Monday, June 24, 2024

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

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