On Being Lackadaisical

Our tip this week is so simple that it's almost always overlooked.  The reason for this is because the sponge that comes with your soldering iron stand isn't worth 2 cents.  People use them because it came in the box but trust me when I say that it's just a waste of time.   For a sponge to be effective you MUST have it extend up and over the lip of the depression that it rests in.  In this first picture you can easily see that the sponge is nowhere near tall enough to be useful.  

 

Here's the same holder with a replacement sponge.  This sponge is taller than the depression made for it in the soldering iron stand which allows the tip of the soldering iron to travel quickly and smoothly over the top of the sponge without the sides of the holder hindering your movement.  When cleaning your iron's tip you simply make just one quick pass on each side of the tip.  Holding the tip of the iron on the sponge does NOT clean it all all.  Also, make sure the sponge is thoroughly SATURATED with water.  Having a merely damp sponge isn't good enough at all.  It should sizzle when the soldering iron touches it.  

With that out of the way let's move along to Melissa's Sunflower Window which was finished in an astoundingly short amount of time.  She did most of the work while she was at home which is VERY impressive considering that this is only Melissa's fourth project with us.  Just look at all of that detail and the high quality of work that she's put into this!

Beth also made quick work of her project when you consider that she started this just last week.  This is her second window and she's not afraid to throw herself at a project full force.  Straight lines are always the toughest cuts to make since any variance or unevenness shows instantly but as you can see, Beth has everything lined up beautifully.

 

I know that Christmas is behind us already but Betty didn't want to wait until it was 'timely' to start this Christmas Noel Window that she very much wanted to make.  As always, she did another marvelous job if I do say so myself.

 

Becky S has started grinding the Peacock that she cut out last week.   Since the background is made up of only two pieces of glass, she's going to tack together this all together and then trace it only a rectangle of her background glass for a nice perfect fit.  Yep, this is one of those times when we get to be bad and 'break the rules'.

 

Bonnie is making quick work with her Three Ladies Window which we are now going to call the 'Mother and Two Daughters' Window.  Which one is Bonnie?  Well, she's the shorter one of course!  During the past two weeks we've seen Bonnie contemplate a number of different versions of this design.  She's definitely doing the best one now..

 

Next we have Linda F's Christmas Ornaments Window.  Although the clear class background is very hard to see in the picture it IS all cut, ground  and pinned into place.  She'll be wrapping this while she's at home so when we see this again it will surely have a border cut for it.

 

And lastly we look at Betty's Fleur De Lis Flag Window.  She cut the background glass out of a single piece of glass and this was all that she was able to fit on it.  We have a second sheet but decided to tack this together before she attempts to fit it together.  This will keep the window nice and square.

Yes, it was another sparse week her in our classes due to weather.  Winter hasn't been this hard on us here in Louisiana for many years now.  Hopefully this is the last cold spell because all this time off is driving me crazy.  I feel like I'm retired and understand why it takes getting used to!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks