It's a Party Not A Glass Class

Sheri has finished her Cocky Rooster Face (or is it a Hen?). Whichever, it looks wonderful! There's life in those eyes for sure. 

 

 

  

Keri may not trust bald men but she apparently has no problem with a skinless hand giving someone the bird. She's used hidden wire to support the middle finger and the thumb which were hinge joints that could make the fingers fold and the end result is insultingly sturdy. Even better news is that she's complete this in time for Halloween.

 

 

 

Martha's latest Beveled Cross and Rose shows how stunning just a few colors surrounded with a beautiful, sharp, clear texture can really shine. Of course the four bevels certainly add to the appeal.

 

 

Susan R has her Cardinal Suncatcher all ground and foiled which means that she'll solder this when she comes back in. Since this is a suncatcher that means that she'll definitely complete this upon her return.  

 

 

 

Bee has begun a three dimensional Flower Pot where all of the leaves will be attached with wire as an overlay. She's got her Flower Pot cut, ground, foiled and soldered which means that she'll be be working on her multitude of leaves when she comes back in.

 

 

 

 

Tracey's hopped on over to a Santa Face which she needs done quickly. That means that her frame is going to wait a bit before it's tacked together and soldered. If you know that you won't be able to complete a project in the near future the best thing to do is to not tack it together. If by chance you have already tacked it and you won't get to it for a few weeks then simply wash off the flux. And whatever you do, NEVER leave flux sitting on foil for more than a few hours as it should be washed off or covered with a thin coating of lead before the flux (which is an acid) has a chance to eat into the copper foil.

 

 

 

As you can see Linda F has two projects in the works.  The first being a Christmas Tree that she made from assorted colors of scrap glass which has all been cut out and the second being a Monogram Panel made with the letters SGD that she's making as a tribute piece.  She's already flying through both of these projects so it won't be long until we see the pair of these hanging up. 

 

 

 

 

Kandise began another Duck Suncatcher and in just one class she got it designed, cut out and ground. When she starts passing these out everyone will know who to turn to when they want a personalized duck suncatcher. BTW, this is Troll Duck!

 

 

 

Susan D has almost the entirety of her Pelican Window ground. This is a commissioned piece and I have no doubt the the person purchasing this will be very happy with it because the work is perfection from the color selection to the fitting.

 

 

 

 

Cindy's small Tissue Box Cover is beginning to take shape as she has two of the five panels that make this almost finished. She's already got them ground and has begun foiling glass.

 

 

 

 

 MiMi's got all of her second Celtic Knot Cross cut and is now fitting her pieces together.   It may look a bit of a jumble here but transporting un-ground pieces which are not fasted down can do that to a project.  Trust me when I say that this will goo together quickly  because MiMi's cutting is wonderful.

 

 

 

Catherine has completed the grinding portion of her Flower Window and has moved on to wrapping all of her pieces in copper foil.   She has one piece that has a chip in it but since the grain of her baroque glass all flows together perfectly she is going to tack her window together leaving a blank spot where the chipped glass is and then carefully position another piece of baroque glass so that the grain matches the rest of its surrounding pieces before cutting it. 

 

 

 

Let's Art Nouveau Window is all tacked together and is now ready for either one or two borders depending upon her mood! Bright and colorful, this is going to turn heads when it finds its home in a window with some light behind it.

 

 

 

 

I had told Elaine that the background for her Elle Window would be cut out in just one night but then she went and outdid herself by getting all of those pieces ground as well! No matter how you cut it, the hard part of making this window is over with!

 

 

 

Julie got her Curving Geometric Window all ground just as quickly as she managed o cut it out. Then she even managed to get a good portion of it foiled which still surprises me because foiling is actually one of the hardest things to learn. Julie, although somewhat new as a student, just sits down and foils quickly and more importantly, accurately. This may be ready to be tacked together when she returns.

 

 

 

Mary Grace is completely framing away her time in class with us. She's got just under a dozen of these to make so she's cutting Mardi Gras colored borders left, right, top and bottom over and over!

Sheri's making wonderful progress on her Art Nouveau Window and is almost ready to begin grinding all of these pieces for a perfect fit.  She's selecting colors as she cuts which is how I like to work.   Sheri is using a slightly darker color scheme for her window but that just means that you won't be able to truly appreciate the colors until this is up off the table.     

 

 

 

Also on MiMi's plate we see that after much hunting she's turned up both the mold and the pattern for her next lamp. She got the pattern strips attached to the mold and she will be ready to begin cutting glass as soon as she finishes her Peacock Feather Window and her Celtic Knot Cross.

Lara's rounded third base and is ready to slide on into home plate with her second Lily Window. I'm expecting this to be finished upon her return after which she'll begin on an Egret(?) Window that will reside between her two Lilies. Don't look too closely though or you'll see that I forgot to take a picture and and reposted her previous picture again!)

 

Martha brought in this unfinished window and will be adding a double border to it. with one border cut and ground the second one will be added to it after this first border is attached.

 

 

We'll end this post by simply saying that Lorrie is busy working on a surprise.  That said, you know it will be a good one!

And there ya have it!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

My Board's a Little Warped

MiMi's Circular Celtic Cross Window is just the first of a pair of these windows.   She has a lot of irons in the fire however and I'm suspecting that next week we'll see a Peacock Feather Window next rather than her second Celtic Cross.   I know that she already has the second Cross cut out but it's all about priorities and even though she's bouncing from one project to the next MiMi always exudes perfection.  Don't miss checking out the beautiful wooden base that this piece is mounted into which allows it to sit upright on any flat surface. 

Look at this adorable large suncatcher of a Flower Watering Can!  Susan R finished the Water Can itself three weeks ago and then went to work on cutting out all of the leaves that are over-laid onto it.  It took a while to get all of the wire twisted and then  place and tack the leaves into position so that they would all be sturdy but all of that time was well spent!

Now take a moment to check out Lorrie's wonderful Bee and Daisies Window! Made in record time without sacrificing any detail or accuracy, Lorrie has proved yet again that no window is a challenge for her.  You've gotta love the bee's wings which are accented with small wire work.

 

 

Paula's Foxglove Window is all about exacting detail. If there's even a sixteenth of an inch gap Paula will re-cut a piece without batting an eyelash. Colors are equally important to her and getting the correct glass for the leaves and stems for this set her back a week but she didn't want to compromise. The end result proves that if you are insisting of something in particular you should expect to extend some patience for it.

Bee wanted to make a Magnolia Window but just couldn't turn up a pattern that she liked so she went ahead and drew up her own design!  Not only that but she worked on this almost exclusively at home!  When I look at this I see a student who is fast mastering all aspects of making stained glass.

 

 

 

Kandise made this little Ducky Suncatcher and accented it with wire work in the form of a pair of heart shaped glasses. The eyes were made with decorative flat backed glass beads which were glued onto the head using Stone Glue which is like a superglue that also fills voids and dries completely clear without haze. It's also VERY permanent! Kandise knows that after making this Duck she'll be making a few more as upcoming presents for work!

 

 

 

Nettie's newest Nativity Scene is very similar to her last one but its size had almost doubled. The first one was entirely too small and she had to deal with some uncomfortably tiny pieces whereas this version just has small pieces in it. Both turned out lovely but I know she appreciated the larger sized pieces in this especially since her hand has been giving her so much trouble.

 

 

 

We got to see Tracey return again this week and she set to work on foiling all of the glass pieces for her Dragonfly Frame. With just some soldering left to go I have no doubt that this will be a finished project when she returns.

 

 

Catherine spend the night grinding away on her Three Flowers Window and it looks as though she'll begin foiling her pieces when she comes back in because her grinding is 98% completed now.   This window will get a double border but those take no time at all to make thanks to the strip cutter.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that this window is going to be easy to work on from this point on.

 

 

 

Susan R managed to cut out this adorable Cardinal Suncatcher after she finished up the work on her Flower Watering Can and it all happened in less than one class. She'll be grinding this when she comes back in and that isn't speculation-- it's a fact!

  

 

 

Julie finished cutting out all of the glass for her Curving Geometric Window and all I can say is that all of the painstaking work that she did on her last window has come to fruition on this piece. Her cutting is wonderful and because of that her grinding on this is going to go so very quickly. This is going to be a highlighted window before you know it.

 

 

Let's Art Nouveau design is certainly a colorful affair that she now has ground and foiled. All that's left to cut is her background pieces and to make fitting them into position easier she's tacked the rest of the window together to prevent anything from shifting.  That will make grinding ever so much easier.

 

  

Next up we take a look at the progress that Sheri has made on her version of the same Art Nouveau Window that Let is also making. The colors may be different but the design is still the same.  I love seeing two of the same windows being made together with two different color schemes.

 

 

Lastly, to wrap things up here, we see that Betty is going all out with her Silver Spoon Butterflies. They literally fly out of the door for her so she almost always has a half dozen or more in the works as seen in our picture.

 

  

 

Well now, congratulations! You've made it to the end!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It's Better To Be Safe Than Soggy

Yes, I know that this is VERY late but we should be back to normal as soon as the new update is posted on Monday.

We'll start things off with Betty's Circular Luna Moth.  The moth itself is made from three different colors (one brown and two different greens) while the outer moon-like circular section was made of an iridized pale yellow.  She then accented the moth with 4 glass nuggets to create a beautiful window dressing.

 

 

Cindy's colorful Snake is what she believes to be an acquired taste but if that's the case then I have acquired plenty of taste because I love this. Cindy enjoys working with small pieces and so in that respect this pattern was right up her alley.

 

  

Lorrie had her two new Cat Face Mirrors soldered and practically ready for hanging before she even walked in the door. The only thing this pur-fect pair of cats needed were some round hooks affixed to the back of their heads and then a bath and some wax.  In the end they looked like this.

Martha's Alligator Head says, "Don't mess with me".  The color that she picked for him is literally spot-on but that border is what ties it all up nicely.  All in all it's another job well done.

 

 

Kandise has finished her smaller version of the Treble Clef Heart Suncatcher in record time.   She even managed to get fairly far along into her next project which we'll see a little later on.
 

Nettie managed to get all of the front side of her large Teardrop Nativity Scene soldered as well as most of the back side.  Time was running short though she she simply covered all of the foil that she had fluxed so she could do a better job on the back side when she comes in again next week.  

 

  

Bee came in and tacked together the scenery center section of her Magnolia Window and then she learned the simple way to cut the border for a window whose subject extends beyond the squared off section of the picture. It only took a few minutes and then Bee walked out the door with her window in tow so that she can hopefully have it completed next week. (Spoiler alert- she gets it done!) 

 

  

Catherine has the center flower of her window ground and worked on cutting out the glass for the flowers that bookend the center flower. Once everything had been cut she began grinding all of her pieces. Her attention to detail already shines through in this before it's even completed! 

 

 

Cheryl finished all of the grinding on her window and has begun foiling each of the pieces to her Mardi Gras Pelican. With only the crown itself left to go I believe this window will be completed very quickly after she returns from her trip.

 

  

Cindy not only completed her colorful snake but also has another Heart/Cross in the works. She had believed that she was finished with these but when you make things in bulk you almost always end up with a few extra or a few short.

 

  

Elaine's Emme Window has all of the hard parts cut out leaving her with just a few large background pieces left to go and then a border. This is certainly taking shape and Elaine is working at a nice steady pace which insures that mistakes are few to none.

 

   

Here we see the second project that Kandise worked on this week.   This cute little duck is going to feature glasses (the kind that rest on your nose so that your eyes can see things clearer) that will be made from wire and then overlaid onto duck.  Just wait until you see it completed!

  

  

Keri's Skeleton Hand sure makes a Halloween statement! I have to admit that this one really speaks to me. Her use of iridized white glass rather than a solid plain white is the icing on the cake for what is sure to be a distinctive Halloween decoration. 

 

 

Lara has so much work done on her second Lily Window that I'm sure it will be completed when we see her again. She's already got one of the two Stamens assembled with enough wire left over to make a second.

 

 

 

Let is in the midst of making a beautiful Art Nouveau Window using all cathedral glasses. Her colors are bright and vibrant which brings this to life even when it has no light behind it.

 

  

Lorrie's Bee and Flowers Window is so very close to being completed. Before the border was cut out using the strip cutter Lorrie asked if she could use 2x2 bevels in the four corners. Had she inquired after the border was cut into strips the answer would have been a firm no, but knowing ahead of time that the corners would be beveled allowed us to cut the strips 2" wide so that everything lined up.

 

 

 

Martha is making a second Rose/Cross and is again using bevels to accentuate the cross.   It would appear as though a lot of our students are all getting requests to re-make items that they've done before.  That's nice way of saying that other people are really liking our students work!  

  

 

Mary Grace has another eight (or so) Picture Frames to make and as you can see she'll well under way on the first one here.

 

 

 

Take a look at the first of a pair of Celtic Knot Crosses that MiMi's is hard at work on. With the front side completely soldered MiMi has flipped this over where she'll begin soldering whens she comes back in. I'm 100% sure that this will be completed when she comes back in because this post is late and she's already been back in!  

 

 

 

Paula has the front of her Foxglove Window all soldered (an looking perfect if you ask me) which means that she's going to flip this over, solder the back side and then get it ready for hanging. I can't wait to see what this one looks like when it has some light behind it.

 

 

  

Sheri's got her own version of the Art Nouveau Window in the works and she's already well along into cutting her glass. She's picking colors as she goes along which is how I always work. I feel you get a better sense of how all of the colors weigh in doing things this way.

 

 

Susan D has all of her next window cut out and is now working on grinding her Pelican and Fish. It already looks as though it fits together which means that her cutting has been spot on and the actual grinding process will go quickly for her. This is a commissioned piece which means that Susan won't be taking any short cuts and that she'll be paying even more attention to detail that normal because it's her work on this project that will speak the most to the person that she's making it for-- And Susan takes a lot of pride in her work.

 

 

 

 

Here are the 26 leaves that Susan R has painstakingly tap-tapped around. There's so small that they burn your hand if you hold them with your fingers and if you use pliers to hold them they become difficult to maneuver. Even so, these are ready to be tacked onto their vines and then onto the stained glass Watering Can that Susan completed two weeks back.

 

With all of that said and done we'll be sure to  catch you on the flip side before you know it.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks