Too Big, Too Heavy, Too Dangerous

Betty finished her Heron Window and was very happy with the end result.  Everyone in class agreed that she did a great job partially because she never rushed anything about it.   If glass that she wanted to use in it wasn't available at the moment she waited until it was back in stock rather than changing up her colors for something that she wasn't completely happy with.    She also 'stitched' together the sky by herself and the grain flows perfectly throughout.

 

 

Annette showed up with this Rose Bud Window which seemed to come out of nowhere since we never saw her working on it before.   She changed the pattern a bit by adding leaves to fill in areas that she felt were a little too open and THAT is a true sign of someone who has taken stained glass to heart.  Annette not only changed up the colors on this but also altered the pattern on her own!

  

 

Steve got the wire work attached to his Humming Bird Suncatcher and ended up with a stunning piece.   Wire work always makes things look so much better but it comes at a cost because it also adds a lot of extra time to the project.  That said, the end result is always worth it as proven here.

 

 

 

 

Susan D finished her Crow suncatcher which will mount onto a piece of tree trunk and become another in a series of her popular tabletop pieces.   

 

 

 

 

Martha completed her Franklin Street Lamp Window and she's becoming known on Facebook as the Streetlight Lady because of how many of these she's made.   I guess you can call this stunning window a signature piece of Martha's.

  

 

 

  Let made another Ribbon Heart this week and scaled down the pattern so that she had enough Fractures and Streamers glass to fill in the ribbon and finish off the heart shape on the left hand side.   Beautiful!

 

 

 

MiMi has officially begun the biggest of undertakings-- a Stained Glass Lamp Shade!  And it's not an easy lamp either because it is made up of 1059 pieces which is NOT a beginner project at all.   It's going to take patience and time to complete this but MiMi always exhibits those traits.  There are three repeats in this 'Louis XV' lamp which means that the pattern repeats three times around the lamp.  That means that each piece needs to be cut three times.  To keep track of all of those pieces she's using egg cartons to contain them.  Each egg hole has been numbered and will hold the three pieces of glass for that particular number.  Tricks like this help make this lamp get assembled much more quickly because organization is a key component in making stained glass especially when you have a lot of pieces.

  

 

 

Let came in with most of the glass cut for her Fish Tank Window.  She wasn't sure about the color for the Goldfish so she sifted through various sheets of glass that we had in the rack and settled on three different but similar shades.  Subtle differences are the best way to shade things and Let's fish will be shaded wonderfully.

 

  

 

 

After finishing his Humming Bird Steve moved on over to a pair of Cardinals.  This one has wire work also which adds time to the project but look at how much he has completed already!   This is going to be out the door before you know it.

 

 

 

Melissa's Kaleidoscope wheels were soldered completely this week and the axles where added to the centers of each wheel.   That is probably the most taxing part of making a kaleidoscope because if the rivet in the center is off centered or angled in even the slightest bit the wheel will be cockeyed and spin wobbly.  I've come up with a method that gets the rivet centered perfectly on the first try and then  a little pushing  or pulling  gets the wheel balanced before tacking the rivet firmly into place.

 

 

 

Cindy is flying through the cutting and grinding of her Cat in a Window Window.  She agonized over the color for the mullions in front of the cat and decided to go with a traditional white.  This was largely agreed upon due to the white being more visible between the calico cat and the yellow curtains.

 

  

 

 

Annette also managed to tack her Sacred Heart Window together this week and is officially ready to begin soldering!  The roll of solder is on the project, let the fun begin! 

 

Ann started grinding her Nativity Window  and got pretty far with it.  The bottom piece of glass for her ground may indeed have broken but since it's honestly just dirt that will be a simple fix utilizing some extra pieces.  That will makes the window worth more since pricing is determined by materials used and the number of pieces in the finished work!

 

 

Lisa finished grinding her Mountains and Stars Suncatcher and if you look REALLY closely you'll see that she decided to go with iridized glass for the 3 stars.   Once that was ground she moved on over to her circular Fox Panel and even in this beginning state it looks amazing.  Her glass choices and pattern placement for this are impeccable.

 

 

 

Jan got all of the waterglass background cut out for her Sunburst Window but since it's clear glass it's a bit hard to make out in the picture.   She then began grinding her Sunburst starting in the lower right corner and it certainly looks like things are coming together nicely.

 

  

 

Linda F has made terrific progress on her Halloween Window and even has a good majority of the window already ground.  She said that the Owl in the upper right was a bit of a pain to cut and grind but boy does it look great!  This is going to be one spooky looking Halloween Window when it's finished.

 

 

 

With each passing week Susan D's Eagle gains more feathers.  this thing will be flying out the door soon!  I love the way the one pin just happens to form a perfect eye for this bird.   Was that by design or coincidence?

 

  

 

Lara's Stack of Books are all cut out save for the pages of each book.  She doesn't want to go with pure white pages and I think I know the perfect glass for the job.   And let's not forget that she didn't just cut out once of these Stacks of Books.  She's cut enough glass to make two of these (hence the two zip lock bags of pieces in the top of the picture)!

 

 

 

Judy knew that she wanted to make a Christmas themed window the moment she walked in the door.  She sorted through all of the patterns that we had in the Holiday Drawer and she then settled on a Grinch Window.   At one point before the eyes were cut out I felt that it looked like Kermit the Frog in a Santa suit but once the eyes were cut and dropped into place the Grinch became clearly recognizable.  I can't believe how quickly Judy is moving on this!

 

  

 

Lorrie is running out or room in her workshop and decided to finish two of the Address Windows that only needed borders attached to complete them.   By the time class was finished Lorrie had two borders attached to two windows and even got a channel on the pair of them as well.  Look to see these completed upon her return because she only needs the back sides soldered to finish them off.  

  

 

 

Susan R wants to know whose idea it was to make a Peacock.  Well the end is VERY near and she's not only going to love this-- she's also going to feel that all of the work she did was well worth it.  That's a fact!

  

 

 

Betty also worked on three more Cat Suncatchers which are selling at a rate that's hard for Betty to keep up with.  In a way, Betty's becoming one of those cat ladies that you hear about all the time!

 

 

 

Bee has certainly taken off while cutting glass for her Dandelion Window this week.  There are really only leaves and the Cross in the sun left to cut out.  She's a quick one!

 

 

 

Barbara finished grinding the flowers in her Magnolia Window and decided that the bottom flower needed some yellow in it to match the top one better.  She cut a small piece of yellow, ground it to shape and then placed it on top of the flower and traced around it to create the perfect opening for the yellow accent. Look closely and you can see that this picture was taken after she traced around the yellow piece but before she actually cut the opening in the petals.

 

 

 

Mary Grace got all of the background glass for her Mardi Gras Window cut, ground, and wrapped in foil.  This was a job that also required careful organizational skills because mixing up any of those similar triangular pieces could have been disastrous.  All in all it was a very productive day for her she'll be soldering this next week after the border goes on.

 

  

 

 

June replaced the mis-colored pieces in her Goat Window and now the goat has a much fuller face and even better, has no hole in the middle of his body!   Color errors like these are easy to make when you are dealing with a pattern that is black and white. June also tried many different colors of glass for the border but in the end this off brown ended up being the best choice by far

 

  

 

 

Sheri resumed work on her Koi Window and has selected most, if not all of the colors that she'll use to make this.  She's begun to trace pattern pieces onto glass so I'm thinking that we will see some glass cut for this when she comes back in.

 

  

In signing off I just want to say, "Alcohol."  Why?  Because no great story ever began with someone eating a salad.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It's Like Perky Boobs on a Raisin

Kandise completed her Art Deco Lady and as good as it looked while on the table it looks so very much better hanging up.  Having even just a little bit of light behind it you can clearly see that the darker colors she's chosen light up very differently-- especially next to any darker pieces that surround them.  All in all this is a stunning debut window and one that Kandise should be VERY proud of.

 

 

MiMi was in between projects and decided to throw together a cute Halloween Suncatcher which is new to us.   Her Broom features a spiderweb along with Cecil The Spider.   See Cecil spin a web-- watch ladies run!  It's impressive that MiMi completed this in one class from start to finish and it's easily one cute piece of stained glass.  

 

 

 

 

Cindy wrapped up the work on her Cardinal/Cross Suncatcher and I know that we'll see another one being made because Cindy has inspired someone from Tuesday morning to make one of these as well.

 

 

 

 

Betty made these two Heart Cancer Ribbon Suncatchers in record time.  One features fractures and streamers glass while the other a beautiful clear texture.  Both have been accented with solder dots on sections of the lead lines as an added bonus.

 

  

 

 

Lisa finished her Cloth Draped Cross and I've learned that the white cloth symbolizes the resurrection of Christ while doing a little research on this particular Cross.   Also, when Lisa was working on this I was viewing it upside down and thought to myself, "I need to tell her that the head of her Dove is too flat."  When I walked over and saw it orientated correctly I realized that it wasn't a dove but a cloth!  However, that has given me an idea for a pattern...

 

 

 

Let made a Heart Cancer Ribbon Suncatcher of her own using the same heavily textured clear that Betty used in hers.   And Let's features even more decorative soldering to brighten things up all the more.

 

 

 

The Wedding box that we feature here this week wasn't made by Lorrie but rather myself.  Don't look at the date on it, just know that some things are better late than never!!

 

 

 

Linda F is hard at work on her Halloween Tree Window and we've added an Owl to one of the branches on the upper right of the window (which isn't shown yet here).   The owl and the pumpkin add a lot of tiny pieces to the window but it's all of the detail that makes this so adorable.   But never forget that the Devil is in the details.

 

 

 

Lorrie is hammering out numbers for different Address Signs and she's moving through them quickly.  She got this pair of numbers cut out this week and she's taken the background glass home with her so she can cut, grind and then foil both of these windows.   If she does that while at home (which I'm sure she will) then we will see another pair of numbers get cut out next week.

 

  

 

 

Bee has begun cutting glass for her Dandelion Tribute Window and has picked a perfect clear textured glass for the dandelion itself.  Her original idea was to use a wispy white glass but with the grain only running in one direction it just looked off.  Using clear Florentine glass prevents any grain direction from showing and makes the dandelions look as authentic as possible using only one piece of glass.

 

 

 

Lisa never has just one iron in the fire so this week she not only completed her Cross and Cloth Suncatcher but began this Mountain Scene as well.   She's currently undecided as to whether she'll use bevels for the stars in the sky of if she'll use some iridized glass.  I guess we'll know the answer to that when we return next week.

  

 

 

Steve worked on a Humming Bird that will feature wire accents and it's been cut, ground, wrapped in foil and even soldered already!  All that's left is the wire work itself and that will go quickly enough next week so that we'll also see him begin a new project as well as a final view of this piece.

 

 

 

 

Cindy's making one of a pair of Cat Windows for a friend and Martha will be doing the second Cat Window (once she completes her Street Light).   In just one class Cindy has pulled into the lead since she has all of her colorfully detailed cat cut and ground already.  Cindy will omit the flower that you see in her pattern for reasons that will reveal themselves in the weeks to come..

 

 

 

Susan D is making great inroads on both of her birds.  The eagle's neck with its pointed feathers looks particularly impressive if I do say so myself.  Since the head is the most complicated part of the eagle  suncatcher I'm thinking that the rest of this project will move quickly for her especially since her other bird is already ground.

 

 

 

Mary Grace got all of the remaining pieces cut for her Mardi Gras Mask after she tacked together the pieces that she had already cut out earlier.   Next up comes all of the small triangular background pieces which she'll cut out one side at a time for two reasons.  1) there won't be as many similar pieces floating round loose on her pattern and B) because it will save a LOT of glass doing it this way. 

 

 

 

Susan R is working through all of those tiny inset Peacock feathers but it looks as though the end is near.  Soldering this will be a breeze and I'm sure Susan is looking forward to a relaxing day in class rather than a tedious one involving the grinding of miniscule pieces.

 

 

 

Annette is ready to start soldering her Sacred Heart Window now that all of her glass has been cut, ground, and wrapped in foil.   She'll tack this when she comes back in and then move on to the final solder.   I'd say that she has two more weeks to go on this and then her Magnum Opus can be proudly displayed in a window to highlight all of her work.

 

 

 

Martha has the front side of her latest Street Lamp pretty much soldered so she then added a clear inner border to her window.  It still has to be be tacked onto the window and once that's done we will see what she picks for her final border. 

  

 

 

Betty's Heron is very near completion with only a quarter of the back side of the window left to be soldered.   That means that there's no doubt at all that this will be one of our featured windows next week.

 

  

 

Let's put a lid on this pot and call it a day.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Right Church, Wrong Pew

Let finished her Daisies Window and we pretty much all agree that it brings back memories of the 70's.  We even had a  playlist of 70's songs to further heighten the nostalgia.  Let did another great job on this (as expected) and cut and attached her own channel as well.

 

 

 

Linda F's Teardrop Beach Scene is not unlike a droplet of peacefulness. Its pastel colors are anchored by a earthy brown shell which creates the rounded bottom of the teardrop.  She supposes that she could have done a little better following the edge lines but I think this is perfection as is.

 

 

Lorrie is making Address Windows and already has the first two cut and ground.   She has about seven of these to make before Christmas and once she each one ground and foiled she then moves along to a new set of numbers so that she can add borders all at once.

  

 

 

Susan D has her circular Bear all cut out but has moved on over to this Eagle Suncatcher which is an order.  Orders always come first and since she's got feathers on her brain she also managed to get another bird cut out as well.  She'll soon be working at the grinder to get all of those feather fitting together but judging by the looks of things she isn't going to have to do much more than a skimming on each piece because it  because so farthings are already fitting together nicely

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Jan spent the day cutting glass and picking out colors for her Sunburst Window.  She had brought a lot of her scrap glass in with her but didn't count on the pattern pieces being so large.  Still, so far she's been able to use glass that she had scraps of and what she found in our scrap glass box.

 

Cindy's Cardinal/Cross is truly in form now that it's all been cut and especially ground.  She's going to begin wrapping her pieces in copper foil which means that we'll most likely see all of this foiled when we see it again.  A new project is not that far away now.

 

 

 

Let also worked on these Christmas Candy Canes that now only need to be soldered on their back sides.   Let was the first and only person (thus far) to say that she was finished with Christmas projects for the year but when she saw Jeannette's  Candy Cane last week she decided that she just had to make an exception or two.  Never say never!

 

  

 

 

Susan R has all of her Peacock Feathers cut and ground and is ready to begin foiling all of those pieces.  Slow and steady wins the race but in all honesty Susan isn't really going all that slowly when you consider the size and number of the pieces that she is working with..  That said, she's still winning the race.

 

 

Kandise came in and immediately began tacking her Art Deco Lady together and then picked out a border for her.   It only took 3 minutes to cut the border pieces and then she was able to skim them on the grinder after which she foiled them.   All of that work took just over an hour to do which left Kandise plenty of time to begin soldering. Since this is her first 'real' window there was a learning curve involved in the soldering but for a first timer she's doing beyond wonderful.  In fact, this may even be completed when she come back in!

 

 

 

Melissa worked on grinding, wrapping and soldering the wheels for her Kaleidoscope.   By the time class ended she had everything soldered save for the bushing/hub centers which attach to the wheel centers andl allow them to rotate.   There are two wheels on the Kaleidoscope: one made of all different textured clear glasses, and the second made of different opaque colors.   The clear wheel goes between the mirrors and the color wheel so that the color is revealed through different textures as each wheel is spun independently.  If you made two color wheels you would never see the colors of the outermost wheel in the mirrors. 

 

  

 

Mary Grace finished grinding all of the colored pieces that she has cut out for her Mardi Gras Mask and is wrapping them now.   Once they are foiled she will tack everything together which will prevent anything from shifting while she cuts and grinds all of the tiny pieces that surround the mask and makes up the background.

 

  

 

Martha now has all of the background glass ground for her latest Franklin Streetlight Window and has even begun wrapping it.   I'm betting that she will go with the same border effect that she did on her last Streetlamp Window-- a clear inner border and then back to the background for the final outer border.  We'll know for sure when she returns next week.

 

 

 

Betty tacked together her Heron Window and found that the cat tail was cut just a bit too short for her approval which explains the opening in the window.  She'll re-cut that and fill it in while at home.  Her original plan was to use an orange glass that would match the legs for the thin inner border  but everyone agreed that the orange was SO bright that it was all you saw when you looked at the window.   Instead Betty went with a clear textured inner border and then went with a gray to match the feathers of the bird for the outer border.  And we all agreed that a final gray border was the best possible choice.

  

 

 

Barbara continued grinding her Magnolia Window and spend some time going through catalogs hoping to find the wooden Bookends that I saw a few weeks back and never marked down.  It may have taken a while but in the end she won the battle and found what she was looking for.  Now the colorful Owl that she made a few weeks back can be displayed correctly (or at least it will when the bookends arrive). 

  

 

 

Lara is working on a Stack of Books Suncatcher which is actually quite large.   The colorful flowers and leaves that are strategically placed throughout the pattern are what hold everything together by breaking up straight lead lines which would form hinge-points .   Lara actually has glass cut out for all of the book covers but she bagged everything before I took the picture.  She's also cutting out two of these at once with the only difference being the color scheme.

 

 

 

Sheri has begun working on her Koi Fish pattern and has all of her poster board pattern pieces cut out and separated so that she can begin cutting glass when she returns. Everything is numbered and ready to go!

 

 

 

To wrap things up here we see that Bee spent her night designing her next window which features Dandelions set amidst a background of a dove, a sun with a cross inserted into it which in turn has a rose inserted into the center of the cross.  Now that's what I call a lot of subject matter! 

And there you have it!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks