Soldering The Second Time Around and Around and Around

Where on Earth do these Blog Titles come from you may ask yourself. Well, I'll tell you that 9 out of 10 times they relate to something that was said in one of the classes. Usually it's something that elicited a laugh or two but on its generally doesn't seem to make much sense at all. So rest assured that although you may not understand what the Title is implying, someone who showed up for class surely does.

So first off this week we get to take a look at Julie's first completed Iris Window. I say first because there's still a second one that will sit to the right of this window, It won't be identical nor completely symmetrical but it will form one larger view. Julie really got to sink her teeth into the soldering process and I must say that by the time she got to the second side she really managed to wrestle control of the solder from the soldering iron and get it to flow smoothly. Maybe I imagined it but I think Julie had fun making this window and she's already talking about some windows she plans to make featuring a "sea" of irises.

Does this look familiar? I'm beginning to think that Janice can make this without a pattern now! But the good news is that she's only got 2 more of these to do and then she'll hang them in her windows and be able to admire them without thinking to herself, "Only X more to go!" Great job, Janice!

Roxie managed to complete the bird portion of her window and then get the irises in the bottom right corner cut out as well. She thought that she'd lost one of the feathers that she cut out last week but as I was putting it away after she left I noticed that the head was looking a little funny. The missing feather had managed to end up next to the gray horizontal piece that pokes out behind the birds head. It fit so perfectly we never even saw it. This window is really turning out nice and I can't wait to see it completed.

Grace finished grinding her Fleur De Lis window and then wrapped it and tacked it together. It's my guess that we'll see the background cut along with the SAINTS lettering next week during class. Then it will just need the final background section and a quick border.


And speaking of Fleur De Lis' and pairs of windows, we have Patty's second in a series of 2 Fleur De Lis panels. Her background glass wasn't in yet the morning that classes were to be held so I called her and asked her if maybe she wanted to begin working or something else or even take a week off until the glass arrived. She decided to skip class but then about 6 hours later we got a delivery and Patty's glass was here. I called her and she said, "Great! I'll see you tonight!" And that's why her window has the backgound all cut, ground and wrapped just waiting for the final border before she solders it.

And here's a look at the finished mid-sized Peacock window that I made (It's just shy of 3 feet tall). It was originally going to have a red border around it but just as I was about to cut the strips I decided to see what the blue would look like and as soon as I held it up to the window I knew that was what it needed. I had to dig through a lot of scrap to get enough pieces to go around it but I managed to turn up just enough and still have 2 pieces to spare just in case there was any breakage.

That brings us up to date again so we're all set to start with a fresh set of classes tomorrow night. We'll squeeze in one more post before easter comes around so we'll catch you then!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks