I Don't Like Wire Hangers Either

Our tip this week demonstrates when you should ignore the general rule of grain lines.   In most cases, when deciding upon which way your grain should run, you would draw the longest line you can on the pattern piece.  The thing is, like every other rule out there, there are exceptions to this rule.  In the pattern below you can see we have a leaf which is cut into two pieces because a stem is traveling across it.  Our general rule for determining the direction of the grain lines is to draw the longest line you can in each piece as you see below.

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However, in this case that would be wrong.  Why?  Because the two pieces actually make up one leaf so the grain should match even though it is bisected by a stem.  Just pretend that the leaf is whole (that the stem isn't there) and draw the longest grain line you can.

Next erase the part of the grain line that runs through the stem and you will have correctly defined the grain lines for your two pieces of leaf.

 

Here's the finished result as the glass would be cut in both the incorrect and the correct manor.  Keep watching the bottom portion of the leaf and you can see how one lines up with the other to make the illusion that the leaf is whole behind the stem.  

It's a subtle difference but one that will transform your work from a beginners work to the work of a professional stained glass artist.  Remember that EVERYTHING counts in large amounts.


Okay then, now that we're done 'breaking' the rules, let's look at Angie's Beveled Horse Window which really turned out to be quite a head turner.  Only the horse head and the border pieces are beveled.  Aside from the solid black background, the remaining pieces were cut using transparent colors.  The hint of color you see in the background glass is only the reflection of a light behind me as I took the picture.  Beautiful.

 

Becky S's Peacock was completed this week and she did a phenomenal job with it.  Even the glass globs that make up the peacocks crest fits perfectly, which is NOT easy to do at all.  Becky used iridescent glass throughout this window, but it just doesn't photograph  unless there's light reflected onto the surface.  The second picture hopefully shows you what the glass actually looks like in person.

 

A while back I discovered this suncatcher on the internet and thought it would be a great way to use up some of the strips that I have left over from various borders that I've cut.   I made two of them and Carol thought the exact same thing when she saw them.  Now she's made one of her own and I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll both be making more of these further on down the line.

Martha started a new Deer Head Window this week and she's turning into a cutting machine!  With the head almost completely cut out in just one night I'd say it's safe to assume that she'll make short work of this project.

 

Linda L now has all of her Owl of Many Colors cut out and has begun grinding all of her pieces.  As you can see in the picture, she's working from the bottom up and it's fitting together perfectly.  She's decided to name this Owl Dolly because of the coat of many colors reference so from here on out we'll be calling this Dolly.

 

MiMi has officially ground all of her Bull Flag Window and has moved along to the wrapping phase of construction.  There's just one small piece missing and that's the tail.  It's a complex curve and her two different teachers have two different approaches to it.   Once her window is wrapped MiMi will get an idea for which way she wants to go on it.

 

Linda F's Victorian Design Window is certainly spectacular.  She's going to possibly frame this in a double border if the window opening she's putting this in will allow it.   The colors for the borders depend entirely on how many borders this window will incorporate so we'll see what she decides upon her return.

 

Susan R is making a 3D Pelican with wings that actually flap!  (I'm not kidding.)  This is actually the first time a student has decided to make one of these 3D birds and I have no clue if anyone else in class has realized that this won't be a 'flat' project.   I can't wait to see what they think when they see this in action.

 

Susan D's Peacock is now being ground and although the tail pieces have been cut, she didn't want to place them on the pattern until the top half of the peacock was fitting together and pinned down.  We'll see the bottom feathers start to fit together upon her return.

 

 

Our newest student is Patrice and she actually did a weekend Workshop with us a few weeks ago (that I still need to post!)  Because she's already made a window with us we didn't have her start with a butterfly as we do most students.  When she walked in the door she just jumped head first into this gorgeous stylized Sunflower Window.   In just one class Patrice got all of her glass cut for this project.  Amazing!

  

Terry's Geometric Design will surely be completed upon her return since all she needs to do is add a channel and some hooks to finish it off.  In fact, had I not been so busy during class I would have been able to get the channel cut to size for her.   I can't thank Terry enough for her patience in this matter!

 

Mary's Dream Catcher Window has completely taken shape now.  We had said that we were going to get the center circle section cut, ground and tacked together before tackling the feathers and the background that 'square' this window off and that's exactly what Mary is doing.   With the circle section all ground and fitting together wonderfully, she's taken this home to hopefully wrap while she's out for a month due to surgery.  We hope she does well and gets back to us soon!

 

Sheri's Tabasco Window is really taking shape now that the background to her lettering is cut and in position.  Her cutting is so good that it's hard to believe that this hasn't been ground already.  This is going to be another stellar window for sure.

 

Now that Lara has all of her feathers ground she's begun wrapping her pieces of glass that make up this beautiful Headdress.  She's still working out what she wants to use for a background glass and I'm sure that we'll see what she decides upon when she comes back in.

 

With all of the glass for her latest Sunflower Window cut and ground, Betty is just about ready to start soldering.   In fact, she had already started soldering the front side but  stopped to work on the final border which wasn't cut or even decided upon for that matter.   With the glass for that border cut and ground, Betty is now foiling it so she can then attach it and begin soldering again.

 

Tracey really hit the grinder hard this week as her Cardinal Window is steadily taking shape.  The most interesting thing about this window is that it was originally drawn as a Bluejay, but with a simple color tweak Tracey has changed it to a cardinal.  Once it's ground I'm going to make a very minor change to make it 100% cardinal.  All it will take is to short a piece of glass or two and to add another.

 

Wow, isn't Barbara H's Tulip Window looking absolutely radiant!  This week she cut her accent border and got it tacked into place.  She knows what she's going to use for her second border and that will easily be completed when she comes back in.  After that we just have a few fill-in pieces to go before she can solder this.

 

With her four largest background pieces cut, ground and wrapped, Myrt will begin the final fill-in sections of her Ribbon Bordered Fleur De Lis Window.  There are still 8 small pieces of background glass and then we'll move along to a new type of clear glass for the final 'border'.

 

Next up we have Rowena's Magnolia Window which, for all intents and purposes, is finished.   This really only needs some channel and a pair of hooks to be completed and that will surely happen when she comes back in.  Isn't this gorgeous?   

 

And speaking of Becky, these are the last of the 36 Medallions that she is working on.  She's obviously been working on these at home and even I can't believe how much progress she's made on them.   Part of the trick was to come up with the easiest way to put them together.  Once she worked that out the rest was just repetition after repetition, after repetition, after repetition, after repetition...

 

Lastly we have a picture of Mary Grace's Iris Pattern that she'll be working on.  It's a large window measuring more than 2 feet wide and although it has a fair amount of pieces to it they are all large pieces.  She's begun to cut apart her paper pattern and will start cutting glass for this when she returns.

 

It's been a tad bit slow with completed projects these past few weeks but that's only because the holidays and the flu season slowed things down.   We're currently on schedule to start seeing more finished windows each week so stay tuned for even more spectacular works of art in the weeks to come.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks