Look Ma, No Glass!

Welcome back! This post will bring us up to date (at least until Thursday night rolls around when I'll have a new weeks worth of progress to report on).

This week we're going to start off with Bonnie P. who has completed her 2 Flower Boxes just as I suspected she would. The bottoms are only made up of 5 pieces of glass but figuring out how to cut them and assemble them is the tricky part. You have to admit that these turned out really nice. Maybe if I'm nice to her she'll make one for me... :-)

Alright, now this is a first. Patty is the first student EVER to make a completed project that required no glass cutting. I know what you're thinking: Bevels. But you'd be wrong. See, Patty had this leftover wooden frame and decided that if she could make a framework that popped inthe back side with 2 bars going across she would have a nice place to hang her ear rings. And this is what she came up with. She even had a small metal flower to hot glue in the corner to give the frame a little more POP!

And now we take a final look at Terry's 2 small Clear Beveled Windows. Yes, it's a pain working with clear glass but in the end you can't help but admire the results. The two window are identical so don't knock yourself out trying to determine where the difference lies. There's just something about clear glass and bevels that's really elegant.

Terry didn't want to waste any time getting on to her next project so she started working on this at home. Whoa! Look at all those pins! I LOVE IT! When this is wrapped and tacked there will be no doubt as to how it will fit together. Terry drew this up herself and is doing a great job with it.

Dianne went all out and decided to make a Rooster Window for her first project. I wanted to see her get the Rooster all cut before class ended but she also got the green hills in the background cut out as well! She has only 2 colors in the sky left to go so I think she'll begin grinding this next week. Talk about moving quickly!


Sonia picked a beautiful iridized blue glass for the neck of her bird. she's also using it as the rounded sections of the feathers that fill the bottom of her window. I really like the choice. She has a lot of other pieces traced out onto glass just waiting to be cut during her next class.

Peewee is making a long Fleur De Lis window that will be accented with 2 small bevels. With the center Fleur De Lis all cut, ground, foiled, and tacked together Peewee will begin his next class cutting and grinding his background. He's moving quickly and doing wonderfully.

Cindy has begun working on her front door. It's a standard size door sectioned off into 9 panels that looks something like this:

Well, what you see below are the top and bottom rows all cut, ground, and wrapped. She'll be working on the middle sections next so we'll start to see this taking shape soon now.

Susan decided that she wanted to make a Fleur De Lis window also. She liked the one we had in the shop but it's orientation was wrong. She wanted something wider than taller. In the end she settled on this pattern and like Peewee, she managed to get her center Fleur De Lis cut, ground, foiled and tacked together. Once her background is cut during her next class she'll be down to borders which will be simple on the strip cutter.

Anita, never one to be sitting down relaxing, has more than put a dent in her second Egret window. By the time she left class it was all set and ready for solder except for 1 small piece that needs to be dropped into place. See, as she was foiling she discovered a large chip on the bottom of her water. She hadn't bothered to bring that glass into class with her since she thought she was finished with it, so what she did was cut a large section of the chip away. I hoped to fill it with th e other blue she had used in the water but as luck would have it we were out of that one as well. So in the end she will simply drop another piece of the water glass into the opening and no one will ever know that she deviated from the pattern. Stained glass is all about making changes on the fly.

Roxie is branching out a bit. A few months ago she made a window with the numbers for her house and now she's making a sign for the Yellow Camp! Whoever took the picture should have straightened out the last 2 letters, huh? And can you guess what color the letters are going to be? Chartreuse? Feldgrau? Malachite? Burnt Umber? Fallo? Gamboge? Perhaps she's decided on Jonquil? Nope-- she's going with boring old Yellow. As it SHOULD be! We'll see some color in this next week for sure.

And that about sums it all up for this, the 3rd week of July. But we'll be back again soon-- you can bank on that.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

National Stained Glass Safety Week

Roxie's Faeries came out perfectly! I said I had high hopes for the clear one and it turned out to be everything we all thought it would be. The silver lead lines against the clear wings along with the shiny silver Faerie body just sparkles away in the light. Of course, her green Faerie is nothing less than stunning as well! But the best part about these two pieces is that the wings went onto the bodies almost perfectly from the start. (Getting them to be symmetrical can be more than a little mind numbing at times...)

As you may already know it's National Stained Glass Safety Week. To help demonstrate the rights and wrongs of personal safety we have Naughty Margret's slow but lovable cousin Mickey-Mitchell showing us what he likes to do in his spare time. Do NOT try this at home kids. It's probably the reason why Mickey-Mitchell sits in his rocking chair in the corner drooling away the day. But HEY! Did you notice the nice frame that Mickey-Mitchell is in? Yep, Patty has completed her frame and I filled it with another one of her lovable sock monkeys just for this picture. Patty thought about putting a flower in one of the lower corners but she would have had to go with something bright to stand out against the black border and she wanted to make sure that the frame wouldn't clash with the room it would be going into so she opted out on the flower. Still, it's a wonderful frame and a good lesson on why Outlets and Paper Clips should never come together.


Cindy has completed her Leaves with Cat Tails Window in record time. Her choice of yellow for the border really made this window pop! The importance of a border color can't be stressed enough because most times it's the border that sets the tone for the window. Without this yellow border all of the colors would appear to blend in with one another giving the window a muted look. Now its anything but muted. Cindy is moving along wonderfully with her stained glass skills.


And as a quick "I Need a Present" project, Cindy threw together this stained glass butterfly. It was made from the same pattern that she made her first project from but this time around Cindy did ALL of the work herself and had it completed well before the end of class. Once she was done with this she began working on the pattern to her door which we'll see next week.

Susan is one of our 3 new students that started this week. She made her butterfly in Amber and Brown. From the minute she held her glass cutter she had a good understanding of what was going on. She'll be working on a Fleur De Lis Window next and I know it's going to turn out nicely. Here's here Butterfly.
Peewee came in and had the standard lesson on cutting glass. From there he moved over to his Butterfly pattern and made it all look easy. He took to the grinder perfectly so I'm sure that his first window will fit together just fine. I always know when someone is seeing the big picture when they worry about symmetry. Peewee will also be making a stained glass Fleur De Lis window but a different pattern than the one Susan will be working on. And this is the Butterfly that Peewee took home.
Dianne is the third of out new students and she ended up having no problem with her butterfly either. Its always nice to see the first project go together so smoothly. Over the years I've tried 3 different Patterns to start students with and I have to say that the Butterfly is by far the best one. 99% of the students feel comfortable with their cutting when it's completed and Dianne was no exception. She'll be working on a nice colorful Rooster Window when she comes back for her next class. Meanwhile, let's take a look at her Butterfly.

I have to admit that I was thinking that Myrt's grapes looked a little plain but I've done them the same way in the past so I assumed it was because there weren't any leaves on the top of them yet. Now that the leaves have been tacked in place I can honestly say that her window has really come to life. The rest of this is just filling in background pieces and adding a border so it should go pretty quickly from here.

Terry now has the first of her 2 smaller clear beveled windows completely soldered. All this needs is a quick soak in the black patina to change the color of the lead from silver to black and this will be finished. Her second window is a good 90% soldered now also so that means we'll be seeing these windows completed next week. It also means that Terry is about to get some color into her life!


Sonia decided to do the smaller Peacock window that Anita had just completed. The larger Peacocks are certainly pretty but there are so many pieces in them that you can't practically re-size them to be smaller. And as we all know, you shouldn't make a piece of stained glass bigger than the window you plan on putting it in. The paper pattern is cut out and the glass she's going to use has all been selected. Sonia is now ready to start cutting glass.

And I'm going to end this by telling you that Fran started her new Duck window by making adjustments to her pattern ( changing the sex of one of the ducks) and then tracing it out, cutting up the pattern and tracing pieces onto the glass. I only now realized that I didn't get a picture of what she did. I promise to do better the next time we see Fran.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

How to Make Those Windows POP!!!

It's been a while since we last saw someone do a peacock and now that Anita has completed hers Sonia is considering making one also. There's something about peacock windows that I've always liked, maybe it's the fact that you can go hog wild with color if you really want to or you can be more demure and go with a less flashy but equally impressive version of the pattern like Anita did here. You can see that she took the time to cut out a fancy triple border which is NEVER easy to do but in the end she gets to go home with this window.


Fran's been busy while she's been home. She came in this week with these windows all ready for solder and when she left at the end of class they were 100% completed. She's really knocking out these Fleur De Lis windows quickly now and I'll bet she can just about make these with her eyes closed. Next up for Fran will be another one of her duck windows.
Roxie was going to wait and finish all 3 of her Faeries at once but she needed a gift and had this one just about completed so with just a slight change in her scheduling she was able able to finished this one first and then spend the rest of her class working on the last 2 Faeries. People have asked me if I'm spelling the word 'Faeries' wrong in the blog and I just explain that it's more colorful to spell it the Old English, or British, way (Faerie) rather than the American way (Fairy). It just looks classier. Oh, and from the back side you can clearly see this Faerie's arse!


Once the soldering was done Roxie finished wrapping her other 2 sets of wings which means that next week Roxie will be doing some more soldering. I can't wait to see the clear one completed!


Pam was back in this week and she made this suncatcher while she was at home. She brought it in to let me look at it before she soldered it all together and I have to say that she didn't need to wait for my OK on this-- it was perfect! And I might add that her soldering is also!

Once Pam completed the soldering on her hummingbird suncatcher she began cutting out the glass for her next project: A butterfly with Tulips. I like the way she's not afraid to use pins to hold things down as she grinds them! She has the background cut out for this also, but I guess I snapped the picture before the glass was cut. My bad!

And here we have a look at Terry's last clear beveled window. It's all together and just needs some channel and some solder for her to call this job OVER! I think Terry has taken away a lot working on this project. She learned a lot of good stained glass tricks on how to get something squared and centered as well as making windows that match. Like Rosie, Terry will be soldering during her next class!

Taking a break from her seafood window, Patty has taken a slight detour into the land of stained glass frames. She needed a gift and she needed a break from tiny pieces so a frame seemed like the way to go. This is pretty much completed since all of the glass is cut and ground. She only needs to tack the final border into place and then attach the hardware behind it before she washes it and colors it. The real beauty of this quick little sidestep is that next week Patty will have a project completed. We all like to be able to bring things home! :-)


Well now, look at this. Cindy has her window all wrapped and tacked together! She fixed her problem pieces at home and added her border during class where she then began soldering it. I'd say she's on a roll here! Expect to see this completed next week along with the other projects I've already mentioned. Cindy's moving really quickly now and really seems to have the hang of this..

Bonnie has her 2 box tops completed and is ready to make the clear 4 sided bottoms. It's a simple process but tricky the first few times through it. Like anything else it gets easier the more you do it. No matter how tricky the bottoms might be I'd expect Bonnie to have these completed during her next class. They may look sort of plain now but wait until you see them washed up and shiny!


That sums up what happened in our classes during the 1st week of July. If our ISP let's me get on the internet again tomorrow we'll get to look at 3 new butterflies in another blog update. Butterflies mean new students so things will be getting interesting around here with some fresh blood (perhaps even literally!) into the mix here.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Canned Corn?

We're going to have to call Fran the Fleur De Lis' Lady. She's got this pattern down to a science now and can make these with her eyes closed. Nice colors, nice glass, a unique shape and pieces that fit together perfectly make this another stunning entry in Fran's portfolio of glass.


Here's a quick look at the next 2 Fleur De Lis' that Fran will have completed during her next class. As you can see one of them just needs to be soldered while the second one still needs to be wrapped before she can cut the border for it. But that won't take long at all.


This is Terry's second window all ready to get its outside border added. Her corners and the connecting bevels are all tacked together now. You can see there's a piece of clear glass under the bottom right hand corner waiting to be traced out so it lines up perfectly with that corner. She'll tackle all four corners when she returns during her next class.

Roxie has all 3 pairs of her Faerie wings cut and ground. She already has the teal wings tacked together so they just need a final soldering before she attaches them to the pewter Faerie body. She's also done something a little different with the clear wind set that may not be obvious on a first glance. Some of the pieces are placed with the rough side up and others with the rough side down. This will give a slight texture difference to the wings that I think will really set them apart.

And just look at Patty's corn! She's gone for a very photo realistic look here and... wait a minute, she brought these in for us to eat-- not to use in her window! I think Patty is worrying too much about that extra ear of corn she found in her window pattern. Maybe we can swap it out for a can of corn...
And here's Patties Seafood window. She now has some shrimp added to the mix. Next week Patty is going to start working on a frame and take a bit of a break from this window. It will give her a chance to work with some larger pieces and get to see something completed. :-)


Wow, did Anita burn the midnight oil when she took this home with her or what? She got this complex border assembled all by herself. Nice job! She's soldering it now which means that we'll see this one completed next week.

And up next is Cindy who will wrap up our post for this week as we see how nicely she did grinding all the glass that makes up her blue sky. Everything is falling together for this window save for 2 pieces of green that she ran short on which she has at home. She also picked out a nice bright yellow for her border- yellow and green always go together well so it's a safe assumption to say that it's going to look nice. I can't wait to see this next week when it's all foiled and ready for solder.

And that about wraps up things this time around. He have 3 new students about to join us so expect to see a few more butterflies shortly!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Rapping with Glass

♫ ♪ Ladies struttin' their stuff ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ comin' into class, ♫ ♪
♫ ♪ Blowin' our minds with ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ their fine stained glass! ♫ ♪

♫ ♪ They know how to work it, ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ They know how to shape it ♫ ♪
♫ ♪ And if things are goin' right ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ They never ever break it! ♫ ♪


Janice has her first window completed and it's looking GREAT! Again, note that the border only travels along 3 sides. This is because the window will continue into a smaller section that sits above this one. Since we want people to notice that the scene is one large picture split between 2 windows we avoid breaking up the flowing pattern as much as possible. Which means that the top window won't have a border along the bottom edge.


Sonia started this Oil Kaleidoscope last week and Rapped it all up the following week. It's a fairly easy project but figuring out just how it all fits together the first time can be daunting. In fact, after making about a dozen of these in class, I think I'm going to modify the pattern a bit to make it easier to solder the final lines which close in the mirrors. Now I can't wait until someone else wants to make one of these. :-)



Roxies Faeries or Fairies or Wood Nymphs or Butterfly ladies or whatever you want them to be (I prefer Faeries myself-- it makes them sound more mystical) are most certainly in the making ere. She has 2 more almost completely cut out now. The top one looks like a blank pattern but that's only because the glass she cut is a clear textured glass. It's going to be stunning when it's all together. Trust me.

Speaking of clear glass, Terry has half of her second smaller window all tacked together. She closing in on the end of this project and she said that she's looking forward to working with color again soon.
Wine and cheese, anyone? Myrt certainly wants some so she'll be hanging this window in er own house rather than giving it away like she does all her other windows. This is really coming together nicely if I do say so myself.
Fran's been making Fleur De Lis windows again. She has 3 in the works here with one of them ready to be tacked together. There are 2 other backgrounds cut out but she left her Fleur De Lis centers at home so she couldn't grind them here in class. She was moving along quicker than she thought she would.
Cindy's window is ready to have a background cut for it. All the leaves and cat tails are cut out now so she's picked a nice shade of blue to give it a sky-like background. I'm starting to think that Cindy has a thing for stained glass leaves since she added leaves similar to this in her last window.

Bonnie got the flowers for her 2 stained glass boxes all cut and wrapped. When she saw how we hung one of the Iris petals down low she decided she wanted to do the same for the rose. Adding a simple leaf to the bottom extended the design lower than the background glass and will give the box owner a place to lift the lid when it's closed. It may not make sense now but it will when toy see it all together.

Patty's making progress on her seafood window. Yep there are a lot of small pieces but in the end this is going to be SOOOOO worth it. you mark my words. She's picked out the glass for her shrimp and will start working on that before you know it.

And that should Rap things up here this week. Come back tomorrow for a second pasting (if the internet wants to work for me)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks