I Say What Others Just Think

Lorrie's Dragonfly Window is the first in a long series of windows that I know she will be making with us because Lorrie seems to have been bitten by the stained glass bug!  She's having a ball doing this and has started off her stained glass career wonderfully.  It's hard to believe that this lovely window is the first one that she's ever made!

 

 

 

Barbara's Cardinal Window was a quick and fun project for her and the best part about it is that it was made from the heart.  This is a Tribute Window that will soon be bringing  wonderful memories to the people who admire it.

 

 

 

Susan D  got two of her three Beveled Snowflakes soldered this week and has the third one very close to being completed.    In the immortal words of Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad."  She's added many small circular accents that not only look great but also prevent these from folding in on themselves.

 

 

Betty's clear Beveled Window was original made to hang in a portrait orientation but when it came time to put the hooks on it she decided to go another direction (literally).   The entire class agreed that this window looked better in landscape mode and now it hangs in a landscape position.

 

 

Judy made her Fleur De Lis Window quickly and seemingly effortlessly.  She picks a project, buckles down and always turns out a piece of art! Take a look below and you'll easily see what I mean.

Betty has completed a Snowflake of her own and since she has many more diamond bevels in assorted sizes she promises that we will be seeing more of these from her in the future.

Helen has returned after a bit of an absence and completed two suncatchers during her first class of the new year.  Her Butterfly is actually a Flowerpot Ornament while her Cardinal, whose tail was re-inforced with a piece of StrongLine is a Suncatcher.  

 

Lorrie's second project is a Sunflower Window featuring beautiful flowing petals.  She's mixing three different glasses for the petals of the flower which will help define and add a vibrancy to the flower itself.  Lorrie is making this for a friend and I already know that this finished window will be greatly appreciated. 

 

  

 

 

Susan R is making a Pot Of Gold and has the pot part of it completed.   This will be overflowing with gold but I'm unsure if she will be using amber globs or if she'll be cutting the gold out of an amber glass.  We will surely get the answer to that mystery when Susan returns next week.

 

 

 

Melissa's Sewing Machine Window is moving along quickly and I can only assume that it might have something to do with the fact that the pieces in this window are far larger and easier to deal with than the pieces were in the Gingerbread House Window that she finished just last week.  I can't wait to see this window gain its thread when it's completed! 

  

 

 

Bee came in and set to work on wrapping all of the strips of glass that make up the centerpiece of her Front Door Window.   Once that was done she tacked it all together and opened up her pattern as large as the board underneath would allow it to unfold.   It's enough to get the background cut and that's exactly what she'll be doing when she comes back in. 

 

 

 

MiMi's Tiger is very close to being completely foiled which means that she's going to be tacking this together next week and then adding a border to it.  The current plan is to use black for the border and I think that will work just fine.

 

  

 

 

Cindy's got a Cardinal Window of her own under construction and it's very nearly completely cut and ground.   There isn't much left to go on this so expect to see another completed Cardinal Window in the very near future.

 

 

 

Annette continues to amaze with the work she's accomplished on her New Orleans scene.   She didn't get anything tacked together this week however she DID get many more of her narrow pieces ground.  The good news is that Nettie can pick and choose what she wants to do on any given week on this window,  She can cut or grind, or wrap pieces in foil depending on what she feels like doing at the time.

 

  

 

 

June's cutting out glass for her Darth Vader Window and has finished using the first of her two different textured sheets of black glass.   She's mixing blacks to give Vader more detail while still remaining true to his all black color scheme.

 

 

 

Linda F has her Carousel Horse ground, wrapped and tacked together so next week she will begin on the background for this.   The pattern doesn't currently show what that background will look like because Linda has decided to give this a true Carousel background rather than using a plain clear textured glass.  We will see just what that looks like when we return next week.

 

 

Sheri knows that Easter is right around the corner and is making three differently colored Easter Bunnies complete with brightly colored eggs.  She's already got them all cut out (but I only have a picture of two of them) and is now working on grinding them.

 

  

 

 

Kerry's Mardi Gras Mask got a black background cut, ground, foiled and tacked together which means that he's going to add a border to this next week.  He plans to use a mix of colors consisting of green, purple and amber glass.  Since he's used solid black for the background his colored pieces will most assuredly stand out vibrantly when the window has light behind it.

 

 

 

Linda L was back in class this week and worked on grinding the letters for the first of her Name Panels. I've said it before and I'll say it again-  letters are a beach but slow and steady wins the race with them.   Since Linda recently returned from a Cruise and really wasn't prepared to jump head first into the drudge of letter grinding so she took her time and eased her way along the letters while on the grinder.  Personally, I feel that she got a lot accomplished!

 

 

 

This week Lisa got all of her Twirling Girl Suncatcher ground.   We've come up with a way to firmly attach her hat and head to her body so that it can hang from the top of the hat and spin in the wind with no fear of the hat (or god forbid the head) detaching!  Meanwhile her Peeking Chicken is all ground and ready to either get a background cut or just foil it and use it as is.

 

 

 

Ann has not only finished grinding all of the glass for her Religious 3D Window but has it almost completely foiled as well.  This week we also learned that the three interlocking rings that will 'float' above her circular blue background are actually called Borromean Rings.  These represent a concept taken from mathematics which, in this representation, signify the divine trinity.  You can see that it's already been cut and ground and the next step for this will involve completely covering the clear glass piece in foil.

  

 

 

Martha's moved along from working on the Bluebird in her Birdhouse Window to working on the the actual birdhouse.   She's using two different but similar amber glasses so that the house itself has a nice shaded effect.  That will give this a more pleasant look over using just one amber glass for all of the pieces.

 

 

 

Steve worked on the fifth panel for his Southern Belle Window and got it completely cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together in just one class.  This will certainly be finished when we see it again which will leave him with just one panel left to go.  That panel will be his Belle's face.

 

  

 

Lastly we look at the third Beveled Snowflake that Susan D has been working on.  It's all soldered and only needs some touching up and cleaning before it is finished.  Susan has cut some diamond shapes which act as hinge line deterrents and stabilize this piece completely. 

  

 

Classes are filling up again and we are almost completely filled to capacity so expect MANY new projects in the weeks and months to come.

 

May the Force be with you.

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It's Fun To Strip

Christmas is always in our hearts and this week Melissa has made Christmas in February a sight to behold.  Her Gingerbread man even has 'icing' on it to form his face, buttons as well as his arm and leg decorations.  And just to clear things up that icing is actually Vitrea 160 Glass Paint.  This is one cute window that makes me hungry for gingerbread cookies!

  

At the last moment Sheri added blue borders to the left and right side of her window and I think it was a good decision.  It not only framed the window  but balanced it as well.  Her version of the Modern Tulip Window has a bit of a Frank Lloyd Wright feel to it because those blue stripes make it resemble his Tree Of Life windows.   I also like that Sheri added more color to this.  It adds a bit of punch while still retaining most of its monochromatic origins.

  

 

Let got her Sunflower Heart completed and you can clearly see the hints of pink that run throughout the background of the Sunflower.   Its subtle pink shadings made it the perfect glass to be surrounded by the pastel pink of the heart.  Again Let has made another perfectly formed heart with no straight sections or unwanted points anywhere to be found.

 

 

 

With his fourth panel completed for his Southern Belle Window Steve has placed each of them into their respective positions  in the window frame where they will eventually permanently reside.   It's certainly coming together and looking phenomenal already.  Steve will be working on the upper right panel next and we'll see that get underway when we next return.

 

 

 

 

Melissa decided to make an old fashioned Sewing Machine Window and as she was tracing it out from the pattern and onto some poster board she came up with the idea of using an over lay of  wire to be the thread. To complete the look Melissa will make the spool of thread completely out of  lead and etch thread lines into it when it's finished. I think it's going to look fantastic and can't wait to see the completed window.

   

 

Bee has moved on to the center portion of her Front Door Window and cut all of the strips required to assemble the 'centerpiece' on her strip cutter board, with her strip cutter, all by herself.   She took to the strip cutter like a fish to water and never wavered off course even once.   When all the glass was striped she then cut the proper angles on the ends of the pieces resulting in the final cluster that you see below.  Oh, and she also got everything ground as well!  You could say that she was as busy as a bee.

 

 

Everyone was in high gear this week as Let not only finished working on her Heart Suncatcher but also  completely cut out a Flower Window as well.  Just one week in and Let is ready to move on over to the grinder! 

 

 

Martha decided to cut out the blue bird in her window before she moved onto the roses and was going to make it all out of the same piece of blue until we told her to mix it up a bit with various other blues and colors .  As you can see she did just that and therefore made the bird more natural and pleasing to look at.

  

 

Ann has the round blue background to her newest Religious 3D Icon Window all ground and is ready to move on over to the wrapping phase of the construction of this window.   The symbol that will 'float' above this background will be all lead save for the glass (which you will never see) that will be encased in the lead.  More on that as it comes to fruition in the weeks to come.

 

 

 

Also this week, we see that Annette got the center building for her New Orleans Street Scene ground. She also tacked together some of her foiled pieces as well.  With the bottom portion of the left side building tacked she can feel safer while transporting it from her house to the shop and then back again each week.  If these pieces were to get mixed up it would take a VERY long time to sort things out.

 

 

 

Lara has all of her glass cut and ground save for one small piece.   She still needs to cut the 'wires' into the bridge but we won't break them up until the rest of this has been tacked together.  As you can clearly see, all of Lara's hard work is already starting to pay off even before her window has been completed.

 

 

 

 

There's LSU pride in the stripes of MiMi's Tiger Window.  Now that all of the grinding has been completed MiMi has begun foiling her pieces and in doing so she's grabbed the Tiger by the tail and  started there (thus the 'missing' pieces).

 

 

Lisa is grinding her Peeking Rooster Window Decoration and getting pretty far along on it.  I suspect that this will be completely ground next week and that she will begin grinding her spinner girl after that.  

  

 

 

Lastly we see that Jan has all of her Pelican Window tacked together and even has a brass channel on it as well.   She's begun soldering this and has taken it along home with her so that she can hopefully get some work done on it throughout the week.  You can already see that her color choice for the border was spot on to say the least.

 

 

 

And there you have it.  Mardi Gras and Valentines Day took their toll this week as we had a somewhat low student turn out.   That doesn't mean that little was accomplished though as you can easily tell by the work that we've showcased in this post.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I'm Taking It Back!

Let's Ospray Window is is officially completed and looking as stunning as I knew it would now that it has been washed and has some light behind it.  Anyone can clearly see the amount of work that she's put into this and I always say that extra work always enhances the beauty of a window.   The proof here is in the Ospray! 

 

 

 

Cindy is our official Birds On A Wire maker because she's made more of these than all of our other students combined.   She says that she enjoys working with small pieces and this is proof that those aren't just words that she's spouting off.  As always, this is vibrant and wholly immersive as a piece of art.

 

 

 

Susan R's newest Flowerpot Ornament has been completed and her color choices are bright and lively.  She not only loves the look of these decorations-- she enjoys making them as well!    

Cool beans.

 

Lisa has two irons in the fire as she has began cutting out a Twirling Girl Suncatcher and a Chicken Window Peep.  The Girl has been completely cut and only needs a little grinder work done it it while the Chicken only has a few pieces left to cut before Lisa can move it on over to a grinder.

  

 

 

Let also worked on a Heart Suncatcher with a beautiful Sunflower residing within the heart.  Her colors are spot on and all of her cutting and grinding have already been completed for this nearly completed, stunning project.

 

  

 

 

Patrice left last week after tacking together her Umbrella Lady and as an after though took our small circular Bathtub Woman pattern along home with her.   She said that she had a lot of scrap glass that she wanted to use on a project that would utilize a lot of colors.   When she walked in the door this week and had all of the Bathtub Lady cut and ground I was almost literally floored!   That's a LOT of work done in a very short time.  This week she spent most of her time foiling the Bathtub Lady as well as the border for her Umbrella  Lady.   Patrice is back with a vengeance.   

  

 

 

Linda L has numerous Name Panels to make and her first one will be the name Skylar.  She's cut out the letters and now that she knows that there are no real rules to breaking the letters up to make them 'cutable', she will most likely breeze through the remainder of her Panels.   I'm not saying that they'll go quickly, but they will definitely go faster.  Sadly, letters are always a lot of work.

 

  

 

 

Martha began working on her Birdhouse Window which looks a bit intimidating when you look at all the pieces.   She's decided to cut up her pattern in sections so that she's not overwhelmed by its complexity.  In this class she began working on the green leaves that decorate all of the flowers.  Yes, there are a lot of pieces here but Martha has already put a large dent in the creation of what will truly be a spectacular window when she's finished.

 

  

 

 

Betty has two projects that she's currently working on because one is never enough.  Her all-clear textures Beveled Window got its background and border cut out while her Beveled Snowflakes gained some glass nuggets at the end of each hinge point to add an accent and to help prevent folding. 

 

  

 

Cindy also began cutting out a Cardinal Panel and is already knee deep into the creation of it.  There's not much left to go on this (already) and I suspect that it will be completed before you know it.

 

   

 

 

Linda F has all of her Carousel Horse ground and fitting together wonderfully.  She hopes to have this all wrapped in foil when she comes back in and then she makes the biggest decision about this window--  whether to put the horse in front of some clear textured glass, or to creating a background that resembles what you would actually see if you were looking at an actual carousel horse.   We will see what she decides when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Annette knocked me out when I saw just what she had accomplished with her New Orleans Street Scene Window.  She has a good one third of this large and complex window both cut and ground.  At this point I think the best thing for her to do is to foil what's ground and then tack it together to prevent the pieces from shifting or getting lost.  I always approach complex windows like this a section at a time and Annette is handling this the exact same way that I would.

 

  

 

 

Judy's Fleur De Lis has gone together both quickly and efficiently.   She sits down, puts her nose to the grind stone and accomplishes what she set out to do at the beginning of her class each and every week.  This could very well be completed upon her return so expect something new from Judy soon.

 

  

 

Bee's got all of the decorative corners cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together for her Front Door Window.   Take a good look at them because next week she will put these aside and refold the pattern so she can work on the centerpiece design which will be cut entirely from strips of glass.  She's going to bring her strip cutter with her when she returns and learn how to cut out perfect strips with each pull of her cutter.  

 

  

 

Lorrie soldered the first side of her Dragonfly Window like a pro which is high praise considering that this is the first window that she's ever soldered.  A lot of students fear the soldering process when they begin but Lorrie ended up feeling so comfortable with soldering that she's taken her window home so she can return with it completely soldered.   The end is near and a new project featuring a Sunflower awaits Lorrie's return.

 

 

 

When Kerry left last week all of his Mardi Gras Window was ground and awaiting foil.  Before he did that he was going to cut the details into 5 of the feathers in the headdress of this mask.   He turned 5 pieces into 34 pieces and they all fit together perfectly with just a slight amount of skimming required because of the way he decided to do those complex feathers.   At the end of the night everything was foiled.

 

  

 

Cheryl soldered her Address Window and by the time class ended it was completed save for some touch ups here and there.   That means that we will see this as a completed window in our next post.

 

  

 

Susan D has secured all of her Beveled Snowflakes hinge points with teeny tiny circular accents which add an incredible amount of WOW to these snowflakes.   These are a lot of work but again, the more you put into a window, the more you get out of it!

 

 

MiMi may have arrived late to class but by the time it ended she had all of her LSU Tiger ground and ready to be foiled.   Her precession grinding and excellent use of pins will allow this to be foiled without any fear of the window growing.

 

 

 

Sheri tacked her three Tulip sections  (separately) and then figured out how wide the center strips had to be to get to the required measurements.  After figuring that out her next step was deciding what color glass should run between the three sections.  Her first instinct was to use another clear texture but in the end she picked a rich, deep blue.   With all of this window cut and ground, she will begin soldering it when she comes back in next week.

 

 

 

Steve lucked out this week because when you split a large window into six smaller sections you end up with some of them being complex and some of them being well, for lack of a better word- simple.   So where's the luck part?  Well, Steve's 4th panel (which he only began working on this week) consists of only seven pieces which he easily cut and ground in just one class.  Here's another small part of his larger project that will be completed next week!  

 

 

 

Barbara's Cardinal Panel gained a branch and then got its background glass cut out this week.  Once they were tacked together she cut the strips for her border and then broke them down into their smaller pieces.  The end is already near for this Cardinal.

 

  

 

 

Lastly we see that Melissa soldered both the front and back side of her Gingerbread House Window after applying her brass channel.  Getting both sides done was a monumental feat and although she's a bit upset about run-throughs there are only three that I see and that's an EXTREMELY good ratio of solder lines too run-throughs.  There is no doubt whatsoever that this will be a completed project when we return next week.  

  

 

See ya then!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks