It's A Flag, It's A Heart, It's A Flart!

Last week I mentioned that there is a limit to how big you want to enlarge something.  As a general rule you don't want a majority of large pieces in your windows.  Large pieces are fine for background but even then they should be broken up.  There's a point where scaling things up larger makes an awkward looking window.  Just because it looks good as a 16 x 20 panel doesn't mean you can quadruple the size and still have it maintain its charm.  To work around this add a few borders to the panel to help size it out.  And remember that the bigger you make your 'center piece', the more detail you can add to it.  Don't make a simple 13 piece window fill a 3 foot by 3 foot space.  Add to it!


Now just look at this. Carol's first lamp is completed and what a lamp it is. This is the finest soldering job I've ever seen on a student's lamp and this her her first shot at it.  I'd let Carol solder one of my lamps any day.  And don't you love the colors that she picked for her Magnolia Lamp?  This lamp teaches students a lot about how curved projects are made without being completely overwhelming them.  Looking at how this beautiful Magnolia Lamp turned out I'd say that Carol is ready for any lamp she wants to make.

Linda F completed her To The Moon and Back Again and I think he looks great as well.  She was worried about the outside section of the heart around the curve but as you can see there was nothing to worry about because it's perfect.  I've always loved the moon and/or sun windows that students make and this is no exception.

 

Cindy's Birds in a Row is officially completed this week also.  This is the second time that Cindy has made this and I think that it proves my adage that things will go almost twice as fast the second time you make something.  And I think the workmanship in this one is even better than that of the first one (and I had no problems with the first one.)

  

And Susan's completed another pumpkin Lawn Ornament.  I'm particularly proud of the fact that she did all of the wirework herself.  She gets a big shout out for that because that makes her the first student to do her own wire working. 

  

Mary Grace completed her second small 3D Bee and even with a bad arm she did a great job on it.   She'll be moving onto a larger version of this next.

 

Jeanne completed her quick and dirty Fleur De Lis suncatcher and then forgot to take it home with her.  I guess she was busy thinking about her next project!

Betty is really going to town with her Angel Nightlights because she has 12 of them completed with only(?) 10 left to go.  She had some problems getting the edge soldering just right but after learning that you need a drop of solder each time you touch your iron to the edge she got the hang of it pretty quickly.    In fact, her edges are perfect now.

 

Linda L has everything but her borders tacked together on her three Transom Inserts.  They already look incredible.  Next week she'll start adding the thin final borders one at a time and then start soldering them.  She's wrapped everything in black back foil so that means that she'll be using black patina on the lead for these and that's a great choice for clear windows.

Bonnie had her Fleur De Lis tacked together when she came in and then decided to add a double border.  A great way to add a little color to a normally clear window is to give it two borders with the inner border having some color.  The outer border should be thicker and match (more or less) the background glass of the window.  Bonnie added just a hint of color which you'll see when she returns to complete this in her next class.

 

Susan is another student who has the majority of work done on her project.  Her Zen Garden is all put together and soldered leaving only the gnarly tree to add to the upper corner section..  And wait until you see how that's made.

  

Charlie has begun working on new inserts using a bevel cluster that I haven't seen in a long, long time.  It used to be a favorite of mine but we don't have the bevel yet so Charlie cut out the background glass and wrapped most of the inner bevel border for it. When the bevel comes in he'll cut the background glass to fit it.

 

Brenda's  Tiger De Lis is officially ground and is now ready to be foiled.  She's had second thoughts about the pieces of glass she's used for the pupil of the eye because the dark section of the glass isn't dark enough to make they eyes stand out, but that won't matter because we'll just dot them when this is  finished. That tongue is perfect though!

 

Gale came in and immediately got the yellow border attached to her circle and then added corner pieces to turn this circle into a rectangle.  She has a three tiered border coming up next and that's where the real fun will begin.  But the end result will be amazing.

 

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Cindy was also able to work on a flying pig suncatcher this week.  It's already ground and wrapped so all this little piggy needs is a coating of solder and it will be ready to fly out the door.

 

Linda F's next project is a flag and a heart all in one.  It's a Flart!  It's also her own design so she gets extra props for that (I'll take 'credit' for the name though).  It's shaping  up nicely and will be finished before you know it.

 

Sue got the Ladybug  she started working on  all cut out and learned the benefits of adding your glass globs at the very end. Sue ground her pieces as if there weren't any black globs involved and then, when everything  fit together, she placed the globs on top of the glass, traced around them and cut and ground her pieces a second time to ensure a perfect fit.

 

Jeannette came in and quickly cut out and ground  a 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornament.  She's taken it home to wrap and this will be done even sooner than Jeannette may think if she comes in with it wrapped.

Martha's pair of angels are all cut out which means that she's got a date with a grinder next.  I was impressed at how well she did when it came to cutting out all of clear wing pieces.  And remember, what you're looking at are two angels stacked up on top of each other.  There's more here than meets the eye.

 

Myrt started her Tulip and Butterflies window.  I wasn't sure how three butterflies would look in one window but they've balance out nicely.  I can't wait to see what colors she decides to make them.  The trick will to make sure there's enough contrast between the top butterfly and the flower. 

 

Terry's got her horse window is all rounded out.  That leaves just three corner pieces and a border left to go before this trots out the door.  She's made this before and again, it's going quickly for Terry.

  

And Rowena is moving right along with her six window inserts  This week she got two more ready to be foiled and then soldered.  That almost puts her right about at the halfway point of this project.  Before you know it we'll have the completed window in front of us.

 

Shelley's Aquatic Window looks better and better with each fish she adds.  I have no doubt that out of all the windows she's made with us that THIS becomes the one she likes the most.

 

Mary Grace decided that larger was the way to go so she started working on the larger 3D Bee Ornament.  It looks like the eye's will need to be cut out of glass for this one since the globs she's been using in the smaller bees are far to small for this pattern.

 

Vickie got  her butterfly completed this week but I didn't a picture of it!  Perhaps she can bring it back in so  I can share it with you next week.  Until then, take a look at the pattern for the Fruit Bowl Window that she'll be making.  She's got her paper pattern all cut out and all of her colors have been picked which means that next week she'll be cutting glass.

 

Jeanne has begun work on this  LSU Tiger Window.  She'll make the tiger, tack it together and then add the background to it.  There are a lot of stripes in this tiger and if you look closely you may be able to spot a hidden LSU in it.  If you can't see don't worry-- you will once the glass is cut.

  

Carol said that making her Magnolia Lamp was a bit daunting so she's going to start working on this panel lamp as her next project so she can 'calm down' a bit.  She did wonderfully so she really has nothing to be concerned about.

Wow, it's been a busy week and our students never seems to rest because there's an awful lot being accomplished.  Just keeping up with the pictures and the Blog is almost a full time job.  Don't forget to check us out again next week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks