of her pair of Knotted Cross Windows. They're elaborate, elegant, colorful and yet restrained all at once.

 

 

Once again, here we are changing your life one post at a time!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks