Out Of The Darkness Comes Light

Ann's latest Cross Window was ground inside of a metal framework which helped her to keep her circle as true as possible.  The Cross that was so difficult to see while this was lying on the work table is  readily apparent now that it has a little light behind it.  That's the beauty of stained glass- it comes alive in sunlight.   Ann has titled this piece 'Out Of The Darkness Comes Light' and I think that it's entirely apropos.

 

 
Linda L's Trio of 3D Easter Bunnies will each sit on a table top thanks to their Oval (egg-like) stands. As previously stated in our previous blog post, the butterflies are securely attached the the noses by means of a sturdy wire that is hidden along the edge of each rabbit's head along the back side. Stunning, sturdy, and most definitely Eastery-cute, these are wonderful decorations that Linda put together rather effortlessly.

  

 

 

When Let decides that she wants to make something she not only does it-- she does it quickly. After seeing Barbara's Cross with its uniquely shaped background Let knew that she would be making one for herself. And here we are about three weeks later looking at Let's finished Cross Window. This piece is all about achieving straight lines and as you can see that was easily attained.

 

 

 

Cindy's King and Queen Mardi Gras Crown Suncatchers look so much better in person that they do in this picture only because the iridised glass that she used wouldn't photograph at all. That said these are still stunning suncatchers that Cindy did marvelous work on!

 

 

Let also made this Teardrop Daisy Suncatcher this week which radiates Springtime warmth. The other thing about Let is that she not only works quickly, but accurately as well because she sacrifices no small detail for speed. Now that's what I call stained glass efficiency.

 

Wow, we haven't seen Annette for a while but this week she came in with her RN Window all cut, ground and wrapped. She wanted to be sure that everything looked good before tacking it together and I couldn't find a single flaw with it. This will surely get a border attached to it when she comes back in and then some solder.

 

 

 

As promised, we now get to see what colors Paula is using on her Hand Mirror this week. With the majority of work completed and only a few pieces left to grind I would think that it's a safe bet to say that this will be tacked together when she comes back in. The mirror itself will be cut after this is tacked together to avoid keeping flux on it any longer than necessary.

 

  

 

Martha has begun a Music Window with a bright rainbow color theme. she's gotten all of the background glass cut out this week and since she took her time cutting it practically fits together already! Next she'll cut out the black musical notes and this will really take form.  It looks like a melody to me!

  

 

 

Cindy got an order for a Corn on the Cob Tray and after choosing her yellow glass for the corn we all agreed that she didn't have to cut out the individual kernels because of the kernel-like texture in the glass.  Since the yellow is clear you can see where the cuts in the kernels would be but next week I will show you exactly what the glass looks like without the pattern behind it.  You will be shocked at just how perfectly it works in this application.

 

 

Lorrie started this Stack Of Books and Flowers suncatcher while at home and has it all ground already. She's also got a good deal of this foiled and it's looking downright lovely indeed!  Lorrie is another quick but efficient worker!

 

 

 

Judy has all of her Humming Bird Window ground and has now entered the foiling phase of this windows creation. Once everything here has been wrapped in copper foil she will tack things together and then work on cutting the back ground so that it fits together lickity split. 

 

 

 

Bee's Tiger is coming together nicely and is completely recognizable as her pieces become ground. As you can see she's working on this a half face at a time and the left side will soon gain an eyeball.  This is only one portion of a larger window which will include the letters LSU as well as the tiger face.

  

 

 

Mimi's Cartoon is filling up more and more with pieces as she polished off two more egg cartons (the 18 pack variety) of pieces.  MiMi says she couldn't begin to imagine grinding all of these small pieces if it weren't for her handy Morton Glass Grinding Pliers.  They are literally saving the skin on her  fingers! With over a thousand pieces in this lamp her sanity may be another story...

  

 

 

Kandise has all of her birds cut and ground save for a few drop off pieces scattered throughout. When she returns I will show her how to grind the holes for the eyes so that they line up perfectly. It's something that should never be done until everything has been fitted together or else you run the risk of the upper and lower portion of the eyes not lining up.

 

 

 

Susan D has her basket all ground, wrapped and tacked together and has laid out the leaves of her plant on top of the basket here. They will attach with some fancy wire work once everything has been completely soldered and it looks like that will happen soon enough.

 

 

Melissa's Tiffany Styled Birds come together more and more with each passing week.  Her colors are as impeccable as her grinding is and the entire window is going to come even more alive with color once the flowers and leaves are completed.

  

 

Mary Grace spent her time grinding away at her Cross Suncatcher and although it looks somewhat simple it's anything but that. All of those pieces come down to points that require delicate grinding or the shape will become distorted if the point is ground down too far. Since this certainly looks like a cross I think it's safe to say that Mary Grace succeeded with her grinding.

 

 

 

June picked out the perfect border for her Multi-colored Elephant Window and has begun wrapping each of the pieces. She'll be soldering this upon her return which I suspect will take up the majority of her next class.  That said though, this will be completed before you know it.

 

  

 

 

With all of the small thin borders assembled on the emblem portion of her Harley-Davidson logo, Cheryl has successfully accomplished the most difficult and tedious part of her window. When she comes back in she'll cut the clear glass corners for this and then get ready to add a simple final border (if she wants to).

  

And that's that.  I'd like to shout out a big thanks to everyone who participated this week.  Go on home now, I'll wrap it up from here.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It Takes Some Dedication and Devotion

It's been a long haul but a fun road traveled for Lorrie while she worked on her Underwater Scene.  The window is huge measuring a finished size of 38 x 29 which made it unwieldy to transport back and forth every week.  And that's why Lorrie made the majority of this by working at home.  Once it was all assembled she left it at the shop so she could solder it here.  We've also run some strongline through this to give it some added support because when a window looks this great you don't want it coming apart later on in time!

Martha made a second 3D Succulent Planter Piece but this one is a little bigger than the one she made last week. And you can correctly assume from that sentence that she's making one of these a week from start to finish.  And when I say one a week, I actually mean every three hours. And that's pretty darned great!

 

Susan D is hard at work on two different projects this week.   She's begun grinding the Fancy Hanging Flowerpot that she had cut out last week and is getting very far along on that.  She also has another of her 3D Humming Bird Flowerpot decorations well underway with all of the glass cut out as well.

 

 

 

Cindy began her Queen's Crown and this one is filled with complex twists and turns with plenty of spaces to give the design a very delicate air about it. She finished the King's Crown but I didn't get a picture of it but I should have that fixed next week.

 

 

Mary Grace has decided to take a break from Initialed Sports Balls and has set upon making a Fancy Cross this week. It's an elaborate pattern with many pieces coming to sharp points which will require some delicate yet thorough grinding. It may take a while but the end result will look incredible.

  

Judy resumed cutting the few remaining pieces of her Humming Bird Window and then slid on over to the grinder where she got all of the bird  ground.  She won't cut the background until all you see has been ground, foiled and tacked together.   She will cut her background from one piece of glass cut to the size of the inner scene of the window to efficiently utilize the amount of saved glass as compared to the amount of waste glass.

 

 

 

Kandise has decided to proceed with her Bird's On a Branch Window Hanging and is now only three birds away from having it almost entirely cut out. With the end being this near and it looking this good I believe that she's gotten a fresh burst of motivation to complete this so she can appreciate it in its entirety.  Also so that she can move along to something new with far less (and far bigger) pieces. 😊

  

 

 

Melissa continued with her Tiffany Birds Window and it's all coming together beautifully. She's carefully orchestrating not only the colors of glass that she's using but the color density and opaqueness of the glass so that everything matches and balances throughout.

  

 

 

Bee is cutting away on her tiger face and although it's hard to see at this point in time that isn't any fault of Bee's. This ALWAYS looks like a pile of assorted glass pieces before it's ground. That said, when it IS ground and foiled it completely reveals itself. Save for the eyes however because the face still has a 'blankness' about it until the eye's have their center pupils painted on them. That's when the tiger truly comes to life.

  

 

 

Linda L has all three of her Easter Bunnies put together and even soldered leaving only the three sets of the two piece stands left to go. The 3D Butterfly on the bunny's nose would certainly pull free due to its weight if it were only attached to the foil at the tip of its nose so to solve that structural problem we have added a 14 gauge wire along the top edge of the rabbit hidden on the back side. That wire gives the butterfly a VERY secure location to perch on while not being apparent at all. There's always a solution if you just think about the problem.

  

 

Let has two projects in the works with the first being her own version of the Beveled Cross Window. She got her border cut for it and will almost certainly return with it ready for some hooks to hang it by. She also started a wonderful teardrop shaped Flower Design as well. It looks like Let has found that there are more shapes than simple squares and rectangles that you can set your subject within. 

 

 

 

Cheryl is now working on the borders for her Harley-Davidson Window and I have to say that working on this difficult project has definitely helped her to hone her stained glass skills. Believe it or not, this complex window is nearing completion!

 

 

June finished the foiling on her Multi-colored Elephant and then picked a nice but unobtrusive glass for the background that will allow the elephant to stand out and be the sole focus of the window.

  

 

Shelley's nearly completed her Cat Tribute Window to Toots by getting her border and channel attached and then by soldering most of the first side of her window. This will surely be completed upon Shelley's return. 

 

Lastly, Paula is back! It's been more than a few years but the thing I remember most about Paula (aside from her smile and incredible personality) is that her work was always top tier. This week she decided to start a Flower Hand Mirror and next week we will see what colors she's decided to make it in.

 

Shall we call an end to this post here? There's nothing else left to show so alrighty then!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

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