Annette's simple Daisy Window is all about perfect choices in color. Her inner border has been cut from a glass that is different from the flower but which contains a similar pink hue of the flower mixed with some yellow to match the flower center. This was a lucky find that can be easily replicated with a little planning and any two toned piece of glass. Just use similar but separate colors in your window and frame it with the single mixed color. As you can see it's a stunning effect.
Susan D made a new three dimensional Humming bird Lawn Ornament and I've included two different views so you can hopefully see the 3D effect. This is made from 3 sections: the body and 2 separate wings. The wings are applied one at a time on either side of the body so that from the front the bird looks like a Y. So simple and yet so VERY effective!
We haven't seen anyone make a Succulent in a few years so we've long been overdue. Lisa's is made of four layers using the same glass that Annette used for the border of her Daisy Window. In the past I've assembled my succulents by hand utilizing careful balance and very measured soldering. Lisa used clay to line everything up and made the process look easy!! A simple but stylish glass glob hides the solder that holds this pretty flower together.
Then Steve went ahead and made a Succulent of his own. This is another four layer flower but unlike his wife's rounded flower petals, Steve's petals are pointed. Now that there's a 'clay trick' to hold things in position the trickiest part of making these now is getting a bead on all 24 of the flower petals without burning one's fingers!
And along with her Daisy panel, Annette also made this cute and vibrant sunflower suncatcher. Sometimes simplicity is all it takes to make a fetching piece.
Jeannette finished another Dove Cross and then put an ornament in her Grinch's hand as well! In fact, she made four Grinch Hands during class this week so I'm going to say that she's very much on a roll here.
Helen has re-emerged in our classes and fittingly started things off with a butterfly suncatcher to see if she's still got what it takes. It looks as though she has!
Susan R's latest Reindeer still has a black nose. I heard her say that she's going to make one with a red nose and that the next one would probably be her last Reindeer Lawn Ornament. She also says that she might take a break from Reindeer and move along to something else before getting to Rudolph. Time will tell.
Angie also has Dove Cross Fever as she completed two of her own this week. The off-white that she used in the dove goes particularly well with the green glass of the cross. Pure white just looked a bit stark in this piece.
Betty said that enough is enough. This week she managed to complete three Cardinals and four Silverware Dragonflies and she says that it's time to move along to some bigger projects. What they may be I can't say for sure but we'll know what she has in mind when she comes back.
And Cheryl finished a Diamond Bevel Window but I didn't get a finished picture of it. I can say that it looked something like this though...
Meanwhile, Cindy has started a beautiful flowing Sunflower Window that incorporates three different yellows to make the finished flower. She's also used a piece of Root Beer glass for the flower center which she cut in reverse so that the bumpy side will be on the front of the window rather than the back side. It's a nice texture effect that I always recommend doing when making sunflowers.
Mary Grace has moved on to the logo portion of her Health and Wellness Window by working on the colored section of the center logo itself. As you can see, it's the outline of a Lotus flower. Next week she'll begin cutting out the white background glass.
Judy is making a Coffee Window of her own but this one is about a coffee pot pouring out a hot stream of java. With the subject matter already cut out Judy only needs to cut nine pieces of background glass before she can get busy grinding.
Martha is doing wonderful work on her LSU Tiger Eyes Window. She's tacked together the LSU portion and will be wrapping the tiger stripes and eyes in foil next. A five sided border will end up joining everything together UNLESS she decides to forgo the center border section. It sounds to me like a decision will have to be made...
Our next bird is an Eagle that Let is working on. There's not much left to grind on this before she can begin foiling everything. I'm fairly sure that this will grow as more and more pieces become foiled but the simple solution to that is to grind some more off of un-foiled pieces as you move along. This is a common 'problem' when you have a lot of small pieces in the center of a window. Note that she does have a lot of pins throughout her work so hopefully she'll only need to skim a handful of pieces to get this to fit together.
As expected, Linda L started working again on the third section of her three Nativity Panels. She hit a small snafu when she went to trace out her pattern pieces onto the glass that she was going to use because she discovered that she had brought the wrong zip lock bag of pattern pieces with her. Rather than waste a class she just re-traced the pattern onto some poster board and made new pattern pieces. The end is near.
Oh look, it's our third bird of the week! This one belongs to Barbara and she's gotten the rooster part of the window all wrapped and tacked together. Once that was done she cut out the legs and the mound that he's walking on and then took it along home with her so she could grind it there. That means that there's only the rays of the sun and the sky left to cut for this.
Melissa's Winged Cross was halfway ground this week even though it almost looks as if it has all been ground. She still has the right side left to go and I believe we'll see that get accomplished when she returns next week.
Kerry's Cabin in the Bayou has all of its details cut into place as he cut down his large boards into smaller planks. He's tacked it together so that nothing will get lost or shifted out of position. Next he'll begin cutting out all of the different elements that make up his background and foreground scenery.
Sheri got a lot accomplished on her Coffee Window and that included getting the remaining pieces of the cup cut, ground, and tacked. Once that was done she picked out a color for her border--deep blue (a great choice if you ask me), and got it cut and ground. She's in the process of wrapping those border pieces and will surely be soldering her window upon her return.
Bree is certainly coming along. Shelley only needs to cut out her background glass and then paint eyes, a nose, and a mouth so we can fire it onto the glass permanently in the kiln. Shelley did a test run in pencil and it looked fantastic but she says that paint may be another story. Alas, she's done it before and I have a lot of faith in her abilities.
One coat of solder on the front and then another on the back side of this cute Humming Bird Window will finish it all off. I know that Jan's up it so expect to see this completed when she comes back in next week. She was originally going to go with bevels fro the border but I think her use of purple baroque glass has worked out so much better.
This large Rooster suncatcher just needs some touching up and it will fly out the door. June is ready to flip this over and complete the soldering on the second side of this bird after which she'll wash it, color it, wash it again and wax it so she can take it home.
Susan D is making another three dimensional Flower Pot Cactus and these are the pieces that she needs to make it. This will be all of it unless she decides to put a small flower on the top in which case she'll need six small pink pieces to finish it off. Either way, this will be completed when we next see it.
Lastly we look at the Modern Cross that Ann cut, ground and wrapped. She was actually inspired by the cross that Betty made last week. We'll easily see this get completed when she comes back in a few weeks. She'll be out for a week or two due to obligations so be sure to keep tuning in so you can see this become completed.
And that's it. I think I need a catch phrase to end all of these posts. We'll try a few out for size over the next few weeks. And finally, I'm at a loss for words so I'll catch ya all next week!
Paul
