Point To Point

We have a new student this week. And we all know what that means: "Have you ever cut glass before?", "Next we're going to cut a circle", "Before we cut the curve we cut point to point", "The grinder can't cut you", "That's a graceful curve", and "We aren't waxing the glass, we're waxing the lead". And after all those standard lines that a new student hears and the old students are sick of, we get a butterfly.

And this is Patty's completed butterfly. Talk about someone who has no problem cutting glass. She said she's never done it before but she could sure fool me. Patty's orange butterfly came out perfectly and I'm looking forward to getting her started on a larger window next week.

This pattern was drawn up about 2 years ago but no one ever made it until last week when Tommy decided to try something a little different from his standard LSU letters. I think it works nicely.

Meanwhile, Cheryl worked on re-cutting the pieces her cat knocked on the floor. I knew she'd manage to catch up to where she should have been and sure enough her tiger eyes are all cut and ground just waiting to be wrapped now.

Julie has a good 80% of her window tacked together and it's looking great. She'll certainly finish cutting her glass next week and get to work on her border. There's on the upper left side of her background that needs to be cut before she cuts a border (if she decided to put a border on this window).

Grace has finished soldering the first side of her window and we turned it around so she could get the second side. She's got her next window all picked out already and it will be a little smaller than this project. But that's not to say that it isn't just as nice...

Christine cut out a lot of this rose cross while she was at home and then finished cutting the remaining pieces while she was in class and then ground everything as well. She's taken it home to wrap and I'm sure we'll see the finished results next week.

Janice took a much deserved break from her windows to do this happy/sad face theatrical design. Although it's a large window (4 foot by 3 feet) it should go fairly fast for her. It's a bit hard to see what it is just yet you should start to see it taking shape next week.


And that was it this week. Jane will be working on 2 lamps next week and I can't wait to see what they look like. I know Fran is working on some more masks at home and she plans to have them all cut ground and wrapped when she comes in.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Eye Of A Tiger

We've been away on vacation and getting ready for the week off has tied me up more than expected. This update is actually from 2 weeks ago so disregard the date on this post and realize that all you are about to read happened during the second week of September. Look for this weeks blog to be posted Friday night (we just wrapped up classes for this week tonight (Thursday)).

Janice has completed the last window of this pattern! I think she can do them in her sleep now. She still has a few more to go but they will all be made from the secondary pattern. But before she starts those she plans on taking a bit of a break and work on a window for her son.

Julie accomplished a lot this week when she began cutting the background pieces of her window. She got the laurel wreath section tacked together and then cut the glass between it and the rose. After that was ground and wrapped she tacked it into place and then got the right side of her window's background cut and ground. She took those pieces home with her to wrap and will tack that section together during her next class.

Cheryl began working on an LSU/Tiger window but I forgot to take a picture before she walked out the door with it. So I've found some early pictures of the last one she made and am re-posting one of those pictures to let you see just what it is she's working on. Regrettably, one of Cheryl's cats jumped on her project and broke 10 pieces when it landed on the floor. It's a set-back but only a slight one. She'll be back on track when we see her again during the next class.

Grace has the front side of her window almost completely soldered. There's no doubt in my mind that she'll flip it over and begin the back side of her window during her next class. We're removed it from the board that it was built on and I must say that it's a nice and sturdy window when you lift it up.

That's about it for the second week of September. As I said, I'll have another post for this week on Friday evening which will bring us up to date again.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Cheryl's Peacock Window Takes 1st Place!

A big Congratulations! goes out to Cheryl whose Peacock window that she completed in June won 1st Place at the "Shrimp And Petroleum Festival" in Morgan City Wednesday. I know she enjoyed making it and I'm sure that this just makes the entire experience even better.

Good job Cheryl! And again, Congratulations! You've done us proud...



http://www.shrimp-petrofest.org/

Paul and Russ
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Cake, Cookies and Hurricanes!

It was a good week here in our classes as we have 4 completed projects to show you. Also, we had cake and cookies and Hurricanes during our Wednesday night class to celebrate something that will be revealed in an extra Blog post tomorrow... I'm going to leave all of you in suspense with that teaser and move on to the progress that was made this week.

Gerald's window is complete and back at home. In fact it's most likely installed into his mother's front door by the time you are reading this. He's promised to send us pictures of it from the house so we can get the full effect of the flowers. In the future he plans on doing the two sidelights that surround the front door. Didn't this turn out nice?

Cheryl has finished her cat window. She did the lions share of the soldering at home and we both agreed that a final border really wasn't necessary for this design. Rather than using a thin brass channel Cheryl went with the wider zinc channel which actually frames it out nicely. We loved the cookies and the Hurricanes that Cheryl brought with her. Which reminds me that I have to give out a BIG "Congratulations!" to Cheryl (have I built up enough suspense already?)

Denise hasn't been sitting home just watching TV all day this past summer. She's made a Magnolia window (can you see the fancy hangers she made for it? They're nice!) and an LSU style window complete with half of a Fleur De Lis. Here's Denise's Magnolia Window:

And here's Denise's LSU style window:
Janice added her border and began the final soldering job for her window. She has three more to go after this one but she plans on taking a break and doing something a bit different after this window is completed. After doing 8 of these windows (possibly more-- I've lost count!) I can understand why she wants to tackle something else to break up the monotony. BTW, thanks for the great cake, Janice!

Grace went to work soldering her window. It's been a while since she's used a soldering iron and with the added burden of having used 1/4 inch foil I thought that I might need to give her a refresher course in soldering. I was wrong. Grace is taking her time and getting the bead correct on the first shot which really makes this go easier since it's much tougher to smooth the lead line out by remelting the solder. This window is really shaping up to be spectacular.

Jane worked on the border of her Peacock window this week. After it was all assembled she attached the zinc channel to finish it off. She'll complete the soldering at home and we should see a finished Peacock next week. Jane is looking at lamps again and is thinking about possibly making a pair of lamps for the nightstands in her guest room.

So there you have it. Be sure to come back later on Sunday for the reason we all celebrated Wednesday night!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks