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

And She Pushed 2 for Spanish

 Let completed her large circular Bird of Paradise  Suncatcher and her color choices and skills are perfectly visible in her latest work.

 

 

 

Nettie completed another pair of butterflies with the larger of the two being a flower pot decoration. The smaller one was made to be suspended from three chains so it can hang from the ceiling to give it the illusion of flying!
 

 

 

Cindy forgot to bring in the pattern for her next project so she looked through suncatcher patterns and decided to make an Iris rather than just sitting around wasting time.   She actually picked something a little more complex than I thought she might but I know that she'll make quick work of this regardless.

  

 

 

Lorrie has resumed work on her Turtle Window and is currently working on the hardest part-- the turtle itself. It's the head and the flippers which are made up of tiny pieces that will slow things down on this window but not by much since Lorrie just plows on through any obstacles that get in her way!

 

  

 

 

Nettie also worked on soldering the first of her  three Nativity windows which when displayed side by side form one large Nativity Scene.  I'll have to talk about the border situation with Nettie when she comes back in because I honestly cant recall what was going on with that.

 

 

 

Susan R has almost the entirety or her Beveled Star USA Plaque cut and is working on grinding those pieces now. How very timely of her to be so patriotic!

 

 

 

Paula's back to work on her 3D Succulent and has all of the fancy soldering done on each of her pieces.  I can safely say that she certainly has the hang of attaching solder drops onto the edges of soldered glass pieces.  Her dots are uniform in size, firmly attached and most certainly rounded rather than misshapen lumps.  I have no doubt that this will come together quickly when she returns.

  

 

 

 

The actual Heron in Julie's Heron window has officially been foiled and ready to be tacked together. Cutting out her flowers will be up next and I'm not sure what color she might decide to use for them or if she'll be using multiple colors throughout the flowers. Time will tell.

 

 

 

 

As predicted, Tracey got her border attached and then began soldering. With so many projects being so close to being completed during Tracey's class it's hard to predict exactly what will be finished on any given class night. All I can say is that this is close now, her soldering is wonderful and her border color is perfect. 

 

Bee's tacked all of her large Roses and Hearts Window together and then picked out, cut, and ground the pieces that make up the final border. This window is her own design and all of the work that she's done on it is amazing. She plans on soldering a lot of this while she's at home so who knows how far along she'll be when she returns.

 

  

 

 

June was hard at work grinding the tail of her Seahorse Window.  Once she finished her grinding the tail scales she cut out more pattern pieces and picked the next color that will make up the upper section of the tail.

 

 

 

MiMi is working steadily on the inside of her lamp as we watch her come closer and closer to the outer edge. The top section around the cap goes quickly because it rotates quicker than the wider outer edge. That said, she can solder more area now without having to rotate her lamp as much so I suppose that in that respect things are possibly a little easier??? 

 

 

 

 

Cheryl's Buffalo Bills Football Helmet now has its front side completely soldered which means that she'll easily finish this when she comes back in.   Since she was able to wrap all of her border pieces and solder the front side in one class I know that she'll easily complete the soldering on the second side with plenty of time to spare.

  

 

 

Martha has all of her Butterfly Window cut, ground and foiled.   The lighter blue border is perfect and I'm going to give this two weeks to go before she completes it and begins something new.

 

 

 

 

Mary is now soldering the second side of her Sunflower Window after having completed the front side. I'm predicting two more weeks on this and then she'll be finished with this stylishly impressive window.

 

 

 

 

MiMi's also been working on another pair of windows while at home and I must say that they are already looking quite amazing!

 

 

 

Betty wasn't in this week but she sent me a picture of the work she completed on her Blue Rose Window while at home. It looks me as though she's nearly finished with this already!

 

Sheri is working on a new window but I realized that I didn't get a picture of the pattern that she had traced out until she had it outside.  I grabbed the camera, ran out to her and snapped two pictures but the sun was so bright I honestly couldn't see anything in the viewfinder.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered  that the lens had fogged up from hitting the humid heat of the outdoors after sitting in the air conditioned shop.  And that explains this picture of should have been Sheri's pattern.   

 

 

Barbara sifted through a lot of the patterns that we have in the shop and settled on a beautiful Art Nouveau design. She's traced it out onto poster board and will begin cutting glass after she looks to see what she might want to use from her glass stash at home.

 

 

Susan D has been here in class with us for the last few weeks but she's working on a major repair job.  Since there's not much to see I don't generally post pictures of repair work unless we haven't seen the piece before.

Then there is Kandise who is working on a repair of her own and who has hit a bit of a snag finding some glass to match what's broken.  She may have to just come close and then  knock out a piece or two in its companion window to keep them both symmetrical. Repairs-- you've gotta love them.

 

Lastly, Judy's Dog Window which is a gift that she doesn't want posted here.  It's moving along again now that Judy is back in class and it's actually nearly complete.  She's even going to add the letters LSU to it by firing them permanently onto the glass in our kiln so that will be exciting.  Perhaps I'll post that piece of glass when it's been fired so I can share something of this window to our constant readers.  

 

With all of that being said be sure to come back next week for even more fun!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Yeah, I'm Not That Guy

Kandise  spent her night soldering away all the while hoping to complete her circular Magnolia.  By the time class was over with she had her window soldered both front and back while still having time to wash and wax it.  I love the colors in this and numerous students have asked about it so this might become a popular pattern in the months to come.  Looking at Kandise's finished piece it's easy to see why there's so much interest in it. 

 

Lorrie's Humming Birds and Flowers Window has been officially completed!   A lot of work went into this large window and all of that work clearly shows.   I know without a doubt that this will be making someone VERY happy indeed. 

 

 

Sheri began this LOVE Heart last week and finished it within the first 15 minutes of class.   She's a little unsure about how visible the LOVE part is but I have no issue spotting the word at all, especially since she filled in the background of the letters with a heavily textured clear glass.  I love it.

 

 

Linda L used another 'depression' plate to make a beautiful panel that sparkles amazingly when in sunlight.   Her ability to easily cut out the deep pointed inner cuts in her background so flawlessly really impressed me.

Let's Oval Flower Window has perfect edges which is ever so important when a channel won't go on the finished piece to cover any minor imperfections.   Why didn't channel go on this?  Well you can't curve brass channel without it bending and kinking.  This isn't large enough to merit the larger bendable zinc channel so tap-tapping with lead is the only way to go.

 

 

 

Barbara finished soldering her Iris Window which she can take all of the credit for.   I'm always impressed when a student comes up with their own design because the hardest part about designing your own patterns is having the confidence to make the first one!  Barbara should be very proud here.

 

 

 

Cindy wrapped up the work on a beveled cross that she had. To make it nice and sturdy she surrounded the bevels with a dark purple iridized glass. Since iridescence is mostly purple it's very easy to place a piece backwards which is what happened to poor Cindy. It's an honest mistake that I've made in the past myself but it was an easy enough fix.

 

Betty replaced the cracked wing on her Bumble Bee Suncatcher quickly and efficiently.  It ended up looking wonderful and still left her with almost the entire class to work on a new project. 

 

 

Nettie completed 2 Iridised Butterflies but I only got a picture of one of them since the other picture was a blurry mess.  :-)  Trust me when I say that the other one is just as beautiful as this one is!

Bee brought in the window that she's been working on so hard while at home.   This week we get to see the fruits of her labor.   This Hearts and Roses Window fits together perfectly and she's now foiling all of her thin and intricate pieces.   She said that the stems that flow through this which also make up the hearts where a bit of a challenge and I understand why.  Thin curving pieces can be horrible to deal with but Bee mustered through it with complete confidence.

 

 

Let also began working on a Bird of Paradise Circular Suncatcher and yep, she has it all cut out and ready to be ground already! In fact, she actually already has the two flowers ground which leaves her with just a few background pieces and the border left to go.

  

 

 

Betty began working on this Blue Rose Transom style window while at home. Because of that she really has a head start on this fairly large window especially when you consider that she's only got one class into it!

 

 

Nettie also brought in her three Nativity Scenes that she's been working on at home. Color me impressed because they look amazing. She was afraid to begin foiling until I looked things over but there's nothing to complain about so she began foiling right away.  You might have noticed that I only have two of the panels pictured but that's only because Nettie was too quick for me and already had one in her car by the time I got to her with the camera. 

  

  

Julie got all of the pieces that form the Heron in her window cut and ground which leaves just the background and the flowers that border the top of the window. I'm going to recommend either cutting and grinding the flowers next or moving onto the flowers at the top of the window because it will be far easier to fit the background to the flowers and bird rather than the other way around. 

 

 

 

Kerri got all of her flowers and leaves cut out and even in this un-ground state you can clearly see how much realism is added to a window when you use multiple shades of a similar color instead of just one single color. This is looking spectacular.

 

 

 

Sheri came into class with a pattern and a plan to use some assorted scrap glass to make her own colorful Fish suncatcher. By the time class ended she had her Fish of Multi Colors not only cut out but perfectly ground as well!

  

 

 

MiMi is soldering away at the inside of her lamp and let me tell you that this thing is sturdy!  The edge is near which means that MiMi will be finished with her magnum opus soon!

 

  

 

Either I'm cracking the whip pretty hard in our class or Martha just plain out has a fire under her to get her Butterfly Window completed.   After tacking the butterfly together she cut her background out, ground it, foiled it and tacked it all together so that she'll only have her border to cut when she comes back in. 

 

 

 

Tracey has her Magnolia tacked together and her border glass picked out. There's no doubt in my mind that she'll be soldering this when she comes back because although a circular border has to be cut by hand it's actually far easier than most people make it out to be. Once it's all wrapped she'll be soldering.

 

 

Mary's a soldering fool with her Sunflower window.  Yes, there's a lot to solder here but I always feel that it's the most relaxing part because all you have to do is sit back and take your time.  Slow and steady ALWAYS wins the soldering race. 

 

 

 

Lastly, Susan R resumed cutting on her USA Star Panel and as you can see the Bevels that make up the star fit perfectly.   We also figured out what all of the numbers in the catalogs mean by taking multiple measurements of various parts of the bevels.   It was the 3/8 that was throwing us off and we've come to find that the 3/8 measurement measures how deeply the bevel cuts into the center of the bevel.  And after all of that IO forgot to take a picture of the work she completed.  Shame on me.


Wishing you all a sunny summer,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks