I made this Fleur De Lis Window a while back and wanted to explain my color choices. First, instead of making the FDL in one single (boring) color I went three different shades of Amber. Why? Well, when a the subject matter is broken up into pieces to resemble a 3D subject you want to apply some shading to it. I used my darkest amber glass as an accent color which separate the other two ambers from ever touching the same color. Next I used the 'every other piece' method to determine which of the other two colors went in the remaining spaces. I specifically didn't want the colors to be symmetrical on the right and left sides of the window because I feel that too much alignment is predictable and bland. Your mileage may vary though.
Our newest Frosty The Snowman Window was made by Let who now has two of these under her belt. This one has the added bonus of having a sprig of holly gracing the band of Frosty's hat. It's a nicely added touch, don't you think?
Lisa has finished her final Corner Spider Web of the year but I'll bet we'll see her doing more of these in 2024 since they've proven to be so very popular for her. Also, it's a great was to use up all of those small pieces of clear textured glass that you just can't bring yourself to throw away!
Susan R brought in her Santa Sleigh that she completed a while back because she felt that it looked a bit empty. Her goal was to spruce it up a bit with some wire work and that's exactly what she did. I have to say that she took right to it and was able to shape the wires into their curved shapes with the greatest of ease. I mention this because it is NOT an easy thing to do! In the picture below you can see the finished piece on top along with a glimpse of how it looked before she added the wire.
Helen's cutting and grinding are getting better and better with each Cross that she makes. She's been focusing hard on making these symmetrical and it looks like she's accomplished that feat in both her cross and her small Star Pendant.
Bee's Deer Head Window got even fancier this week when she decided to NOT simply cut four strips of border and solder then into position. Instead she's made a multi-colored border with a clearly defined top and bottom (sky and ground) theme. She only has about four pieces left to cut and then she'll be getting some channel applied and then work on soldering this all together.
Cindy has her Clear and Blue Cross all cut and ground and just as I suspected, you can't see the clear glass at all (at this point). Once this is completed (very shortly) and hanging you will clearly see all of the clear textured glass that Cindy has used to hold the blue pieces in place.
Betty has two projects in the works and would have completed her blue version of Frosty The Snowman but she realized that she accidentally cut part of his scarf out of white glass. Alas, we didn't have any more in the shop to fix it. Luckily, Betty has more at home so look to see this completed upon her return. She also managed to get her Mardi Gras Jester's face cut out and ground so all in all it was a productive day for Betty.
After getting the wire work completed on her Santa Sleigh Susan R decided to make a large Christmas Ornament. As you can see, she's already well under way on this beautiful design. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may become a popular pattern.
With her three layer border all tacked together Judy is ready to solder her Cardinal Window. And since there isn't all that much to solder I'm putting money down that this will be completed upon her return. Look to see it hanging up when you see it again.
June is working on grinding her Razorback Window from the bottom to the top and she's almost at the halfway point. She believes that she's moving slowly but I think she's moving at a nice pace that keeps all of her pieces in perfect alignment. Quality over speed should ALWAYS be your goal and June is paying heed to that.
Martha's Yellow Rose got its background glass all cut out and the baroque pattern matches beautifully throughout it. This will all be tacked together next week after which Martha will add a final clear baroque border to match the background and then solder it to finish it off.
We have so many projects so very near to completion. Kerry's Large Butterfly has been completely foiled with copper foil and will be tacked together upon his return. Before that happens we will run two lengths of re-stripping across from one wing to the other which will prevent the wings from falling off since this Butterfly will have no background glass to support it. More details on that next week.
Linda F's New York Yankees Window is also very nearly complete. She tacked it together this week and then got the border cut, ground and wrapped before calling it a day. i guarantee that this will be finished when we next see it.
Here's another window that will be finished before you know it. Melissa's making this as a gift and I think it's turned out perfectly. In a window like this symmetry is the most important thing and Melissa has easily achieved that goal. I'm thinking that this will be another finished project next week!
With her Unicorn Crown all tacked together MiMi is ready to go on a soldering blitz to finish this off. After the solder has been applied a small amount of wire work (using thin wires) will be applied to add some detail to some of the flower centers. The end is near!
Shelley's Cat Window is ALSO nearing completion and the eyes are absolutely pur-fect on it. Faces are so easy to bungle whether animal of human and I've always been a fan of doing the eyes last to prevent any major faux pas from occurring. Shelley did wonderfully!
Steve has finalized his pattern and colored it in so he knows exactly what he wants to achieve with the glass when he begins cutting it. I can't help but think that this is going to be his tour de force!
Ann will begin working on this Praying Santa Window when she returns. This week she traced out the pattern and figured out a lot of the colors for the window. We've already had numerous students 'ohh' and 'ahh' about this pattern already when they saw it on the wall. I can't wait to see this completed, and knowing Ann that won't take long at all.
Then, to round things off and end things up I have to say that I missed out on getting a picture of Sheri's business card Window but it's getting really close now. She'll have a border on it before you know it!
And there ya have it. Auf wiedersehen!
Paul
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