More, More, More

Butterflies are certainly the rage here. Jane is getting orders for them as fast as she can make them. She's now got the process down pat and only brought her last 4 in to get the rods cut to size. And she's no longer just making them as lawn ornaments-- the smaller pink butterflies in the pictures below all go together to make a stained glass mobile.

And when Jane isn't working on butterflies she manages to find the time to work on regular flat panel projects as well. She made this Eagle window once before but this time she's added more detail to the pattern by adding extra feather. It still needs a border but that won't be any trouble for Jane.

Julie had about half of her window ground last week and this week she managed to finish the rest of it off. It's all fitting together perfectly and only needs to be wrapped so she can start soldering this project. Sadly, I forgot to snap a picture of the window before it was disassembled so I'm just re-posting the last picture I have of it. Look for a newer picture in our next update.

Roxie started working on a large frame this week. She has all her glass picked out and even got to use the Strip Cutter or the 'Magic Tool' as Julie likes to call it. The frame will be doubled bordered with a single large square in each of the four corners. Here's her inner border all cut, ground and wrapped. She needs just 18 more border pieces and then four corners that Roxie will cut during her next class. Once that's done this project will be all ready for solder.

And lastly we have Patty who got started working on her 2 Fleur De Lis windows. Each window is almost 3 feet wide a Fleur De Lis on each side. Patty cut out all 4 of her FDL's and even got 2 of them ground before calling it a night. Since she took them home to wrap I'd expect to see the background cut for one of these windows during our next class.

We missed seeing Janice and Grace this week but sometimes work manages to get in the way of our fun here at class. Check back soon and see what happens next here on the cutting table.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We're Bayou Salé Glass not The Gap

We have plenty of completed projects this week so let's start the unveiling.

Here we get a look at Patty's 'Tabasco' window completed and hanging. I love the red she used in her bricks and really want to use it for flowers in a Peony lamp. But enough about what I plan to do and more about Patty. Her window was a big hit all the while she was working on it. It's just a shame that the students who enjoyed watching it take shape couldn't see the finished window in person but this picture captures it perfectly.

In this final round, Janice now has 1 window down and only 3 more to go. The second one is just waiting for its background to be cut so it will be finished within the next few weeks. I know I've said it each time I posted a finished version of these windows but I have to say it again: I just love the colors she decided to do this pattern in. Janice already has a number of projects lined up after she finishes the last of these windows.


Roxie decided to make a small project rather than something large and this cross was a perfect pick. Considering that she ordered many of these crosses from us around Christmas time it's only fitting that she's actually made one herself now. Look for a larger project from Roxie next week!Jane has gone butterfly happy. While she was home she reduced the size of her first lawn ornament butterfly so she now has 3 different sizes to chose from. The first two pictured below are the original 12" versions of the pattern.

And these 2 are Jane's smaller 9" butterflies. She's on a roll and I know we'll be seeing more of these next week.
All of Julie's window is cut and she's ground the lower section up to the bottom of the middle Iris. When you really look at the pattern you can see that she's about halfway finished with the grinding portion of this project. I expect to see it all ground and ready for foil next week. Julies moving along nicely with this project so I'd best get out my pencil and get the companion window to this one drawn up quickly!

Grace has her borders all cut and tacked so this window is ready to be soldered. She has it all tacked together but we want a nice, smooth, rounded bead of lead on all of her lines. We won't settle for anything less than perfection! And Grace has the soldering ability to make that happen.

We'll only have 4 students next week but we'll still have completed projects. This post is a little over a week late so expect us to get caught up with all that's happened in class by Saturday.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

French Weave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.95

Although the cold weather has the garden looking rather peaked, Jane's butterflies certainly do a lot to make it good again. It's just a shame that she took them home with her! When she left last week she had cut and ground the larger of the three butterflies. When she got home she decided to scale the pattern down and make another one slightly smaller. She shrunk the pattern twice and couldn't decide which one looked best so she took the safe way out and made both smaller versions. Back in class it took us about 10 minutes to come up with the best way to attach them to the poles that anchor the butterflies into the ground but what we came up with worked perfectly. They're solid enough to never come off the pole but easy enough to remove for a quick cleaning without pulling the entire pole out of the ground.
We had a new student start classes this week and readers who frequent this Blog all know what that means-- we have a new butterfly to check out. Roxie really caught on quickly and finished her first suncatcher with time to spare. As you can see from the picture she went with three different shades of green. I'm not sure what's on her mind for her next project but I'm pretty sure she wants to do a Cross suncatcher at some point. Perhaps next week we'll see one finished here on the Blog.

Wow, I must say that I was impressed when I saw that Julie has all of her first Iris window cut out. In the end she decided to replace 3 pieces of glass in one of her Iris' because they just didn't blend in correctly with the rest of the glass, but I suspect we'll manage to work them into the other window she'll be making. Make sure you click on the picture to see a larger version of it. Since it's tall and narrow it's hard to see in the thumbnail below.

Janice elected to solder her window in class after she got her outer edge of the background (the triangle sections) and borders attached. As I said before, she has this window down to a science now. This window is almost out the door and I wouldn't be surprised to see this completed next week.

Grace picked a heavily textured glass for her background (nothing new there!) but this one was fairly easy to cut. Rather than run the grain horizontally or vertically she decided to run it at a slight angle, sort of like rain in the wind. The end result is very attractive. She picked black baroque glass for the smaller inner border but she's not quite sure what the final border will be. She's got a week to mull it over so she can start soldering this when we see her again next Tuesday.

Lastly, we get to see the front of Patty's window all soldered. The brass channel has been attached and the Tabasco name has been baked onto the glass. She soldered this on her own and I've got to give her two thumbs up for doing such a great job. There's no doubt that this will be a finished window next week so come back and check this one out when it's all cleaned up and back-lit.

We have 2 windows near completion-- one will surely be finished and the other is going to be very close. Check back with us to see how they turn out.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Can't Make A Window Without Breaking Some Glass

Since we don't have any completed projects this week I went ahead and put the windows we just installed at the end of this update. We'll be seeing some finished student projects shortly as more than a few students are finishing up with their work. And Jane's lamp is a good example of that now that it's nearly complete. Although it's the same pattern as the last one she made she's changed the glass this time around and made it out of entirely new colors. Jane plans on making a third lamp with the same mold, but with a different pattern that involves a flower border. All that this lamp needs is a cap and then we'll see it completed.


Jane not only got her lamp almost finished -- she also worked on this butterfly lawn ornament. She got it all cut and ground during class so this is another project we should see finished very soon.


Grace began making another one of her Fleur De Lis windows. She wasn't sure what she was going to make when she came into class so she started looking through some of the patterns we had laying around. When she stumbled upon this one she decided that she'd like to do it again but with a different color scheme. She got all of the Fluer De Lis sections cut and ground during the first class and only has 8 pieces of background to cut before she gets to the borders. She'll be making her borders square rather than using the leaf-like border that you see in the pattern. This may not make much sense now but it will be much easier to see next week when her background is completed and then tacked in place.


There's not much left for Patty to do on her window either. She finished grinding it during class this week and then got all of it wrapped and ready for solder. Patty has decided to forgo a border on this window and I think that it will look just great without one. The other option would be to go with a double border (because a single border would look too plain) but that might actually take the focus away from the center of the window. It's always tough to know what to do when you have a project that looks this good already. :-)


Julie began cutting glass on her first of two Iris windows. She's looking to make a colorful window but not one that screams 'LOOK AT ME!' I think she's doing just fine. She's questioning 3 particular pieces of glass that she's cut and will decide if she should change them next week when she comes in to begin cutting her leaves and background. I have to give her credit for considering changing anything that she's cut. All too often students believe that once a piece is cut it's more or less set in stone. Sometimes you can't really tell what something will look like until it's cut out in in place. And if you don't like it I always recommend changing it. I've replaced MANY pieces in windows I've done over the years including the ones you'll see at the end of this post.


And yet once again Janice has moved along quickly and efficiently with her window. I suspect this one will be all tacked together next week and then she'll decide on whether she wants to solder the window here in class or at home. She's got another center piece all cut and ground for her second window so she has options on what she'll be doing when we see her again Wednesday night.


Lastly, here's a look at the Iris windows that we've been working on here in the shop. When each window was cut and ground it was put aside and then another would take its place on the back of the work table. A lot of students didn't realize there were actually 3 different windows so here's a look at all three of them installed in their new home out in New Orleans. Make sure you click on the picture to see all the detail.

And that brings us to the end of our post this week. We'll return in another week with more on what's been happening in our classes.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks