Monday, October 7, 2024

Smart Ass Doesn't Count

Lorrie got her newest, latest and greatest Wedding Box completed this week and her use of fractures and streamers glass for the box sides is really astounding. If Lorrie keeps giving these away as wedding presents she may find that she'll be getting invited to weddings for people that she doesn't even know!

  

 

Cindy's got a GREAT Halloween themed Hoop here featuring Bats and Spider webs.  It certainly went together quickly enough and that extra wire work really brought it all to life.

 

MiMi got her Autumn Colored Anger Wing Suncatcher wrapped in copper foil and then soldered.   After attaching two hooks to hang this from we took this picture to share with you.   MiMi's work is always precise and her soldering is a dream come true. If you wanted Autumn colored angel wings then this is surely everything that you might have envisioned them to be.

 

Let made this cute Nativity Suncatcher in plenty of time for Christmas.   She says that she's all caught up with that holiday and will move away from Christmas items until next year but there's plenty of time left in the year for last minute Christmas projects.

 

Lisa had and extremely productive day as she soldered not one but three suncatchers.  Her Woven Heart is perfection as are all the others but it's her Cross that impressed me most because of how her sharp points that meet near the central of the Cross are perfectly ground with none of them coming up short )which is usually an issue with points like this).   Her Red Heart may look as though it's a collection of hinge points but Lisa thwarted all of those problem areas by filling the center of the cross with clear untextured glass which makes it appear as though the suncatcher is hollow even though it isn't.  The trick to this illusion is to use untextured (window pane) glass. 

 
 
Sheri began these two Flower Crosses a while back and they've been sitting around just needing some solder on them.  Now that she's soldered them I wonder if she isn't regretting doing them sooner because they certainly turned out to be quite beautiful!

  

Judy's Deer Window trotted out the door as a finished Window after Judy spent her class time soldering it.   About an hour and a half after beginning the soldering process Judy wrapped up the work on this and then spent the rest of her time washing and coloring it.  All in all, a job very well done. 

 
 
Sheri's Korok Hoop was essentially completed when she walked in the door with it.   She only needed to add solder it and the facial features consisting of a mouth, eyes and a Leaf stem.   The stem itself was made of a thick wire which was coated in lead before attaching it and the eyes and mouth were simply cut from foil and then soldered into the lead lines lines that they overlaid.
 
  
 
 
Susan D got her newest pair of Geometrical Suncatchers soldered and ready for hanging.  The orange and green one has a jewel in the center of it that has been 'hanging' around the shop for at least 10 years now which proves that everything goes eventually.  But these suncatchers will surely sell much faster than the solitary jewel that Susan used as an accent piece.


Melissa's wrapped up the work on her second and last red and green Beveled Cross and it's pretty much a perfect replication of her first one (though I assure you that they ARE different). She loves the fact that she was able to use brass channel for the edges rather than doing the tap-tap method which she isn't a fan of and it provides a nice clean edge.

 

Steve finished what could be his last circular Fleur De Lis Suncatcher although he does have another one started so who knows when that could be completed.   I think he may be a bit tired of making this since this was his third one but I think it's safe to say that he's very good at these now!

 
 
Ann began cutting glass for her large Nativity Window and got even farther along then she hoped to.  All of the colors that she knew she was using where cut out and placed onto her pattern and the missing pieces (of which colors she'll be using are currently unsure) will be filled in after she grinds all of this to get a better feel for what all of the colors look like.
 
  

 
Let did all of the work on her Daisies Window while at home save for the border which she added while in class.   I have to admit that the green perfectly compliments the flowers and frames it out nicely, especially since there are no leaves in the pattern.   Using green was a great was to add some color balance without resorting to leaves which would only be half shown in this piece.

 
 
Cindy is working on a Cross with a Cardinal smack dab in the center of it.  The pattern was originally drawn by Terry and when Cindy saw it she decided that she wanted to make one of her own. 

 
 
Melissa is making a large Kaleidoscope which she hoped to decorate by adding a tree along two of the side.  We have an idea in mind so we'll be checking that out soon but meanwhile we will look at the two rings whose images will bounce back and forth between the three mirrors that will provide  the delightful visual aspect of this project.

 
 
Susan R is filling in the blank spaces of her Peacock feathers and working at a nice steady pace.   It's looking like the end is near now because there isn't all that much more to go on this before she can foil her pieces and then begin soldering (which won't take long at all). And I even remembered to take a picture of Susan's Peacock this week.
 
 
 
 
June's Goat Window has been completely ground and she has begun wrapping almost all of its pieces.  All save for three green pieces because she agrees with both Russ and myself that they need to be changed to gray.  These shouldn't be background pieces but rather parts of the goat.  I've pointed them out with red arrows and once they're replaced with grays you'll see this goat look even better than it already does.

 
 
Kandise blew through the foiling process of her Art Deco Woman by getting her entire window wrapped in just one class!  And her work is perfect as well.   Next week she'll tack this together and then get a border cut and even attached.  After that she'll begin soldering which she's nervous about, but that's only natural.  The best part about soldering is that you can always go over it again if you don't like how it looks.  If you simply relax and solder SLOWLY all is fine!

 
 
Barbara began grinding her Magnolia Window and managed to get the top flower almost completely ground.  There are still a few leaves left to grind but she made great progress this week getting her pieces to fit together so wonderfully. 

  
 
 
Annette has all of the glass cut and mostly ground in her scared Heart Window after getting all of her sword ground into place.  The clear pieces in the hilt of the sword will be covered in sheet foil and then foiled as any other piece of glass would.   When you next look at this window it will be tacked together.
 
  
 

Martha finished wrapping her Streetlight, tacked it together and then went to work on deciding what glass to use for her background.  She wanted something with a lot of swirling pattern in it because she wanted to cut it as one large continuous piece so that the grain would match perfectly  across lead lines.   The first sheet of glass she picked was absolutely stunning but when we tried to cut a right angle on the edge of the glass we discovered that it was very brittle and had trouble breaking along extended score lines.  Rather than push it Martha decided to use this piece of Oceanside glass which followed score lines perfectly.  

 
Jan was back this week and she's about to embark on a Sun Window complete with multi colored rays.   She selected the pattern, traced it, colored it to get a rough idea of what she plans to do with colors and then cut out the paper pattern.  Actual glass cutting will begin on her return. 

 
Wrapping things up here we  are happy to announce that Shelley has come back to join us after having three months off.  She worked on a few repairs to get her back into the stained glass routine and next week she'll begin a real glass project.  Welcome back Shelley!
 
And that's it.  We are officially up to date!
 
Paul

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