Shut Up And Drink Your Beer

Martha finished her pair of Sunflowers Window and we all agree that the color that she picked for her border may actually steal the show.    It's not only the perfect color for the window, that goes without saying, but it also lights up spectacularly!

 

 

 

Cindy's latest large Circular Flower Suncatcher is now finished with a completely new color scheme as compared to the first one that she did. This one is subtle pastel colors that suit it perfectly. Hopefully someone will like it well enough to purchase.

 

 

 

 

Long ago Barbara began this Cross Window but then she hurt herself and had to stop taking classes for a while. I told her that I'd finish it off for her since it only needed its border to be ground and then a quick soldering. Now that I've completed the restaurant windows I was able to quickly jump on this and finish it off for Barbara. The only thing she didn't do was solder it so this window was by all intents and purposes made by her. And it certainly looks phenomenal since many of the students ohh'ed and aww'ed over it last week while it was hanging up.

 

 

 

Linda F is the first to complete a Pumpkin Owl and it's without a doubt as cute as everyone thought it would be. There will be a few more of these made in many different color schemes in the weeks to come. Alas, although they may be different I'll bet that although they may equal the beauty of this one Linda has set the bar pretty darned high for a Pumpkin Owl so I doubt that anyone would be able to top this.

 

 

 

Captain America has a new shield in his arsenal thanks to Paula. The key to making this look great is not only in making the rings perfectly round but to also make the five pointed star balance perfectly. When you give a challenge like that to Paula you can bet money on the fact that she'll achieve perfection.

 

 

Let has made a Modern Cross of her own using just clear textured glasses.  The end result is a cross that sparkles like a diamond in the sunlight.

 

 

 

These Geometric Designs are always popular and with Let having made a pair of them Sheri decided to follow suit. Her mostly clear Geometric Flower Burst was completed with pale glass glob accents for effect. Stunning! 

 

 

 

Judy has another Modern Cross under her belt with this one having been made from two different greens. Although it's hard to tell the outer pieces of green are actually transparent as opposed to the inner pieces which sets the cross off perfectly. 

 

 

Annette made five more Breast Cancer Ribbon Hearts and at this point I think that she could possibly make them with her eyes closed because just look at how nice this one is.  

 

Susan R's Autumn Leaf is moving along quicker than I though as Susan appears to have more than an eighth of it cut out already. She's been tackling the smaller pieces first which I feel is always the best way to handle things. Do the hardest part first and leave the easier pieces for the very end when you can use a bit of a break! At any rate, I'm loving her use of color here. She loves color and is not afraid to mix and match.

 

  

 

Melissa was busy grinding on her Double Humming Bird piece which isn't quite a window but which is too large to be labeled as a Suncatcher. On thing for sure is that it contains a lot of pieces and they have all been cut from perfect colors. This will surely turn out to be amazing.

 

  

 

 

MiMi managed to foil all of the remaining pieces to the second section of her lamp while at home so she came in with a plan of action and immediately set to work.   First she removed the first section of the lamp from the mold by heating it with a heat gun so that the wax that held it to the mold softened and released its 'grip'.  She then moved that section to the left and pinned it into place since there is no wax on that section of the mold.   After smoothing out the wax with a brush she then began placing her newly wrapped pieces onto the mold where the old section used to reside.   Once that was done she tacked all of the pieces into place and called it a night.   Here you can see her placing the pieces on the mold and then the lamp with two of its sections tacked together. 

 

 

Here's a look at the board that MiMi had her pieces pined to. Everything was rock solid for carefree carrying and it looks like an impressive forest of pins.

 

  

 

 

Lara's African Woman gained more pieces in her colorful skirt which is the more trying part of making this. Lara always chooses her colors carefully and in this case she has many pieces to chose colors for. Luckily she knows what's right when she sees it and as you can see, her picks are perfect.

 

  

 

Susan D isn't going for a single Humming Bird and Flower Suncatcher being finished, she wants all of them to be completed at once. The hardest one (the circular double flower and bird) just needs its back side soldered after which she'll quickly and easily attach it to the metal hoop that will contain it. She also has two other suncatchers in the works which are also being soldered. The end is near.

 

  

 

Mary was back this week and she began her new Tiger Eye project. In just one short class she's got the tiger's share of the window cut out already! Impressive! Will she begin grinding this when she returns? Come back next week for the answer to that. Same bat time, same bat channel. 

 

 

 

Let is also working on a Pumpkin Owl of her own but this one features a white Pumpkin rather than an orange one. She may be wrapping up this project as soon as next week!

 

 

 

Kandise has all of her Double Cardinals Window cut, ground and tacked together. That alone is plenty of progress for one night but then Kandise went ahead and got a border cut ground wrapped and tacked on as well. I won't be surprised to see her complete this upon her return!

 

  

 

 

With the top of her box completely soldered Keri is ready to begin cutting and assembling the box bottom.   You might notice that top looks somewhat different than it did last week.  That's because Keri changed out the border that surrounds the sun and moon from a clear glass to an iridized and more textured glass which looks much better if you are interested in my opinion.

 

 

Annette flipped her LSU Window over and began soldering the second side of it leaving with only a small portion of the window left to be soldered. All of the hard work that she put into this is about to be revealed because next week will surely see her complete the soldering. She'll surely need to do some touching up but her soldering is so good that I think this will be touched up, washed, patina'ed, washed, soldered and waxed the following week. 

 

 

June's Colorful Cat has only a handful of pieces left to go now.  The ad for the 3D stained glass lamp that this was based on has been showing up very frequently in my Facebook feed for the past week in a 20 percent off sale or something similar.  I think June's version is nicer so she should charge full price! 

 

  

Judy even has another Modern Cross under way and I could be wrong here but I believe that I could have possibly heard her say that this might be the last of the Cross Suncatchers that she has to make.  If so, I'm thinking that she's thrilled about that.

 

 

 

And lastly we see that Mary Grace is hard at work on her final frame! This could be completed when she returns unless the glue chip that we ordered to make the legs which enable this to stand on a table top doesn't arrive before MG shows up for class. If that's the case she'll simply begin her next project and then finish this the following week.

 

  

 

And there ya have it!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Who's Cheryl?

Ann has finished her 3D Dove Window and we were able to attach the Dove to the circular fractured background easily this time around since we have already figured out the process on her 3D Cross Window about a year ago.   She wanted to be able to see through the Dove to see some colors behind it and I believe that she's achieved the effect that she was looking for. 

  

 

 Lorrie's Whale Shark is as cute as can be and was set off beautifully with the use of blue baroque glass for the border.   The two alternating clear textures along with the wispy white that make up the background also lend to the beauty of this piece. 

 

 

 

 Let's double Swans in a Heart are certainly elegant.  The eye's perplexed me for a bit but we figured out a great and easy way to apply them.  The end result is perfection.

 

 

 

 

Annette was in briefly to get some hooks for her 6 Breast Cancer Heart Ribbons that she made while she was at home.   She's done a wonderful job and she even got them done in time to be gifted out! 

 

  

 

Let also finished this stunning Geometric suncatcher featuring colorful glob accents set within two differently textured clear pieces of glass.

 

 

 

Cindy saw this cute Ghost Suncatcher online and decided to make one of her own.  She put the few small finishing touches on it while at home and then brought it back in so I could get a completed picture of it.

  

 

 

Betty loved the Ghost that Cindy was working on in our last post and decided to make one while in class this week.   These things certainly went together quickly and this pure white ghost proves that colors can be changed and still have the finished piece looking wonderful. 

 

 

 

Mary Grace has yet another Frame finished and now has only two more to go.   And she's made it perfectly clear that these will be the last frames that she makes for quite some time.

 

Susan R has begun on a very ambitious project consisting of a Leaf measuring less than 8 inches wide with a grand total of 78 pieces!   She's decided to grind as she cuts so she can pin the pieces into position and not have the entire pattern covered in glass that's only cut roughly to shape.   With all of this detail this is sure to be a stellar accomplishment! 

 

 

 

Susan D has found a work around for her beautiful but unstable oversized double Hummingbird which  solves the stability issue.  By placing the pair of birds within a metal hoop they become MUCH more solid.  Still, they were a bit 'delicate' so she's also added carefully positioned pieces of glue chip to put aside the problem of stability while also adding a sense of style to her project. 

 

  

 

Betty not only has a new Santa Frog cut and ground but she has has her Pumpkin Owl cut, ground, foiled, and ready for tacking!  I certainly won't be surprised if this is completed when we see it next week. 

 

 

 

Bee continued penciling in the Cardinal for her Cardinal Window and has settled on this wonderful design.  This will get a sprawling landscape background but for now she's going to focus on the bird with its many, many feathers.    Once it's all tacked together she work out the background of her design. 

 

  

 

Linda  is making a Pumpkin Owl of her own and is very close to finishing the grinding on it.   These are definitely sweet looking Owls if I do say so myself.

  

 

 

Sheri cut out and ground a Geometric Suncatcher of her own after deciding on the perfect pair of textured clear glass.  Once that was determined she then picked out the colors for the center section and the surrounding smaller glass globs.  A common misconception while picking these colors is that the center glob must perfectly match the outer globs.  As with borders, this is not true at all however they should be close.  I actually prefer a difference.

 

  

 

 

MiMi is very close to finishing the foiling of her second section of lamp.   I suspect that she will be attaching those newly foiled pieces to her mold next week.  Here you can see what the mold looks like with just one of the sections attached as well as where the second section will go.

 

  

 

Keri's Sun and Moon Box is moving along at an astounding rate of speed.   She'll certainly have the top of the box completed upon her return and we've both decided that curved ends on the box will be a far better fit than a squared off  box whose top overhangs the bottom by almost 2 inches on each side.  We'll see what that involves possibly as soon as next week.

 

 

 

Lorrie is well on her way to achieving her dozen Oil Kaleidoscopes!  She's got three of them almost completely assembled and now knows just how it's done.  With that knowledge under her belt she's taken them along home with her to continue working on them there. 

 

  

 

 

Paula's Captain America Shield is all cut out and mostly ground.  She's tacked he center portion together and will rotate the  white middle rings and until the lead lines balance out nicely.  We just couldn't decide where to put them on the pattern but whatever Paula decides looks best will then be added to the pattern that we keep in the shop in case anyone else wants to make one of these.  

 

  

 

 

Linda L got all of her fractured background cut and ground in record time!    Yes, she says that she's going to have to re-cut 2 pieces but when you consider all of the time that she saved while grinding by cutting off the lines you have to be impressed by how well this fits together.   And she also has room for foil without the fear of it expanding past its intended size.  

 

 

Kandise ALWAYS makes major strides while in class.  This week she managed to finish cutting out the remaining pieces for her Cardinal Window and then ground everything as well!  But wait, that's not all!  She foiled everything as well!   Amazing.

 

  

 

 

Cindy also cut, ground and foiled the background pieces for her latest Flower Window.  Then she soldered the front side of it.  Count on this being completed when Cindy returns.

  

 

 

Martha's Sunflower was tacked together and then she cut and ground the border pieces.  Normally borders go quickly because we cut them using a strip cutter but when you have curved corners the pieces all have to be cut by hand.  If you where to use the strip cutter you'd cut off the 'flairs' that extend beyond the straight parts of the border.  That said, Martha is ready to wrap and tack.  

 

 

 

Melissa might not have been able to come in to work on her double Humming Birds project but Lilah said that she'd pick up some of Melissa's slack because she really likes the birds!

 

  

 Don't forget the golden rule of glass: Keep grinding!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

 

Friction or Pressure?

 Melissa's Tiffany styled Birds Window is pure perfection.   The key to making a window look vintage (and Tiffany styled) is to use multiple colors throughout each subject matter.  In this case Melissa had varied the colors that make up each bird rather than using a single color each of them.   Rather than using just pink flowers she's made a mixture of light pinks dark pinks and white.   The icing on the cake is her attention to detail which makes this window such a standout. 

  

  

Bee's Peacock is a fiery delight that has captured everyone's attention. Great work and a wonderful color scheme sets this apart from other peacocks that we've see made in class. Bee has made this pattern with an eye for color and a dash of panache as well.

 

 

 

 

Let can always be counted on to get plenty of work done throughout her week. Her first completed item is this elegant circular Woman's Hat. Beautiful precise curves make the circular border as perfect as the hat itself.

 

 

 

 

Let also made this stunning Geometric Suncatcher as well as her Hat and this is yet another example of just how perfectly she can grind and follow a pattern. 

Susan R put the finishing touches on her cute Halloween themed Pumpkin Gnome and he's ready to be 'planted' in a flower pot!  This one moved really quickly for Susan and she'll ready to start a small project of mammoth proportions next.  

 

 

Judy is seeing Crosses in her dreams (nightmares?).   He latest is a new design and it looks like she's giving up the old design for the new one. 

Cheryl has a wedding coming up so she's dropped Mr Bingle so that she can get this Wedding Box finished in time for the wedding. She had started working o this at home which is why she is this far along on the top already. The top lid will surely be completed when she comes back in two weeks from now.

  

 

 

After completing her Tiffany Birds Melissa said she wanted to make something easy but I do not think the word EASY means what she thinks it means. But holy cow, look how far along she is on this already! I guess it IS easy (to her).

 

  

 

 

Cindy decided to make a Ghost Suncatcher this week and almost got to complete it but like our students always say, "class comes to an end way too soon."  That said, I have no doubt at all that this will be soldered and ready for hanging upon Cindy's return.  

 

 

 

Kandise is well under way on her new Cardinals Window. Featuring one male and one female the only glass left to cut out on this is the green for the four leaves and the the flower petals that reside between the heads of the two birds. I have a funny feeling that this will be ground before you know it.

 

  

Lara's making great strides with her African Woman Window and she's been grinding it here and there as she gets sections of it cut out. That colorful dress consists of a lot of pieces which can quickly overtake the limited real estate available on the paper pattern if things aren't ground and pinned into place.

 

  

 

 

Linda L got all of the glass cut for the inner oval section of her window and is now grinding those pieces. When I say that she is grinding them I'm sort of exaggerating because all she's really having to do it skim them to make them fit. There's probably about 2% of those pieces that will need SLIGHTLY more than a skim but that's just a drop in the ocean when you look at just how many pieces make this up.

 

 

 

 

Martha has all of her Sunflower cut out and ground save for the border (which is how we do things in here). The first thing we did was to add some thickness to the sunflower's stems since they were originally only lead lines which didn't look like they could support a bumble bee let along a flower of this magnitude! Adding green stems cut from glass has helped make this window look so much better. 

  

 

Lorrie's Whale Shark has a border attached and is ready to get it's back side soldered.   Since this is a small window I'm sure that it will be completed when she returns.  She's also got all of the pieces  that make up the clear front ends of her  Oil Scope Wands cut out as well so these are going to go together in the very near future.     

 

 

 

Susan D has tacked together all of her leftover Humming Birds and Flowers and has assembled a total of three Suncatchers from her lot of five humming birds and four flowers. It's hard to see here but she's actually doubled up things to come up with this total. She'll be soldering and possibly adding some wire when I show her my idea for holding together the tricky two birds in one suncatcher.

 

 

Ann's Fractured Background is just about ready for solder which means that she'll be finishing this project up before you know it!

 

 

 

It's becoming very plain to see that the pieces in the second section of MiMi's Lamp are quickly being foiled. It won't be long until MiMi shifts her first tacked section over on her mold and then begins adding the pieces to the second section.

 

  

 

Annette began soldering her LSU Window and made some incredibly great progress on it.   Her soldering has really come a long way when compared to her first pieces.  She'll be flipping this over before you know it to solder the back side (which should go faster than the front side since there isn't solder on it already which needs to be re-melted.)  The end is very near.

  

 

 

Mary Grace has another frame ready to be soldered and only has two more to make after this one. Repetition can be mentally taxing and I do believe that Mary Grace is VERY happy to be finishing this run of frames. 

 

  

 

 

Here we see that Judy is starting her second color variation of the completed Cross that we saw at the start of his post. 

  

 

Lastly I have to report that Zoe was in this week just long enough to pick up the pattern for her next project. All I'm going to say is Dinosaur. You'll see what that comes down to when we see Zoe again.

And so it goes!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks