Lost In Perfection

Lorrie came in with her Acadiana Flag Window almost completely soldered, both front and back.   She was unsure of how to fill in the four little slivers of blue that are found in between the yellow Fleur De Lis.  After learning how to easily fill in missing pieces she tacked them into position, soldered around them nicely and then washed and patinaed her window  to finish it off.  Another job WELL done!

 

 

 

 

Let's Cat Tails Window has been completed and her colors are the icing on the cake for this window.  There's not many choices to be made when doing a sprig of Cattails but her choice of texture and border color is what makes this stand out so nicely.

 

 

 

Betty made three of these delightful Daisy Suncatchers.   They're simple (despite the wire work), they're are obviously quick to make, and they are stylishly elegant as well!

 

Zoe has begun her first window with us and everyone agrees that her cutting is nothing short of amazing.  She came in, traced out her Deer Pattern, cut out the paper pattern pieces, and then picked out some brown glass for the deer fur.   By the time she left she had numerous pieces cut and she is already proving herself to be an excellent glass cutter as you can easily see for yourself.

 

 

 

Let had none of this beautiful Flower Window cut out when she left last week-- She only had the paper pattern.  Flash forward to seven days later and we now see all of her glass cut out as well as being perfectly ground!  And her color choices and shading are breath taking.

 

  

 

 

MiMi's Cherry Blossoms and Cardinals Window is shining away even though it's still resting on the table with no light behind it.  Pay attention to her flowers to see how important shading can come into play while only using one sheet of glass.  MiMi has shaded these flowers by careful selecting the dark and light sections of a single sheet of glass. 

 

  

Linda is taking a break from her Carousel Horse Window because she wants to have it finished before we go on vacation and after she possibly has surgery.   Letting a window sit for too long after its been tacked together makes soldering a little harder to accomplish.  That's why she's working on this Multi Colored Fish Panel—  She knows that she can complete it within the next 2 classes. 

 

 

  

 

 

Helen's E.D. White Window features a vivid Cardinal backed by a W.  It's already been tacked together with its front completely soldered so I'm guessing that she'll solder the back side while at home in hopes that she can leave next week with a completed window.

 

 

 

Melissa bordered and then cut the two accent pieces that bookend the heart out of the same glass that she used for her border.  Soldering comes next and once that's done she will apply a long twist of wire to her Sewing Machine to form the thread coming off of the spool and winding its way to the 'needle'.

 

  

 

 

Jan has only four corner pieces left to cut for her Transom Window design.  This will be another quick solder job because there are very few lines throughout this window and they are almost all straight.

 

 

 

Steve resumed work on his Southern Belle Window and the face panel of this project is really coming together now.   He's going to paint the eyes, nose and mouth with enamel paint which will then be fired onto the glass in the kiln.   That is why her face is currently blank.

 

Bee finished off the final border of her large Front Door Insert and has begun the final soldering process.   Although this is a large window the lead lines are mostly straight and even lines.  Although the corner accents are curved they are relatively small which means that the soldering should go fairly quickly on this.

 

  

 

 

Sheri has been working on her Buddha Yoga Window by spending her class time at the grinder.   Everything has been cut and most everything is fitting together nicely if not perfectly.  It won't be long before Sheri begins a new project.

 

  

 

 

Martha has her border attached and the front side of her Roses and Birdhouse Window soldered which means that this will be flipped over and become either completed or very nearly completed when you see it again next week.

 

 

 

Annette completed the final border of her New Orleans Scene by grinding all of the pieces, wrapping them, and then soldering them to the window itself.   With only the steeple of the church left to go it's safe to say that Nettie will be soldering this when she comes back in.

  

 

Betty has the channel attached to her newest Curved Corner Sunflower Window and will most likely put the finishing touches on it when she gets at home.  

 

  

 

 

Barbara has the pattern picked out for her Orca Whale Panel and is ready to see what glass she has at home before she begins cutting anything.

 

  

 

 

Here's a look at the two patterns that Ann is about to embark on.  Both are eight inches (in width and height) and both are 'geometrical' Toruses.  The only difference between the patterns is that one has eight sides and the other has only six. You can specifically see that difference in the center of the toruses.

 

And that's all there is!

Paul

 

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

That Was The Most Stressful Last Hour

Cheryl's Teapot Window was made using an antique depression ware plate.  There was the worry of having the plate breaking when hot solder was run along its perimeter but Cheryl worked just a little bit at a time and allowed plenty of time for the lines that touch the plate to cool off completely before adding more lead.  In the end nothing broke which proves that slow and steady wins the race.

 

 

 

Zoe is our newest student and like so many of our students she came in somewhat blind as to what making stained glass entails.  Fear not though because Zoe never broke a single piece of glass while making her butterfly or even while having her class cutting lesson which involves MANY cuts.  Zoe is a natural at this and her finished Butterfly is as good as either I or any of our long time students could hope to make.

 

 

 

 

Betty finished her new Modern Tulips Window which I have always felt was heavily inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree Of Life.  Look it up and you'll see what I mean.

 

 

MiMi has begun cutting glass for Cardinals and Flowers Window.   She actually began working this while at home and almost has it completely cut out.  There won't be any background glass in this because these birds will be mounted onto a very large 20" hoop which negates the need for background glass and as well as the 'necessary' lead lines that would be required had she made this as a solid window.

 

Lara is taking a quick break from her Louisiana Collage Window to make a Chicken wearing a cowboy hat and a pair of vibrant blue boots.  It's colorful and full of whimsy which is something that Lara can always be counted on to incorporate into her pieces.

 

 

Linda F worked on grinding he background to her Carousel Horse and it is almost completely ground now.   There are only a few of the larger pieces in the center left to grind before she can begin wrapping and tacking to prepare this for a border or two to frame it all out.

  

 

 

Sheri now has all of the glass cut out for her Buddha Yoga Window and the colors are exquisite.   She's unsure of what color she'll be using for the border but If she sticks with a green or amber variation this will surely rock the house.

 

  

Judy added two fence posts to her Cowboy Window and the addition of just a few extra pieces made a big difference in the overall look of the window which is why I have posted what it looked like before she added the posts (on the left) and what it looks like now (on the right).  Soldering is about to ensue!

 

 

 

Susan R has the first of her pair of chefs ground and wrapped.   Once the second Chef is at this stage Susan will tack them and then adjust their position on top of a sheet of glass which has been cut to the size that the entire background for easy cutting.

 

 

 

 

Patrice has the fancy Victorian style border pattern drawn up for her circular Bathtub Lady and will begun cutting glass for that when she comes back in.  She's going to omit the side accents but the style will still be Victorian for sure!

 

 

Kerry's Swedish Chef is all ground and he's already begun to foil his pieces.   We've left the mouth blank and once this is tacked together we're going to play around with the pattern until we think we've got this Chef's mouth looking as good as possible.

 

 

 

Melissa is wrapping away on her Sewing Machine Window and has picked a gorgeous border glass which she also plans on using for the accent pieces that rest on either side of the heart that decorates the sewing machine.  It was a last minute change but one that everyone loved when they saw the glass that you will get to see next week.

 

  

 

 

Lorrie  resumed work on her Acadian Flag Window by tacking it all together and filling in the broken blue piece of glass.   She's got two borders cut out and the first one has already been attached.  Once the second one is in place she'll be able to flip the window around and fill in the smaller blue pieces between the yellow Fleur De Lis'.  The window needs to be flipped because Lorrie has put the bumpy side of the glass on the front of her window.  Since you can't cut on the bumpy side she has to fix any missing glass pieces from the back of the window.  That's just the nature of the beast when you work with the textured side up.

 

  

 

 

Susan D was grinding away on her Owl and is getting very far with her newest circular suncatcher.   This is the first time that she's ground to fit something within a round jig and it appears to be working wonderfully as her circle is as perfectly circular as can be.

  

 

 

Let is in the final act of finishing her Cat Tails Window.  It was without a border when she came into class but by the time she left she had it ground, foiled and ready for soldering.

 

 

 

Annette's New Orleans Scene is fast approaching the soldering stage as she managed to get her inner border cut, ground, wrapped and tacked onto her window.  The strips have been cut for the final red border and that will be skimmed on the grinder then wrapped and attached when she returns.

  

 

 

Cindy's got Two Super Heroes just about completed. She's thinking about painting details onto each of them.  We'll see what she does when we return in two weeks.  As they stand right now, I think they look great!

 

  

 

Martha has been working hard on wrapping all of the pieces for her Birdhouse and Roses Window and has gotten very far along in the process.  The end is fast approaching and it won't be long before she takes this home as a completed window. 

 

 

 

Jan managed to get the background glass cut ground and wrapped for her Transom Window which means that she has all of her glass cut save for the final border which she'll attach when she returns.  This project is moving along quickly for her and proves that simple can indeed be elegant.

  

 

 

Shelley's got a Butterfly Suncatcher in the works with this one being in profile rather than the standard, symmetrical top down view.   She may turn this into a lawn ornament but on that I'm unclear.   At any rate, she's gone with nice bright colors that compliment each other perfectly.

 

 

 

 

And to wrap thing up we see that Betty also worked on her newest rendition of the Curved Corners Sunflower Window.   Everything has been ground which means that she can now wrap her border and get ready to do some soldering.

  

 

To all of our regular readers, send all of our love to your spouses!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

When Madness Takes Its Toll

Linda L has achieved perfection on her first Name Plaque Window.  People agonize over lead line placement to make cutting easier but if you can remember three simple rules then the end result will look just fine.  1) Add ONLY lines which are needed.  2) Lines should be short yet long enough to be practical to cut. 3) CURVE YOUR LINES!!  Skylar's name looks wonderful in glass because Linda followed these rules.

 

  

 

Let has a new Heart design completed this week and the purple glass that she used for the heart itself ties in wonderfully with the two different shades of purple that she used in the iris.   People get concerned when a border doesn't exactly match a color in the window but it really helps to add depth to a piece when you use similar but different colors.  Again, the purple in the heart does NOT exactly match either of the purples used in the Iris and the overall effect looks much better because of that.  It's all about diversity.

 

 

Next up we have another heart with a different flower inside of it.  Also, the overall look of the finished heart has a completely different aesthetic from the heart seen above.  Betty makes many of these because they sell so quickly for her.  Because of the sheer number of these Sunflower Hearts that she has made you can never find fault with them.

 

 

 

Barbara completed her LSU Window in record time and boy has her cutting ever become top notch.  These letters are as neat as a pin and the colors just scream "TIGERS"! 

 

 

 

Annette loves to work on things while at home and this week she brought in this lovely Dove Cross Suncatcher that she made using iridized glass.  That's not all she did though- we'll take a look at her other project a little later on in this post.

Lorrie's latest Window was begun last week and this week she already has the lion's share of it completed.   Sadly,  a piece of the blue background glass was broken while cutting it to make room for the small yellow Fleur De Lis'.  To fix this Lorrie will tack everything together and then slip a piece of the blue glass behind the window so she can trace the opening onto the new piece of blue glass.  Once that's done she'll fill in her small pieces in a similar fashion and then work on a border or two for this.

  

 

 

Linda L has the next name for her second Name Plaque in her sights and has all of the letters cut out and ground already.   She's in the process of foiling the pieces and once she tacks them together she'll place them on top of her background glass, trace around them, and begin cutting.

 

 

 

 

With her Spiderman Suncatcher all cut and ground Cindy is now ready to wrap Peter Parker's pieces in copper foil and then solder both of these super heroes!

 

 

 

Let is making a new window this week which features flowing Cat Tails.  You can't see from the picture below but all of the clear glue chip glass that she's using for the background as been cut with almost the entirety of it having been ground as well.  I look at this and the first thing I think is, 'borders next week'! 

  

 

 

Sheri's  Buddha Yoga Window will feature green and amber colors predominantly.  You can see that she's well on her way here and when she returns we'll likely see some of those amber tones come into play.  I love how the pattern alternates green and amber for balance

 

  

 

 

Jan is now ready to dive into some glue chip for her background glass now that she's cut, ground, and wrapped the pieces for the inner border of her Transom Window.  It may seem a bit backwards to do it in this order but this ensures perfect fits along with (more importantly) the correct finished size.

 

 

 

 

Judy liked my idea for an addition to her window but we did not have the glass that we needed to make it actually happen.  She's foiled all of the pieces that wouldn't be affected by the small change and will incorporate the modification when she returns next week.  Sorry for being so cryptic but it's easier to show you next week rather than trying to explain it this week.

 

 

 

Susan R's Chefs Window is also coming together quickly.  She's got all of her subject matter cut out and has already begun grinding the pieces that make them.   Once this pair of chefs are ground and tacked together Susan will position them onto her background glass close enough to allow her to get some border glass on each side of this window.

 

  

 

 

Meanwhile, Susan D has completed cutting out all of the glass for her round Owl Window.  She's begun grinding her pieces and has figured out for herself that the best way to ensure that this keeps a perfectly circular edge is to grind that first.   Now she's fitting the centermost pieces into the background.

  

 

 

Kerry's Swedish Chef is clearly recognizable now that the majority of the pieces that make him have been ground.  There's still a a few pieces left to go but Kerry is in the home stretch now!  We've left the mouth blank because I was unhappy with how I originally drew the pattern but I think we know ho to make that look just fine now.

 

 

 

Melissa was busy foiling her Sewing Machine Window and I suspect that before you know it she'll be adding the wire work which will become the thread of this window.  I think that everyone who has ever made this has come up with their own idea to put a new twist on this popular pattern but Melissa's twist is more extreme than most and I think it's going to be the way to do this from here on out.

 

  

 

 

Just look at this!  Annette has fitted almost the entirety of her pieces into position and has also tacked a good 98% of her very complex New Orleans Window. The Jazz and Blues sign as well as the Fleur De Lis Flag have been fired in the kiln so that nothing fades or comes off over time and she's just about set to get her borders cut and attached!

 

 

 

June's Darth Vader is looking more and more ominous with each passing week.  So then, let me ask you-- Why did Darth Vader cross the road?   To get to the dark side!

 

  

 

 

Cheryl's Teapot Window just needs two more pieces of its final border foiled and then she'll be able to tack this together and begin soldering.  The only thing she has to remember is to NOT apply too much heat along the plate itself.  Simply make one pass with solder and then allow things to completely cool down before trying to fix any problems with the lead line that has just been created.

 

 

Martha's Birdhouse and Roses Window is now being foiled and this is when the window truly comes to life.  The copper foil helps to reveal where all of the lead lines will be seen which makes the window look even better than it already does now!

 

 

Lastly we look at the Modern Tulip Window that Betty is working on.  It got foiled, wrapped and tacked together this week and Betty even attached a brass channel to it as well.   I'm thinking that this will surely be among our completed windows in our next post.

 

May the Force be with you.

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks