Bubbles In The Pond

Steve's Southern Belle Window might just very well be his finest hour (so far).   Made up of six smaller panels which form the overall portrait of a lady, Steve has mounted each of them into a window frame that he stumbled upon a while back.   As you can see, these six panels have transformed a plain window frame into one very stunning Window.  The face that he painted onto this Belle is impressive and he should be very proud of all of his work on this. Oh and the icing on this 'cake' is that Steve drew the pattern himself!

 

 

 

Zoe's Deer Window was completed and let me tell you that her work on this window blew me away.  It's hard to believe that she's never made a stained glass window before because everything about this is perfection.   Zoe's going to be making some wonderful things with us, that's for sure.

 

 

 

 

Betty made these two large Teardrop Flower Suncatchers with her Double Sunflower being slightly smaller than the single Sunflower.  The perimeters on each of these are flawless without any inside dips, humps or sharp points which is so very important when making a suncatcher since there is no channel to hide any edge imperfections.

 

 

 

 Lisa finished her Multi-colored Cat Desk Ornament and it looks vibrant and amazing.   The wire whiskers added so much to the overall look of this piece and I'm thrilled that she didn't want to skip the extra work that they involved.  The old adage is certainly true, "Little things mean a lot."

 

 

 

Let made this beautiful large Circular Flower Suncatcher and her attention to symmetry is what makes this look so good.  For some reason it reminds me of the Hex Signs that I used to see on barns.  Check out the last picture in this post for an example of that. 

Zoe needed to come up with something new to make this week and she's decided to make a Bee Panel which is smaller than you might think when you first look at the picture here.   It's only 6 inches wide so that means her cutting and grinding will be of the utmost importance since the lines of the pattern leave no room for any error but after looking at what she's already cut out I have to say that she's going to have no problems whatsoever with this.

 

 

Betty's Lilly Window is so far along that she's already got the front side soldered.   She attached her brass channel before she called it a day and I won't be surprised to see this among our completed projects when we see it again.

  

 

Barbara's Multi-colored Owl has been all cut out and now she's working on grinding it. She's left each of the large purple eyes as one piece and will cut them into their smaller respective shapes now that they've been ground to fit into place.   Once she cuts these up (like a pizza) everything will drop into place easily without the need for grinding 10 small pieces individually.

  

 

Mary Grace has come up with a Teardrop Flower Hanging of her own.   These teardrops seem to be catching on in popularity here in class.  This week Mary Grace not only cut hers out but got it completely ground as well.  It fits together wonderfully and will surely look wonderful when it's completed.

 

 

Lisa began this large Duck Suncatcher that will actually be mounted on top of a piece of driftwood rather than hanging on a window.  She's named him Bubbles and he's a lot of fun!

 

Meanwhile, Susan R has begun work on a new Garden Gnome.  This guy appears to be working over a grill so we're going to be calling him the BBQ Gnome from here on out.  She has almost all of the glass cut so Susan will surely be at the grinder next week.

  

 

MiMi has her Birds on a Branch all ground and she's decided that since this piece is so small she will use black beads for the eyes of the birds.   She'll be able to attach them on both the front and back and the reason she's using beads is because even the small 1/4" grinding bit would make eyes that are too large for these small birds.

 

  

 

Cindy's Cinderella Window (I called her Snow White last week-- Whoops!) has it's sky all cut out and she also got half of it ground.  You can already see what this window will look like upon completion save for the border that will surround everything.  I believe we'll see what color she chooses for that when she comes back in next week.

 

 

 

Melissa worked hard on grinding her Tulip Window and came so very close to finishing the grinding.   She's already managed to pick out her border color and it's going to tie everything together nicely.  I'm sure she'll begin wrapping these pieces upon her return and then she'll be ready to tack. 

  

 

 

Let has her Heron Window almost ready to be borderized.  She still has some of her clear glue chip background left to grind but she'll surely make short work of that while she's at home.   The end (of this project) is near.

 

 

 

Linda F has only one piece left to go in her Carousel Horse Window and then she'll tack this and add a double border to it.  She's already picked out the two border's colors and let me tell you that they are really going to make this window turn some heads. 

 

 

 

And both Mickey and Minnie Mouse are quickly coming together under Linda L's artful hands.  Linda has an iron frame in the shape of a large Mickey's head which can hold three circular pieces of glass-- two smaller circles for the ears and then a larger one for the face.   Linda has decided to put these silhouette's in each ear and will then make a larger scene of Mickey in a bathing suit to place in to the face section.  This will obviously be and outside piece that will decorate Linda's pool. 

 

 

 

Susan D spent her time in class wrapping glass globs.  It's a tedious process but by the time class ended she only had a small handful of them left to wrap.   I'm thinking that she'll be tacking this together when she comes back in. 

  

 

 Lorrie's Sun and Moon Window has been officially soldered and only needs to have its front side touched up.  The back side is perfection but there are typically run-throughs and such that need attention after the back of a window is completed.   That won't take long at all though so expect to see this only one more time because Lorrie will certainly complete this next week.

 

 

 

Martha got all of her Peacock Window ground and worked out a series of bevels to form a beveled inner border to surround it.   As always, we like to assemble a beveled border BEFORE we cut and grind the background.  The size of a bevel cannot easily be changed unlike any glass that is picked for a background.

 

 

 

Annette resumed soldering the back side of her New Orleans Scene and is making more and more progress with each passing week.   There are a lot of lead lines in this window and since the majority of her pieces are thin and fragile she has to be careful to not allow heat to build up in any one spot which could easily crack her glass.   Slow but steady is the ONLY way to handle this window.

 

  

 

Lastly, here's a picture of a barn with some Hex Signs on it that Let's window reminds me of.  I'll bet you thought I'd forget to post this, didn't you?

And there you have it.  Another weeks worth of progress in one easy to digest blog post!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Bow Down

Let has a new Flower Window under her belt (figuratively speaking, of course) and like all of her previous windows there is nothing to criticize on this.  She's used shading between the inner and outer flower petals of the flowers perfectly and her transparent green background ties everything together beautifully.

 

Susan R completed her Pair Of Chefs Panel and accented it with two wire work mustaches and dots of black glass paint for the eyes.  Her purple border ties in with the purple wine perfectly.  I always say that when in doubt you should pick the least used color in your window and then echo it in the border.  It doesn't have to match perfectly-- in fact, most times having a slight variation works even better than a perfect match!

 

 

 

Linda L's Drake Panel may become a snowball rolling down a snowy hill because now other members of her family are asking when she will make them a panel with their name in it.  As always, Linda's cutting and grinding are wonderful which resulted in perfectly scripted letters.

 

 

 

Annette's Rose and Cross Window was made throughout the month that we took off for vacation.  She brought it in this week with only the soldering left to go on it and she completed it well before class was over with.  Her use of a pastel pink gives this window a nice soft, calming effect.

 

 

 

 

Let also made and altered the pattern for this colorful Heart which features a heart bevel off centered inside of the Heart itself.  A perfectly aligned perimeter is of the utmost importance on this pattern because you can't use channel on it due to the curved edge.   This pattern is about tap-tapping a leaded bead along the outer edge after making sure that everything lines up perfectly.

 

 

Sheri got her two Tropical Leaf Flowerpot Decorations finished by adding a brass rod to the back of each leaf.  I actually cut the rods off while editing the picture and realize now that I probably shouldn't have.  She found a brass rod at Tractor Supply  which was long enough to cut into four lengths that are each suitable for Flowerpot decorations.  That means that she's got two left over so perhaps we will see more of these in the weeks to come.

 

 

 

Lorrie made this Stained Glass Feather from start to finish while she was in class and then moved back on over to one of the windows that she was working on last week.  We'll see that a little further along in this post.   As for her feather, well, it's perfect!

Wow, wow, WOW!  Check out the face that Steve painted on his Southern Belle Window!  He used Pebeo Vitrea 160 Glass Paint and will allow it to dry for 24 hours.   His next step is to put the painted face (just the piece of glass, not the entire window- this 'firing' process must be done before the window is soldered together) into his oven at home where he will heat it to 325°F for 40 minutes.  After that those eyes, nose, and lips will only come off if you scrubs at them with a a razor blade, and who would want to do that to this Beautiful Southern Bell!

  

 

Susan D got the bird cut for her Autumn Tree Hoop as well as getting all of the glass globs ground.  Now comes the fun wrapping phase for this beautiful circular window.  The tree trunk and the ground will be cut and attached AFTER the globs have been tacked into position so that they attach perfectly.

 

 

 

 

MiMi has started her Five Birds On A Branch Window Hanging and her color choices are currently superb.   She has only one bird left to cut out and to pick colors for but I have no doubt that it will match perfectly in the marvelous color scheme that she's already defined here.

  

 

 

Lara began cutting her Three Tulips Panel and before class was over with she had everything cut as well as having some of this tiny 4x4 window ground. She's making this look easier than it really is because 4x4 means that she is dealing with a lot of tiny pieces and they are the hardest things to deal with when it comes to grinding (and foiling).

 

  

 

 

Melissa did a lot of cutting throughout the week which is evident by the fact that she's already grinding the pieces for her Tulip Window.   Her background (as well as all other color choices) is perfection because it's a wispy blue glass that's somewhat transparent.  Because of the transparency her flowers are going to be the focal point of the window and they have been cut from glass that is just as wonderful a choice as Melissa's sky was.

 

  

 

 

Lisa is back and we're glad to see her smiling face again.  She started grinding on her multi-colored Corner Cat and then foiled it as well.   At that point she called it a day because she didn't want to tack it together and let it sit for any length of time before she could actually solder it.  That means that this will surely be completed upon her return next week.

 

  

 

 

Let is never one to stand still (unless she's working at her grinder).   She made this Circular Flower  Window and will be soldering it so that she can start another new project next week when this becomes finished.  This is another example of a perfectly aligned perimeter that can't get a channel around it to hide any flaws.   And as always, Let has achieved an extremely high degree of accuracy here.

 

  

 

 

Cheryl is feeling VERY adventurous because this week we got to see her begin a very detailed Harley-Davidson Window.  There's a lot to line up here but Cheryl is going to take things one section at a time.  She's started things off by cutting out the letters for the words HARLEY DAVIDSON and when she returns she'll cut out the background glass for those letters.  Once they've been ground and wrapped in foil she will tack that section together and then wash all of the flux off of that section before moving on to either the MOTOR or the CYCLES word section.

 

 

 

This is the second project that Lorrie worked on this week.   She had the center with the Hen and the Laurel Wreath ground and mostly wrapped when she came in.  After completing her stained glass Feather she resumed work on this by tacking everything together and then cutting, grinding, and foiling the border.  That's what you call making the most of your class time.

 

  

 

 

Last week I told you all that I was going to suggest that Cindy re-cut the arms and the hair of Snow White and this week Cindy agreed.  And now that she has some color to her and you can see the end result of making that change.  I think that I can safely say that I was correct yet again.  LOL

 

 

 

After getting her purple background glass cut out Judy then took to the grinder where she had no trouble at all getting everything fitted together perfectly.   She's pinned all of her pieces down and when she comes back in she will begin foiling everything.   Once it's wrapped and tacked she can begin to work on her border.

 

 

 

This is the back side of Annette's New Orleans Scene.  Why are we looking at the back?  Well it's because she has all of the front soldered already!  This has been a test for her but a test that she's passing with flying colors.  She worries that it's taken so long to get to this point but you can't rush a window like this.   It gets made slower than most other windows simply because it's made up of so many tiny, intricate pieces.  Besides, it's never about speed-- it's ALWAYS about quality!

  

 

 

Zoe's Deer Window is so closed to being completed that I hate not being able to post the finished picture of it here.   But at least that means that I'll get a beautiful picture of it for our next post when I don't believe we will be seeing a lot of completed items which will give this window the spot light.  Zoe's work is amazing and I can't wait to see what new project she begins  when she comes back into class.

 

Since we are speaking of windows that are very nearly finished let's look in on Bee's LSU Plaque.  She's got it all ground and foiled and ready to begin soldering.   This is about 12 inches wide which means that there really isn't a lot to solder so expect to see this completed when she returns and expect to see what she plans on making next.

  

 

Sheri has a pair of Flower Crosses under construction with one of them being wrapped and tacked together while the second one is ground and ready to be foiled.   These went together pretty darned quickly for Sheri which is a testament to how far along she's come as a glass artist.

 

 

And to wrap things up we look at the Corner Owl Pattern that Barbara is about to embark upon.  She wanted to do a Bookend piece and really liked the Owl Pattern that everyone else loves to make as a large suncatcher.   We scanned it into the computer, scaled it down to 5 inches wide and then angled him so he would fit into the slots of one of the wooden Bookends.  This is the end result and Barbara will begin cutting into her scrap glass next week.

  

 

 

We are well back into the swing of things so get ready to see more incredible work done by our students in just seven days!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks
 

He Died

MiMi's created the largest Hoop design that we've yet to see in class.   We've had hoop patterns made in 10" hoops but MiMi's measures in at a whopping 18 inches! That helps explain how she achieved so much detail in this stunning window.    She opted for subtle color shifts throughout using two different, yet similar, reds for the cardinals along with three different pinks for the flowers.   Her finished piece is stunning to say the least.

 

 

 

 

Barbara's Orca The Whale Window utilizes a fist full of colors rather than a simple static blue for the water.   The end result is a whale at peace with the ocean which sets the viewers mind at ease.  It's calm, tranquil and serene all at once. 

 

 

 

Let has made a Cross which I don't believe we've ever seen before but which has now been added to our arsenal of patterns. It's simple yet effective and the workmanship is, as always, top notch.

 

 

 

Mary Grace is back and she made her class time very relaxing by working on three different heart suncatchers (two of which were completed this week).  She also added a small crystal heart to each of them which hang from a small chain on the bottom of each heart.  Delightful indeed.

 

 

 

Cheryl finished the Cross that she had started in her last class which only needed to be soldered.  As you can see she did an excellent job on that and her tap-tap along the edges was most impressive!

 

 

 

The last of our Crosses this week may look very familiar but the size of this is what makes it different.  Patrice loves the Modern Cross pattern but wanted something that could hang from a rear view mirror so we shrunk the pattern down and then shrunk it down yet again.   But Patrice says, "Never again" because those 14 pieces got very, VERY tiny!   Those aren't thick lead lines that you see in the picture below, they just look large because of how small this cross actually is (3.5 inches tall)!

 

Melissa has begun working on a new Tulip Pattern that certainly looks as though it's going to be a beautiful window.  She's using a lovely yellow glass for the tulips which has just a hint of pink running through it and it's that subtlety that will make the viewer ponder just what it is about this window that makes it look so wonderful. More details will follow in the weeks to come.

 

  

 

 

This Scottish Thistle is being made by Judy and she's already made major headway into her new project in just three short hours.  Next week she'll cut out the background for this and then she'll move on over to the grinder to make these pieces fit together even better than they already do.

 

 

 

Linda F has all of the glass cut out for her three Birds On A Branch Suncatcher and was able to utilize smaller pieces of glass that she already had on hand to get this all cut out.   The pins are a dead give away that she's already begun to grind this so it won't be long now.

 

  

 

 

Susan D is making a hoop design of her own which changes things up in what we call our our standard Glob Tree.  Whatever you may call them: Blobs, Globs, or Nuggets, they are always the same thing-  small, round, curved pieces of glass that are pre-formed.  That may sound like using them is taking the easy was out but grinding and then foiling all of these globs is the real test to the maker's stained glass skills.  Susan has these all ground and will begin foiling when we see her again.

  

 

 

Bee has decided that after making two VERY large windows in a row she's going to go a little smaller and easier to help ease herself back into the world or 'normal' stained glass windows.  She's decided to do a large LSU Suncatcher and not only cut it all out in one class but also began grinding it as well.

  

 

 

Lorrie wasted no time while we took our month off.  Although she had no classes to attend Lorrie worked diligently at home and managed to get all of her Hen and Laurel Wreath Logo Window completely cut, ground and foiled!

 

 

But that's not all that Lorrie accomplished- She also cut. ground, and foiled a beautiful and intricate  Sun/Moon window as well!  She brought both windows into class  and now has a double border on her Sun/Moon only needing it to be tacked into place.   Someone really has the stained glass bug in their system!

 

  

 

 

Cindy's Cinderella Silhouette Window is almost at the point where she'll be working on the background shortly.  Since she's using multiple colors for the castle I'm going to run it by her and see if she might want to re-cut the arms of Cinderella out of flesh colored glass and the hair out of yellow or brown.  It will be completely up to her and you'll see what she decides to do in out next post.

 

  

 

 

Sheri has two Tropical Stained Glass Leaves completed all save for the brass rods that will transform these from suncatchers into Flower Pot Ornaments.  Alas, we did not have the rods to attach to these but Sheri says that she found some on her own so we might very well see these completed upon her return.

 

  

 

 

Darth Vader lives!  Now that he's completely tacked together and the background has been been tacked to him as well it's hard to deny who this evil being is.  June has done wonderfully on this and for the border she picked red to match his light saber.  Soldering will surely occur upon her return.

  

 

 

Kerry's Swedish Chef got its slogan letters cut out and you can now see about where they will reside on the finished window.  He'll grind the letters first and then fill in the background pieces AFTER they have been tacked together.  This will ensure that the letters don't shift at all and that the writing remains legible.

  

 

 

Zoe's Deer is ready for solder!  Yes, there's a green piece of border missing but she was foiling that when I took the picture of her window.   I was going to Photoshop a piece into the open area but forgot and, in all honesty, I'm just too lazy to go through all of that now that this has already been uploaded.  I'll bet that Zoe gets most of this soldered when she returns but adding channel and hooks, washing it and coloring it and then washing and waxing it will most assuredly happen two weeks from now.

 

  

 

 

With everything cut out for her Peacock, Martha has begun to grind her peacock pieces.   All of the body and head were ground this week and now Martha is about to move downward to the tail feathers when she next comes in.

 

 

 

Susan R's Pair of Chefs Panel got its border cut and tacked into place after which Susan soldered the front side and then began working on soldering the back side.  That means that there's no doubt that this will be completed when she comes back in.  I can't wait to see this one when it is hanging up with some light behind it.

 

  

 

 

Patrice also worked away diligently while we were away for the month.   Her Acadiana Louisiana Window is almost completely cut and ground.   She was unsure about cutting the small pieces for the three small Fleur De Lis in the top section of the state so I told her that it would probably be best to tack together what she has completed so that nothing shifts around as she's working on those remaining small pieces.  I suspect that we'll see the FDL's and even a first border get attached when she comes back.

 

 

 

Linda made a minor adjustment to the height of her 'Drake' Window and then got a border cut and attached.  She's ready to begin soldering this and is looking forward to taking it home with her for the last time next week.

  

 

Let has her Flower Window all tacked together and even has the front side soldered.   When she walked in the door she only needed her border pieces cut and once that  was done the grinding, wrapping and tacking of it went quickly.  She even got a channel attached which means that there's only the back to be soldered and then a pair of hooks to be added so that she can take this home and hang it.

 

  

 

Lastly we turn our head to Lara who is about to embark on a tulip journey of her own by putting together this deceptively small Tulip Panel.   She's already picked all of her glass and the colors that she's chosen are wonderful, but what else would you expect from Lara?

  

And there you have it.   See you in one week with new windows started and older windows completed.

 

Paul

Bayou Saé GlassWorks