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

All-Purpose Paul

Susan D's hard work both at home and in the shop has certainly paid off in spades because her three foot tall Humming Birds and Flowers Window is an impressive work of art. She's done the lion's share of work on this at home on her own and even when she worked in the shop she avoids having any help at all. When a problem rears its head she takes a step back, assesses the situation and then forms a plan to rectify the issue. This is a window that she can be very proud of since she not only made it on her own but designed it as well! Stunning! 

Lorrie completed this Peacock Panel last week but I've avoiding showing pictures of it as she made it because she was making it as a surprise for someone that looks at this Blog from time to time.  People are going to assume  that this is a large window but truth be told it measures in at a demure 11 x 14 inches in size!   That's a lot of detail for just a little bit of space but Lorrie handled it with ease.  This is another stunning window.

 

Shelley's Trio of Cats are ready for their place in a window with some actual sunlight behind them. They certainly look great with just LED lights lighting them up as you can see in the picture here. I can't wait to see what Shelley decides to make next.

  

 

Let completed her seven inch Round Butterfly Suncatcher this week. What impressed me the most is that the tiny 1/8 of an inch head is clearly visible, certainly round, and not covered in lead at all!

  

 

Sheri's first large Rose Suncatcher was completed and, as always, she's done a beautiful job on it. She's perhaps a tad slower right now but only a tad and I commend her for her resilience and her determination to strive for only the very best!

  

 

Paula's Butterfly Suncatcher is now ready to be hung in a window so everyone can see it. Beautiful work all around makes this Butterfly a pastel beauty.

 

    

Let was so busy that she also completing a second New Age Cross Suncatcher. Dare I say that you can feel the tranquility wash on over you as you view it. 

  

  

Mary Grace has another Frame completed which means that she will begin a new one when she comes back in.

  

 

Kerri started working on a Sun/Moon Box which will be novel since it won't be rectangular. The curved ends will be matched with a box bottom that will also curve. Alas, we won't see how that comes together until the top has been 100 percent completed.

 

   

 

Lara is not only working steadily on Honeycombs but has begun a new African Woman Window as well. The glass that she chose for her skin tone is phenomenal and the colors of the clothing will surely contrast stunningly against the dark, rich skin tone.

   

 

Lorrie has a Whale Shark under construction as well as a 12 different Oil Wand Kaleidoscopes! Her glass strips for the bodies of the scopes are all cut and she will be assembling these soon. Once they're done she'll get to mass produce all of the stands for them as well! 

  

 

 

Linda L has begun cutting out all of the triangular pieces for her fractured background and before she started cutting she said that she would slow things down a bit and be sure to cut off every line of each piece. In just one class she's gotten about half of her window cut (which is great progress in its own right) and the 'extra' time she's taken to ensure that she cuts inside the lines is paying off incredibly because it already looks as though it's been ground! When it comes time to actually grind all she's going to have to do is sim her pieces for a perfect fit. That's when she won't only make up 'lost' time but gain some as well!

  

 

Cindy is just about ready to cut out the background pieces for her latest large Circular Flowers Suncatcher. Whenever I call a window a 'flower' design you can bet that I'm unsure as to what kind of a flower it is. It's not due to bad workmanship on the student's part but rather my ignorance of flowers!

 

 

Martha's Flower Window (just kidding, I know these are Sunflowers!) is moving right along but we are going to make a change to the pattern after Martha has all of her pieces completely ground. We're going to add much heavier stems which will be cut out of green grass so the flowers don't appear to be balancing on tiny stems that look like pieces of string!

 

  

 

 

Annette has her borders attached and will begin soldering her LSU window when she comes back next week! It's been a long haul but you can already see just how stunning this will be after it's been washed and waxed.

 

 

Judy has her newest  Cross design tacked together which means that she'll be finishing this up upon her return next week. 

  

 

MiMi is now wrapping her pieces in copper foil piece by piece. There are a lot of pieces but she's moving steady and is on a straight and narrow great course.

   

 

Susan D has extra Humming Birds and flowers from the window that she completed (see the top of this post). Why does she have extra? It's because she's a perfectionist who believed that the colors were a little off for use in the window. However, as solo suncatchers they will be nothing short of perfect so she's assembling them, soldering them and then hanging them as beautiful suncatchers in their own right. 

  

 

 

Bee has her Peacock all soldered but we need to do a bit of touching up before she washes and colors it. Rest assured that this will be completed before the end of her next class.

  

 

 

June's Multi-colored Cat Window gains new colors with each and every passing week. Those eyes are clearly the coup de gras of the piece though.

 

   

 

Melissa has her Tiffany Birds Window all soldered and will wash and color this upon her return.  This has been an amazing journey for her and it's paying off handsomely.  Look too see this completed in our next post!

 

 

 

Cheryl hasn't completed grinding the inside of her Street Car window because the shear number of pieces in it have her pieces shifting around and making life difficult for her. By wrapping and tacking everything that she's already ground and fitted into place she won't have to be concerned about anything shifting when she resumes grinding again.

 

  

 

There is that!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks