A Dog With Buck Teeth

Judy is paying tribute to one of her favorite places to stop at while she's driving. Her Buc-ee's Window sure looks good and is proof that any logo can be done in stained glass.  The good news for Judy is that Buc-ee's will open a $50 million travel center in Ruston, the chain's first location in Louisiana. The 53,000-square-foot building will have 120 gas pumps and probably 275 urinals. Construction is set to begin later this year and the center will open by 2025.  Welcome to Buc-ee's!!

 

 

 

I have to say that Cindy's Dog Window is perfect right down to the eyes which are very easy to misalign.  There's a small white drop of nail polish on the eyes that really brought Big to life and proves that little things mean a lot.

 

 

 

 

MiMi's second Traditional Window is out the door.  It's a perfect match when placed next to the first one and together they will act as bookends in the room they will decorate.  Another job extremely well done.

 

 

 

 

I do believe that Annette's Betta Fish suncatcher is a first for us here in the shop.  Her colors are spot on largely because she used two different but similar colors to make it.   The body and head are made of steel blue waterglass while the fins were cut from an iridised blue glass.  Breathtaking indeed and the iridised colors even photographed nicely!

 

 

 

 

Linda's put the finishing touches on her large Sunflower Suncatcher and says that she's going to be ready to resume work on her Nativity Scene Window next week. 

 

 

 

Angie's Geometric window is the most colorful version of this that we've seen yet.   You have to admit that it's certainly eye catching and a wonderful use of extraneous pieces of glass that are too big to throw away yet too small to use for a large project.

 

 

 

Cindy has yet another Bicycle Wheel under her belt.  She's got these down to a science now and it's really impressive to watch how she fits each piece into its place (because none of those triangles are the same size).  Also, there's a considerable amount of talent when it comes to soldering the pieces into position.

 

 

 

Betty is always busy and this week she's completed a Modern Cross, a Dove Cross and a pair of Circular Fleur De Lis- one in purple and gold, and the other made in black and gold.

 

 

 

Angie also managed to finished a Dove Cross of her own and she's made hers using some very beautiful Uroboro purple glass.  Just the other day I heard someone say how hard it is to cut Uroboro glass but I'll tell you the secret:  Use a little less pressure on your cutter.   The harder you press the more it veers off course.   It's a skill but once you get it down it's like riding a bike.  You'll never forget how to do it.

 

 

 

Our final completed project of the week was created by Ann and done in just one night.  She can knock out a large modern cross almost as fast as she can start her car!

  

MiMi is well into her next project which is a wonderful Heron Window.  It's already all cut out and I'd say that a good 80 percent of it has been ground as well so it won't be long until we see what this looks like with some light behind it!

  

 

Susan D is working on a new 3D Hummingbird and it looks like it's about ready to get its wings.   Everything has not only been cut and ground- it's also been wrapped in foil which means that this will be together before you know it.

 

 

 

Annette has a sweet little Daisy Panel all cut out and the last border (which is there in the picture but extremely hard to see because it is clear) just needs to be wrapped and tacked into place.  It won't be long now until this little window is finished.

  

 

Lara's got a very unique looking Flower Window under way and I think that this is going to open the door for a series of these charming little panels.   The 'border' will only attach on the top and bottom of the piece like vertical brackets, with a clear possibly textured glass as a background.   Just wait until you see this when it's hanging up.

 

  

 

 

Melissa moves at a break neck speed and her pattern tracing and glass cutting for this Angel Winged Cross shows you just how a great a glass cutter she is.  The thing is that this hasn't even been ground yet!  Hard to believe, huh?

 

 

 

Cheryl is making a Geometric Bevel Cluster Window which uses only stock bevels.   What is a 'stock' bevel?  It's a bevel made to a standard size that can be used singly or in groups to form different designs.  Bevel Clusters form a pattern that can only be used one way and are made of very unique shapes.   Also, stock bevels are much more cost effective than bevel clusters.  That said, as you can tell from Cheryl's window, there's nothing 'chintzy' looking about it!

 

  

 

Now that his cabin has been ground Kerry has split the 'boards' making the cabin into logs.  Why work this way?  Because grinding goes much faster using this method.  Also, to make things go even easier yet he's wrapped his pieces and will tack them together to prevent the cabin from shifting about as he works on the background landscape pieces.

  

 

 

Mary Grace got all of her HOUMA wrapped and she's about to  embark on the fourth (and largest) section of her Logo Window.  Things are about to get really interesting now!

 

  

 

Sheri has only three pieces left to go to form the saucer in her Coffee Window.  That means that this will surely gain a border upon her return.  I'm happy that she changed the coffee in the cup to a darker color so that she could use the glass she'd previously used as the coffee for her table.  It's beautiful glass but you couldn't really appreciate it as you can now that it's a major part of the window.

 

  

 

Jeannette is also on quite a roll when it comes to cutting and grinding.  As you can see she's already got four more Grinch Hands and another  Dove Cross in the works.  In fact, the Dove Cross is all set to be soldered already.

 

 

 

And Jan's another student who's ready for a border.  Her Humming Bird Window got its background cut and ground this week which leaves just a border to go.  The colors she's used so far are fairly subtle so I think something bold would frame this out perfectly.

  

 

 

With her Rooster all wrapped in copper foil Barbara is ready to tack this together for the very same reason that Kerry will be tacking his cabin together-- for stability and ease of grinding.   It's a procedure that I use regularly whenever I don't want sections of a window to shift on me when I still have a lot of background left to fit into place.  Aside from the thin leg sections, everything else should be fairly easy to cut out.

  

 

 

Next we see that Susan R's latest Reindeer has been foiled which means that it will surely be completed upon her return.  With everything wrapped she can easily have this soldered and also get to work on her next project.

 

  

And to wrap his all up we look at Betty's next three projects.   She does so well with these Silverware Dragonflies that I know we'll continue to see more of them on Betty's side of the table in the weeks to come.

 

 

 And there you have it.  One new blog post created largely by all of our wonderfully talented students!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Are You Hungry Like The Wolf?

Let has an eye for color and composition, both of which are prominently on display in her Flower In A Vase Window.  There's a vibrancy as well as a subtleness in her colors which is perfect for this.  Her background was cut from Crepe Glass which is no longer being made (and hasn't been made since the mid 90's) so careful cutting was of the utmost importance.   And did I mention that she drew this pattern out herself?!

 

 

 

Linda F's Flower and Initial Window is another stunning window.  The design is wonderful and the craftsmanship is superb to say the least.  Very vibrant colors are offset by a large amount of contrast which sets this off in a wonderful way. 

These Winged Crosses are quite the rage and Cheryl's will only help to inspire more people to making these.  There's no right or wrong when it comes to colors for these but so far they have all been made from wispy white (for the wings) and assorted clears for the cross itself.   The halo on top makes it all come together and was only ever added because there's no other practical way to hang this piece!  How fortuitous that it added to the design rather than subtracting from it!

 

 

Kerry's Cabin In The Bayou Window is certainly coming along nicely.  There is actually a lot more detail in the cabin than you see in the picture below.  This is because now that everything has been ground and fitted together Kerry will ad further cuts to make the cabin look as though its made out of logs.   Making it this way will will saving him a lot of time and headaches!

 

 

Let had to wait for a suitable brown glass to come in to cut out the feathers for her Eagle Window.   Well the glass has arrived and her Eagle is now completely cut out and ready to visit the grinder.  Since she works on her windows while at home I can't wait to see what she comes back into class with!

 

 

 

Cindy's Big Dog Window is currently undergoing some soldering.  You can tell by the backwards lettering that this is the back side and if you look closely you'll see that there isn't all that much left to actually solder.   She'll be moving along to a new project next week for sure.

 

 

MiMi has both the front and back side of her Traditional Window soldered and will add a Channel to this and easily finish it when she returns with plenty of time to spare.   The next time you see this it will be hanging with some light behind it.

 

 

 

 

Sheri's Coffee Window has almost completely taken shape and her use of contrast in the coffee cup and the saucer is perfection.   Note how the saucer uses a much tighter pattern of the broken plate that she's using to make the cup and saucer.  By cutting the cup out of lighter sections and the saucer out of darker pieces Sheri has added some (well planned) extra definition to her window.

 

 

Buc-ee honestly looks like his namesake now that he's been wrapped and tacked together.  I'm thinking that Judy will add a border to this and even possibly finish it when she comes back in.  It will be close but we'll see what happens and then share it with you in our next post.

 

 

 

Now that June has all of her pieces ground for her Rooster Suncatcher she was able to move along to foiling all of that colorful glass.   With only a few pieces left to go I'm going to guess that this will be tacked together when she comes back in which means that she'll be able to begin soldering it as well.

 

 

Susan R's latest Reindeer was completely ground this week leaving her with some foiling and then a little bit of soldering left to go on this.  Her herd of reindeer is growing faster than a field of rabbits!

 

 

 

Mary Grace now has the HOUMA section of her Logo Window all cut and ground.   She'll wrap this when she comes back in and then add the left and right background pieces to the the three words (Houma, Health and Wellness) so they will fit the width of logo portion of the window which she still has to cut and grind.

Our second Rooster has only a few pieces of its head left to be wrapped in foil. Once those few remaining pieces are wrapped Barbara can tack this guy together and then work on creating the background scenery of this colorful and beautiful Window.

  

I'll admit that it was kind of a slow week but there were still plenty of things to show you.   In all our years of teaching there has only ever been one week where we didn't have a completed project to share.   From the way things played out this week I'd say that next week we will see numerous projects completed so there will be more than enough to write about in our next post.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

But Your Cuts ARE Weak...

 Melissa's address Window is a perfect example of the use of subtly soft colors.   Her excellent color choices ensure that this window could sit in front of ANY house (provided that the street address is 719).  No matter the changes that Melissa may make to the outside of her house, this window will never look out of place.

 

 

 

 

Susan D's Black Crows on  Driftwood is exquisite!  She's really found a niche in the stained glass world and has managed to knock the ball out of the park with each and every one of her self designed creations.

 

 

 

 

 Angie's got her own take on the Shell Window and it's every bit as wonderful as the one we saw before.  She made short work of this and her craftsmanship is spot on throughout!

 

 

 

Jeannette's Round Anchor Window was completed almost faster than she could ask, "Do you have an Anchor Pattern?"   Check out those deep cuts on the left and right sides of background glass that surrounds the anchor.  That's some nice fitting there.

 

 

Annette was as busy as a Bee throughout the week working on a pair of Bumblebee projects.  She's made a 3D curved Bee lawn  ornament which she them suspended from chain to hang as a mobile.   Next she made a Flower and a Bee Suncatcher which were joined together with a few pieces of wire to create one suncatcher with two subjects.

 

 

Lara's heart isn't on her sleeve, it's hung from a chain in her window! Again, simplicity with a unique twist is what sets this apart from other Hearts that we've seen made here before.

 

 

Betty broke away from her Silverware Dragonflies this week and made  two circular Fleur De Lis Suncatchers.  The FDL itself says Louisiana while the colors turn it into a definite LSU design.

 

 

 

 

Ann has another Modern Cross completed.  She's building an arsenal of these to give out as gifts.   By creating them before they are needed she's hopefully avoiding a mad rush to get one done when she least expects it.

 

 

Let got two borders cut and ground for her Flower Vase Panel and I'm fairly sure that if she gets the final border wrapped and tacked that she'll end up having it completely soldered upon her return.

  

 

Cindy's Dog Window now has an official name:  Big.   As you can see she's incorporated the name in the bottom of the window but she still needs to cut out the background glass for those three letters.   That won't take long at all so I do believe that the end of this project is near.

 

 

 

Mary Grace started cutting out the third and final word for her Logo Window.  HOUMA is the newest word and it's all cut and ready for grinding.  There's still a large part of this window to go and that will involve a lot of symmetry so the fun isn't over just yet.  Careful cutting on the larger pieces will be just as important as the lettering was/is. 

  

 

 

Jan's got her Humming bird and Flower Window all ground which allowed her to begin wrapping each of her pieces in copper foil.   She'll tack this together and then cut the background pieces after she cuts and grinds the last two remaining leaves.

 

 

 

Susan D also worked on an assortment of Flower Angels this week.  Two of them (on the left) are actually flowers while the remaining three (on the right) will be Angels.  The difference between them is only in their orientation.   Heads go up for Angels and down to form a flower bud for flowers.

 

  

 

Martha's LSU Tiger is now almost completely ground and fitted together.   Once she grinds the last few remaining pieces on  the right side of the tiger's face she'll be able to start wrapping her glass in copper foil. The rest of this is child's play for Martha.

 

 

 

Sheri's Coffee Window is pretty much ready for foiling now that the table portion of the Window has been cut.   The glass that she picked for the table turned out to be the same glass that she used for the actual coffee in the cup so she ended up changing the color of the coffee to avoid having the cup look like it had a hole in it. 

 

 

 

Shelly's got Bree almost completely ground now.  The only thing left to do is to add an apple stem, two earrings, and 3 round pearls for her necklace.   Then she'll paint the face that you see faintly outlines on the glass and we'll fire it in the kiln.

 

 

 

Barbara's Rooster Window is very close to being ready for foil.  Yes, there's still a lot of background glass to do yet but since we want the rays of the sun to run perfectly through the 'sky' we are going to cut all of that AFTER the rooster itself has been tacked together.   Once that's done all if those pieces will be locked into place which will make grinding the background of this window so much easier and neater.

  

 

And lastly Susan R has another Reindeer under way and in just one class she's managed to cut it all out.  I need to go back to see just how many of these she's already  made and how many she plans to make in total.  I believe she's talking about running some chain between all of the reindeer which will then connect to the Santa's Sleigh that she completed last week.

And there ya have it!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks