Playing Ketchup

Strip Cutter or Pistol Grip, that's the question.   Both are designed for straight cuts but how do you know which one to use?  Well it's simple.  The strip cutter is used when you need multiple pieces all cut he same width or length.  Once a strip cutter is set you can rest assured that everything cut with it will be identically size.  The Pistol Grip Cutter is used when you need a straight cut on pieces that don't repeat.   Borders are best cut on a strip cutter but below you will see the cross that Jeannette made and that was cut with the pistol grip. 

Now that we have have that cleared up let's take a look at Carol's completed large Beveled Window.  As you can well see, everything lines up beautifully which is of the utmost importance on a window with nothing but straight lines in it.  The Fractures and Streamers inner border adds so much to this design, and the fibroid glass that borders the bevel and then the entire window was a stroke of genius.   There's no doubt that this window will be turning heads when Carol gets it installed.  For the record, both borders were cut with the strip cutter but the cuts made to the background glass were all made with a pistol grip.

Bonnie's first completed Candle Holder would have been a pair of candle holders but I decided to help her along by tacking the green one together and I screwed up the order of the panels!  Now it has to be disassembled.  So much for saving time.  Nonetheless, this red Candle Holder looks as great as the green one will be when you see it next week.

 

Brenda's been busy as a Bee.  Sometimes presentation can put an entirely new light on something and that is certainly the case with this beveled Cross Suncatcher that Brenda made this week.  Adding a simple white ribbon has really made this cross stand out in a crowd.

 

And Brenda's Candy Cane with a Bow and her Christmas Lights suncatchers will never be overlooked either.  These are wonderful designs and the the workmanship is stunning.

 

Ann's latest Fleur De Lis Window features an alternating colored border.  She's been using some very thick glass for her backgrounds and having little difficulty even cutting that thick glass down into thin points.  That's called great cutting!

 

Carol also finished up the stained glass frame that she had started two weeks ago.  It would have been completed last week but we ran out of time during class before I got to show her how to add the back section that holds the photograph.  Don't you love how Carol dressed up this simple frame by making thick inner lead lines and then adding solder blobs on top of them for decoration?  We refer to that as decorative soldering and there are actually a number of different ways you can dress up solder lines.

 

Jeannette finished her two alternating color crosses but only one of the pictures came out for me.   The other one looks just like this save for the fact that the colors are reversed.   We're already seeing more of these being made and seeing how this one turned out it's no wonder they're in demand!

 

Shelley's Ducks Unlimited Window looks great now that it's finished and her choice of glass is perfect.  I love the plain iridised background glass that she picked and think it worked perfectly in this window.  Normally an iridized background draws attention away from the focal point but I knew as soon as I saw this that it was going to be the exception to the rule.

 

Here's Charlies latest Hand Mirror.  This leaves him with just two more to go!

  

And this is Janet's latest Butterfly Lawn Ornament (and if it's not Janet's then it's Becky S's)  I hate not having a memory anymore.  All I really know for sure is that it was completed Thursday night and that it looks great.  So that means that it could belong to either Janet or Becky (although for some reason I'm leaning towards Janet). At any rate, this is finished save for getting a good bath and a waxing.

 

Becky B's Horseshoe Cross Window is moving along wonderfully and she's really gotten the hang of grinding.  She's going to change up the center and to do that she'll finish this as is and just leave a hole in the middle that we'll then re-design and cut glass for.

  

Terry has resumed work on her Louisiana Tiger Window and even got the border cut out.   Terry excels at drawing patterns and this Tiger's face is proof of how lifelike she can make a drawing.  

 

Look at Martha's Ducks, her ducks are amazing...  well, the one on the right is anyway.  The one on the left looks a little mixed up,  But once the one on the left is ground Martha will have all her ducks in a row and be ready for some foiling.

 

Brenda has been BUSY!  She says that after doing all of these ornaments she's all Christmased out and I can understand why.  Whether she's feeling the Christmas spirit or not the quality of her work hasn't faltered at all because these are all cut and ground to a machine like precision.

 

Natalie filled in the thin pieces of her worked on the feet of her Pelican Window and then moved on to the toughest parts of this project-- the feet.  But she moved quickly and efficiently through them cutting and grinding all of those thin little pieces without a problem.  It's safe to say that the background will be like a walk in the park now that Natalie has these bird feet out of the way.

 

Myrt is moving right along on her Pussy Cat in a Window Window and only had the right side of her curtains to iron out before she moves on to cutting some more glass.  I honestly think that the bulk of the work on this window is over with now.

  

Vickie now has her Geometric Panel all tacked together after getting the final border cut.  It didn't take her long to get this ready for solder and I suspect when we see it again it will be as a  completed project of the week.

 

Now that Sue's three Cardinals are off of the color photo that she was grinding them on you can easily see what she's accomplished.  All three birds have been tacked together and now they're just waiting to be soldered. These will easily be completed when Sue returns.

 

Linda F decided that she wanted to get her pistol grip cutter skills honed and decided to make a straight lined abstract window of her own to work on those cutter skills.   The big difference in her straight lined window is that she has one large circular piece of glass in it for contrast.  She's taken to the pistol grip cutter quickly and her window is completely cut out already.

 

Janet's Cross of Many Colors is completely soldered on the front side so I'm guessing that this will be completed in time for Christmas.  Ann has a pattern of this now so you might just being seeing this one again.

Take a look at Cindy's newest window and you'll probably say the same thing that I did.  "That's a lot of pieces,"  but I can guarantee that it will be magnificent when it's completed.  Cindy certainly has a thing for windows with small pieces!

  

Jeanne loved Linda F's Ship in a Bottle so much that she's making one of her own.  Tonight she got the ship and the sails all cut out and ground.  When she comes back in she'll cut out her bottle pieces and then fit everything together.

 

Linda L's three Mardi Gras Masks are all assembled and ready to be soldered.  In fact, I think that all of the front sides have been soldered already and she's planning on the soldering the backs while she's at home.  Linda says that she's pretty much burned out on doing three of everything and that she'll be doing solo projects soon.

 

Gale has begun work on another Owl Window and she's got a great deal of it completed already.  The second one always goes faster, but you all know that by now!

 

Becky S is wrapping up work on her 3D Roses and decided to cut out this Butterfly Lawn Ornament while she was in class.  She's moving along quickly and efficiently and will have this completed before you know it.

 

Susan's  begun wrapping her second Tiger Window and it's all taking shape perfectly.  She's left just the right amount of space between her pieces to allow for the copper foil so that it doesn't grow and distort as she wraps everything.

 

Charlie's got two more hand mirrors ground and he's got one almost completely wrapped.  I've lost count but I believe he's got just one more to go after these are completed and I think he's going to get them finished in time for Christmas.

 

Mary Grace got all of her Abstract Window cut and ground and even wrapped.  But I forgot to take a picture of it so this is what it looked like last week.  :-(  It still looks amazing, just very much further along.  We'll see more proof of that when it returns next week.

 

And that's about all there is for this post.  See you again soon!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks