Does Anyone Have A Needle And Thread?

I have no doubt that  MiMi's Unicorn Crown is going to make one little girl VERY happy.  In fact, it reminds me of a riddle that goes like this:  What's the difference between Justin Bieber and a unicorn?  Well, one resides in little girl's dreams and the other is majestic Rainbow Spouting Creature.  At any rate, MiMi did a wonderful job on this and even accented it with some bling!

  

 

 Betty completed her Mardi Gras Jester Window and added green irises for it's eyes using glass paint.  Two simple dots was all it took to breath a little life in those eyes and complete the effect of a face.

 

Sheri has made a number of these Poinsettia Flower Suncatchers for someone who wants to hang them from their Christmas Tree.   We played with the size of the pattern a bit and according to her customer her end result was the perfect size.  In fact, they were so perfect that another one was immediately ordered and that is what you are looking at here!

Judy made 3 different Christmas Suncatchers as gifts and they each turned out perfect.  Regardless of what she thinks Judy is a VERY capable student who works quickly and efficiently.

Angie's version of the clear textures Tulip Window was finished this week and again, those three colors really draw the viewers attention in a wonderful way.  When you hear that less is more, well, this is what 'they' are talking about!

 

 

 

Martha made her own assortment of Beach Themed Suncatchers and finished soldering all six of them this week.  They make quite a collection and Martha seems to have mastered the art of tap-tapping a bead along the outside edge of the suncatchers.   Yes, it takes time but that's just the way the tap-tap goes.

 

 

 

Annette added another eight Teardrop Crosses to her collection and believes that this is the last of them (for now).   She'll be giving these out at her Church and I'm sure that they will be GREATLY appreciated.

 

 

 

Linda L has two more Flower Pot 3D Succulents completed and for the record the flower pots are not made of stained glass.  They are actual mini-flower pots that the 3D succulents are then 'planted' in.  And the best two things about these are that 1) they never need water and 2) they always look great!

 

 

Sheri has completed her Business Card window and she's taken it along home to clean up.  Hopefully she can get a finished picture to me so I can share with you what it looks like with some light behind it.  This was a complex piece and I have to hand it to Sheri-- she kept plugging away at it little by little until it was finally completed.

 

 

 

As you can see, Melissa is making short work of her Gingerbread House.  She began cutting it out last week and this week she's already grinding!  The little gumdrops on the ground where a bit troublesome for her to grind because of their size (or lack of size) but she's beyond that now and ready to move on over to easier (larger) pieces.

  

 

Cheryl is busy working on an Address Window with a Fleur De Lis Accent.  Now that the subject matter has been cut out she will grind it, wrap the pieces and then tack them together so that she can lay them out on top of her background glass and then trace around them for perfectly fitting background pieces.  This is the easiest way to handle a window like this.

 

 

 

MiMi is knocking out three perfectly formed Humming Birds which might lead (again) to people on the Facebook Stained Glass Page to accuse her of using a stained glass kit rather than cutting and grinding her pieces herself.  Let me assure you-- that is NOT what MiMi is doing.  She cuts and grinds all of her glass by hand and by herself!  Its not her fault that she's got mad skills that those naysayers don't!

 

  

 

Here's a look at Betty's newest Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus Panel which would have been completed this week had it not been for a sad accident that happened to it.   A brush dropped on top of her window which broke one of the largest pieces in it.  Once she saw the damage she knocked out the piece (which I've highlighted in the picture with a broken glass image) and she will replace the piece next week thus completing this project.

 

  

 

Each week Cindy manages to get another row attached to her stained glass Bowl.  There's no pattern for this-- she just picks a piece of glass and then grinds one or two of the sides so that it follows the piece that it will rest on top of.  Once that row is completed she starts all over again.  

 

 

Let now has all of the glass cut for her Crab Window and only has the background glass left to grind.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be ground before Let comes back in because she never rests when making a window!

 

 

 

Ann is another student who moves at breakneck speed.  This week she managed to entirely grind her Praying Santa Window and then moved along to wrapping her glass.   Next time this window gets made we're going to figure out how to get a star into it. 

  

 

 

Since just about everyone is having trouble 'seeing' exactly what Steve is making I've overlaid his current panel on top of the full sized pattern that he drew a few weeks ago.  He still has to cut out the woman's arm but now you can get a feel for what this is all about .

  

 

 

And then at the other end of the table that Steve works at we have Lisa who is hard at work on a medium sized window that happens to have a lot of tiny pieces in it.  She's already got the left side of the window (the star and the yellow rose) ground and has just begun cutting the blue bonnets for the lower right quarter of the window.

 

 

 

With all of the background for her Peacock cut out Susan D has now begun grinding those pieces.   She only has a handful left to go and when everything fits together she'll position the bird's headdress and then carefully grind the beads that make it up into place.  After that this will just need some solder.

 

  

 

 

Our other Susan worked some more on grinding her Large Christmas Ornament and it wasn't until the end of class when I finally realized that she actually has two of these cut and ground.  She just has them on top of one another!  What a beautiful pair of Christmas Ornaments these are going to make!

 

  

 

 

Next we have a look at Angie's version of the newest Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus Panel.   Luckily Angie's didn't meet with disaster!   This is yet another window that will be completed next week.

 

  

 

 

Linda F has the brass channel attached to her pair of Frosty The Snowman Panels and is now soldering them.   The one with the blue scarf has its front side soldered and Linda has flipped it over to get to work on its back side.   Look to see these completed when Linda next returns!

 

  

 

And then there's Bee who is getting ready to start work on a window for her front door.  This week she learned the basics of drawing a geometrical pattern and ended up walking out the door with this stunning pattern.  Look out because she'll most likely be cutting glass for this when she returns.

 

 

 

And there ya have it! Th-th-that's All Folks!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Extraordinarily Nice

Melissa's Kingdom Hearts Window is officially completed and she decided to color the lead with black patina rather than copper.  Why?  Well, it really helps to hide the lead lines that fall within the black background glass and it is also a GREAT choice for anything Logo or Cartoon related since both are traced out with black lines whenever you see them.  Melissa's work on this is flawless and the window is so very perfectly balanced.

  

 

Martha's Yellow Rose of Texas worried me slightly when I saw shades of green within the yellow glass that she used but now that it's been finished with some light behind it I see no green in the petals at all.   It just goes to show you that you can't trust glass when it is laying on a table.  To get the true color you MUST hold it up to see some light behind it.  And don't you just love the baroque background that Martha used?   She was able to assemble it so that the textured pattern of the glass fit back together perfectly!

 

 

 

My hat goes off to Mary Grace who made this Stained Glass 3D Succulent entirely by herself at home.  These things are a bugger to assemble and even though she said it took her a while, she still did it all on her own and ended up with a beautiful flower.  Then she made this stained glass Heart complete with a faceted crystal hanging in the center of it.

 

 

 

Speaking of 3D items, here's a look at the first of three(?) Flower Pot Succulents that Linda L finished this week.  It went together quickly and she's so impressed that she'll be making more of these.  Oh, and did I mention that she drew up the pattern for this herself?  :-)

Cheryl's LSU Tower only needed to get some solder on its back side and Cheryl accomplished that with ease. By the time class was over she walked out the door with this stately monument to LSU.  She initially wanted to match the original window that she saw but since that glass wasn't available she had to change both the yellow/gold and the purple.  This would be off putting to a lot of people but Cheryl didn't mind and ended up making a beautiful version of this pattern all the while making it her own.

 

 

 

Let finished her version of the LSU Tiger Eye also using shades of yellow/gold and purple of her own choice.   This size window (8" x 10.5") is becoming very popular in our Tuesday morning class because it allows you to maintain details while allowing the maker to complete the project pretty quickly.  Let's window is a perfect example of this.

Cindy knocked out another Wrought Iron Cross but changed the colors ever so slightly because she didn't have enough blue to cut all of the pieces that she colored blue in the last one.   Here we see that she used two shades of blue and placed them strategically throughout the Cross.   The end result is wonderful but the best thing about this is that she's sold it already!

 

 

Our last completed project is a new Frosty the Snowman that Betty made.   It obviously went together both quickly and efficiently partly because I think Betty could make this with her eyes closed now!

Let told me that she was looking for a Crab Window Pattern and I said that luck was with her because we had at least two crabs in the pattern drawers.   She found them both, settled on this one and began cutting glass for it this week.   As you can see, she's moving along quickly with it since the crab itself has not only been cut out but ground as well.

 

Martha got all of her Beach Themed Suncatchers ground and then moved along to the wrapping portion of her project.   With everything now foiled she'll begin soldering these and most certainly see most of them completed when she comes back in.

  

 

With all of the glass cut out for her Praying Santa, Ann then began grinding her pieces.   The bottom grass layer has been ground along with the baby Jesus in his bed of straw.  I suspect it won't take her long at all to finish the rest of the grinding and therefore the entire window.  I have absolutely no doubt that this will be finished in time for Christmas.

 

After getting the border attached to her Mari Gras Jester Betty turned her attention to her Nativity Scene Panel.  However, in the end she disliked the amber color she had picked for some of the robes and everyone told her "Change it now or you'll never be happy with it."  When she comes back in next week we'll see what she replaced it with.

  

Lisa is working on her Texas Collage in sections.   Right now she's grinding the Star portion of her window.   The yellow flower petals have yet to be cut but it looks that that will happen shortly.   Also, I found a piece of her star in the container of water next to the grinder that she was using so if she is reading this before class she can rest assured that she had, in fact, cut that piece of glass.

  

Next up we look at the first panel of Steve's new window.  True to his word he began cutting glass this week and it (well, this panel) is already about finished!   It's not much to look at right now but remember that this is just one sixth of the entire window which is being made in six (of course) sections.  What you see here is the ground found in the bottom left of the entire scene. 

  

All of those pins can only mean one thing-- that Susan R is grinding away at her large Christmas Ornament Suncatcher.  She's decided not to cut the top 'stem' of the ornament that the hook hangs from into four smaller rectangular pieces and to be honest I don't think that would matter one way or the other.  More on this when we return next week.

 

 

 

Our other Susan's Peacock has been tacked together and she even has her beveled inner border wrapped and tacked together.   With her new background pattern pieces all drawn out she'll be cutting her heavily textured background glass when she comes back in.  Once that's done the hardest part of this window will be behind her.

 

 

 

Angie's Clear Textures Tulip Window made major progress as she got her background glass cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  Once that was done she still had time to get her border attached as well as a brass channel.  With the front side of this window soldered I'm going to make a bold prediction and say that this gets finished upon Angie's return.

 

 

Sheri's Business Card Window is so very close now.  All of the glass has been cut and everything has been tacked together which just leaves Sheri with the soldering left to go.  There's been a lot of work put into this and it's all paying off now!

 

 

 

June's Razorback has been ground up to the eyes which means that she'll be dealing with larger pieces from here on out.   Larger pieces are quicker to grind since they are easier to maneuver around the grinding wheel which means that there's no doubt that this will be finished before Christmas. In fact, June will be well underway on another project by then.

 

  

 

As I said at the start of this post, Linda L is working on at least two more of her Potted Succulents and here are the pieces for her next pair which she already has ground and foiled.   She's currently 'tap-tapping' them with and that means that next week she will put these together.

 

 

 

Lastly we look at two more Frosty The Snowman Panels that Linda F is working on.   She's doing this correctly by cutting everything out at once and then grinding them together as well.  Working on one until it is finished and then starting a second always goes more slowly.  Last week these didn't even exist and this week- WHAM! Two Snowmen cut out and being ground already!

 

 

So that just leaves us with just one thing left to say:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Two Naked Butts and an Iguana

Kerry's Large Butterfly turned heads while he was working on it but now that it's complete I know that there's going to be even more talk about it.   Many were impressed with its size and others wondered how it was going to stay together since it isn't a window but rather a large suncatcher (18 inches wide).  At the end of this post I'll show you exactly where the re-bar stripping went in which supported the wings and made the entire piece impressively sturdy.

 

I have to say that this is a first here in the shop.  Linda F asked if I happened to have a Yankee's Logo pattern but I didn't however, the logo was very easy to turn into a glass pattern.  Judging by how quickly she turned this out I'd say that it's not a very hard pattern to make either, but then again Linda has some mad stained glass skills so I know that I need to take that into consideration.

 

Judy made easy work out of her three layer border as well as the Cardinal itself.  The end result is perfect and easily recognizable which, judging by some of the stained glass cardinals (and other assorted birds) that I've seen on the internet, may not be all that easy to accomplish!

 

 

 

Angie wrapped up her Long Tall Santa Panel and her Frosty The Snowman as well.  She even learned how to dot her eyes while making her Santa.   Just one quick drop of glass paint or some nail polish and you're good to go!

 

 

 

 

Cindy made a slew, a batch, a flock, a heap, or whatever you call a bunch of crosses this week and only two of them use the same glass.  Since those two lavender Crosses are made from completely different patterns you might not even notice the color similarity.  I do believe that the center one is the standout though.

And now we move along to projects that are still under construction starting with Ann's Kneeling Santa.  I already liked the pattern (whose inspiration came from a string of Christmas lights) but seeing it here cut out with everything but the sky 'colored' in I have to say that I like it even more.  I'll bet we see more of these being done in the weeks to come.

 

 

 

After finishing her Crosses Cindy began working on a new Stained Glass Bowl.  Using assorted odds and end of glass which she sometimes tweaks for a 'perfect' fit, Cindy builds these inside of a stainless steel bowl.   She tacks her pieces together one row at a time and once it is at the height she wants she just turns the bowl over, and out it pops!

  

Lara was back this week and her Louisiana Collage is looking to be halfway or even more than halfway completed.  She is literally grinding this to complete perfection.  If you look at the large picture you can see how exactly her ground pieces match the lines on the pattern.

 

  

 

 

Susan R's Large Christmas Ornament has now been completely cut out and she's ready to begin grinding this festive window decoration. She's used a beautiful piece of white iridised glass for the bow as well as the stripe on the ornament which is really going to set this off nicely when light hits it from the front.

 

  

 

 

Betty is skipping Christmas and moving right on over to Mardi Gras.  Or at least she is during this week and next week.   It's hard to see but she now has her glue chip background all cut and ground which means that there's only a green border left to go and then she'll be able to solder this and call it a window.

 

 

 

 

Cheryl also made great progress on her LSU Tower Window.   After getting her border wrapped and attached she then set upon soldering her purple and gold window.   When class was finished her front side was completed which means that this will most likely be finished when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Linda L is making another 3D project and this Succulent design is based on something that she saw on the internet and then drew up herself.  It's hard to tell how many petals she'll need to made three layers but we both feel that five petals in three different sizes will do the job.  We'll find out when she returns because this is just about ready to be assembled.

 

  

 

 

Lisa N traced out her paper pattern, cut it up and then began cutting actual glass for the Texas Window that she drew up all by her lonestar lonesome.   The positioning of the star and the yellow rose required a little bit of resizing here and there but that's generally the case for most stained glass patterns.  All in all I give her an A+ for her pattern designing skills!

  

 

June's Razorback looks more and more impressive (and ferocious) with each passing week.   I think she's going to be very happy with this when she gets to see it finished and hanging up.  And she won't be the only person happy with it since I know that this is going to be gifted to an Arkansas Razorbacks fan.

 

 

 

As predicted, Susan D has her Peacock all tacked together.   She wants an inner border of bevels to surround this so she will construct the border and then cut and grind the background to fit it.  That way she won't have to worry about possibly having to grind bevels or spacing them out due to sizing errors that stock bevels are sometimes afflicted with.  After that the background will get cut very quickly.

  

 

 

Let has the front of her Tiger Eye Window all soldered and the back is ready to go.   Since Let manages to get a lot accomplished throughout the week while she's at home I have a sneaking suspicion that this will be completely soldered when she brings it back into class.

 

 

 

Everything is cut, everything is ground, everything is wrapped, everything is tacked, and the front side of Bee's Deer Widow has even been soldered.  We added channel along the straight edges of the outside perimeter and low and behold those antlers that hang out of the window have lead lines in just the right places which make them nice and sturdy.  We'll see this hanging up in out next post.

 

  

 

Here's a perfect example where someone assembled the inner beveled border BEFORE she cut her background glass.   Martha's Yellow Rose background glass  is a perfect fit and she also managed to get her final border attached as well.   With the front and back side soldered this will easily be completed upon her return.

 

 

 

It's looking like there will be no shortage of completed projects next week because Melissa's Kingdom Hearts Window only needs to get some channel on it and have a few touch ups here and there before she can call this finished-- and that won't take very long at all.

 

 

 

Sheri has a Frosty The Snowman Panel and two out of four(?) Poinsettia's cut out and well on their way to being completed.   She has no problems soldering and that's all that's left to do on these pieces.  Have a Sheri Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Next we look at some of Steve's glass choices for his Southern Belle Window.  Now that he has things pretty much squared away in terms of color he says that he'll be ready to begin cutting actual glass when he returns.  I, for one,  can't wait to see his beautiful, original design come together.

 

 

 

Lastly we examine how Kerry's bracing was applied to his butterfly.  Without the bracing the wings and the body would certainly pull apart from each other just by their weight alone but we've added a wire-like metal called Re Strip  (or Flex Bar) between the pieces of glass where the green lines indicate. These prevent the wings from 'folding' along the body and pulling loose.   These 'wires' are between the glass and invisible once solder is applied.   The purple line that travels along the bottom half of the body is a thin wire that prevents the body that pokes out below the wings from bending.  All in all Kerry has a very stable Suncatcher! 

 

And that as they say is that!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks