Lorrie's first wedding box was completed this week and now she's ready to begin another. I guess it's Wedding Season! Using blue baroque glass for the box sides works perfectly with the solid blue borders of the box top because it allows more light to enter the box to illuminate the flower pattern next to the invitation. This Invitation Box turned out perfect and I have no doubt that Lorrie's next one will also.
Annette's Flower Window came out of nowhere as we haven't seen any hint of this until this week when she brought it in only needing a little bit of solder to finish it off. The colors are vibrant, her work is astounding, and this is also going to be a much appreciated wedding present.
MiMi's Mallard Suncatcher is a suncatcher of a larger variety. He colors are spot on including an iridized green head but it's the careful positioning of pattern placement that make this so tasty. Her grain lines aren't simply running in the correct direction-- she's also looked for patterns in the glass that resemble feather patterns. This is most evidently seen in the right rear tail feather. Great job!
Steve's Santa Face Table Decoration is perfection and his decision to use black patina on the lead was a great choice. Black lines on 'cartoonish' figures help make the finished piece look as though it was drawn with a pencil or pen. After Steve dotted his eyes with a paint marker his Santa really came to life. Ho Ho Ho.
Melissa's got three more Crosses under her belt and her assorted colors make each one special. She did all of the cutting at once for the three of them and then did all of the grinding at once as well. Then there was the foiling and finally the soldering. This is by far the fastest, most efficient way to handle the making of multiple iterations of the same design.
Betty was busier than ever in class this week as she managed to knock out four teardrop suncatchers and two more Cats. You can see that the Cat has a new tail design which alleviates the need for a piece of clear glass between the body and the tail. Although she made two Daisy teardrops as well as two Sunflower teardrops I only took pictures of one of each since they were essentially identical. Alas, the pair of Cats are a slightly sad story because as Betty waxed one of the cats she discovered that its head was cracked. It's a simple fix but one that will happen next week.
With all of her Pelican and its Sun cut and now ground, Angie is ready to begin foiling her pieces. She's worried about a small missing corner and was thinking about re-cutting a large piece of the sun but I think we can get away with re-cutting the bird's neck and slightly reshaping it. We'll see how nicely that works out when Angie returns!
Kandise began her first 'real' stained glass piece and decided to go with an Art Deco Woman. The style is stunning and judging by her work so far I more than suspect that this will turn out to be an eye catching window as well as a popular pattern in class.
MiMi completed her Mallard Suncatcher and then moved on over to this Nortre Dame Logo Window. She had the entire window cut out within an hour and even in its un-ground state it looks like it fits together perfectly. That's because a straight edge was used to make ALL of the cuts in this window. There's not a curve in this. Also, the line was cut off with each and every cut which means that this window only needs some minor grinding to obtain a perfect fit.
Steve also found the time to cut out this circular Fleur De Lis Suncatcher after completing Santa. The man wastes no time at all when it comes to stained glass.
Jeannette began work on a window that features a blazing sun over rolling ocean water. In just one class she almost got the entire window cut out! That means that she'll surely be grinding when she returns.
Let always has more than one iron in the fire and here we see that her round Christmas Poinsettia Panel is ready for it's final soldering. But that's not all-- she also has a new beveled heart panel cut out and ground. The blue pieces only need to be foiled and then she'll be able to solder this to completion as well!
Susan R is working on grinding out the holes in her feathers for the decorative colors that reside near the ends of those feathers. After contemplating many color options she settled on what you see below but before settling she lit a feather by placing it on a light box of sorts to be sure she liked the color combination. She even had multiple pieces in assorted colors cut so that she could mix and match them until she came upon the feather that you see here.
And here's Susan's Peacock in its entirety.
Lisa's sugar skull needed teeth and the best way to achieve precision in those tiny pieces was to tack the surrounding pieces of the mouth together and then slide some white glass underneath and trace out the entire opening. After that large piece was cut and ground to fit into place she put a horizontal score line across the piece to divide the top teeth from the bottom- but she didn't separate them yet. Next she made all of the vertical scores to create the individual teeth. Finally she separated each of them BEING CAREFUL TO KEEP THEM IN ORDER! Mixing them up would be devastating. She put a large dot in the center of each tooth so she would know what side was up and then she placed a smaller dot on each tooth to show what was up and what was down. She carefully wrapped everything (the dots are hard to see because of all of the handling that occurred while she foiled them which is why we put two dots on each tooth). Within an hour her Sugar Skull's teeth were ready to be tacked into place.
After the teeth were tacked into position she began and finished grinding the flowers that frame her Sugar Skull.
Zoe is nearing the completion of her Longhorn Skull. She got the eyes and the horns cut this week and then she soldered the front side as well. With just the back to go, we will surely see Zoe begin her next project next week.
Cindy's Christmas Holly Heart is filled with tiny pieces which are her favorite things to work on. this project should make her very happy! It's moving along nicely and each week we see more and more of this gorgeous large suncatcher come together.
Lorrie has also been busy at home working on a Fox and a Cross suncatcher. The fox is for her daughter who hasn't picked out the color for the fox's eyes hence the blank expression currently on his face!
Martha's background glass for her Franklin Streetlight Window has been cut and ground out of one perfectly sized piece of glass so that the pattern of the glass remains contiguous. It makes for tricky cutting for sure, but the end result is a seamless, beautiful sky.
Bee is following a straight and steady course towards the finish line of completing her Cantina Window. It appears as though she's going to have to make a decision on what to do for the lettering next. Will she paint the lettering on and then fire it in the kiln or will she cut the letters out of glass and melt them into the banner? I can't wait to see what she adjudicates upon when she comes in again next week.
Mary Grace resumed work on her Mardi Gras Mask Window and she's got a good portion of it ground already. I have to say that this isn't a pattern for the faint of heart due to all of the long thin pieces that make up the feathers. That said, Mary Grace is doing a wonderful job getting things to fit nicely.
Cheryl's letters for the center section of her Harley-Davidson Window are moving along one piece at a time. She's discovering that a few of them have been cut too short and that she'll have to re-cut them but for now I say skip the problematic pieces and plow on through the rest of the center portion of this window. She can fill in those missing pieces after she tacks what she has together and get a more perfect fit this way.
And that's what we like to call a wrap!
Paul
