Our tip this week is about pattern placement on your glass. A common mistake is to arrange your pattern pieces as you see below. Everything looks great and there's a good quarter of an inch (which we always want) between each piece but there's one big error. Do you see it?
Our biggest piece with the inside curve (shaded in red below) should first be cut with a straight line beginning at the starting point of the curve to the ending point of the curve (thus following the red dotted line). We call this 'Cutting Point To Point' and it's essential to begin inside curves with this straight cut first. As you can see this results in two other pieces being split in half due to bad pattern placement. Technically you could curve your cut around the two problem pieces but that makes what could be a very simple cut into a more difficult cut with a good chance of you breaking one (or more) pieces.
The solution is simple. When tracing out your pattern onto your glass remember not to cross that point to point line with other pattern pieces as we did in the figure below. Many people ask if it's okay to place an entire piece to the left of the line as the square is in the image above but this isn't a good idea because you will most likely need to take the curve out in multiple cuts ending with your eventually cutting through any pieces you've places to the left of the Point To Point line.
That said, to avoid having to imagine the Point To Point line, simply position that inner curve along the edge of the glass so the Point To Point cut has already been made by the edge of the sheet of glass. That way you don't have to worry about the other pieces placement. Keep in mind though that the grain of the glass may not allow you to do this at other times so always keep in mind that imaginary Point To Point cut and don't allow your other pattern pieces to cross it.
So then, how much is that Doggie in the Window Bathtub? Bee has completed a pattern that she rebuilt practically from the ground up. In fact, the only thing unchanged is the shower curtain. A wonderful job all around, Bee's daughter is really going to enjoy seeing this decorating her window each and every day.
Barbara put the finishing touches on the small (7" x 7") Flower Panel that she began last week and by the end of class she had a completed a very elegant stained glass panel. She's thinking that this size is something that would make great gifts and wants to make a similar panel with three tulips in it. I'm currently leaning more towards a pair of tulips but we'll see what I can come up with for that small area.
Betty's Mardi Gras Mask Panel is ready to be mounted into it's frame and displayed proudly in her yard. She's been doing her backgrounds, her borders and her channels by herself and has really picked up on how to do these tasks quickly and efficiently.
Cindy has three of her suncatchers completed and I really love the design of all three of them. Each measures about 5 inches tall and any one of them would brighten a empty window. She's got 4 more different suncatchers under construction which we'll see later on in this post.
Mary Grace's Fuchsia Angel gained its wings this week and looks wonderful. The icing on this cake is her inclusion of a small gem that the angel is holding. It's a nice extra touch that MG added at the last minute which makes this piece downright sparkle.
Next up is Helen's Nicholls Logo Window all completed after she added the border and then started and finished soldering it in just one class. The red N is striking, and the gray sword is right to the point. Each window that Helen makes expands upon her stained glass knowledge. This is going to be a wonderful gift.
Annette has completed her Praying Angels has now finished her first Butterfly Lawn Ornament. I see she's got more than a few of these cut out and ready to be ground so I think we'll be seeing a few more of Annette's Butterflies being made in assorted colors over the weeks to come.
Our last completed project is the first of two leaded Christmas Ornaments that Susan D began working on last week. This one is, shall we say, 'out the door' and the second one is only one foot behind this one. We'll see her second ornament next week and Susan says she has a few more of these lined up after that so we'll be seeing more of these.
Ann has begun her latest and greatest rendition of her large Cross Window albeit in a slightly smaller size. It's still a large window measuring in at about 21 inches wide by 27 inches tall but this will fit in a standard window without any problems while her last version required a large window to fit into. Ann's already cutting glass so she's on a roll now.
Cheryl's Lighthouse window is looking very good indeed. I love her colors and her cutting is really improving with each new piece she makes. She's begun grinding this from the bottom upward and will resume grinding when she comes back in next week.
Here's what appears to be a montage of suncatchers that Cindy is in the midst of making. You can see her three finished pieces here which means that she only has a Mardi Gras Mask, a Tulip, a Fleur De Lis, and an Angel left to go. Last week I mention that her Fleur De Lis needed a bit of a redesign but when I had the pattern in front of me I realized the she only needed to add 2 pieces to make it sturdy again so the redesign is off. We'll examine that issue closely when Cindy finishes that piece.
Angie has begun a new Address Window and in just one class she traced out her pattern and got all of the glass cut for it (save the border). She's taken it home with her and she has a grinder so it will be interesting to see just what this looks like when she walks back in the door with it next week.
And in just one class Kerry managed to color in the pattern for the top Mascot section of his version of the Nicholls Window and then cut out all of the glass as well. This dog with sunglasses is certainly stylish and looking good. He's chillaxin'!
Next up we look at the Bird Feeder that Susan R is working on. This week we get a real good feel for what the finished project will look like because she now has one of the two roof sections attached. That leaves just one side left to go and she's already got that ground and more than halfway wrapped. I really think this is going to be a completed project next week.
Lara has begun making windows. For her houses that is. This week she cut out, ground and wrapped 10 small windows, then traced them into place on top of one of the glass houses and then cut out the opening for the windows. After a little grinding she had two balconies completed. Next week she'll move onto another building and continue likewise.
Shawn is in the process of making a large Mini Mouse Suncatcher. We've seen these done before but this one is so large that that the pattern doesn't even fit on a single piece of legal paper. As you can see, Shawn is ready to solder this when she returns and then get started on something new.
Tracey now has has all of her background and all of the leaves cut out for her Round Cardinal Window. She's got the magnolia petals all traced out onto glass and ready to cut so I think this will see some rd cardinal feathers added to it when we see this again.
Linda L's Mason Logo was started and nearly completely cut out in just one class. Sizes are a little hard to judge when all you have to go by is a picture but let's just say that this isn't nearly as big as you might think when you first look at it. Fact is, this suncatcher will only be 7" wide when it's finished. That makes for some tiny pieces!
I love the glass choices that Melissa has chosen for her Wine Cats Window. The water and sky is perfect and she's gone the extra distance and added spots to each of the cats. Those spots may be hard to see now but she's already begun grinding so this is going to take shape quickly.
Lisa is working on a Coast Guard Window for her son. This will be assembled in three separate sections (the top USCG rectangle, the middle square Anchor section, and then the bottom 2021 section). Once each section is tacked together they will be joined together to form one large window which will then get a border around it. She already has her letters and numbers cut out but right now she's concentrating on the center anchor section.
Martha has decided to go with a double border on her Pelican Window so the first thing she did was cut and attach her first clear border. Once that was finished she cut a thicker outer border and then broke it down into its individual pieces. Sadly, this last border BARELY fit on the board that she's got this project on so she removed the pieces before I could get a picture of it. But that's okay, there's always next week.
MiMi's second Hexagon Window is taking shape as she spent the night grinding and making sure her straight lines are all straight. She's using what looks like a random placement of her different textures but there's some human intervention in there to help make it look more aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes random can be jarring.
Mary's Cross and Dove Window is so very close to being completely cut out now. With the thin outer red border tacked into place and the accent circles and diamonds in position Mary is now cutting the black center background pieces and grinding them to fit. You can see where she started at the 3 o'clock position. Next week I think we'll see most of those black pieces in place.
Sheri finished wrapping all of her Koi Fish and Water Lilies and was about to begin cutting her background when she realized that she didn't have her pattern pieces with her. She ended up selecting and tracing out 2 suncatcher patterns so her class wouldn't be wasted but we'll see more progress on this Koi Window next week.
And there you have it. Our classes are becoming hectic again as more and more students get deeper and deeper into their new projects. That's great news because it means that we will have plenty of completed windows to admire in the weeks to come.
Paul
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