Barbara finished soldering her window last week while she was home and brought it back in for me to look over and possibly touch up before she gives it to her daughter this coming Christmas. Her soldering has improved greatly since she made her Cross Window just a few short weeks ago. Now that this is finished Barbara is contemplating wrapping it up and delivering it as an early Christmas gift (something that always seems to happen when people finish handmade gifts early). Barbara did a great job on this window and it certainly shows. I think she should let this finished window be enjoyed for the next 6 months rather than tucked away somewhere unseen. :-)
Lea finished cutting out the remaining green colored strips that trim all of her bevels and then held her breath as we cut up the clear glass that she originally had in her doors. She's using the original glass for her background and if anything were to break we'd have a hard time matching it. Luckily, it was very easy to cut and there were no problems at all. The only thing left for this window is the final border and then Lea will be able to get working on her second matching door. It's hard to see in the picture but all the clear glass is cut, ground and laid out in place just waiting to be wrapped. I suspect that we'll have this window all cut out next week...
Having finished her Humming Bird Window, Barbara drew her new pattern all by herself and then asked if anything needed to be changed. Well the answer was a decided "No!" because the pattern was perfect. We added the lead lines that will break up the background glass but nothing had to be changed on the Daffodils at all to make this into a stained glass window. Barbara will be making 2 of these windows in a mirror image format. She has all the yellow cut out and took the time to make sure that all of the black line she traced on her glass was cut off before she got to the grinder. This means that she'll only have to skim her glass to get it all to fit together. She's taken the green glass home so she can cut it all out before she comes back to class. Look for some major progress to occur on this window in the next week.
Ann ground all the glass she cut out for her Humming Bird Window which means she was able to take this home to wrap. We were somewhat surprised to see Ann this week because we had thought she would be on her way to Alaska but we all forgot that he class this week fell on Tuesday rather than Wednesday which meant that she was able to make it in for a third class before going on vacation. She certainly had no problems getting everything ground-- as you can see it all fits together perfectly. When we see Ann again we'll get the circular background all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked. Meanwhile, I hope she has a great time in Alaska!
Janice worked on the final border of her window and now has only 3 pieces left to cut (the arrows in her picture show the missing pieces locations). These are the last pieces of this project which means that we're sure to see her soldering this next week since she'll be able to knock out 3 pieces inside of 20 minutes (Janice is a pro at this now). She's taken the border that she cut home with her so she can wrap them outside of class and tack them into place as soon as she comes back in. Janice plans to work on her French doors when this project is completed.
Sheila began working on 4 cabinet doors that she has in her house. She's using the same pattern for each door so this week she began cutting all the the pieces that form the oval frame for all 4 doors before she puts any together. It slows her down initially but once they're all cut and ground she'll be able to have all the inserts replaced quickly. She has almost all the glass cut for each of them so I know we'll see her slaving away on a grinder next week. :-) You can see her pattern below along with some of the glass she cut.
Mary Lynn had a rough idea of what she wanted to make and spent the first part of the class deciding on a specific pattern. In the end she decided to make this parrot that we found in a catalog in the colored bevel section. Mary Lynn is simply cutting it out of glass rather than using pre-cut bevels (and saving a LOT of money doing so!) She only has about 4 feathers left to cut and then the leaves and branch. I'm expecting to see Mary Lynn grinding next week (just like Sheila will be) unless she manages to grind while she's at home, which knowing Mary Lynn is entirely possible! Isn't this a nice pattern?
Jane finished wrapping all of her glass and has about half of her window tacked together now. This means that next week she'll be able to take this home to solder rather than working on it solely in class. The reason it's stayed in the shop this long is because her window has about 425 pieces in it that are, for the most part, fairly identical. That combined with the fact that it doesn't easily fit through the door means that Jane had to work on it here in class until it was all tacked together so we could hold it sideways to get it out the door without having it slide of the board and mixing up all the pieces!
Darlene began work on her Mickey Mouse Window and made incredible progress. SHe traced out her pattern to make a second copy and then colored it so she'll know what color each piece is when she has it all cut up waiting to be traced onto her glass. Darlene had some grip issues with her left hand which makes cutting glass rough for her but this week she fought with it and seems to have come up with a 'death grip' (her terminology) which appears to be working quite well for her. I told her that we'd manage one way or another and Darlene is proof that if you really want to do something you can find a way to get it done. She got a lot accomplished this week and should be very proud of her work. It already looks like Mickey Mouse and it hasn't even been ground yet!
Last but not least we have Grace's Fleur De Lis Window. She picked a clear glass called Niagara for her background which is about twice as thick as normal glass. This normally wouldn't be a big problem but she has two really thin pieces in this window which are really working our nerves here. We've left them for next week so we can rest a bit and collect our wits before tackling them again (we've already broken them twice). And poor Grace is double wrapping the Niagara glass because the foil we have doesn't fit around both sides of the glass. Even with the 2 broken pieces missing you can get a good feel for what this window will look like she finishes it. I really like her colors AND Grace's work on this.
So that about wraps it up for this week. Everyone have a GREAT 4th of July and we'll be back sometime next week. Hey, the Blog is actually finished early! I guess it IS possible to get this done in a timely fashion. lol
Paul
Bayou Salé Glassworks
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