Susan D finished up her Stained Glass Hanging Planter which is also a functional hanging planter! That's right, if you look carefully you can see the clear glass tube that she's mounted in the center (at an angle) of this piece so that an actual plant can be placed inside of it. This piece is all about the wire work which makes up the stems of this decorative and useful piece. Susan did a great job on this for sure.
Here's a look at Susan's Planter in all of its glory hanging in her window. Note the real plant that lives within the almost invisible clear tube.
Kandise finished the soldering on her Birds On a Line about an hour into class and then washed and colored it. The end result is spectacular and there's no doubt about that. Made from essentially scrap glass this colorful flock of birds has to bring a smile to your face. The thing about this is that it consists of many, many small pieces and I commend Kandise for not putting it aside to take a break from all of those tiny pieces which I know must have been driving her crazy. Alas, in my opinion the worst part of making this is dealing with all of those small round eyes which all came out beautifully.
And here's a look at the window in which these are hanging from!
Let's first completed window of the week is the Mardi Gras Panel that she designed from a simple Mardi Gras Suncatcher. She added streamers to the left and right of the mask and then turned it into a panel by adding some background glass and two borders. After seeing it completed another one of our students has decided hat she wants to make one of these as well.
Let's second Panel of the week is her cute Dog Panel. She's gone all the way on this one by adding some decorative solder to the dog on the right and then topped it all off by adding Googly Eyes affixed to the dogs with an adhesive backing which really brings these dogs to 'life'.
MiMi took a slight break from her Lamp and instead worked on getting channel attached to her latest and biggest Hexagonal Window. When a friend saw all of MiMi's Cabinets she wanted to know if MiMi would make the same style of window for her. There was some hesitation about 'reopening old wounds' but MiMi still had more than a handful of hexagons) left over from her windows so she agreed to revisit the hexagonal window at a slow but steady pace Check out all of those straight lines which reveal how exact her cutting and grinding is.
Mary Grace finished her first Frame but what you can't see her is the stand assembly which resides on the back side of the frame and allows this to sit on a table rather than hang on a wall. We took a unique 3 piece approach to the stand which is far sturdier than other methods. The beauty of it is that even though Mary Grace used clear glass for the outside border you can only just barely see the stand through the frame even when viewed at an angle.
Paula finished the Cardinal Suncatcher that last week was only a pattern on paper in her hand. She used a nice textured red cathedral glass that helps give the bird some depth as well as color. Her soldering is fantastic and her tap-tapping around the edge perimeter of the Cardinal was perfection which proves that Paula hasn't lost her edge especially when it comes to precision.
Betty worked on and completed four more of her very popular Cat suncatchers s well as two more of her Daisy Suncatchers. The real work on these comes from straightening, tinning, and attaching the wires that form the stems on the Daisies and the whiskers of the cats. The stems aren't hard to attach but those thin little whiskers can be very problematic.
Ann got her second chicken all cut and ground and as you can see she is ready to foil these two fine birds. She's made quick work of these and they all look GRRRREAT! In fact, I believe that we'll see these soldered upon her return next week.
Cheryl made a last minute change to the design of the large Beveled Window that she began cutting glass for this week. By adding two more diamond bevels we've filled up some of the empty space that the original design still had. It also adds a few more lead lines this making the 'corner pieces' smaller, less susceptible to breaking, and even easier to cut.
Cindy is moving along quickly on her Personalized Baseball Window and this week we can see how the personalization looks now that the letters forming the name 'Janelle' have been fired onto the banner glass. She drew the letters onto the glass using a fine point marker and then filled them in using an enamel paint. Once the enamel dries you fire it in the kiln over night and end up with a name that will never come off of the glass or fade in the sunlight.
Judy has the front of her Humming Bird Window all soldered as well as half of the back side. Since she was able to foil her border and then solder her window this far in just one class I have no doubt that she will finish this upon her return since she will have an entire class to solder only half of the back of this. That's something that Judy can surely handle.
Lorrie got the front side of her Sugar Elephants Window soldered, added some channel and the flipped it over to begin soldering the back side. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that this will come back into the shop next week completely soldered and only needing hooks attached to finish it off. Yep, I'm calling it-- Lorrie will take this home as a finished piece next week!
Martha has begun soldering her Musical Notes Window and even got the front side completed. Since she doesn't want a border on this we will be using the heavier zinc channel to frame the window out. This give us room to drill holes into the channel which it will hang from. Normally we frown on not adding a border but this window has enough lead lines leading to the outer edges to firmly secure the heavier channel as well as supporting its weight. Why don't you see the channel in the picture? That's because zinc does NOT react well with the flux that is needed to solder her window. Since Martha will miss class next week we don't want to attach the Zinc until the window has been completely soldered so we can wash the flux off of it immediately.
MiMi still had a little time during class to grind a few more pieces of her lamp. Things are filling in nicely here!
June is ready to begin a new project that resembles the Multi-Colored Elephant window that she completed last week. this time around it will be a Cat built using another rainbow of colors. With her pattern pieces all cut out she will begin cutting glass upon her return.
And with that we're one step closer to Friday!
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks
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