Bayou Salé GlassWorks: I'd Rather A Barker Than A Whiner

Have you ever soldered a line and noticed that wrinkles were left behind in the solder? If this happens to you just relax and go over the line one more time after adding just 1 drop of solder to your soldering irons tip. The wrinkles appear because there's the smallest amount of lead missing to make the bead perfect. Re-soldering the line without adding lead won't fix the problem and adding lead all throughout the line invariably gives you a bead that's too thick. Just run the tip of you iron through your solder and go over the line a second time. You'll see those wrinkles just melt away. (Literally!)

Angie completed her Peacock Window and the end result is, as always with Angie, wonderful. This is one of my favorite patterns and Angie made it look as good as ever with her colors and workmanship.

Kerry finished his Beer Glasses Window and now that it's got some light behind it you can really see how nice his choice of glass was. Kerry works quickly now and a little further on in this post you'll learn what he's making next so keep on reading!

This week Betty learned the (sometimes) complex art of wire bending. The most important thing is to start with a straight piece of wire. Some people have trouble straightening out wire that has bends in it but not Betty. Attaching the wire to her Cardinals was a little daunting at first but by the end of the class she had it all very well under control Here are her first two pairs of Cardinals which look wonderful indeed.

Next up we see that Cindy had finished a second Heart Suncatcher this week before moving along to an entirely new project.

That new project that Cindy has begun is a Double Heart Love Window. The hearts themselves are easy to see but the 'love' part is hidden within the clear glass. Once this is wrapped the letters will become plain to see.

Susan R has begun cutting the background out for her Seafood Window and she's done that by placing a large piece of glass under the seafood pieces that she's already got tacked together. She traced around the pieces, removed the glass from underneath and then cut out the background pieces from the large sheet piece of background glass. Once these are finished she'll have to wrap and tack them into place before moving along to another section and repeating the process.

Regardless of what she believes, Melissa got a lot more ground on her Peacock Tail Window this week. She's thinking that this window will take forever but I feel that she's work at a nice steady pace. As I always say, we strive for quality not quantity and Melissa is delivering quality all the way.

MiMi got her Heron Window tacked together and while the table she was working was somewhat cleared off we curved the zinc channel that will surround this. That will be attached upon her return and I'm thinking that there's a good chance that this window will be seeing some back light when it returns.

Belinda managed to get almost all of her Church Window ground and wrapped. Next week she'll begin cutting across the three largest sections of the church so that the church will appear to be made of wooden slats. Normally we cut straight lines with a straight edge or a strip cutter but in this case we want a little less perfection to make the wooden boards look authentic.

Tracey got all of her Magnolia Window wrapped but there was one slight problem--- there's still one leaf yet to cut out but she's missing the pattern pieces so she'll have to tack what she has together so we can get at the pattern under her glass to retrace new leaf pattern pieces. It may sound like something scary but it's actually easy and will be accomplished upon her return.

Jeanne L has most of the basket ground for her Fruit Basket Window now. She only has one 'handle' left to go before she can begin cutting out all of that colorful fruit. She's already in love with this window and says she's going to keep this one.

Angie began this Easter Lily and Cross Window while at home and by the time she left class she managed to have it just about ready to be soldered. She just has to wrap her final border before she can start the soldering process. I think it's safe to say that the hard part of this window is well behind her now.

Shawn now has her two borders attached and the only thing left to do is solder this amazing Sunflower that everyone has talking about in our other classes. Here Comes the Sun has never looked so good and I can't wait to see this with some light behind it.

Rowena is someone else who got a lot of border work done this week. Now that all of her glass has been cut she's can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Her beautiful Mardi Gras Window features an iridized background glass that's barely revealing it colors while it sits there on the table. Trust me though, you'll easily see those colors once we have this hanging up.

Susan D has begun cutting glass for her Ali Dog Window and and her choice of glass is making great fur! She'll be mixing different glasses throughout to give Ali some realistic fur density and shadowing.

Jeannette almost got all of her Swan Window ground this week and now you can see just what this will look like when it's finished. I love the design but it's Jeannette's attention to detail that is really turning this pattern into and outstanding Window.

Also this week we got to see Mary tack her Sunflower Window together and then get the first border attached. She'll follow that up with a second border to really frame out this wonderful window.

Annette finished grinding the few remaining pieces that she had left for her Max The Dog Window and then began wrapping each of those pieces. As you can see, she doesn't have far to go which means that colors for her borders will be the focus of her next class.

With all of the clear glass in Martha's Swirling Curves design it's hard to make out what kind of progress has been achieved. For the record, she has finished all of the cutting and has begun grinding her pieces now. Her cutting is spot on and the grinding is going quickly. When this is off the table and in the light you'll really be able to appreciate the elegance of this design.

Barbara began working on a new Bumblebee Lawn Ornament this week but the difference between this one and her last one is that this one will be curved.

Kerry not only finished a window this week but also began work on a new project as well. This Deer Window can't help but look great when completed.

Lastly we have a picture of the Sunburst Window that Cindy made 2 weeks ago. Here you can see how it looks installed between 2 pieces of tempered glass in the front door of her house. Marvelous!