We've been away for two weeks due to a vacation so let's jump right on in here. Sheri's Chakra Yoga Window is completed and it strikes an impressive pose while standing more than three feet high. The highlights of this window are the jewels that run down the center of the body. They're an inch and a half in diameter with a similar depth. That means that when this window is laying down on its back it wobbles since it's raised along the center. To compensate for this while Sheri worked on it we rested the window on ceiling tiles leaving a slot opened along the center for the jewels to poke through. There's never a dull moment when you're using mixed media in stained glass. Sheri feels that she had numerous issues while making this but no window every goes smoothly-- trust me. All in all her work was great and I have to say that her soldering is phenomenal!
Next up we have another example of a window that doesn't rest flat due to, once again, 3D pieces used within it. Linda L used five depression saucers and turned them into flowers in her unique Flower Garden Window. At first she was going to have the saucers extrude from the back side of the window but in the end she reversed them so that they 'poke out' from the front. The end result is stunning and Linda is ready to move along to something new next week.
I love a good challenge and when Lara came in saying that she really hoped to get her large Rectangles Window completed before class ended I knew that we'd manage to get it finished on time. At the end of the night, after first adding a beveled border and then soldering both the front and back of the window, Lara walked out the door with a smile on her face and a completed project on the back seat of her car. Check out those perfect straight lines-- that's attention to detail.
Bee Finished her Holy Ghost Window and it's worthy of all the praise it gets! She did an outstanding job lining everything up and getting those sun rays straight (as well as cutting them out from one sheet of glass because, let me tell you, it was close!) The end result is a window we may very well see again since out students love religious themed pieces. The wire work that makes the beak of this Dove really sets this piece off because as a cut that would be very difficult to do.
Cindy came in and surprised me in the middle of class by pulling out this window that she started and completed while at home. She had drawn up the pattern up from a tattoo but decided to make her stained glass rendition of the design in assorted clear textures. I was floored when I saw what she'd accomplished because she never said one work to me about this at all. Great work all around!
Cheryl's made a religious window of her own featuring a beveled cross set into a small circle. She had thought that brass channel would be applied to the edge of this piece but you can only bend zinc channel and it doesn't bend into a small circle so Cheryl finished this off by putting a bead along the outside edge. She was also concerned that the circle wasn't very circular but like the design itself it looks perfect to me.
Barbara's Starburst Suncatcher stands about 12 inches tall and although it looks simple enough to make it's not what I'd call a beginners project. For this piece to hang straight and for the center to be rounded with lead all of the thin triangular cuts need to be absolutely perfect. The secret is to cut two of the lines on each triangle perfectly and then leave an extra 16th of an inch along the third line to account for any breakage that may occur along the points. As you can see, Barbara handled it like a professional.
Linda F's first Ladybug window is officially ready to be framed and displayed in her yard. I'm proud to tell you that Linda made this entire window COMPLETELY by herself. I have a habit of grabbing and putting channel on everyone's windows but Linda insisted on cutting and applying her own brass channel which I suppose means that she no longer needs me. And do you know what? I couldn't have done a better job myself!
Next up we take a look at Lisa's work. She's completed 3 Harry Potter Sorting Hat Nightlights during our time off and her end results are actually very predictable-- they're Gr-r-reat! They're also all spoken for so if you want one you'll just have to make your own or pay her the big bucks to make one for you!
Helen is back and she finished up work on two small pieces during her first class back- a Tulip and a Christmas Tree. She was originally going to add a border to the tulip but she'd soldered both sides which means that the glass for the border didn't align flush with the rest of the piece so she opted to surround this with brass channel and simply call it finished. There's nothing wrong with that because, as you can see, these both turned out to be lovely pieces!
Judy spent her time 'off' grinding her Wine Ladies and once we refit a piece or two she'll begin the wrapping process of this project. There's no doubt that we'll see a border on this when she returns because Judy only has a handful of pieces left to wrap before she can tack this and move on over to the next phase of this windows creation.
Kerry finished cutting out the pieces for his blue Stylized Fleur De Lis Window and even got the majority of it ground and fitted together. This is another window that could very well see a border applied to it next week. I love the colors because they're different and I like how Kerry has made this window 'his own' by shucking the more traditional amber color scheme that this is normally made in.
Cindy's also working on a Brown Pelican Window which is coming together more and more each week that she works on it. Truth be told, once the back feathers are completed the rest of this will be a piece of cake for Cindy.
Susan R began making two more Lawn Ornaments and we've never seen anything like these before. There's an unconventionality about this design that works wonderfully with the colors that she's chosen. Her first one is all cut and ground and ready to be wrapped so it will surely be finished before you know it.
Lisa, who made the Sorting Hat Nightlights that we looked at earlier in this post is apparently hot on making nightlights! These four draw on an Art Nouveau look with curves cutting into circles which are a little hard to see here right now but which will become readily apparent once they are wrapped and prepped for soldering.
With her clouds, sky and moon all ground and fitting together Annette is ready to begin work on her border pieces and the legs and beak of this grand Crow Window. We're going to etch the black glass for the legs and the beak to give it a duller look for a little extra character. I think it's going to look great!
Linda F's second Ladybug Panel would have possibly been completed as well this week but she just didn't care for the border color that she had cut out for it and therefor decided to change it out. The white border makes the center pop stand out and now she (and I) are thoroughly content with it!
Spring has surely sprung! Susan D's latest 'season' panel is all cut out and now she's busy wrapping all of those intricate little pieces with copper foil. She said that it's growing a little bit and that she's had to re-grind a piece or two here and there but it's already looking impressive even before solder gets applied to it.
Mary's got a complex pattern of her own going on and she is now cutting out all of the flowing scroll work that connects her two humming birds and the rose together. There's a good chance that she'll be grinding this when she comes back in but even in its un-ground state this is already looking fabulous.
Shelley almost wrapped up the work on her Sunburst window while she was in this week. With only the back side of this left to solder I know that this will be out the door next week (if she doesn't finish it at home herself which she does from time to time.) This will end up being mounted in a frame for hanging which explains why there is no border surrounding it (and thus no way to attach hooks securely to it).
Mary Grace has her Flag/Heart so close to being completed that I know it will be finished when we return next week. Alas, I dropped a huge ball of melted lead on one of the red stripes and wouldn't you know that it broke the piece. I promise to fix that for Mary Grace as soon as she comes back in. As I always say, "You can't make a window without breaking some glass."
Shawn certainly accomplished a lot this week with her Diver Window. First she finished foiling four pieces of glass that were inadvertently skipped when she was last in. Then she tacked everything together with lead. Next she filled in the missing piece of sand and we redesigned and cut glass for the face of the diver which she had left empty the last time we saw this. After wrapping and tacking the newly cut pieces Shawn picked out a border color (a rich deep blue) and cut them to fit this octagon window which is a bit more involved than cutting a regular square or rectangular border. Now that's what I call a busy evening! The good news is that the lions share of the work has been completed on this window now.
Betty has four more crosses that she's working on and they are very close to being completed. Three of them are soldered and only need to have a hook attached to each of them which leaves one left to go. We'll surely see four completed Crosses in our next update.
And to wind this all up we'll look at the stack of six more feathers that Martha has all cut out and ready to be ground. I'm going to suggest that she grind them all at once and bag them individually rather than grinding one feather and then wrapping it and soldering it. Believe it or not, things actually go much faster if you cut out everything, then grind everything, then wrap everything and finally solder all of the feathers.
And there you have it, all the news that's fit to print.
Paul
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