See, For Me That's A Possibility!

Paula's Spiderman is easily recognizable by anyone who's over the age of five.  For the past 20 years he's been everywhere as his movies are always making money.  Paula isn't the first student to render him in glass but this one stands out due to the detail in the webs on his face.   All in all it's a fantastic likeness! 

 

Cindy finished her Cardinal Cross and it's ready for delivery.   It's wonderful that so many or our students are selling things to help offset the cost of continuing their hobby. 

 

 

Cheryl's latest Wedding Box looks fantastic and hopefully it will steal the show when all of the wedding gifts are opened! I see no reason why it wouldn't.

 

 

 

Susan D completed the first of five of her Dragonfly Spoons and the other four won't be far behind this one as you'll see a little further along in this post.

 

 

Betty's Christmas Bird (the first of three others) is now complete. There are a lot of pieces in this small piece which means that making these takes both time AND patience but Betty has proven herself to be up to the task. Having it look this good certainly helps motivate her to get the others completed.

 

 Let's Cross was made from all clear iridized glass with straight cuts that line up spectacularly.  All that precision makes it hang nice and straight as well!

 

Barbara is working on miniscule Bird and Flowers window that reminds me very much of something that Tiffany would have made back in the day.  Here's a fun fact for you: Barbara's 'window' measures only 6inches high and contains 36 pieces. My oh my!

 

 

Keri has begun work on a large Stitch Suncatcher. In just one evening (and not even a complete evening) she managed to trace out the pattern onto poster board and then cut out all of the glass for this cute little guy. Sweet!

 

  

  

Kandise is another fast worker who managed to trace her project pattern onto poster board, cut the pattern pieces out with scissors and then got almost all of her Camera cut out of glass as well! I'm going to show her how to get a large whole cut into the center of the lens without any lead lines leading up to it.  More on that next week. 

   

 

Julie tacked her Hamsa Hand together and then got an arched background cut out as well.  Once that was all tacked together she got the straight strips cut for her  first border.  That's a productive class for sure!

  

 

Betty currently has three more Cat Suncatcher ready for whiskers along with a new Christmas Toy Soldier Suncatcher that we've not seen before. This entire work board is simplicity at its finest.

 

Tracey made a lot of progress this week as she managed to get almost all of the petals cut out for her Magnolia. Let me tell you that the glass she picked did NOT want to work with us because those long thin pieces just wanted to break in all of the wrong places. But in the end Tracey won and I know that the green for the leaves will cut far easier.

 

 

 

Let has a Christmas Poinsettia teardrop in the works and if you think it looks as though she's only got a few pieces left to wrap in foil before she solders it, well, you'd be correct! 

 

  

 

Cindy's Golf Window was all tacked together and after a little agonizing she settled on a green glass with some wisps of brown throughout it for her  border.  I think it's a perfect match and it really brought the window to life when compared to the light amber that Cindy was originally leaning towards.

 

 

 

Martha's Art Deco Lady is looking particularly spectacular. The head band on the woman will be done in all lead and after I showed Martha how to foil the front side she immediately did the second side herself and tacked everything together. Next she'll add the final border and do some soldering.

 

  

 

Susan R's Autumn Leaf is very close to being completely cut and ground.  She has really shown off her skills with this project along with her excellent color choices.  When it comes to making this leaf it's no walk in the park, but Susan is working both determinedly and steadily through its creation.

  

 

 

Bee's Dragonfly Window is really coming together nicely.  She's going to cut down the number of pieces in the wings and that will be fine because there ARE a lot of pieces in them and it IS possible to over do things.   If she uses a textured glass it will help with the illusion of them looking like actual dragonfly wings.

 

  

 

Mary Grace resumed the work on her small and somewhat delicate Nativity Scene which features a beveled stable whose roof sits perilously atop two small upright bevels. The hinge point that this creates is one of the worst I've ever seen so we needed to come up with a way to sturdy this structure. First we added some brass channel all around the stable which helped a lot but the addition of wire buried in the solder of the inside arch made this a sound as can be. Where there's a will there's a way.

 

  

 

Here's a look at the other four Dragonfly Spoons that Susan D is currently working on.  As you can see she's got these just about ready for solder.

  

  

Paula's Ironman head looks particularly masculine in all of that red and gold armor. She's doing another great job on this and it will certainly be completed before she comes back to class since it will be gifted to it's owner on Sunday. Paula says she'll send me a completed picture so I can share it here in our next post.

  

  

Linda L's got all of her glass cut, ground, and attached  for her Fractured Window which featured a square bevel in the center with the words "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much" inscribed on it.   She hopes to be soldering this while at home so who knows how far along this will be when Linda comes back in.

 

Even though Mary was unable to work on her Tiger Eye Window while at home she still managed to get it all ground while in class. She then began foiling each of her pieces and got pretty far on that as well. You may notice that there's a small piece missing along the top edge. We will fill that in after she's foiled everything and tacked this all together.

 

 

 

Lorrie is now extremely far along on her fleet of twelve Oil Wand Kaleidoscopes. She spent this class assembling the stands for the scopes and got eight of them completely assembled, soldered and washed and waxed. Next week she'll finish off the stands, insert all of her mirrors and work on the final eyepieces that will complete these.

 

  

 

Jan dropped in and picked up her pattern for a Sweet and Simple Heart panel that will be displayed on a small easel which will reside on a table rather than hanging in a window.   Glass choices are limited when making something that will have an easel or a wall behind it because you don't want to use anything too transparent to see through the window.  We'll see what Jan picks when she returns.

 

Forever persistently yours,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I Only Teach For The Prestige and Glamour

Keri's Round Dragonfly is everything I thought it would be.  This is the first time that she's done a considerable amount of tap-tapping on a project but she handled it like a complete professional.  Matching the round border to the small round eyes was a perfect move color wise.

 

 

 

  

Let's Christmas bird is downright adorable!  Look closely for the cute little wire feet that wrap around the Holly Berries and marvel at how much beauty is added to this piece by just attaching a few small pieces of wire.  Of course, those small pieces of wire are a complete pain in the @ss to attach but in the end they are well worth it by adding to the 'ohhh, ahhh' factor. 

  

 

Betty completed her latest Christmas Frog and rather than dealing with a three piece eyeball which has a lead line running across the center she's opted to simply put a drop of glass paint on the center of a yellow eye thus eliminating an unsightly lead line. Since the yellow that the paint was applied to is transparent, the pupil is visible from both sides of the suncatcher. Nice!

 

 

 

Sheri completed not one but two Grinch hands. I'm being lazy by only showing one of them because 1) they are identical and 2) because it saves me time during a time restricted week for me. Both of these Grinch hands will certainly find a new home almost as soon a Sheri hangs them and puts them up for sale.

 

 

 

It's official! Bust out the champaign because Judy has completed her last Cross (of the year)! She's excited to be moving on to something else although what that might be is currently unknown. She's got a little time to think about that though. 

 

  

Lorrie made this Dragonfly Suncatcher while at home and brought it in for hooks and a picture. Alas, the night was so busy that she never got to wash it so I could get a good picture of it but I think this shows it off well enough.

 

 

Julie had begun making this Hamsa Hand on her own before she even began taking classes with us. When she came into class she had all of the glass cut and about half of it ground. Best of all she'd done an incredible job all on her own and by the time she left class she had this completely ground and foiled as well. What started off as a suncatcher is going to end up becoming a window because Julie will be adding some background glass to this as well as a border.

  

 

  

Cindy has shifted to another project so that she could get this Cardinal on a Cross completed quickly. Since this is her first class working on it and she's already got the Cardinal itself all cut and ground I'd say that she's plowing ahead on this with fantastic speed and grace!

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace has begun a Beveled Manger Scene which was VERY problematic as the two pattern sheets that came with the bevels were from two different Manger scenes! Once we realized the mistake we were able to back up a bit, re-group and make adjustments but all of that DID cost time. Alas, this should be completed when Mary Grace returns. 

 

  

 

Bee is cutting background pieces for her Dragonfly Window and she's picked out a blue glass which will join and compliment the green as part of the background. Once this gets colored in more I suspect that many people's eyes will widen in shock at just how beautiful this design actually is. 

 

 

 

Lorrie got all twelve of her mirrors cut and assembled. Cutting these delicate mirrors into perfectly even 7/8" x 8" strips was a delicate maneuver so I used the strip cutter to cut them for her. It took three mirrors arranged in a unique pattern to form the reflecting tube so it took most of the night to get them together. Once that was done she got all of her pieces cut for the stand of her oil scope. I showed her how to assemble one of them and she's taken them home to grind, wrap and possibly assemble.

 

With the lid of her latest Wedding Box completed I'll make an educated guess that Cheryl will complete this project when she returns. She has a lot of traveling coming up but one more class should allow her to get the bottom built and then get the top hinged into position. 

 

 

 

Tracey is back and she's beginning her second coming with a Magnolia Window. She's done it before and figures that it will be a great way to get her feet wet again.

 

 

 

Susan R is so closed to finishing cutting her multi-pieces Autumn Leaf that she's already thinking about all of the 'fun' she'll have foiling all of these little pieces! I guess you can call that planning ahead?

 

 

Shelley resumed work on her Ballerina Hoop by cutting out the remainder of the glass that makes this. That means that Shelley will next be working at the grinder. She does have the legs cut but we're going to cut them to size after everything else has been tacked together so we can guarantee that everything will touch the hoop.

 

  

 

 

Martha has her Art Deco Lady all ground which means that it's ready to be foiled.  Her grinding has made her pieces fit as perfectly as the gloves that this glamorous woman is wearing.  I'm watching you! 

 

  

 

 

Mary's Tiger Eye Window got some of its pieces ground as Mary prepares to take this window over the goal post. She had taken it home with her but was unable to work on it because of an illness that even prevented her from showing up in class last week. Now that she's back on her feet again she going to be moving right along on this.

 

 

Linda L, as expected, got the background cut and ground which squared or 'rectangled' this oval design into a more standard window shape.   Getting the off-white colored border attached was a serious plus in getting this window completed quickly because this window is just about ready for solder!

 

 

 

Barbara has her second Mini Tulip Panel all cut, ground, tacked together and awaiting solder. She's got two more of these cut out so she will really be cranking these things out now! 

 

 

 

And MiMi got two more egg cartons worth of lamp pieces ground and is down to just three more cartons in the shop and another pair at home. She sees the lamp at the end of the tunnel and it's provided her with a boost of adrenalin to finish this show stopper. 

 

 

And that's what we have to show this week. We'll miss a post next week but we will return on the 24th with our regularly scheduled programming. It seems like a long time but this post was done VERY early this week.

 

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

You Can Lick This, Earl

Paula repaired her pair of Cardinals easily enough while she was at home during the week and brought it back in so I could get a finished picture of it.  It's certainly stunning and I as well as other students like the simple but effective way that we added the perfectly round glass eyes for the birds.

  

  

Let's Large Moth (or possibly Butterfly) is stunning and she only used 4 colors in it! She's used crepe green for the wings which is a VERY old glass that hasn't been made since the 90's. She balanced those wings with two tiny iridised flowers and a deep solid green border. Great colors all around.

 

  

 

 

Barbara put the finishing touches on her Tulip Suncatcher and decided that instead of bordering it with glass she would border it with the heavier zinc channel.  This is small enough that she doesn't need a border to hang it from and the thicker channel serves double duty as a border of sorts as well as giving Barbara a place to attach the chains which hang this.

 

 

 

 

Susan D finished off her four Christmas Ornaments and made quick work of them. I'm not sure what she'll be doing next but you'll discover that when we return next week.

 

 

 

 

Julie is our newest student and she's off to a fantastic start. In the entire cutting lesson that she received this week she didn't break a single piece of glass. That could explain why her Butterfly looks so wonderful!

Paula made her Batman and Superman Logos almost completely at home and she said that she had a lot of fun making the Batman logo.   She said that it was easy to do which tells me that she really understands how to finesse the glass as she's grinding it because keeping those pieces perfectly oval is not easy to do.  Then again, that Superman emblem is nothing to sneeze at either!

 

Sheri's Halloween Ghost is the perfect Suncatcher for Halloween and she's crafted it impeccably.  I can't find a single fault in this. 

Keri has begun working on a Circular Dragonfly that when completed always looks amazing. There won't be any background glass to cut in this as the circle of glass that acts as a border gives this suncatcher its strength and stability. She's moving quickly and efficiently through this project and it may even be finished as soon as next week!

 

 

  

 

 

Let began this cute little Bird suncatcher whose eye will be tacked on top of the glass. In the end it will look as though it were meticulously cut into the class with a rather daring thin placement, but it's all going to be an optical illusion.

 

  

 

 

Shelley's changed the pattern for her Ballerina Girl by enlarging it so that it can reside in a hoop which eliminates the need for background glass. We really wanted to omit any background glass because the only places we could place the cuts to make the pieces possible made it look as though the ballerina was a puppet with strings going upwards from her arms. This is a far, far more elegant solution.

 

  

 

 

Bee is already cutting glass for her Oval Dragonfly and has the small sectional pieces of the body cut as well as ground. That could very well be the most difficult part of this window so she can now take breath and relax throughout the rest of this project.

 

  

 

 

Cindy's Golfer Window comes even more alive this week as more and more of the course comes into view. There are just the pieces that make up the green now and knowing Cindy that won't take long at all.

 

  

 

 

Susan R has another large section of her Multi-colored Leaf cut and ground. She is literally flying through this complex Suncatcher and really impressing me.

 

 

 

Cheryl's got another Wedding Box under way and is opting to go with a simple yet elegant double border. At first she considered just one border but in the end she found that to be just a bit too plain.  This is the perfect solution. 

 

  

Paula also worked on her Iron Man Face and has picked a beautiful amber glass for the brass sections of Ironman's armor.   This is really going to stand out wonderfully against the red that will form the rest of his armor.

  

 

 

Martha got all of the glass cut for her Art Deco Woman and decided to go with an iridized white gown rather than a pure black dress. Although the black would have looked striking I have to say that I like Martha's decision to change it to White. The softer color blends in beautifully with all of the textured clears while having just enough sparkle to stand out.

 

  

 

Sheri is now giving up on Halloween and moving straight ahead into Christmas by beginning a pair of Grinch Hands complete with an ornament hanging from a chain between Mr. Grinch's fingers. Always appealing, these sell like hotcakes for Sheri !

 

  

 

Linda L has the inside oval section of her window all tacked together now and will 'rectangle' or square it off by adding four clear textured corner pieces that will then be surrounded by a border.  Linda has discovered that she'll need to re-cut two pieces of glass due to their being short but that is a small price to pay when you consider all of the time that she saved while grinding this.

  

 

Lorrie officially has all twelve of her Oil Scopes ready to have the mirrors inserted. These have all been touched up, washed and waxed and only require a clear glass view hole on the back of them but we can't solder those into place until the mirrors have been cut, taped together and inserted. This process could very well begin next week. 

 

 

  

Lastly, MiMi has emptied another two Egg Carton's worth of glass pieces and as she empties them she ceremoniously crunches up the carton and throws it away with a laugh and a victorious smile.    

 

So thanks everyone, we can wrap it up here!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks