I wish I could take credit for our tip this week but Linda F found it somewhere on the internet and shared it with me a few weeks ago. Here's a great way to store and dispense your foil with something that almost everyone has hanging around their house.
Start with a simple CD case. Open it, remove the CD, and then place your fingers along the edge of the case where the red arrows indicate and lift upward. The dark plastic section that normally holds the CD in place will come up and out of the case. You can discard that section as well as the CD cover which will slide easily out of the left side of the case.
Next you're going to cut a small notch into the bottom right corner of the back side (where the dark plastic insert was) of the CD case. A hacksaw works great for this but in a pinch a hot soldering iron will melt the plastic (as well as fill your room with a horrid smell). If you use your iron be sure to wipe the tip clean before you unplug it.
Once the first notch is made, close your case and mark where the hole lies on the front side of the case with a fine point permanent marker. Open the case and cut out the section you've marked on the front of the lid the same way you did the first notch. You want an opening that goes completely through the case when it is closed.
Now just place your foil in the CD case with the foil coming up over the top of the roll and down out the bottom notch that you've cut into the case (as pictured). I've found that a full roll of foil won't fit in a standard clear plastic case but it WILL fit into the flexible black plastic cases. Also, if the foil jams just place the roll of foil on top of some waxed paper and cut out two circles, one for each side of the foil. This is a great way to keep you foil from unraveling and coming out smoothly!
So then, let's start things off by looking at Carol's latest Panel Lamp which is another amazing piece of work. She's made three of these (panel lamps) and I can honestly say that I've never seen the final pieces of a lamp line up as perfectly as these did. Carol took her time and went the extra mile when things weren't fitting together as she'd hoped they would by leaving out pieces and replacing them after the rest of the panel was tacked together. If you want to know what a perfect lamp looks like just look at the picture below..
Susan R came in and finished up all the work on her first stained glass box which includes a box bottom with two compartments. She did a wonderful job on this and designed it all by herself. you can get a look at the double compartment in the second picture where the box is opened.
Ann's Fleur De Lis Window may be a standard pattern but she's enlarged it considerably. She's also avoided a standard Stained Glass pitfall by adding borders to help enlarge the window rather than just making everything bigger which can make a window look oversized and clunky. As you can see that's certainly not the case with this window.
Susan D got even more leaves soldered for her Flower Cornucopia Window and before she left she laid out one section of the project so we could get a feel for the finished product. Just laying there on the table I must say that it looks INCREDIBLE! She's got more than enough subject matter to make this a nice sturdy window but just to be sure it doesn't all come apart at the seams she will be tacking this to a wire framework that will be hidden behind all of the glass. You can never be too safe! I just love this project.
Terry has the front side of her Humming Bird Window all soldered and then flipped it over to work on the back side. There are only a handful of solder lines to go before this is completed and she starts working on her next project which might be a pair of cardinals.
Tasha made GREAT progress on her 3D Mirror this week and got all of her glass cut out. Once these three sections are ground she'll solder them and then make the oval mirror that these will attach to. What I love mist about this project is that you can't tell what it will be when it's completed. But when it IS completed I can guarantee that you'll be impressed.
Barbara has begun working on Candle Holders and Boxes for Christmas. She's certainly not starting too early (is it EVER too early to start something?) because Christmas, like it or not, is right around the corner. During her first class of work on these projects she's already almost completed her first Candle Holder. In fact, it would have been completed but she wants to add brass feet which will be done within the first 20 minutes of her next class. She's taken bevels home to wrap so she's truly moving right along.
Mary Grace is already soldering her Welcome Window. We've decided to not add the channel around the outer edge until after she's completed the soldering because flux has a way of reacting badly with zinc channel if you aren't careful. And it's not that Mary Grace isn't careful, it's just more a case of 'why tempt fate'. I've seen too many zinc channels get pitted due to spilled flux and prefer to add zinc channel at the very end of the project nowadays.
Jan came in and got the remaining pieces of the first panel in her two Bookcase Windows all cut out and ground. There was a slight incident when a book hit the floor but she replaced it with the same glass and no one would ever suspect that there was an issue if I hadn't opened my big mouth and blurted it out for everyone to read about. Jan is wrapping her glass even as I type this so it will be ready to be tacked together soon enough.
Roxanne gets an A+ for her cutting abilities on this Duck Window that she's making. Just look at how wonderfully this is fitting together without it even being ground yet! This kind of fitting proves that there's a HUGE benefit to cutting off the patterns lines as you cut your glass. The grinding on this window is going to go quickly and easily for Roxane.
Sheri's already at the tail end of work on her Flowers and Fleur De Lis Window. In the end she decided to cut the FDL out of waterglass which is a wonderful bevel substitute. When the size of a pattern is altered any bevels inside the window will have to be replaced by either cutting them out of glass or by replacing the bevel with something that fits into the new size. Bevels may be beautiful but they are VERY unforgiving when it comes to size changes.
Cindy started this small Cardinal Window and already only has the background and the flower petals left to cut out. She's a quick worker and I won't be surprised to find her about this far along on yet another project when we next see her.
Now that her background glass has arrived, Brenda is back at work on her Beveled Transom Window. This week she got all of her bevels wrapped and tacked together. Then she began cutting her background glass which you can see in the inset closeup of her left side of the window. There's not a lot of background to cut so she should make great time on this window BUT you do have to grind wrap and tack together the sections as you cut them or you risk throwing the window out of square. And on a window this long... well, that just wouldn't be pretty at all so Brenda will be taking her time and doing it right the first time.
This week Rowena has made INCREDIBLE progress with her Peacock Window. It's huge and there are only four more pieces of background left to cut out and tack together before she adds her borders. She's doing something a little different with her inner border by disguising the cuts in its length with little accent flourishes that add so much to the finished window. And you'll see exactly how that looks when she comes back next week.
Linda L worked on cutting the bevels that fit in between the arms of her FDL this week and by the time she left class she had the biggest section filled in and fitting together perfectly. She learned how to wrap the cut bevels evenly and did a great job cutting and wrapping them. In fact, Linda only has 7 more bevels to cut and then there's just the final three borders before she can start soldering this project. Just wait until you see what she does with the Zinc Channel that will be the final border that surrounds this.
Lara's gotten all the solder on her Mermaid Window and she is just touching things up now so they look their best before she washes and colors this. Look to see this window completed next week and also expect to see the pattern for the next project that Lara will be working on.
Lynn M came in and completed wrapping all of the pieces in her window and then got her final channel attached. Once that was done she began soldering where she completed the entire front side. If she did all of that in just one class I have no doubt that she'll be able to get the second side soldered when she returns next week. I'd say that the next time we see this it will be in the finished spotlight!
Linda F resumed work on her LSU Window and even went the extra mile by adding a second purple border to the window (which really made a huge change in the look of it). She's got her channel attached so she'll be soldering this when she comes back into class. With nothing but straight lines in this window I wouldn't be surprised to see it completed when she returns.
Betty has all of her glass tacked together on her (wrong) Nativity Scene Window which means that she'll most likely have this soldered when she comes back in. That could be a while though because she'll be away for two weeks and then we're going to miss a week of classes as well. But this will be completed when we see it again, mark my words.
This week Martha was a soldering fool who got the entire front side of her Seafood Window soldered. That just leaves one more side to go and then she'll be finished with this beastly window. It was a lot of work but it really looks great. Why is that? It's because any extra work you put into a window always pays off in dividends in the end.
And in the end, Becky S has begun working on this beautiful Flower Vase design and she's just starting to cut out her glass. This is a beautiful pattern and I know that Becky will make this appear even better than the pattern suggests that it will look.
There's so much getting done in the shop and we're starting to wind down on Church Windows as well. Look for a post to see how St. Jules is progressing within the next few days!
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks
No comments:
Post a Comment