Annette has decided to make about 20 Christmas Ornament Suncatchers in three different styles. Each has a Bible Scripture (Psalm 139 23-24) that has been permanently fired onto the glass. These are her first four and I have to say that her idea to add bows to each ornament was a stroke of genius.
Lisa's Cool Mountains Circular Suncatcher features iridescent stars and a dark, dark purple sky. The black patina helps hide the lead lines in the finished piece which actually makes the stars appear to hang in the air.
Betty got six of her Grinch Hands with Ornaments completed this week and still has a few more to finish off. We'll probably be seeing a lot of these now that Christmas is less than seven weeks away!
Although Lorrie is making seven Address Windows it isn't as easy as cutting out the same pieces seven times since all of the street numbers are different. That means that there's more work to these than you would normally expect but she's still making these at a super fast rate of two per week. Here are numbers 702 and 227!
Steve got his male and female Cardinals finished before class ended but was unable to get to the wire work that surrounds these two love birds into a heart. I guess we know what Steve will be doing when he comes back into class.
Kandise has almost all of her Window Corner Accents cut out and ready to be ground. Since the pair are mirror images she was able to simply cut double the amount of pieces of glass since they are mostly symmetrical and can be flipped in either direction. The only minor problems are the two pieces on the left of the pattern which need to be cut out independently since they can't be reversed. I have found that mirror images can really mess with your head, but Kandise is certainly on the right track here.
Kerry is back! We haven't seen his Swedish Chef in a while now but here he is with all of his glass cut and attached. Since this sat so long he had to take some time to re-melt all of the lead so that a smooth solder bead could be applied on top of the old lead. There's nothing worse than trying to solder on top of old solder. By melting all of the old lead Kerry now has a nice clean 'palette' to solder on.
Melissa's Kaleidoscope has been assembled and she's decided to use Scalloped Foil on this project. I was unsure on how easily since this is a 3D project but it soldered beautifully-- perhaps even easier than plain foil! Next week she'll add the legs and an axle to support the color wheels as well as some silhouettes of trees to give this Kaleidoscope a Northern Lights theme. Also in the picture below is a quick look through the mirrors that will go inside of this kaleidoscope.
With her borders cut for her Spooky Halloween Tree Window Linda will begin soldering this before you know it. She plans on hanging this up as soon as it is finished and says that she just doesn't care if Halloween 2024 is already behind us-- she's going to enjoy all the work she put into this now!
Here's the next number in Lorrie's address windows as well as a look at the flower that will go in the next Wedding Invitation Box that she began this week. At this rate EVERYONE will be inviting her to weddings just to get a box!
Martha's Cat Window is nearly complete needing only a few pieces of the Cat left to be cut. She'll easily handle that next week and possibly begin wrapping this as well. It won't be long now.
Lisa's Fox got its background cut out and everything has been tacked together. The original design calls for a hook to be mounted on the right of the circle but that's honestly going to break off eventually. What Lisa will do to prevent this is to tack a wire around the outside edge of the circle that will distribute the weight that the hook has to bear around most of the perimeter. There's always a solution.
With everything tacked together Barbara was able piece together a background using baroque glass. The person she is making this for also wanted a baroque border but since it always looks odd to match the border to the background Barbara has decided to go with a double border using a thin inner border of a different glass to help offset the return to baroque for the last border.
Jan finished grinding her her Sunburst window but one of the pieces just came up a little too short to use. She's going to tack this together and then replace the piece by tracing along the opening for a perfect cut and grind on the first pass. Also, she has yet to decide on a color for one of the smallest pieces in this so that will be handled upon her return as well.
Let's Fishbowl Window is almost completed now that she has a border attached to it. She also added a brass channel as well and then finished soldering the front side. I have no doubt that the back will have been soldered when she brings this back in because Let does NOT remain still!
Cheryl is back in action and she's wrapping the pieces that she cut for her Harley Davidson Window. This will allow her to tack together what she's cut and prevent any of the pieces from sliding around or getting lost. It will also show us in a very clear manner exactly what still needs to be cut and what has already been done. Organization is paramount to building a window of this complexity.
Ann has a few fill in pieces left to go for her Nativity Scene and she's added a Halo that was missing from Joseph's Head to the pattern as well. Before she cuts those missing pieces she's going to tack together what she has cut and ground and then make new patterns for the remaining pieces.
Here we see that there are more egg cartons under MiMi's belt which means that she's consistently cutting out pieces three at a time. She has all of 'color number 2' traced out onto glass and about a third of it cut out already. This Louis XV Lamp is going to turn heads for sure.
Judy resumed work on her Grinch Window and after she finished grinding the few pieces that were left over from last week she began foiling her green meany! It still looks like he doesn't have a mouth but he certainly does and it will be VERY apparent when you see this again next week.
Cindy's version of her Cat window is so very close to completion. All it needs is some solder on the back side and then it will be ready to hang. In the end we decided to forgo a border. The curtains gave us a place to hang the window from after it got a channel attached. Martha will do the same with hers. Also in the picture is the start of Cindy's next Holly Heart.
So long, and thanks for all the shrimp!
Paul
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