My Pattern Paper Is Puckered

Martha's version of the Fancy Fleur De Lis has been set into a window with a clear seedy background glass and a multi-colored border that matches the Fleur De Lis. The end result is stunning even though the iridised glass barely photographed at all. When Martha came in all she had left to do on this was to color the lead with copper patina which didn't take long to do at all so she was also able to work on something else as well..

 

 

 

In the remaining time that Martha had during her class she was also able to knock out this cute Flowerpot Succulent that she made for her friend Paula.  Martha was thinking that she might have to add two more leaves along the top of the plant but I talked her into realizing that it's perfectly balanced as is.

 

  

 

 

Betty got a pair of new Crosses completed and these are identical right down to the iridised white glass that makes the cloth that drapes over the Crosses. Look closely and you can see the hints of pink, teal and even some yellow that shine within the white glass when the light hits it just right. 

 

 

 

 

Mary Grace has another Initialed Volley Ball completed and this one is brought to you by the letter 'C'.   Interestingly enough I decided to help Mary Grace by tacking the letter onto the ball and ended up tacking it on both backwards and upside down!  It's a good thing she noticed because I was simply going under the assumption that the smooth side of the glass was the front.  Unbeknownst to me Mary Grace had reversed the pieces so that the textured side would be forward as you can plainly see in the photo below.  

 

 

 

Now let's look at the newest projects that have been started this week.  We see that Linda L has begun work on three Standing 3D Easter Rabbits complete with a butterfly on each of their noses.  They are essentially cut ground and wrapped so we will see these begin to get soldered next week.

  

 

 

Kandise is nearing the halfway point on her Birds In A Row but the pressure of these little buggers with their myriad of tiny pieces is taking a hold. I've told her that it's fine to step back and work on something else but she thinks she wants to get to the center Cardinal before taking a small break from this. You've got to admit though that it IS indeed looking very good as well as colorful. And let's face it- there's certainly nothing wrong with her work at all!

 

  

 

 

Meanwhile on the other table Melissa is working on five birds of her own. Hers are much larger than Kandise's birds but Melissa's have a very intense background of flowers, leaves and branches that will surely put her to task.   Right now Melissa is having a great time working on this project and that's largely because she's in love with the pattern and that always adds extra fuel to the fire of creation.

 

 

 

After rearranging what pieces would be cut from what colors, Judy's Humming bird now looks more uniform and coherent. She had begun cutting it out using the 'color scheme' that a previous student did with hers but what Judy didn't realize was that the bird had previously been cut out of just one sheet of glass with different densities of the color running haphazardly throughout the bird. Here Judy used four different glasses for the Humming Bird and spread the colors evenly throughout which looks far better.

  

 

With the first of her pair of Mardi Gras Crowns all cut and ground Cindy is about ready to begin cutting out her second crown (which is a completely different pattern from the first one). The second crown is tiara-like with a lot of opened areas so I guess what she will end up with will be a His-and Her Crown Set. 

  

 

 

Bee has begun cutting glass for her LSU Tiger Eyes Window and she's working on the Tiger portion first. Interestingly enough, when she first walked in the door and set her glass down both Martha and I both wondered what she was cutting out of white glass. When we asked her she simply replied, "The white pieces" to which Martha and I both said, "But there are no white pieces in it". Bee then showed us a picture of a previously finished tiger and much to our surprise there ARE white pieces throughout the face. The moral of this story here is to never trust your memory if you are over 60 years of age!

 

  

 

 

Let fell in love with the Uniquely Shaped Cross Window that Barbara was making and decided that she was going to make one herself. Betty told her that she had made one in the past but that hers had a beveled cross in the center and brought in the pattern for Let to see. The beveled cross for this particular pattern is no longer being manufactured but Betty just happened to have a spare bevel set with her and ended up allowing Let to use it. With her background glass all cut out and the beveled cross tacked together Let is making amazing headway on this piece!

 

 

Zoe got her background sky glass cut out for her Duck Window and it all flows together perfectly since it was cut from one contiguous piece of glass. Having an unbroken pattern throughout the sky makes a window look so much better and when it is completed.   I'll show you how most people would make this window as opposed to how we make it here at Bayou Salé GlassWorks in our next post.

 

  

Lorrie has the front side of her Underwater Scene soldered and she also got the border attached.  Once that was finished we CAREFULLY flipped the window over (it's a two person job when you're dealing with a window this large) and Lorrie was able to begin soldering the back side.   There's a chance that she could complete the soldering on this when she comes back in but washing it and waxing it will definitely take some time and the washing will need to be done outdoors with a hose.  That said, I'm certain that we will see this completed in two weeks time.

 

  

 

 

The foiling on the pieces of June's Multi-colored Elephant is nearing its completion and from the looks of things a background glass will be added sooner rather than later.   I'm personally thinking that a clear textured glass will give the Elephant the spotlight it deserves but we'll see what June thinks when she come to that point of her window.

 

 

 

MiMi is grinding one tiny piece at a time for her lamp and is thrilled to be able to employ her stained glass clamp which is saving her fingers as well as her manicure! Everyone knows that grinding small pieces can be a pain but the little yellow 'pliers' that you see in the lower right of the pattern makes grinding tiny pieces so much easier because they completely grip the glass and give you something substantial to hold onto while exerting pressure against the grinding wheel. MiMi says that for this project they are a life saver!

  

 

 

With the missing pieces all filled in and her border now attached to her colorful Sunburst Window Jan is ready to begin soldering. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to soldering and Jan is going to solder this the same way that she did her last window. That means she won't be moving her iron back and forth but rather in a steady singular direction to ensure that she gets a nice solder line on top of all of her copper foil.

 

 

Sheri has all of her glass ground now for her Koi Fish Window save for a few pieces that were broken or skipped over. In our classes we simply skip these pesky missing pieces and assemble what we have to prevent things from sliding around. It also allows us to use the opening in the window as a pattern which makes filling in those pieces a lot easier.  Next week we will see some of this with foil on it!

  

 

 

And lastly, it's official-- all of the lettering for Cheryl's Harley-Davidson Window have been been cut and tacked together.  That leaves only border work and  four pieces of clear background glass left to go.  Since those are all easy cuts Cheryl will be having a much better time in class from here on out.

 

 

And that, my friends, is the last project to show you this week!  Well, I'll be jitterbugged- it's time to boogie!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Romance is Dead

Susan D's Texas Longhorn is something that we've never seen before. It started life as a 'hollow' 3D Wrought Iron wall hanging with wooden horns that sort of blended into the wall since it was open in the center. Susan perfectly copied the design measurements and then cut a tan/amber glass to follow the lines that the wrought iron formed. After soldering it together she mounted it behind the skull frame and now you can clearly see her wall decoration. Susan executed this perfectly.

 

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here: This gorgeous Rooster than Let finished was actually part of a larger design that she cropped down to size.  She eliminated a lot of background that extended the scene much farther to the right that didn't add anything to the Rooster itself.  By cutting down the elongated landscape Let has made the Rooster the sole focal point of the window.   What a great job and a great eye!

 

 

Up next we look at the largest circular section of Linda L's three piece Mickey Mouse Pool Decoration.  She's going to send me a picture of the finished project when each of the three pieces are mounted into the LARGE wrought iron frame that will sit pool side in her back yard.   I think the end effect is going to look wonderful and I can't wait to see it myself.

 

 

 

Annette was looking for some sort of a nursing pattern when she stumbled across this Stethoscope in our pattern drawers. She liked it but she previously had in mind a Caduceus. I told her that I could draw one up for her but rather than sitting around and wasting time while waiting for the pattern to be drawn she decided to begin this as well.  Now her Stethoscope has been completed she'll move on over to the Caduceus next.

 

 

 

 

Here we see that Mary Grace finished the first of her three Initialed Volley Balls.  Later on in this post you'll discover that she's well on her way to completing her third sports ball also.  I guess you can say that she's on a roll here!

 

  

 

 

Next we look at Cindy's version of the Fancy Fleur De Lis.  It's amazing how many different color variations you can  come up with on this considering that each of the previous versions were made with the same green, gold and purple color combination.  Stunning indeed.

 

  

 

 

Betty completed four more Petal Crosses although only two of them showed up on my camera. The other two are identical save for the color scheme and I have no clue why the pictures of them came out to be such a blurry mess. But this pair looks great, don't you agree?

 

  

 

Lorrie has been very busy while at home working on her Underwater Scene. The last time we saw this she had all of the fish cut, ground, and tacked together but that was it.  No that her water has been cut and tacked into position she brought her window in and got a border cut and ground for it.  She's taken those pieces home with her to foil so that it can be tacked onto her window next week after which she will flip it on over so she can solder the back side.

  

Susan D is working on a 3D Flower Basket but with a slight twist. Instead of making the basket out of one half circular piece she's cut it into numerous sections so that it resembles a woven pattern. She got everything cut out for this in just one class and is now ready to begin grinding.

  

Melissa has three of her birds cut out and is going to grind them and tack them together so that they don't shift all over while she's working on the leaves, branches, and background glass. In class this week she even managed to get one of the birds ground. I love her color choices and can't wait to see this completed.

  

 

Judy has begun a Humming Bird Window and already has the leaves and the flowers cut out. It's almost as if someone said, "Go" and she went off and running! But then again, it never takes Judy long to finish a window.

 

 

With the leaves cut for her Duck Window, Zoe is just about ready to tack this together so that she can cut her background sky glass from one fitted piece so that the grain of the glass flows perfectly across the sky. It's little things like that which really make a window stand out and you should be able to see what that looks like in our next post.

 

 

 

 

Sheri's pieces are coming together and the center of this Koi Fish Window is starting to form as she makes big advances while working at the grinder. There's not all that many pieces left to go on this and soon Sheri will have to think about what she's going to do for a border or possibly even a pair of borders.

 

 

 

Betty has more Crosses under way and has learned that hinge points don't have to travel left-to-right or top-to-bottom-- they can appear on a diagonal as well.  To combat that problem Betty has added a glass glob in the center of the crosses that she has on the right side of her work board.  Those small circular pieces prevent the hinge points from occurring as well as adding a bit of flair to each cross

 

 

 

Cheryl is quickly approaching the border stage of her Harley Davidson Window as the work on her lettering is nearing its end. I suspect that she'll be cutting borders for this the next time you see it.

 

 

 

 

With her second Monogrammed Sports ball finished Mary Grace has moved on over to a second version of the volleyball.   With the ball, cut ground, wrapped and it's front side soldered she'll surely begin work on the new initial when she comes back in.  Alas, you'll have to come back next week to see just what that initial will be.

 

 

 

With all of her main soldering completed on her Circular Cross Window Ann is so very close to finishing this off. In fact, the second side of this HAS been soldered and all she needs to do now are some minor touch ups and then this will be finished before you can say, 'next week'!

 

  

 

For some reason the 'pattern' like the one MiMi is working on is called a 'cartoon'. I only know that because the Worden Lamp instructions refer to them as such but I digress. MiMi is slowly but surely filling in all of the small, myriad pieces of her cartoon with glass. Once all of those pieces are covered MiMi will have the first third of her lamp ground.

 

  

 

 

June is wrapping away at her Elephant of Many Colors and not only is her grinding amazing, so is her foiling skills as well. She may say that she's going slowly but every piece of foil is perfectly aligned to each piece and that means her soldering will look even better than ever because the foil control how the solder lines look.

 

And to end thing up here we see that Martha's Fancy Fleur De Lis is all soldered and just awaiting touch ups and some hooks to finish it off.  I can guarantee that this will be among out completed pieces in our next post!

 

Just remember that although you may have reached the end here, Rock and Roll lives on!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Let Me Put That Out Of Its Misery For You

Lara finished all the work on her Louisiana Collage Window which features various scenes of life in Louisiana.  Her window features kayaking, sunshine, crabs, a tiger eyes, music, and magnolias.  The sum of all of this and more comes together wonderfully in her latest window.

 

 

 

This week we also got to see Bee's Dandelion Tribute hanging up all finished and looking pretty.   There's a lot of symbolism in this window and Bee managed to seamlessly fit it into a medium sized window.  Good job!

 

 

Judy's Carousal Horse Panel was completed and, as I suspected, it can easily be mistaken for the full sized version of this design. A carousel horse is a stained glass standard because it allows you to use color freely, and that's just what Judy did in this.

 

 

 

Lara also made this large Angel Winged heart which she will be donating. Her work on this was quick, and efficient with an incredible amount of precision thrown into the mix as well!

Annette very nearly completed this Nursing Stethoscope Window in the blink of an eye because it didn't exist at all last week and this week we see she has a nearly completed window! Annette surely puts in a lot of time while she's at home during the week and working alone like that always strengthens a students skills because it forces a person to figure out problems completely on their own.With just the back side to be soldered and some hooks to be added to this, I'd expect to see this completed next week.

 

Ann has all of her pieces ground for her Circular Cross Window and even got everything wrapped in copper foil before she called it a night.   She'll begin soldering this upon her return and before you know it this will be a finished project.

 

 

Cindy has completely soldered her Fancy Fleur De Lis and all this needs now is some touch ups, two hooks and a bath to finish it off.  Expect to see this in our next update!

 

 

 

Linda L's Mickey Mouse is very nearly completed as she is well under way into the soldering process of the final section that will fill her Mickey Mouse frame work. I can't wait to see all the pieces come together because it will put a new spin on the three pieces which also work wonderfully as stand alone windows.

 

 

 

Lorrie's Sugar Elephants are getting closer and closer to completion.   A good two thirds of this is already cut and ground.  That said I am expecting to see her Underwater Scene return to class since Lorrie told me that she's going to be ready for a border to be attached by the time her next class comes.

 

 

 

Mary Grace has assembled the letter 'G' for her Monogrammed Volleyball Suncatcher. She'll attach it to the ball when she returns, color it up and then begin on the 3rd of four different Monogrammed Sports Balls.

 

 

 

Martha is well underway on her version of the Fancy Fleur De Lis. Because hers is being made as a window Martha's had more pieces than the others that have been made and that are still under construction and as you can see she's made full use of the border by using alternating Mardi Gras colors throughout it. With the front side soldered I'm thinking that this may be completed upon her return.

  

Melissa is starting a rather impressive window that was somewhat inspired by L.C. Tiffany's Parrots Window. The birds and their placement may be completely different but the background of complex flowers and leaves gives this a Tiffany feel for sure. 

Here we see that Melissa has traced out her pattern and will begin cutting the glass out for this one bird and one flower at a time.

 

 

 

MiMi is grinding her tiny pieces and pinning them to the flat pattern of her lamp. It's important that not of the pieces extend beyond the lines or the lamp will not line up. The two pattern papers that you see below actually form just one third of the lamp.  Once everything has been ground on these two pattern papers MiMi will have to repeat the process two more times. 

 

 

 

Shelley's Cat Window is all tacked together and even got a border picked out and cut. The border color was a little problematic because she really wanted yellow glass but it just grabbed so much attention that she had to change her mind. She toned it down by picking light tan instead but that blended with the cat too much. Then we discovered this yellow/orange mix in the rack and we all agreed that it was purr-fect!

 

 

 

Susan D has begun to solder her Texas Longhorn and it's so very lose to being completed that I'm sure well see this among our completed windows next week. (This just in-- Susan has texted me a finished picture of her Longhorn but it's arrived a little to late to make this edition of the blog. Look for it next week.)

 

 

 

Cheryl is going to town on her Harley-Davidson Window and fast approaching the work that will be needed to be done on the (simplistic)borders.  Cheryl is impressing me with her skills with each passing week. 

And there you have it, Au revoir!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks