Death From Above

Let's Christmas Bells Window is stunning with a color scheme that you don't usually see in a Christmas window.   It's all about pastels rather than vibrant colors and the end result is amazing.  She's used the lead covered glass technique for the bell clappers and a double line of trim on each of the bells.  Let's decorative soldering on those pieces were the final accents that make this window stand out so much.

  

 

Jeannette said she saw a White Pumpkin on the internet and decided that she wanted to make one.  We took the standard Spectrum Pattern, removed the leaves (because Jeannette had an idea in her head) and then she cut the pumpkin out of an off white glass.  When it was done she hung two wooden leaves from around the stem of the pumpkin sort of like a scarf.  It's uniquely different and wonderful at the same time.

 

 Betty made these two delightful Cat Suncatchers but she had to make a bit of a change to her original design because of  two hinge points that caused the cats to be somewhat flimsy.  To fix that she added a piece of clear glass between the tail and the body which solidified thing nicely.  In the future she's going to redraw the tail so that it touches the cat's face thus eliminating the hinge points and negating the need to add clear glass into the mix.

 

 

 

Kandise is our newest student and her Butterfly was made almost effortlessly.   She's already  got a firm grasp on all of the steps required to make stained glass windows and I can't wait to see whet she decides to work on for her first window.

Martha's Franklin Street Lamp is all cut and ground and the good news is that she already has a second one cut out just waiting to be ground.  I think she can knock these out in her sleep of she wants!

 

Angie's Seagull has taken shape and now that her glass has been cut she's ready to begin grinding.    Since this started off life as a large suncatcher there isn't a background drawn for it (yet).  The easiest thing to do here is to assemble what she has cut and then place it on top of her background glass and trace around it.

 

 

 

Steve began work on this Santa Face Bookend and by the end of the class he had traced the pattern, cut all the glass and then ground it as well.  That's a quick pace and as you can see his pieces fit together perfectly.

  

 

Susan D has her two newest Geometrical Suncatchers picked out and cut out.  Two at a time is the perfect way for her to work her way through the pattern book that she got these from.  Luckily these aren't as 'involved' as one of the last ones that she made so the grinding on these should go quicker and easier. 

  

 

 

Lorrie has her Wedding Box well under control now.   With the lid completed she got the four sides of the actual box cut to size and then skimmed them and foiled them.   When she returns it won't take long at all for this to go together which means that she'll be starting something new next week.

 

 

 

Betty has another pair of Teardrop Suncatchers almost completed.  With the front sides soldered she only needs to finish things on the back side to wrap these two up.

 

 

 

 

Lisa's Sugar Skull is moving along in the fastest way possible.  Everything has been cut save for the teeth which she will tackle upon her return next week.   We could have cut them during class but we don't want them to get mixed up at all so it's best to tackle it all in one class so we can start them and finish them before Lisa leaves.

 

  

 

 

Kerry's Swedish Chef is a Muppet made of glass. Everything has been cut save for the border which he picked out before calling it a night.  The border itself will take no time at all to add so this will easily be getting some solder on it when he returns.

 

 

 

Susan R spent her time at the grinder grinding out the openings in her Peacock's tail feathers that will surround the intricate three piece accents.   Susan has always wanted to make this and she's not going to hold back at all on the amount of work that it will take to make this look like the stellar piece that she wants it to be.

 

 

 

After completing her Christmas Bells Let moved on over to a large circular Poinsettia Suncatcher.  She's not only using glass blobs for the flower center, she's also using a christmas fractures and streamer glass for the background that you can't see here but you'll be able to when it's hanging up.

  

 

 

Judy's Deer Head Window is almost halfway ground now as she spent some quality time over at a grinder.  Whether Judy likes to admit it or not, she's quite good at this entire glass business as the evidence below proves.

 

 

 

June liked Judy's background so much that she used a similar glass the same way for her Donkey Window.  She got everything cut out this week and will be ready to hit the grinder upon her return.

 

Mary Grace's Mardi Gras Mask is coming together as the mask itself has now been completely cut out.  There are only a few edge pieces to cut for her background glass and I know they won't take long for her to knock out.   She'll be grinding this before you know it.

  

 

 

Linda F's got a small Birds On A Branch project going on and she's very near the end already.  She simply took the large pattern with eight birds and selected three in a row that she liked while ignoring the rest of them.  She had to complete some lines where the two end birds over and under-lapped their 'neighbors' but as you can see that was very easily done.

 

 

 

With each passing week Bee gets further and further along on her Cantina Window.  With the lion's share of the work done on this perhaps it's time to tack together what she has to avoid any problems with either slippage or pieces getting mixed up.

 

  

 

MiMi was so close to finishing her Mallard Suncatcher that she'll be starting a new project in her next class.  There's just a hook or two to attach to this and then MiMi will wash hit, color it, wash it again and then apply a light coating of wax to shine it all up.

 

 

Zoe managed to get out the door with her  Longhorn Skull after touching up some of the grinding that she accomplished last week.  She worried about her lines not being straight but that's the way the pattern was drawn because in real life the lines that are formed in skeletons are always irregular.  I was so busy with our newest student that I somehow managed to skip getting a picture of Zoe's work. 

 

Lastly, Melissa worked on three Cross Suncatchers and got them all cut and possibly even ground but I forgot to snap a picture of them as well.  Shoot me!  That means that Melissa will be showing a LOT of progress on her Crosses when she comes in again and I DO remember to take a picture!

 

And that's all that happened in our neck of the woods this past week.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Get On Tinder, Girl!

Lorrie's Sunburst Window measures 34 inches across by 16 inches high and it's certainly impressive.  Lorrie's daughter picked out the glass colors and even traced the pattern pieces onto  that glass  while Lorrie would actually cut out the pieces.  It was a quick way to get a lot accomplished and the end result is, as you can easily see, amazing.  It's also one of an unplanned series of windows that were completed this week.

 

 

 

Next we have Lara's Sunburst but she's used a wide assortment of colors in hers.  She didn't use anything too dark or vibrant because she was looking for a window with a softer look about it and in the end I think that she succeeded wonderfully.  Had she gone with the bright aqua/blue border she was considering a few weeks ago it would have changed the entire feel of this window.

 

 

Our third 'sunburst' window was made by Martha and it's actually a Sunset Window.   She made this inside of just three weeks and I must say that she's done an exquisite job on it.  Those long straight lines worried her while both cutting AND the soldering this but she came through with flying colors and not a single broken piece of glass.

 

 

 

Melissa's Tulip Window features rich and vibrant tulips  offset by a beautiful pale yellow border.  The sky is barely-there-blue but it proves that lighter colors can be mixed with darker contrasting colors and still achieve an impressively pleasant balance of color and depth

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Let's Beveled Heart Suncatcher  came together perfectly and proves that stained glass doesn't necessarily have to incorporate color.  To make this even more striking she's used black patina on the lead.to give it some strong contrast against the clear glass.

 

 

Susan D finished her two latest Geometric Suncatchers and both are perfectly aligned to form beautifully symmetrical designs. It's small items like these that are among the toughest suncatchers to create because one hard press against the grinder wheel can easily throw off the entire suncatcher.   Repeating patterns make ill-formed line stand out like a red thumb but as you can see there's none of that here.

Steve made a quick Tipped Wine Glass which began with  a simple blank piece of paper.  By the time class ended even I was ready for a glass of wine.  This suncatcher was a quick build but it's also a very  tasteful piece of window ornament (pun intended).

Linda's LSU Plaque was completed after she soldered the piece expertly.  Now that she's completed her large Carousel Horse Window Linda is enjoying the relaxing pace of smaller, less mentally taxing projects. 

Lorrie also worked on a Wedding Invitation box that she began while at home during the week.  Unfortunately she broke a large piece of the background glass and we had no more in stock so she had to change out all of the background glass which was done effortlessly.  She'll finish soldering this box top when she returns and then get to work on creating the glass sides for the actual box section of this project.

 

  

 

 

Cindy began work on her Holiday Heart Suncatcher and has started by cutting and grinding the tiny, intricate holly leaves and berries.  There are still a lot of leaves to be done and they're certainly a handful to cut and grind  which only goes to show that the devil is indeed in the details!  

 

  

 

 

Zoe doesn't waste time when she comes to class and managed to cut and grind all of the pieces for her Longhorn Skull save for the horns.   She was a bit undecided on the color for those horns but I believe that she made a decision before her class was finished.   Without a doubt this will be foiled next week.

 

 

 

Angie has begun work on a Pelican and decided to use medium gray feathers with light gray accents.   We've seen this made both as a large suncatcher and as a lawn ornament but Angie is going to frame hers out in glass and make this a full fledged window.  

 

  

 

 

MiMi has started a large Mallard Suncatcher and got the pattern traced as well as all of the glass being cut in just one class.  The colors are superb and it already fits together nicely even in its un-ground state.  This will undoubtedly see some grinder action when MiMi comes back in.

 

  

 

 

Lisa's Sugar Skull is coming together quickly now as all of the bones (save for the teeth) have been cut and ground. She's going to tack this all together next and then fill in the teeth by cutting them out as one long piece which she'll then grind to fit into the mouth opening.  Once it fits it's a simple task to slice and dice the big piece of glass into smaller teeth pieces which will fit into place perfectly (unless they get jumbled up).  Maintaining the order of the teeth as they are cut will be of the utmost importance.

 

  

 

 

Susan R's Peacock Hoop is coming together in a big way as she's cut out the remaining pieces that make the body of this beautiful bird.  She's grinding it all together and will soon begin working on the inside decorative details of the larger feathers.   The pattern is still somewhat up in the air but she had an actual peacock feather with her this week and she now knows exactly what the look of her accents will be.

 

  

 

 

Bee's Cantina Window is coming together one tiny piece at a time.  She's diligent and unswerving in her pursuit for perfection and she also moves at a nice brisk pace as you can tell from what she has accomplished in the picture below.

 

 

 

Mary Grace began working on a Mardi Gras Mask Panel and even though it's a panel (which means that it's smaller than a window but larger than a suncatcher) it is chock-full of pieces.   And she even shrunk it down smaller than the original design making all those pieces even tinier.   You can never say that Mary Grace backs away from a challenge.

 

 

  

 

Kerry got the background cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together for one section of his Vert Der Ferk lettering for his Swedish Chef Window.   As you can see there's no background cut for either the left or right sides because he will cut those two pieces once he's tacked what he has onto the bottom of his window.  This allows for perfect centering as well as a perfect fit.

 

 

 

 

With her border now attached to her Christmas Bells Window, Let is ready to solder.  Her pink/green border matches perfectly with the only two colors that she used in the window-- pink and green!  It's a stunning fit for a lively window.  Add to it the completely leaded pieces that she's applying decorative solder to and you have a window that will turn heads for sure.

 

 

 

Lastly, Annette worked on her Sacred Heart Window and has the small flower section of one of the hearts all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  This is the toughest part of her large window so she wanted to get it out of the way.   I'd love to show you the rest of the window but once again Annette managed to get it out the door before I got a picture of it.   She's a tricky one!

 

 

So we're going to call this a wrap and we will look for you to return again next week!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Know My Swag, Not My Story

Annette's New Orleans Scene may have taken some time to complete but look at the end result!  It was truly a labor of love but Annette says that she loves having it finished.  This is a tedious window to make but it always looks great and really gives you a sense of accomplishment when it's completed.  Can you spot the wire work that Has added to this scene?   It's hard to spot but it adds so much to the overall design.  I'll give you a hint: It's a railing.

 

 

Zoe's Bee Panel is stunning.   Everyone who looked at it said the same thing:  "I wouldn't have picked red for the border but after seeing it completed I have to say that it is absolutely perfect."  And they're correct!  Zoe's work is amazing and her attention to detail is what really makes this window look so great.

  

 

Betty finished her Nautical Themed Teardrop Suncatcher and her work on this is some of the best work she's ever done.   Everything fit together with incredible precision and let me state for the record that her soldering on this has hit new highs.   It may not be a New Orleans Window but this large suncatcher sure packs a punch, especially when you look at the level of craftsmanship in it.

 

 

 

 

Last week Let had forgotten to bring the background glass that she had planned to use for her Pink Christmas Ornament Panel.  This week she brought it in and it had already been cut and ground.   She attached a beautiful pink/green border and soldered it all to completion before calling it a day.   She's also decided that she may make just the ornament itself as a suncatcher.

 

 

 

Angie is back and on her first day back she's managed to finished a Heart/Rose Panel!   Apparently the time away from glass work hasn't hampered her in any way because this is beautiful. Once again we have a red border that lights the entire window up.

 

 

 

 

Annette also  cut out this beautiful Flower Suncatcher and then finished it up before calling it a night.   She's also working on a Sacred Heart Window at home and we may see that next week.  Meanwhile, enjoy her colorful Flower the she's decided not to patina.  The silver lead looks absolutely fine if you ask me-- besides it's only just a matter of preference. 

 

 

 

Mary Grace completed her 3D Sunflower but it's so very hard to take a picture of it that shows the 3D nature of this piece.   I've included a side view also so you can see that this sunflower has a bowl shape to it rather than being flat. 

 

 

 Her's the Sunflower laying 'flat' on the table, You can easily see here how it curves.

 

Barbara's come up with a unique idea that she did six times over!  She wanted to make small rectangular shapes that she could attach to a small rod to that she could place in flower pots to identify what was in each pot.   After much deliberation we both decided that the best thing to do was to cut the rectangle and the stake as one piece of glass.   She didn't even have to foil or solder these and still they're as precious as can be!  She made 6 of these for her daughter and will be making more in the weeks to come.

 

 

 

Ann put the finishing touches on her second large Geometric Torus Suncatcher and even had a HMS pendant to hang from this one.  She actually wrapped all of these pieces and then soldered this project in less than 2 hours which proves that Ann is a seasoned pro at stained glass.

Roxane is also back with us and she says that she stopped coming way back in October of last year.   But she's back now and already well under way on a stained glass Address Window.  She's currently using iridised black glass for the numbers and I think that they are going to look great but Roxane is unsure.  If she doesn't like it after it's been ground we will replace them with flat black.

  

Let has everything cut for her Christmas Bells Window and got the pieces that will be completely leaded covered in foil as well (I've pointed them out with arrows in the picture).  She was shocked to discover that you can purchase foil as 12 x 12 sheets which makes covering entire pieces of glass MUCH easier.  She's still a little anxious about how those pieces of glass will be covered in lead but next week she'll see just how easy that step is.

  

Sadly, the lead came that Melissa needed to finish off her curved Tulip Window didn't arrive in time so she couldn't complete that project this week and has moved on over to this red and green Geometric Cross.  After she cut out all of the glass she began grinding everything and the more she looked at the cross the more she thought that the center radiating pieces should be a different color.  Look for that change to happen next week (as well as seeing her Tulip Window completed as well).

 

  

 

 

Cindy has more suncatchers in the making and they both involve Birds.   They're all cut and ground so foiling will be next on her list of things to do.  After that I believe it's even more suncatchers for Cindy.

 

  

 

 

Betty's Teardrops feature all kinds of goodies and this week she's working on a Daisy inspired design.   She's already wrapping these piece in foil so I think there's a good chance that this will be completed when she returns in two weeks. 

 

  

 

Bee is hard at work on her Cantina Window and spend the night grinding out the checker board table top upon which everything sits.   Check out that avocado- the pit placement is astounding because there are NO lines cutting into the avocado to the pit.  She actually ground a hole in the center of a piece of glass to make the pit look as realistic as possible.

  

 

 

Susan R got a good majority of her Peacock cut out and has moved on to grinding the pieces that she's cut.  She's decided that she wants more detail in the tail feathers so she's left them filled in and after everything has been ground she will cut two other pieces of glass to go in the centers of her blue/green feathers.

 

 

 

 

Susan D's pair of swirling Geometric designs have been completely ground and she's even begun to foil one of them already.  The soldering will go quickly on these but the foiling could still take a bit of time considering the minuscule size of some of the pieces of glass.  

 

  

 

 

Judy resumed cutting her Deer Window and then selected a nice woodsy green for the background.   
We usually run background grain from left to right but in the case we're trying to mimic a forest so Russ suggested that the grain run up and down the way that trees would.   We also learned the importance of putting grain lines on our pattern pieces.   It really does save time (and glass).

 

  

 

 

Martha replaced two of the white pieces of glass that she had cut for her sunset window and is much more happy with the dark amber glass that she's replaced it with.  She's even got all but one piece foiled and since she doesn't plan on adding a border to this she could very possibly finish it upon her return. 

 

 

Lastly, Lorrie  has started a Wedding Box and to make that she has to make the top lid so we know the exact size that the bottom box sides must be.   She's gone with a double heart design and is ready to begin grinding but I didn't get a picture of it!   You'll see that NEXT week.

 

And there is that!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks