The Palmer Girls: Addicted To Love

Although our classes resumed for the first time in 2014 last week, this week marks the first of the year when every class was able to have students attend.  That means that unlike the last two Blogs Updates, this one is fairly large.  When the last class ended I realized that it was one of those rare weeks where no one completed a window which meant that I had no picture to feature in the email notification or on Facebook.   But then I remembered that I skipped something about 2 weeks earlier so we'll start with that.

But first, let's see what our class looked like on Wednesday morning:

And I'm just going to let you wonder what that is all about.

Okay, so Cindy had put together this 3D Beveled Star a while back and I just flat out forgot to post the picture.  So I guess in the end it worked out perfectly since it gives us a completed project to look at.  Cindy had wrapped all of her bevels at home and even soldered a nice rounded bead around all of the edges so when she came in she only needed to see how the 13 pieces were assembled.  It was easily completed within a half hour and, as always, it's stunning!

Ann began working on her Fleur De Lis/ L Window.  She's really moving quickly on this since she only began cutting it out this week.  However, she's going to change the straight lines coming off of the points of the four Fleur De Lis when she cuts out the background glass.  The straight lines bothered me so I penciled in a curve and we both agreed that it made the window look even better.  Those lines will be the last pieces of glass cut because we're going to grind the center circle and have it tacked together before Ann cuts out her background glass.

 

Becky's first Three Ladies Window is also coming along nicely.  With almost all of the glass cut for three of these windows Becky began grinding the first window.  There's really only the hats and the flesh to go before she can wrap this one and move on to the second version of the window.  Once she has the first one ground the other two will go much quicker.  I don't know why that is, but it happenes to anyone making duplicate windows.

 

I think that the time off we've had over the past two weeks was really hard on our students because the amount of work that's been accomplished in just one class is amazing.  Here's a look at the Hot Air Balloon that Betty began this week.  There are only five pieces left to go(!) and then she can begin grinding this window.  And it fits together beautifully already!

 

Wow, Terry's latest pattern really blew me away.  It's so nice to see a student's abilities grow week by week and Terry always manages to surprise me.  Her pattern is spectacular and the work is the same.  Yes, this is moving along very quickly (it's only a week old!) and that's because Terry is working on this window with her sister, Brenda.  When they came into class they began wrapping it and by the end of the night they managed to finish their wrapping duties.   With just some fancy border work left to be done, I know we'll be seeing this completed soon.

 

And Cindy resumed work on her Texas Star Window and by the end of class 100% of the glass was cut and ground now.  There isn't a lot to solder on this so I'm expecting to see this one finished quickly because that's how Cindy is.  I think she'll be working on a pair of dog windows after this is completed.

 

Janet has her twelve inch Saints Fleur De Lis window all ground and wrapped.  She's a bit concerned about soldering it but that's just the old 'I can't solder' jitters that everyone feels.  Even though Janet is somewhat new she solders wonderfully.  When she finishes this next week and has yet another project under her belt I know she's feel more secure in her abilities.  Mark my words.

 

Jeanne's  planning on making a horse head window but we didn't have a pattern that she liked this week so she started on this small beveled Fleur De Lis Window.  There are only 6 pieces left to go before she can start soldering it and I'm expecting that to happen when she comes back in next week because this window is almost finished.

 

Susan's Abita Beer Window is really filling in now.  All of her wheat, letters, and barrel pieces are ground and fitted into place.  The background is just almost all cut and ground save for the small fill in pieces that she'll add after this gets tacked together.  Just wait until the actual bottles get added into this window-- it's going to be something else!

 

Linda F managed to get all of her borders cut for her Tiger Claw LSU Window and most of them are even tacked into place.  There are only two or three fill-ins that she'll do after everything is tacked together.  She hopes to be able to work on this at home during week and I hope that she can, but if she can't we'll still see this get pretty far.  And if she can work on it at home there's a good chance this will be finished when you see it again.

 

I didn't get a picture of Bonnie's Star this week but she had it all wrapped and tacked together when she left for home with the window under her arm.  She plans on soldering it during the week (time permitting) so I'm pretty sure that this will be another completed window next week!

 

Linda L's Beveled Fleur De Lis Window is another one that has made amazingly fast progress.  The thing that helps with these beveled windows is that there are actually very few pieces of glass to cut.  What you see below is only ten pieces of glass (and a whole lot of bevels) which explains why these get finished so quickly.  Linda will be adding a final border to this when she returns and then she'll begin soldering it.

 

Lynn began working on her second Panel Lamp which will exactly match the first one that she made way back last year (just a month or so ago).  She's got all of the scalloped end pieces cut and only needs to work on the twelve long panels before she can really get this lamp in gear and out the door.  

 

Martha's Costa the Dog Window is ready to be tacked together.  The missing green pieces in his name were being wrapped when I took the picture but rest assured, this is going to be ready for a border when Martha returns next week.  Then it just needs solder.

 

 

Look at this!  Even with a shoulder that isn't completely healed yet, Mary Grace managed to knock out this fancy and complicated Fleur De Lis without hardly breaking a sweat.  Mary Grace was having a problem that's very common among our students while she was grinding this though.  She was looking at the big picture rather than the piece she was grinding.  While you're grinding a window you have to concentrate on just one piece at a time and move on to the next piece only when the current piece fits perfectly.  Myself, I go as far as working on one side of each piece at a time.  It means multiple trips to the grinder but it makes all the difference in the world when it comes to getting a perfect fit.  And as you can see, with just a bit of fine tuning to round out the curves, Mary Grace's FDL is looking great.

 

 

Myrt's Stylized Fleur De Lis is ready for it's background.  She finished all of the grinding on it and somehow I lost track of what she was doing because I can see from the picture that she already has this wrapped.  She must have done that under the table because I just don't remember that happening -- but obviously it did.  Can you say "Background and Border pieces next week!"  Because that's what Myrt will be doing.

 

And Shelley's Nude Lady Window is almost ready for a border.  The only thing left that Shelley has to do is wrap the pieces that make up the woman's hair.  Since she took them home with her to wrap I'd say that she'll have this tacked together and then she'll be picking out some border glass. (And I think I know just what glass to use.)

 

Susie's out newest student and when she came in she wanted to know if this Tiger Claw LSU window would be too much of a project for her.  I told her she would easily be able to do it but I think she still had some doubts.  But by the end of the night she was already grinding her letters!  She's moving quickly on this and learning how to use the pistol grip really helped her get all of those straight lines cut perfectly.

So, although we had no actual completed projects this week I can guarantee that we'll see some in our next post.  We have a lot of windows just about ready to hang and I'll be sure to get a picture of each of them to post next week.  See you then!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks