Now You Know What It's Like To Be A Menopausal Woman

Linda's Ornamental Cross is perfection indeed.   She's really taken her time to ensure that all of the points and curves line up perfectly to prevent large, uneven amounts of lead from cluttering up the cross.  Great work!

 

 

 

 

Ann's latest Angel may consist of a lot of little pieces but the end result is something she can certainly be proud of.   She's pretty much unflappable at this point in her stained glass career because I know (for a fact) that she's never met a project with too many tiny, little pieces!

 

 

 

 

Melissa's final pair of Beach Themed Suncatchers have been finished and they are a perfect fit for the other four that she completed last week.  The Starfish is charming due to its simplicity (as well as the craftsmanship that she put into it) while the Scallop Seashell features an iconic look that translates perfectly to stained glass.

 

 

 

 

Annette made a pair of Teardrop Crosses in two different sizes.  This is a 'logo' for the church she's involved with and I do believe that they are going to be thrilled when they receive these.  Especially since they don't even know that they're coming!

 

 

 

 

Helen learned how to do a repair this week as we replaced one of the broken pieces in her LSU Window.   Here's the completed project and you'd never know that this once had a crack running through one of the purple pieces.  For those who don't know how a repair is handled I will say that the piece of broken glass isn't mended-- it's completely replaced.

 

 

  

Rudolph is finished and Susan R has his red nose in place which sets him off from the other Reindeer that she's made throughout the year.  That means that this is the last of this series of Lawn Ornaments until one of her friends or neighbors orders a full set of nine reindeer and a sleigh.  (Just kidding!)    

 

MiMi has begun cutting out a Polaroid Camera which is going to amaze a lot of stained glass makers out there when it gets just  a little farther along.   The picture that will be  emerging from the camera will be interesting indeed.

 

  

 

 

Steve is attaching all of his pieces to his copper framework to create a very unique piece of Lawn Art.   Soldering to copper is not an easy feat but Steve is being smart and not rushing it or getting discouraged.  Slow and steady wins the race!

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace resumed work on the wrapping of her pieces that form the large Lotus section of her four part window.  It won't be long now until all four sections are joined together to form one large (and very impressive) window.

 

  

 

 

Linda also worked on a Halloween Pumpkin that will be done in black glass with a fiery orange mouth, nose, and eyes.  This will be striking to say the least. 

 

  

 

 

Lara has begun working on a Louisiana Themed Window which incorporates the outline of the state filled with various activities and locations that represent what Louisiana may best be known for.   It's her first week working on this but she's already cutting out glass for it.

 

  

 

 

Kerry's started a Hummingbird Suncatcher that resides on some rather fancy wire work.   His glass is all cut, ground, and wrapped so this will easily be completed upon his return. 

 

  

 

Lisa's Cardinals Window is getting closer and closer to its completion.  She's got her double borders attached as well as the channel which means that she's working on soldering.   She's already far along on the front side so I think that we will see what she's working on next when she returns to class next week because this will surely be finished then.

 

  

 

 

Shelley has decided to make another large Peacock Suncatcher and is already well under way on it.  She may have made her first one a few years back but she's working through this quickly as if she makes them every other week!

 

 

 

Bee's Hibiscus Window has all of the glass cut for it so the rest should be a piece of cake.  Since the leaves of the flower cut into the two borders they didn't go on as quickly as other borders do.  There was a lot of back and forth to the grinder as each piece was being cut.  There was also a small problem with two of the inside border pieces which, although they were cut from the same sheet of glass, didn't quite match the other pieces.   But Bee nipped that in the bud before she tacked the pieces to her window.  

 

  

 

 

Roxane finished grinding her Address Window and has moved on over the the wrapping phase of the project.   She really moves at breakneck speed on her windows with an accuracy that's almost uncanny! 

 

 

 

Angie's LSU/Tiger Eye Window has its two panels tacked together  which means that they will be joined together with a single border when she comes back in.   I must say that she's moved quickly and efficiently on this difficult window.

 

  

 

 

Sheri is taking a bit of a break from her Business Card Window to work on something a little less mentally taxing.  Here you can see that she's working on her own version of the Ornamental Cross and moving along  nicely with it.

 

  

 

 

June  was unsure about what color to pick for her Sailboat Window's border and she almost settled on blue but then I spotted this wonderful vibrant green that really lends itself to the overall asthetiques of the window.

  

 

 

Betty's Irises and Dragonfly Window is ready for foil now that she's got everything ground.   Once it's tacked Betty will learn how to easily fit borders to an octagonal shaped window.   Following pattern pieces usually results in angles that are thick in lead or uneven;y joined  but there is a trick that we will cover when the time comes. Oh, and I love her choice of Dragonfly colors.

 

 

 

Cindy's Alligator Window is so close to completion.  This week we saw her tack the leaves and the Alligator together and then cut out the background glass to fit in all of the empty spaces that were left in between.   The end result is a perfectly fitting background and a border that fits equally as well in both the literal and figurative sense of the word.

 

 

 

Next we have Judy who did the same thing that Cindy did by filling in numerous background pieces for her Vegetable Window.  She's only cut half of the background pieces because we wanted to tack some of them into position to help stabilize everything to make the final smaller pieces fit in easier.   Look to see the remaining holes filled when Judy returns. 

 

 

 

Lastly, Betty's also working on two Crosses of her own-- one Ornamental cross which she's done in all clear textures and the other featuring clear bevels intermixed within  assorted colors.  Both are ground and ready to be wrapped and tacked together so it won't be long now.

 

 

Well, lo and behold, we've reached the end!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

For A Minute There I Thought I Cracked Your Back!

Kerry's closed the book on his Cabin in the Bayou Window and now that it has some light behind it you can truly appreciate all of the time and effort he's put into it.  It may be a big window but there's a lot of detail packed into it which means that Kerry was dealing with some tiny pieces of glass.  As always, all of that time and effort shines right on through though.

Shelley completed her Leaf in a Hoop and I must say that the hoop really transformed this from an average suncatcher to one that really grabs your attention.   There may only be a few pieces in this pattern but Shelley's work was exemplary on it

 

 

 

Melissa's finished four  of her Beach Themed Suncatchers and what a beautiful set they already are.   During class we asked each other what their favorite one was and the Turtle won hands down.  Still, everyone said that the choice was a hard one to make because the other three are just as beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Linda L's first Candy Corn Panel is one of the cheeriest things that  I've seen in a long time.   If you want to talk about perfect color selections you HAVE to mention this because Linda's choices are spot on and the pattern already hits a sweet spot even without any color!

 

 

 

Cindy's Unicorn Suncatcher was completed this week and it's a winner.  Do you know why Unicorns never horse around?  Because they get right to the point.

 

 

 

 

Helen's newest Cross was made from bevels.  Sometimes less is more and when it comes to bevels that's always the case.  Never try to overwhelm a bevel cluster or your window will become underwhelming!

 

 

 

Angie's Ornamental Cross is the latest of a new 'fad' going around in the shop.  We will be seeing a lot of these as the weeks go by and Angie's choice of colors along with her craftsmanship only help to 'sell' this pattern even more than it normally would by itself.

Martha loved the double bevel border of a Fleur De Lis Window that she saw online and has added it to a different Fleur De Lis thus making up her own pattern.   She wasn't sure of what glass to use for the background surrounding the circle that the FDL resides in but when she saw Corteza (or 'alligator glass' as we sometimes refer to it) she know what she wanted to use.

  

 

Roxane got a lot of work done on her Address Window starting with the background glass that she spent the beginning of her class cutting out.  After that was finished she moved on over to the grinder and began fitting everything together as perfectly as possible.  It's not even halfway ground and it already looks spectacular.

 

  

 

Betty's Irises and Humming Bird Window is all cut out and she's moved on over to the grinder to get all of her ducks in a row.  This is a complex pattern but Betty has flown through the cutting process and  when this is completed it's really going to be impressive.  It already is!

  

 

MiMi's Owl and Unicorn Suncatchers have been meticulously ground and are very close to being soldered.   The Owl is completely wrapped and the Unicorn only has a few pieces to go before its wrapped as well so these will soon be leaving the work table for good!

  

 

 

Lisa's Cardinals Window is officially all cut out and more than halfway ground.   Even though she cut down on the number of pieces in this version of her pattern there are still  lot of tiny and thin pieces which take more time to grind and wrap.   But with more than half of this ground already I have to say that Lisa has made the most of her  class time

 

  

 

Bee's Hibiscus got it's first border cut and ground and what a perfect choice of colors that turned out to be.  Greens with hints of reds drifting into it made this the unmistakable winner.   There's only one border left to go on this and then Bee can begin soldering.

 

  

 

 

Steve is slowly but surely getting his stained glass pieces soldered to the large copper frame that he's already put together.   He was able to use a blowtorch to solder the metal to metal sections but that isn't possible to do when adding glass the the frame work.  Instead, Steve is using a hot iron and a lot of time and patience.

 

  

 

 

Cheryl is now soldering her Winged Cross Suncatcher which, as you can see, she's cut from one piece of glass.  What isn't readily apparent is the fact that this glass is iridized which means that it throws off of unique range of colors when it is in sunlight.  This will surely be finished when she comes back into class next week.

 

  

 

 

Linda F worked on her own version of the Ornamental Cross which oddly enough  resembles Angie's not only in design but in color as well.  It wasn't planned that way- it just happened!

 

 

 

 

Susan R is foiling her last Reindeer which means that this will fly out the door when she comes back in.   We're still going to re-cut a piece of the face but we will do that after this has been tacked together to ensure a perfect fit on the very first cut.

 

  

 

Ann's Angel is all cut out and she's now working on foiling all of those tiny pieces.  She said that she didn't plan on the wing tips to be pink but that's just the way it worked out all on its own.  How serendipitous!

 

  

 

 

Helen's LSU Window would have been completed but we found a break in one of the pieces of purple and she didn't have the glass with her for us to repair it.   So she finished it off as best as she could and will be bringing in a replacement piece of glass next week.   It's a simple repair so expect to see this among our completed projects in our next post. 

 

 

 

Cindy's Alligator is possibly being foiled  even as you read this.   It was been a hectic week for her so she wasn't able to work on her window over the past week but I know that we'll get some background glass cut when she comes back in especially since she saw and fell in love with the Corteza glass that Martha used.

 

 

 

 

Lastly we have Sheri who  got a lot of the letters ground for her Business Card Window.  In fact, she got a surprising amount of of letters fitting together nicely in a short span of time.   

  

 

And there ya have it!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Which Begs The Question

Martha's Iris Humming Bird is all about purples and greens accented with a touch of yellow/orange that sets everything off perfectly.  It's a popular pattern and Martha's rendition of it will certainly bring it back into the limelight once again.  Oh, and she says that she'll be making another one in the near future...

 

 

 

Let's Circular Cardinal is only eight inches wide put it sure packs a lot of detail into that crampt little space.  People often believe that smaller is easier but nothing could be further from the truth.  Let may made this look easy because of her dedication and devotion to her projects.

 

  

 

 

Our first Halloween piece of the year has officially been completed by Lisa.   This corner Spider Web decoration is made of many, many different clear textures and is a great way to get rid of some of that scrap glass that's just a tad too big to throw away yet a tad too small to use in most projects.   She also plans to accent this piece with a dangling spider that she's found in a store.

 

  

 

 

 

Cheryl had a beveled Fleur De Lis and decided to make a window out of it.  The biggest lesson that she learned here is that a beveled window doesn't require a pattern to create.  You just tack together the bevel, set it on a piece of glass a little shorter than the size you want the finished window to be, center and trace the bevel, and then cut the background.  Once it all fits together you add a border and viola!  You have a window just like the one you see below!

 

 

 

 

Next up we see this week's second Cardinal but this one is a Suncatcher that Linda F made which features some wire work to set it all off.  It's only 8 pieces along with a bit of bent wire but it proves that less can be more and that big things CAN come in small packages.

 

  

 

 

Helen knocks out Cross Suncatchers as fast as Ann does!  This is her latest cross which features a single two inch bevel in the center of some raindrop glass.

 

 

 

Betty is back in action and well under way on her new Octagon Iris Window.  There's even a Dragonfly in it which poses as a sort of accent piece to provide a burst of color.  Unless, of course, Betty wants it to be a demure hint of unassuming color.   I suspect that we'll learn what direction she plans to do upon her return next week.

 

 

 
Candy Corn patterns are simple yet highly effective due to their inherent colorful nature.  Linda L jumbled five of them about and tacked them together inside of a clear background leaving her with our second Halloween themed piece this week which I'm certain will be completed when she comes back in.

 

  

 

 

No, you're not experiencing dyslexia-- this is just the back side  of Helen's latest LSU Window.  She got the center completely cut and ground while at home and then brought it in so she could tack it together and then get a nice bright yellow border attached to it as well as some channel.  The end is inevitably near.

 

  

 

 

Shelley came in not knowing what she was going to do and then it dawned on her that she was supposed to make a Pot Leaf for someone.   She was just going to make a stand alone suncatcher but mounting it inside of a hoop made it far more sturdy and easier to hang.   She's taken it home to wrap and knowing Shelley she might even finish this at home if mounting it inside the hoop doesn't intimidate her.

  

 

 

Lisa has streamlined the Cardinal Pattern that she drew up two weeks ago and made it smaller and 'more accessible'. She still plans on making the original design but this smaller one will be the one she does first.  If you look closely you can see that she's already cut out her background pieces and that they've been cut from a beautiful piece of fractures and streamers glass.  And we all know that you just can't lose when you use that stuff.

  

 

 

Kerry is so close to finish soldering the back side of his Bayou Cabin Scene that we could very well see it completed upon his return.  There's just the actual cottage itself  and then the irises left to solder and then we only need to knock out and replace one small piece that was tacked in sideways.   As Rosanne Rosanna Danna used to say, "It just goes to show ya, it's always something.  If it's not one thing it's another..."

 

 

 

Cindy has redone two of the leaves in the Alligator Window that she drew herself and is now ready to wrap this and tack it together so she can get her background glass cut for it.   That part should go very quickly since the cuts are all very basic.  She had originally planned on using white for the teeth but it was just so bright against the green that she decided to use and off-white for a more natural 'gator look.

 

  

 

 

Judy's Vegetable Window is getting me hungry!!  She's only got the leaves left to wrap and then, much like Cindy, she'll get her background cut out quickly and efficiently.   I must say that her work on this is top notch.

 

 

With her Tiger Eyes all tacked together Angie will now begin working on the LSU portion of her window.  When the letters are tacked together a border will joint the two sections to form one large window.   Angie plans on altering the pattern ever so slightly by placing the LSU above the Tiger Eyes which is a nice simple alteration.

 

  

 

 

Sheri has been busily grinding away at the letters that make up her business Card Window.  It's a slow and tedious process but slow and steady win the race.  Once the letters are tacked together she'll match the background to the letters for a perfectly legible window.

 

 

 

Let's latest Beveled Cross looks as though it would sit along side of Sheri's Business Card Window perfectly due to the matching color schemes.  Let already has all of her pieces cut so I know that she'll begin grinding this while at home throughout the week.  Who knows what we'll see her working on when she comes in because it's always a wonderful surprise!

  

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

 

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