I Quit!

It's been a LONG day as we installed a pair of windows that took up most of the day.  Let me just say that I hate being on scaffolding!

 
So without further ado we're skipping the tip that usually starts our posts and jumping right into our students' work.


First up is Tracey who finished her Nativity Scene and it is stunning.  I'm partial to deep blues so this one really appeals to me.   Tracey did the majority of the work on this while at home and all I can say is that she's easily able to make windows on her own.  I just love the New Age/ Modern feel to this window.

 

Angie's Coffee Window was knocked out in record time and there's no mistaking what this is all about. Cream and sugar, anyone?

 

MiMi's got her Leaf Suncatcher finished before leaving and she's proved to be a master at the art of what our students call the 'tap tap' procedure.  Many people have trouble getting a nice bead around the outside of a suncatcher but MiMi had no problem at all.

 

Rowena put the finishing touches on her Stylized Fleur De Lis widow this week and the two different black glasses that she used in this compliment each other wonderfully.  

 

Carol finished another Cross Suncatcher and at first I thought it was identical to the one she completed last week but the Carol set me straight-- the colors have been reversed on this one.   Either way this looks great because with this pattern you just can't lose.

Lara's begun working on a new window this week and it's a Modern Floral design.  She's already cutting glass for this and as we all know, Lara wastes no time when it comes to getting a window completed!

Melissa's done it!  Her Peacock feathers are essentially ground and now she's grinding the accent pieces that still need to be inserted.  Once those accent pieces are ground and wrapped she'll place them on top of the pieces they fit into and trace around them and cut them. By grinding and wrapping them in foil before she traces them she'll get a much better fit since she won't have to allow for foil.

 

Shawn has begun working on an Address Window and since she's going to border it with bevels she spent her night making that border by wrapping the bevels and then tacking them together.  Now that she's accomplished that she'll cut the rest of her glass and then grind it to fit within the border.

 

 

Betty worked on two different windows this week.   Her Stylized Fleur De Lis is all cut and tacked so she's ready to get her border attached so she can begin soldering it.   Then there's her Floral Panel which is all ground now and ready to be wrapped and tacked so it can get a border also.

 

Lisa is making incredible progress on her Owl Window.  Now that everything has been cut she's learned how to grind one piece from a piece that touches it.  This always insures a quick and perfect fit while achieving it in the fastest way possible.   Lisa already has about half of her first window ground and it's looking great.

MiMi worked on this Art Nouveau Flower window while at home and almost managed to finish it off before class was over with.   This will be fitting into a wooden frame and I hope we get to see it in its finished state.

 

Jeff is ready to wash and color his window.  It most likely would have been completed this week if he didn't have to leave early for an appointment.   We'll see this hanging up in our completed windows section when we return for our next post. 

 

Susan D  has one dog leg left to go and then she'll be wrapping all of these pieces and tacking them together.  Why do we sometimes tack things together before all the glass is cut?  There are different reasons for that but please remember that 95% of the time we don't tack things together before all the glass is cut and ground.  In this case we don't want the pieces that make up the dog to shift and therefor distort her.  Plus, if this grows at all after the pieces are foiled it will grow evenly because of the way the dog has been drawn up and we can adjust for this by making the background smaller.    In short, just remember that unless there is a very good reason, you should cut all of your pieces before grinding.

  

Speaking of dogs, Jan began working on her Psychedelic Poodle Window that she is making for her daughter.   With the paws cut out Jan is ready to work her way upward toward this colorful dog's body and head.

 

Annette is so close to finishing her Max the Dog Window that it isn't even funny.  With just a little soldering left to go on the back side, she's got this window finished next week without a doubt.

  

Fran is back and she's working on her Fish Window.   She's decided to redesign it so she spent a good portion of the class redrawing the pattern so that the fish is jumping out of the water rather than being completely submerged under water.  She began cutting glass before class was over so she's on her way now.

 

Jeanne M has finished all of the cutting on her Easter Window and moved on over to the grinder this week. She's already got  two eggs and the Rabbit fitting together so it won't be long now before this is a completed project.

 

Jeannette started this Wedding Invitation Plaque the minute she walked in the door and when she left it only needed some channel to surround the glass and 2 hooks in the back.   Yes, for all intents and purposes, this is a completed project that essentially only needs a bath now.

 

Susan R is down just just a few pieces left to cut out for her background.  Before she can resume cutting these missing pieces she's going to have to tack together what she has fitting together so that she can lift the window and to more background glass underneath it.

 

Linda F's got all of her Fish Window ground (the bottom left section is going to be slightly redesigned)  and now she'll begin wrapping all of her pieces so she can tack it together and then make the changes to that empty corner.

 

Belinda got the front side of her Church Window all soldered and she then flipped it over and started working on the back side.  Her soldering looks great on the front and there's a good chance that she'll be able to complete this upon her return. 

 

Cindy's pair of Roosters are taking shape now that she's got more feathers cut and you can now easily see just how vibrant these Roosters are going to be.

 

 

Martha got all of her Flowing Window  tacked together which includes the border that she picked out.  She'll begin soldering this upon her return so this window is quickly nearing its completion.  If she solders this even half as good as she cut and ground it this will surely be a masterpiece for her.

 

Kerry really hoped to get his Deer Head Window completed this week but two sides of a window is generally too much soldering for someone to get done inside of 3 hours so here's a look at the back side of his window so very close to being completed.  I'm going to have to figure out what he wants to do when he returns to class because this won't take long at all to complete.

  

Mary Grace filled in the missing piece of her border and then cut, ground and wrapped the final darker, outer border.  There are just four pieces left to cut for this and then Mary Grace will begin soldering her Anchor Window.

 

Mary's begun working on a circular Magnolia Window and got her paper pattern traced out and cut out.   Glass cutting will occur when she walks back in the door next week.

Barbara H is working on 2 Dragonfly Lawn Ornaments which she managed to get all cut out. Alas, she boxed all of her pieces before my camera came out so what we have here is a picture of some of the glass that she left behind after cutting out her Dragonflies.

So there you have it.  When we return next week I promise to have a new tip to start things off.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Pop Goes The Weasel

Aspect ratio.  Sometimes it's hard to understand but in its simplest terms it's all about an image retaining it's composition when it is resized.  Let's start with the fish pattern below where it's easy to see that the image is wider than it is tall.   When redrawing this pattern to fit a different size it will only maintain its aspect ratio if the finished size scales either up or down closely to what the original pattern started as.

 

Here's the same pattern when it's scaled to twice as high as it is wide.  Do you see all of that empty white space above and below the fish?   That undefined area is a result of the image not being able to be scaled entirely to the new size.  This is what happens when you try to put a pattern that is wider than it is taller into a space that is taller than it is wider.  The same occurs if you try to resize it in the other direction but in that case the large white areas would be on the sides rather than the top and bottom.

 

If we were to make the original image fit the new size exactly then everything in the pattern would lose its height and width ratio thus stretching it out of shape like below.  Now the fish aren't long-- they're kind of square!

Without redrawing new scenery for the top and the bottom of the image, the only way to make it fit our new dimensions and make it look un-stretched is to cut out some of the pattern on both sides as follows.   Sadly, we lose a lot of what made the window look so good in the first place if we do that.

 

So when you are choosing a pattern that has to fit a certain size be sure that the pattern matches in terms of length and width otherwise you'll be changing the overall design of the pattern in a big way.  We crop things almost every day in life because aspect rations don't always line up with what we have available to us.

 

Now I must say that I knew that the colors of Lara's Victorian Design Window would set this project off spectacularly but when it was lit up even I was surprised at just how vibrant this window is without being overpowering.  There are plenty of times when bright colors translates to too much, but not in this case at all!  I've seen this window made twice and I've been impressed both times.

Shawn's Sunflower was completed this week although and although she wasn't able to get it colored before she left class, I did that for her the next day.   I just couldn't wait to see what this looked like with some light behind it!  And my verdict is that this is something that she should really be proud of.  Firing the sheet music for 'Here Comes the Sun' onto the glass really makes this window special along with the initials in the bottom corner.   In case I haven't mentioned it before this is a tribute window and all of the pieces of the subject matter represent a life.  This will surely touch more than a few hearts when Shawn delivers it.

We have a new Cross Suncatcher to unveil this week and although I don't know where Carol found the inspiration for the design I'm pretty sure that other people are going to want to make this.   It's fancy without being overwhelming and the colors that Carol picked for it accentuates the design perfectly.

 

Lisa made her Butterfly Suncatcher last week and when she came in this week she was eager to start work on a 'real' window.  She's chosen an Owl and all I can say is that I'm thoroughly impressed with her glass cutting abilities!  After tracing out her pattern onto poster board and cutting it into its individual pieces Lisa then began tracing those patterns onto her glass and then cutting the glass itsilf.   She's texted me a few times during the week so I know that she's working quickly on this.  I can't wait to see how much she has cut out when she comes back in!

Belinda now has all of the glass cut out for her church window and after getting the first clear border cut, ground, and tacked into place she moved along to the final green outer border.   Once that's wrapped she can attach it and then begin soldering this window!

  

Cindy's been busy cutting and grinding two Rooster Suncatchers and all I can say is that the glass that she's going to be using on this will be spectacular.   I never worry too much about my glass choices but sometimes you see a certain piece of glass and just know that it's just perfect for what you have in mind.

  

Now here's a complex project that's really coming together quickly.   Linda F's Underwater scene is not only all cut out but more than halfway ground as well!  I thought that this might take her some time to finish but I was obviously wrong on that count.  This is looking good, without a doubt.

 

With the center of her Coffee Cup Window all tacked together Angie was able to cut out a border and get it almost entirely tacked before calling it a day.   She wastes no time at all and there's proof of that in the picture itself because that missing piece of border that you see on the right side was in Angie's hand getting foiled when I took the picture.  She was intent on getting this done!

 

Next up we have one of two different renditions of our ever popular Stylized Fleur De Lis window.  the first one here is being made by Betty and she's all ready to begin grinding this window.

 

This second Fleur De Lis Window is being made by Rowena who got hers all tacked together and then 'borderized'.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be finished when we next see it again.

 

There are only a few pieces of background left to go in Susan R's Seafood Window before she can start soldering this.   It's been a long haul but windows that are this complex don't come together very quickly.  Still, the end is in sight now and I know that Susan's painstaking attention to detail is going to pay off in spades in the end.  

 

 

Tracey worked on this new Nativity Scene Window at home for the most part but this week she brought it in to get two borders attached.   With her son's wedding having occurred over the weekend I doubt that she'll have time to work on it before her next class but it's still very to close to completion already.

 

Jeanne M had to deal with a migraine while she was in class but that didn't stop her from getting all of her large Easter Window cut out and ready for some work at the grinder.   For the record, I'm going to try to talk her into a double border on this because the clear background that she's used will really look great with two borders.

 

Annette was busy soldering her Max the Dog window and I think that there's a distinct chance that this will be among our completed windows when we return next week.   I can't wait to see this all washed up with some light behind it because as cute as it looks now, well, it's just going to look even better after a bath!

  

 

Kerry finished grinding the last few pieces of his Deer Window and then even managed to get it all wrapped before he called it a night.  This will easily be tacked and bordered when Kerry comes back in.

 

Susan D 's Dog Window is certainly taking shape quickly.   In previous pictures all of the fur that makes up Ali the dog wasn't yet ground while this week's  picture shows only glass that HAS been ground.   As you can see, there's not much left to go!

 

Melissa's Peacock Window is sweeping around in a circular motion and she's just about ready to complete the grinding phase of her design--  Well, the tough grinding at any rate.   There is actually a lot of cutting left to go on this window but once this is ground the rest of the cutting will go quickly.   We'll go further in depth about what will transpire to this window in about two weeks or so.

 

MiMi's Leaf Suncatcher is now officially ready to be tacked together and soldered which means that this will be completed when she returns-- without a doubt!   I just hope that it doesn't fold in half...

And there you have have it.   Everything that was fit to print from our shop during the 3rd week of February.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks