Normally When I Get Shot in My Dreams...

Let has completed her Double Humming Bird Window and I have to say her work just keeps getting better and better.  Apparently I had my flash on when I took the picture because this really doesn't show how nicely the colors contrast with the clear textured glass that surrounds everything.  My bad, but it still looks GREAT! 

 

 

 

Susan R finished up all of the work on her LSU Plaque and then decided to color the lead black rather than copper. It was a bold choice but everyone in class agreed that it was the best choice. The white background glass that Susan used is almost always a perfect fit with black patina and this was no exception. 

 

 

Mary Grace got another frame finished this week and it's safe to say that she's definitely on a roll with these.

 

 

 

 

Betty has three more Cardinals finished but I only took a picture of two of them because, well, they're all identical due to Betty's artistical prowess.

 

Susan D managed to foil all of the background pieces that she cut last week and then after tacking them together she was also able to get the remaining pieces of the background drawn out onto glass and then separated.   She still has a bit of cutting to do but by and large the hardest part of this window is now thoroughly behind her.

 

 

 

Paula's GTO is all tacked together and she's taken some white enamel home with her to paint the G T O letters onto a piece of black glass so it can be fired in the kiln and then cut into the front of the car.  Be sure to check out those hubcaps when you enlarge this image-- the wire work that she's employed to define each of the pieces is incredible!

 

 

  

Zoe's Mary and Child Suncatcher was foiled and tacked together this week which means that Zoe only has a little bit of soldering to go before she completes this.

 

  

 

 

Linda now has her Beveled Christmas Tree Window all soldered which means that she's going to be ready to add some channel and then some hooks to hang this from when she comes back in.   After that we'll get to see what she's be working on next, but not until she finishes this off.

 

 

 

Linda F has her final Christmas Ornament (of this batch) all ground and ready to be foiled.  This is another project that I believe we'll see this completed upon her return.

  

 

 

Let's Luna Moth is just about ready for foiling. She still needs to cut out the background but that's only seven pieces of glass which I'm certain that Let will handle while she's at home during the week.  The end is near here.

 

 

 

Bee has all of her Peacock cut out and has decided to make it into a window after all. Her colors are off the chart in such a wonderful way. I've always wanted to make a peacock out of ambers, golds and yellows but wow, Bee's fiery color scheme make this peacock almost Phoenix like.

 

  

 

Shelley Cats will also surely be completed upon her return now that she has the front side soldered as well as most of the back side.   There's a little whisker wire work to do on this but that will go by quickly enough.

  

 

Things are filling in here and before you know it Annette is going to have people in the bleachers of the stadium behind her roaring tiger.  She said that she wants to put a special border around this so I'm sure that she will put at least a double border on it.   That said, we'll play around with ideas and see if we can't come up with something to possibly tip the border towards unusual but stunning.

 

 

 

June's Multi Colored Cat has more multi colored pieces cut out this week. She's steadily filling this in week by week.   Everyone is commenting throughout all the glasses about how wonderful the eyes are and I agree.

  

 

 

Melissa was having trouble cutting her background glass at first but now she's flying through it at an amazing rate of speed. She's almost got everything filled in already so a border is on the fast approaching horizon!!

 

  

 

 

Judy's got another two more Crosses cut and ground which means that she could very well have these completed when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Cindy has all of one of her Circular Flowers completely cut out and then spend time on getting a second one up to the same progress point. It won't be long until we see these as a completed pair. 

 

 

 

Martha's beach scene was THIS close to getting a border cut for it. The only thing that prevented the border from being cut was time. It's officially safe to say that all of the hard work is being her now that everything in the scene itself has been tacked together.

 

  

 

 

Cheryl's got most of her Mr. Bingle Panel cut out and will surely finish the few remaining pieces when she returns.   Once they are cut she'll move on over to the grinder to make things fit together in perfect unison.

 

As you can tell by the numbers in the picture, Kandise has flipped her window over and is well on the way to finishing up the soldering on the back side of it.  Let's face it, Kandise is going to need to come up with a new project next week!

  

 

 

Sheri is working on a pair of Rose Suncatchers and she only has to cut the green leaves for the yellow rose before she can begin to grind these pieces to form a lovely pair.

 

  

 

And here's a look at how far Mary Grace is along on her next Mardi Gras themed Frame.  A final border is next to come.

 

And that's what we call a wrap!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

I have a Sick Sense About This

We're going to start things off by taking a much better and much closer look at one of the Oil Kaleidoscopes that Lara made complete with the stand that displays it both safely and prominently.   Most people look at these and say, "What is it?" while wrinkling their noses slightly UNTIL they look through it and see it in action.  Then it's all wonder and amazement!

 

 

Here's a look at what you see when you look through Lara's scope.   [Insert you own ooh's and ahhs here.] 

  

 

Sheri completed her pair of Butterfly Hearts and made her own hooks for them.  I like to use wire somewhere in the 14 gauge area but there is no right or wrong here.  In fact, the wire that she used here was somewhat smaller than normal but still able to hold the suncatcher without the weight of it distorting the hooks into a non-circular shape. 

 

 

 

Let finished her Ice Cube in a Drink Suncatcher and it's as cute as can be. It kind of makes me thirsty for an adult beverage!

 

 

Linda F finished up all but one of her Christmas Ornament Suncatchers. Although they were each made in assorted colors you can easily see that they are from the same set due to the common colors that Linda used throughout the lot of them.

 

 

 

  

Judy wrapped up three Crosses this week and I overheard her say that she has five(!) more to go. She's going to be able to make these in her sleep when she's through with them all.

 

Lara was busy at home making her three layer Turtle In The Sea Diorama. Two different water lines are featured- one behind the turtle and the other in front to give make this truly three dimensional. And the best part is not only the exquisite work that she did on it but the fact that she designed and drew it up all by herself!

 

Betty finished 2 more Frogs one of which is shown here. She's become the queen of Suncatchers of that there's no denying.

 

  

With all of her flowers and humming birds tacked together Susan D has begun the complex task of cutting out her background glass.   Since she's using clear glue chip she was able to place the sheet of glass on top of her pattern and then position the flowers and birds on top of the glass to trace around them.  The tricky part is separating everything without cutting through any of the 'good' pieces.    Since this window is fairly large Susan is going to need a second sheet of glue chip to finish it off but she's going to have to grind, wrap and tack everything here before she can cut into that second piece of glass. 

  

 

 

Betty also worked on three more of her best selling Cardinal Suncatchers sans the holly leaves which change these from a seasonal item to an all-year-round suncatcher.

 

 

 

Cindy finished grinding her first Circular Flower and then moved on over to grinding the second one of the pair that she's working on. It won't be long now.

 

 

 

Kandise foiled and then tacked together the number section of her Address Window. Once that was done she tacked the number section to the flower section to create one large window which she then cut a border for using a second hue of green glass. She has one side of the border foiled and has taken the other three sides home to foil there. She'll surely be soldering this when she comes back in.

 

 

 

Zoe's Mary and Child Suncatcher made incredible progress this week as she finished cutting out her pieces and then effortlessly ground everything for a perfect fit. She's taken this home with her where she hopes to foil everything so she can hopefully begin soldering this upon her return to class.

 

 

 

Annette's getting closer and closer to adding a border to her LSU Tiger Window. She cut the claws of the tiger out of black iridized glass but isn't thrilled with how it looks so she's going to re-cut them out of a non iridized piece of glass next week. When you are this close to finishing a window of this magnitude you don't settle for okay at the very end of the road!

 

  

 

Keri finished the foiling on her Praying Mantis Window and then tacked it together. Once that was done she set upon cutting out her background glass for which she picked regular every day window glass. Because it's so hard to see I've made sure to catch the reflection of the fluorescent Lights in the glass so you can see that there actually is glass cut out for her background. Next up Keri will work on the border.

 

 

Cheryl has begun working on a new Mr Bingle window which features her friendly flying snowman in a New Orleans Streetcar.

 

Ann is ready to foil. The beauty to this fractured design is that if it doesn't follow the pattern perfectly it really doesn't matter-- you can be off on a lot of pieces with this design and no one will ever be the wiser. That said, Ann DID follow the pattern perfectly!

  

  

Let's Double Humming Bird Window has its front side soldered and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that she comes in with the back side soldered next week so it can gain hooks and its rightful place as a completed window.   It really does look good even if the heart that the birds form isn't painfully apparent.  That said, it looks 100 times better than the original idea that she first showed to me.

  

 

Martha's Beach Scene is winding up as the only thing left to do is to grind one more piece of water and then work on fitting in the beach chairs that she's already cut out of yellow glass. The chairs will perfectly contrast against the sand and the bit of water that it cuts into. The pieces that make up the chair are small but it's that detail which will bring this window to life.

 

  

Melissa is steadily filling in the pieces of her Tiffany Birds Window and is alternating between two types of fractures and streamers glass throughout it. She has some with only green fractures and another with green and pink fractures. The pieces nearer the bottom of the window and nearest to the flowers will feature some pink while other pieces will only have green. Add into that some pure clear textures pieces for contrast and you are going to have one beautiful window.

 

 

Bee has some of the most perfect fits in her Peacock Window that I've seen in a while. She says that she wants this to be colorful and to not just disappear into the sea of all of the other Peacocks that she's seen done here in our classes. I like her color choices so far and can't wait to see what she plans to do to spruce this up even more.

  

 

Sheri is about to start this Rose Suncatcher and you can even see the sheet of green glass that she'll be using to make this.   

 

Well, stiffen the wombats because we're done here!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Because It's Effortlessly Incidental

With her Beveled Window 100% completed Cheryl is able to breath a sigh of relief. The problem with working on windows this large (3' x 3') is that if you break a piece of glass it's a major undertaking to re-cut it. The bigger the piece the harder they fall! Alas, Cheryl impressed me all throughout making this and I'm sure it's going to look wonderful when it's installed.

 

Betty got four of her Frogs finished and by now they are hanging in a window looking for a new owner. She's really getting the hang of making these so expect to see more them in various colors and poses our next post as well.

Lara has her three Oil Wands completed but they still need some stands to display them properly. Luckily, the stands go together faster than borders on a window do (which is VERY fast if you are a new reader here). I'm going to save the big reveal for next week so you can see one of these as they are supposed to be presented rather than lying on their sides.  

 

 

Bee's Peacock is moving along nicely even as she works out a color scheme for all of those feathers.  There's no right and there's no wrong-- There's only what looks pleasing to Bee's eye.  That said, it looks as though she's done all of the hardest cuts first leaving the easy ones for last which is the way that I like to work!

  

 

Linda L has dipped into her assorted Bevel Cluster Collection and pulled out a Green Beveled Christmas Tree which she's quickly turning into a window. She's thinking about a red border but wasn't entirely sold on the red glass that she brought in to class so she's going to see what else she has at home and make the big decision when she comes back in next week. 

 

 

 

Sheri's begun work on a pair of Butterfly Heart Suncatchers and is just three pieces away from being ready to grind. She has her glass double stacked so although this picture looks as though there's just one suncatcher there are actually two of them here.

 

  

 

Cindy's Circular Flower Window is quickly nearing completion as she cuts and grinds her way towards the finish line.  I'll be honest and tell you that I don't know if she plans on putting a border on this or not but I will have the answer to that question ready for you in our next post when we also see just how much more work Cindy has completed on this.

 

 

 

It's all coming together now as Ann carefully grinds her background pieces. She's close to foiling and I won't be surprised if she doesn't have all of this background all ground and fitting together when we see this again.

 

 

Well Kandise certainly didn't waste any time with the number portion of her Address Window. She came in, traced the pattern pieces onto her glass, cut it all out and then ground everything as well! All that in the span of just 3 short hours! Amazing!

 

  

 

 

Again, Martha continues to impress with her speed and accuracy on this window. It's been a lot of work but you can already easily see just how impressive it will be when it's completed. Right now the dolphin near the center of the window is just 'hanging' there but I believe it may be surrounded by water when you see this again.

 

  

 

 

Keri's Praying Mantis is all ground and ready for foiling. She's really moving quickly through this window even though it isn't what I would call an easy project by any means. It already looks stunning and her color choices are perfection.

 

 

 

Shelley's Cats have a border now and she's getting ready to solder this trio of felines. There's even going to be some wire whisker work and some googly eyes added before she officially finishes this off!

 

  

 

 

Melissa's background is filling in piece by piece and when she held a large section of the window up she was greeted with nothing but Ohhh's and Ahhh's from everyone in the class!   The fractures and Streamers glass really sets the tone for this piece and I can't wait to see it completed.

 

  

 

 

June's Multi-colored cat looks cuter and cuter with each passing week. She's going out of her way to pick bright, vibrant colors and it's certainly paying off. Stained glass is all about color and this is an excellent design to make as vivacious as possible.

  

 

 

Let's humming Birds have not only taken shape but they've taken flight as well. She's decided to make this a window and did that by adding just nine background pieces. When picking a border color she decided to go with a double border so the thin yellow border that draws similarity from the flowers center will be followed by a second border when she returns.

 

  

 

With just the claws and the inside of the mouth left to cut this LSU window is shaping up nicely! I think I have an idea of how to get people in the bleachers and I'll run that by Annette next week and then (if she likes it) show it to you as well!

 

  

 

With a second Cross cut, ground and foiled it looks as though Judy will be soldering these and taking them home next week. She still has at least one more of these to make so don't think that these are the last of Judy's colorful Crosses.

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace will surely complete this Frame when she comes back in next week and then she'll resume work on the fourth Frame hidden in the picture below.  Finding it is a little hard because it's clear glass with just a small piece of yellow on each side, but it IS there is you look hard enough.

 

With the front side of her LSU Panel soldered there is no doubt whatsoever that Susan R will complete this upon her return. Not only that, she'll begin something new as well!

 

 

 

So there ya have it- Consider yourself informed!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks