Is The Juice Really Worth The Squeeze?

Our first window this week is a remake of the window that Nettie made just a few months back.  It's been slightly readjusted but the theme reminds the same:  LSU Pride!

 

 

 

Cindy made these two large Suncatcher/Panels during our two weeks off while she was at home.   She brought them in so we could take pictures and share her finished work with you all!

 

 

 

Just like Cindy, Cheryl completed this while at home and has one other that she plans on bringing in next week.  That said, expect to see a similar design when we return again in seven days.

Tracey has been hard at work on her Cross Window which features a traditional cross set atop a traditional diamond background. Tracey's attention to detail ensures that this Cross and its background are both perfectly balanced.

 

 

 

 

Bee's Long Tall Iris is taking shape already and I'm going to recommend that she uses a glass that says "WOW" for the pot that holds this flower. It's what I've always done and that have always been crowd pleasers (possibly because of the ornate pot).

 

 

Susan R has decided to cut one one more Rain Gauge and it looks as though she's be putting them together before you know it. She'll have a curving wire attached to the lead lines which will hold a glass tube which will reveal how much rain has fallen due to its graduated markings. 

 

Meanwhile, MiMi's soldering  has reached the bottom edge of her lamp! Look out because this lamp is nearing completion now that there are only a few inches left to go on this.

 

 

 

Cindy began this cute Frog Suncatcher which I have no doubt will be completed when she comes back in.

 

  

 

 

Mary's Fish is all tacked together and she even has the first of its two borders cut and ground. The first inner border will be attached when she comes back in and then she'll handle that final border. 

 

 

 

When I posted Lara's Flower Window here a few weeks back I realized that there was a way to add the stamen to this flower without making it look somewhat clunky. The trick is to use wires and beads. When I mentioned it to Lara she jumped at the idea and re-cut two of her flower petals to accommodate this new design change.

 

  

 

 

Linda F isn't wasting any time on her next window which is already completely cut out as well as being mostly ground as well. These assorted Vegetables are coming together almost as quickly as it would take to make a pot of vegetable soup!

 

  

 

 

Martha's Rose/Cross is all cut and ground which means that she'll be soldering this before you know it. If you don't know how long 'before you know it' is, well in this case it means next week!

 

 

 

With all of her Peacock soldered the last thing that Kandise needs to do to complete this is attach it to its metal hoop. The great news is that even though this wasn't drawn to be placed within a hoop it ended up fitting perfectly within an 8" hoop! For all intents and purposes this is finished!

 

  

 

 

Let has not one but two projects that are coming to an end here. Her Art Nouveau Window as well as her new Daisy Heart Suncatcher just need to be soldered before they find themselves in a window somewhere out there! 

 

 

Lorrie brought in her Turtle Window with her background not only cut and ground but tacked into position as well.   That left her with just a double border to cut, grind, foil and tack which she did while in class. She'll get a heavy zinc channel on this when she comes back in and then we'll see it hanging up with light behind it.

 

 

 

 

Betty's Blue Rose is nearing completion as she solders away on it. This is another window that just needs some soldering and then some channel attached before it is finished.  Betty really threw herself into this window and I'll tell you all something interesting about it when it is completed and has some light behind it.

 

  

 

 

Something tells me that next week is going to be VERY busy because I'm seeing a lot of projects nearing completion here. Is it just me or does it look as though Linda L's two Bluebirds stepped out of a Disney Cartoon?! The only thing left to do these cute birds is to attach them to the plated steel hoop and then wash and wax them.

 

 

 

Cheryl's all clear Fleur De Lis window is nearing completion as she got her beveled border put together and then her background glass cut out. She's still grinding those background pieces and I believe that she plans on adding a second border but the hard part of this is surely behind her now.

  

 

So there you have it. Please don't forget that all of this is off the record unless otherwise indicated.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

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