Who IS The Phantom Ducker?

Cindy's Wolf Window has been completed and she's also sent us a picture of the window installed.   She certainly finished this off in record speed and the recipients of the window absolutely love it. 

 

 

 Here's a peek at the window as installed from outside. Forgive the reflections-- they're hard to avoid when taking pictures on a sunny day.

 

 

Kandise soldered up her Sunset and Mountains Window and then finished it off by then washing, coloring, washing and waxing it. As you can see her colors work with each other spectacularly and that green path through the mountains really brings it to life.

 

 

 

 

Let made two windows this week the first of which is this stunning Tulip Panel that actually uses the same glass for it's border as the window above. There's a slight color difference because Let's window was taken in daylight while the Sunset window was taken at night in fluorescent lighting. This Tulip Window represents the glass much more accurately.

 

 

 

 

Let's second project has a very unique style about it. If you love symmetry, as I do, this will certainly appeal to you. As I pointed out two weeks ago she's changed the pattern so that the center section has 'star bevels' rather than round jewels or nuggets.  Don't just scroll on by without admiring Let's perfectly straight lines throughout that beveled center portion of her window because that is not easy to accomplish without determination.

 

 

 

Nettie put the finishing touches on her Wedding Box and its simplicity is what gives this gift it's real beauty. I guess it's Wedding season because you're going to see another Wedding box a little further on down in this post and interestingly enough Nettie will begin making a second box next week along with another student!

 

 

 

 

Betty completed four Wire Stemmed Daisy Suncatcher as well as a Brass Key Dragonfly.   She originally left the lead silver on the Key project but then colored it copper to better match the brass color of the actual key that the wings were soldered onto.  The end result was so much better as you can see below.

 

 

 

Keri's last two Pink Princess Philodendron Leaves have been completely completed(!) and she is officially taking a break from making these.  You'll see what's next in store for her a little further on down.

 

 

 

Susan R's Birds on a Branch are taking shape as the first of her four Birds has been cut.   She's certainly impressed other students with her pattern because we already have two other people who want to make this proving that Susan certainly has great taste! 

 

 

 

I knew I was going to do this. I took three pictures of Paula's newest project and trashed the one that I wrote the name of the project on. So I went on a digital dumpster dive and found that this window is based on The Girl With The Pearl Earring. It may be hard to see but that pearl earring is all picked out and it's looking just like a pearl.

 

 

 

So then, Keri not only finished off her pair of 3D Leaves, she also picked out a Flower Hand Mirror Pattern that we've never seen before.   She not only cut it all out in one night but also managed to grind it all as well!  For a relatively new student she sure is impressing people.

 

  

 

 

This Iris Window that Barbara has begun is of her own design. She's not entirely happy with the leaves but she is going to grind and tack the flowers together and then use her drawing as inspiration for a new assortment of leaves.

 

  

Martha has the majority of the hard work done for her Wedding Box. The G will form a side panel that rest along side the right side of the invitation to form a larger box top.

 

 

 

Julie has begun grinding the bottom quarter of her Heron Window so she can tack it together before cutting out the next section which will include the Irises. This will prevent any of the bottom pieces from sliding around as she's working on the most detailed part of her window.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie's Humming Birds and Flowers are all cut and ground leaving her with just the background left to cut which she has already begun working on (viewable in the lower right corner). It's more than a fair assumption to say that this will be finished before you know it.

 

 

 

Jan is only two small pieces away from soldering this Virgin Mary suncatcher. It's looking really good and she's even been working on it while at home!

 

  

 

 

June has her Multi-colored Cat Window all soldered and looking great. The only thing left to do is to wash and color this so we will definitely see this completed next week.

 

 

Sheri's Scissor Tailed Flycatcher is so close to being completely ground. I have no doubt that she'll foiling glass next week.

 

  

 

 

Linda L has taken her time with her Mickey and Minnie Window to achieve a perfect repeating and overlapping heart background.  That may sound like an oxymoron but the truth is that even though she took her time with this she was still able to finish the cutting and grinding with a thoroughly impressive amount of speed.  She's got it! 

 

 

 

With her missing piece of vine cut and all of her other pieces of glass ground Linda F will next be cutting out her background glass. The timing is perfect for this because her glass just arrived! And isn't this looking absolutely lovely?!

 

 

 

Lara's only got about three or four more Honeycombs left to solder and then she'll be working on a Bee to accent all of these Honeycombs.

 

 

 

MiMi is soldering away on her Lamp and will be for the next few weeks. She really has the hang of this and when you look closely you can easily see where she has a bead on the lamp and what is yet to be beaded. We lifted this up after class was over and all I can say is that it is already rock solid!

  

 

 

Cheryl's Mr. Bingle window is all soldered and just needs some channel attached and some touching up. She's already decided on her next project which we will reveal when she comes back in along with the finished picture of Mr. Bingle.

  

 

 

Mary Grace got her window all set to be soldered in absentia as all of the glass for her Spine Window has officially been cut and ground. Look to see this completed next week for sure.

  

 

Then you'll see that I didn't get a picture of what Bee was working on. I know it involved tracing out a new pattern but I can't remember what it was to save my life!

 

Lastly, Judy has the head of her Dog Window all cut and is now grinding it. I'd love to show a picture of it but it needs to be a surprise.

 

Ta-ta for now!

Paul 

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Faucets by Fisher-Price

Bee has completed her Dragonfly window and we are lucky enough to get two views of it.  The first was taken here in class while the second shows it installed as the back board for her stove.   Not only is her work amazing but the placement of her window (which she's back lit) is as stunning as possible! 

 

 

 All hung up and ready to view!

 

Susan D finished her Spider Plant which she's made to hold a small air plant which certainly gives this finished piece a healthy dose of realism! I think it's a WONDERFUL idea and wish that I'd thought of it myself!

 

 

 

Barbara's completed her Mardi Gras Colored Fleur De Lis and it's her choice of colors as well as her positioning of them that make this so festive looking.

 

 

 

Nettie's began to make the first of two wedding boxes and she's got the lid of the first one all ready for soldering. There's a great chance that this one will be completed upon her return next week!

 

  

 

 

Julie resumed wok on her Heron Window and now has the lower third of it all cut out. To keep things stable she's going to switch over to the grinder next week and start fitting things into place. Once that's done she'll be able to foil and then tack these pieces to prevent them from shifting out of position.

 

  

 

 

 

Linda F 's Transom Window has really taken shape this week as she got all of the pink flowers cut out. She's just realized that she missing cutting a piece of the winding stem near the right side of the window. That's easy to do in something large because the odds of missing a line while tracing out a pattern get higher since there are more lines to trace. I'll bet anything that the stem was never cut loose from the background glass. No matter though because it's simple enough to rectify.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie is flying through her Humming Birds and Flowers Window. She only has two more Humming Birds too go before she can begin cutting out her glue chip background glass. The beautiful thing about using glue chip is that there isn't any need to worry about the grain of the glass since it's omni-directional. That means that waste will be kept to a bare minimum.

 

  

 

 

MiMi is soldering away and there was absolutely no learning curve for her ability to solder on a curved lamp. She just sat down with a towel in her lap and the Lamp on the towel and set forth making a beautiful bead. Lamp soldering requires an understanding of just how lead melts so that a nice smooth bead can be formed without having the lead run through and fall out to the inside of the lamp. MiMi made incredible progress on her very first night and got so far that I couldn't help but be impressed.

 

  

 

 

Jan has only 4 more pieces of glass left to cut for her Virgin Mary. She's decided to leave this as a large suncatcher rather than a window with background glass and a border. Kudos to Jan for really nailing this piece when it came down to the cutting and grinding her glass. She just muscled through it and has achieved what I can already tell will be an awesome piece of inspirational art.

 

 

 

  

Betty has a board full of suncatchers that she's working on with many of then almost across the finish line. Betty thinks like me when it comes to making suncatchers: cut everything, grind everything, foil everything and then solder them. It's far more productive than bouncing around from grinding to cutting to soldering, to cutting, to grinding, to cutting etc. etc.

 

  

 

 

Mary may very well have all of her Sunflowers tacked together already. I mean, I could be wrong but it looks like the flowers are all cut ground wrapped and tacked! Next up will be the leaves because she worked on stems while she was in class.

 

  

 

 

Tracey's Butterfly has one wing complete and the second one is well under way towards being completely ground.   Tracey's daughter has picked out the next window that Tracey will be making and it's another Circular Magnolia.  She's going to be able to make those in her sleep  

 

  

 

 

Now that Kandise has her border cut, ground and foiled She'll be ready to begin soldering her Sunset Window next week. She's actually already begun and since she makes quick work of that step of the stained glass process I'm expecting to see this as a completed project in our next post.

 

 

 

Susan D also worked a bit more on foiling her Woodpecker Window. She's amassing quite a collection of these circular windows!

 

  

 

 

Sheri was a grinding fool and her Scissor Tailed Flycatcher really looks like it's taking flight this week as more and more pieces are fitting into position. She wishes she had thought of surrounding this with bevels but there is a way we can still add a beveled border that I will show her upon her return.

 

  

 

Let is so close to finishing her Lily Window that it's a shame it didn't happen this week. But that only means that the remaining work on this will occur during the first few minutes of her next class thus freeing up most of her time to finish off her next project.

 

 

 

 

Cheryl filled in the two missing pieces of her Mr. Bingle Window and then set upon soldering the front side. By the time class was finished she had the front completed and I must say that she has done a FABULOUS job! I think she's got the soldering process pretty well under control now. I always say that it's like riding a bike - at some point it just clicks and poof, you have it!

 

  

 

Cindy's Wolf window is now completely soldered and only needs to be washed and colored when she comes back in. I do believe that working with these larger pieces (Cindy is used to working with many smaller pieces) helped her power through this project like a hot knife through butter.

 

  

 

 

Linda L has made short work of her Mickey and Minnie Window. With all of her background cut and ground (perfectly I might add) she now had her border on the window. She's unsure if she'll be adding a second border or not but we will learn the answer to that when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Susan R has her Cute little Yorkie Dog behind her and is now set to be working on a very whimsical and happy version of some Birds on a Branch. This is a new take on an old standard which I believe may start something new in our classes.

 

 

 

 

Martha will be working on a wedding box of her own next week and this is one of the idea's that I have for her to look at when she comes back in. the pattern.

 

  

 

And that's that. Wow is this year flying by!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

 

If I Had a Gun I'd Have Had A Pig In My Car

Betty's Abstract Free Form Window looks amazing and the black accent pieces fit in perfectly with the black patina that she used for all of her lead lines.   Of course, she formulated the look of her completed window in her head thus knowing that she would turn all of her lead black.  Because of this she made sure to foil all of her clear pieces with black backed foil so that no copper coloring would shine through the glass.   When you make a window you MUST plan ahead! 

 

 

 

Susan R's Yorkie Dog Suncatcher is going to make someone VERY happy since it was drawn to match a friend's actual dog.  The fact that Susan went to such lengths to match the colors to the photo that she had proved to me that she had a good time making this.  As I always say, it's one thing to make stained glass and it's a completely different thing when you are excited about making it.   A great job indeed!

 

 

 

Is this Lorrie's 3rd or is it her 4th Macaw in a Hoop? Well, either way this is the first time that she's made one this small. At only 20 inches tall this is 2/3rds the size of the medium Macaw Pattern! It's still a perfect project that hangs beautifully and shows off Lorrie's stained glass abilities.

And this is Nettie's second Macaw in a Hoop but I'm not longer sure of which size this was.   I'm going to have to sort through patterns to figure out the sizes because when you only have a picture to go by it's hard to figure out what size you are dealing with.  Nonetheless, it's another beautiful Bird.  Nettie has really been on a roll here!

Nettie also soldered and completed her newest Triple Cross Design. She considered turning it into a window but since it turned out to be such a study piece of glass she decided to leave it as is. Interestingly enough she made this because she wasn't happy with how her first version turned out. I'd say that all's well here though!

Well it's official-- MiMi got the third section of her lamp tacked into place which joins in between sections 2 and 1 thus giving her a complete lamp!  Once it was all assembled she flipped it upside down and added a thin wire to follow the bottom irregular edge which helps add strength and protect the edge pieces.  She did that so quickly and efficiently that she was then able to use key points on the top of the lamp to then center the brass cap.  We tacked it in only three places and then did a lift from the center of the cap and found MiMi had it perfectly balanced on the first try.   After anchoring the cap securely MiMi was then able to begin the actual soldering process.   She'll be continuing that final step for the next few weeks until her lamp is completed in entirety.

  

 

Look at Jan go!   She is doing marvelously with her new Virgin Mary Pattern even getting those thin cuts near the neck in one shot.  I believe that she said she'd like to put this in a window and that will be easy enough but first well have her tack all of this together so we can trace it atop whatever background glass she chooses.

  

Let has decided to substitute small star bevels for the the round nuggets/globs that run throughout the center tan background section.  They look more elegant and they work beautifully with all of the lines that break the background up.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this will gain a channel and some hooks upon her return.

Lorrie's hard at work on her nearly three 3 foot tall Hummingbird Window. She came in eager to begin and traced out the pattern onto some poster board and then picked out a flower, cut it out of the poster board pattern and then traced it onto some glass.   She then cut that glass into its 12 respective pieces. It's small and it's pink and if you look closely you can see that it's not only cut but ground as well! When dealing with large patterns with many pieces it's best to cut the pattern up in small sections leaving the rest all attached.

  

With her Spider Plant all foiled Susan has now moved on over to foiling her Woodpecker. She's currently in the zone when it comes to foiling  and as I always say, 'why stop and drop the ball'? When you're on a roll and things are going great you shouldn't shift gears and move onto something else where you can then easily lose your groove. So foiling her Woodpecker was the best decision in terms of keeping production flowing at a nice steady pace.

  

Tracey has begun a 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornament and spent the night tracing out pattern pieces onto glass and then cutting them into individual pieces. These Butterflies don't take long to make so I'm thinking that she'll have this under her belt and in her garden before you know it.

Kandise is another fast worker. Her Sunset Scene Window was ground in essentially one single night! She was worried about the amount of space that she had between each of her pieces so I slid everything upward to reduce the spacing but then had to re-grind a few pieces. Sadly, one of the pieces on the right was then too short so she's going to re-cut that after this is tacked together since the pattern piece no longer matches the opening left for it. Changes or not, this looks perfect to me!

  

Cindy got her four curved corners cut and fitting into position for her Wolf Window and she didn't take the easy way out to cut those four pieces. Instead of making each corner two separate pieces Cindy cut the deep curves into each piece keeping the four corners whole. After that she even had enough time to completely solder the first side proving that Cindy can knock out a window as quick as quick can be.   

 

 

 

Bee, like Cindy, got the front side of her Window soldered which means that next Tuesday is going to be a busy night when it comes to finished projects. Bee soldered the front side with ease and even has a nice head start done on the back side as well. We'll add some channel to this and hopefully it will be completed in her next class.

  

 

Keri has her last two Pink Princess Philodendron leaves soldered with one of them being finished save for having its 'stem' attached with the second one only needing to be touched up. 3D is never easy to solder and maneuvering these leaves back and forth to keep things level so that the solder doesn't just roll off the lines can take more time than a person might think. That said, these will be completed within the first half hour of Keri's next class.

 

 

 

 

Sheri got to work on cutting out all of the background glass for her Scissor Tailed Flycatcher Window and ended up finishing that part of the job along with having enough time to begin grinding it as well!   With all of the cutting behind her she'll be having a much easier time with this window from here on out.

  

 

Paula's 3D Cactus is getting some decorative lead dots places on the edges of the green cactus pieces. It's a tricky process but I can guarantee that by the time she finishes this she'll have it down pat. It looks to me like she's already there!

 

  

 

 

Just sit back for a minute and admire all of those impressive overlapping hearts that Linda L has precisely ground for her Mickey and Minnie Mouse background. If you want to talk about pieces lining up perfectly than look no further than this window. 

 

 

 

I know I said that I thought this would take Mary months to make, and I know that I said that she was advancing thru this Sunflower Window much quicker than I expected her to but I still never expected her to be flying through this at the speed of light! Mary is wasting no time at all on this window and has really impressed me with just how quickly she's progressing.

 

 

 

 

Next we see that June has the first side of her Multi-colored Cat soldered and that she has even flipped it over and begun soldering the second side.  With that already started I'm sure that this will be another window that we'll see completed next week.

  

  

 

 

Lastly, Judy's Dog Window (He Who Can't Be Posted) has all of its face cut out which means that when she comes back in she'll begin cutting out the intricate collar that features the always fun to make letters 'L', ' S' and 'U'. 

And there ya have it,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks