Paula is the first of two people who are making Blue Roses. This is absolutely stunning and as always Paula made the majority of it while she was at home between classes. She would come in with questions and do time intensive steps while in class (foiling, grinding etc.) but she's basically on her own throughout the cutting and soldering processes which is wonderful because as you can see her work is exemplary.
Susan R put the finishing touches (the soldering) on her Four Birds On a Branch and then added some wire work to accent her pretty birds all in a row. This is the perfect size for the pattern itself with pieces that aren't what you would call small but certainly not large either. The end result is what you see below and I know Susan was very happy with it as was I.
Linda L was kinda sorta in between projects and decided to make this Flower Pot Ornament. In just one class she began and finished it after having drawn out the pattern while she was at home. The flower center is actually a a depression style bowl that when sitting on a table is about 3 inches high. That makes this a three dimensional piece! The stake is a piece of zinc channel that has been soldered along the inside channel section to make it sturdier but if there's any hint of 'wilting' Linda can always run a length of steel rod from Lowe's or Home Depot inside the hollow of the zinc.
Cindy finished her two Hearts Within Hearts Suncatchers and don't you agree that they look great? She's made quick work of these cute Hearts Nettie was busy making 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornaments at home and brought them all in to see how they get soldered together to make that 3D angle to the wings and how to hide the seam with a stylish Butterfly Body. Two of her flock where completed and leaving about 4 more left to go, some of which will be completed next week. If they look anything like this pair then Nettie is going to end up with beautiful set of Butterflies. (And I have to admit that I DO know that all look as good as these.)
Nettie was busy making 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornaments at home and brought them all in to see how they get soldered together to make that 3D angle to the wings and how to hide the seam with a stylish Butterfly Body. Two of her flock where completed and leaving about 4 more left to go, some of which will be completed next week. If they look anything like this pair then Nettie is going to end up with beautiful set of Butterflies. (And I have to admit that I DO know that all look as good as these.)
Betty finished her three Dimension Bee Lawn Ornament and learned how to curve her pieces as she tacks them together. The body of the Bee is curved along its horizontal axis while the wings curve vertically. Hopefully the second picture of the Bee will help illustrate this.
Sheri began a Love Heart and only has a few pieces (four) left to go before she begins foiling and then soldering this. Once it's foiled you will easily see the word 'Love' within the heart because all of the cuts will become more apparent.
Susan R has already begun a new USA Star Panel which she hopes will incorporate a beveled star. We've ordered the bevels but the sizing is hard to account for since we aren't exactly sure how the star is measured. Hopefully it's the overall height / width of the Star which sounds logical, but when the description says that it's made of five diamond bevels you just don't know for sure.
Julie came in and filled in the few missing leaves on the right side of her Heron Window and then cut out the remaining pieces of the Heron itself (save for the beak). This window is taking shape quickly and it's going to be spectacular. And keep in mind that Julie is our newest student because you'd never suspect that judging by her work on this!
MiMi has begun soldering the inside of her lamp and is moving steadily to cover the foil with lead while not making a full bead. The inside of the lamp only needs to be neatly tacked to prevent the lamp from sagging. This also helps keep the weight of the lamp down to a minimum. It won't be long now.
Let filled in the lighter green sections of her Oval Flower and is officially soldering this attractive Panel. These irregular shaped windows are popping up everywhere on the internet and Let's Window will soon join those beautiful windows next week for sure.
Mary has all of her Sunflower Window cut and ground! In fact, Mary got the center all tacked together and then picked out the perfect glass for the border of this magnificent window. All Mary has to do is foil these border pieces after which she'll begin soldering. I can't wait to see this one hanging up because it might just be Mary's Tour De Force. When this is finished and hanging up Mary says that she'll be doing windows with larger and fewer pieces in them but I don't believe that at all!
June spent her night grinding the smaller pieces that make up the tail of her Seahorse Window. Her grinding is exceptional because as you can see, she's clearly mastered the art of grinding.
Martha's Butterfly got all of its accent nuggets cut into place which you'd think would go quickly but since each of the pieces that surround the nuggets had to be ground out rather than cut out the process takes much longer than initially thought. Now that it's done Martha will tack this together and then get her background cut.
Tracey's Circular Magnolia was wrapped and is all set to be tacked together. The tacking process will take less than 15 minutes to accomplish and then Tracey will pick out a border which we will get cut and ground quickly and efficiently. It's safe to say that this lovely window is drawing to a close!
Kandise foiled all of the remaining pieces of her Circular Magnolia Window and began soldering it. The two big differences between the Circular Magnolias that Kandise and Tracey are making is that this one wont get a border around it and the flower actually extends beyond the circular background of her window. This means that we won't be putting a zinc channel around this but the lack of a border and a channel with give the overall window a 'softer' effect. Look to see this completed when Kandise comes back in.
Cheryl got all of her Buffalo Bills Helmet tacked together and then worked on picking out a border. In the end she decided to use a double border with a thin red inner border followed by thicker blue pieces. Both colors perfectly match the Buffalo Bills logo on the side of the Helmet.
Betty would have had a second Bee finished this week but just as she was finishing it we discovered a crack in the upper left wing. We removed the piece and Betty will fill that in and show us her completed Bee in our next post.
Barbara not only ground her last two large background pieces of glass but cut, ground and foiled the border as well. She's already got her border tacked onto the window and the channel applied to the edges which means that she's soldering!
And Lorrie got her final border attached to her Flowers and Humming Birds Window, finished soldering the front side and then flipped it over to begin soldering the back side. She plan on finishing the soldering while at home throughout the week so she can bring it in and get the zinc channel attached as soon as she walks in the door so she can wash and color it before class is over. I wish I could show you a picture of it but I forgot to take one. At least you''ll see the completed window when we return next week!
Lastly, Jan was in and has begun working on a birthday present window that we can't post here for fear of ruining the surprise. Oh well.
I'm at a loss for words here,
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks
