August 26th - The End Is Not Near, It's Here!

Well, we've reached the day that Janice might at one time have thought would never come. She's completed all of her 14 windows and has walked out the door with the last one. We've already heard reports of people knowing where she lives because they've seen her windows on the 2nd floor of her house. It's kinda hard to pass without noticing --especially when it's dark outside and the lights are on in the house. I'm proud to say that Janice stuck it out and finished these because a lot of people would have stopped halfway through the project and said that only the front windows needed stained glass. Janice did them all and the results will now last her a lifetime.

Roxie came in on Thursday night and finished her Oil Kaleidoscope. I may be mistaken but I think this is the first time one of these have been made in class. All I know is that it's a big hit with the students as we'll be seeing many more of these in the weeks to come. Sadly, it doesn't look like much just sitting there on its stand but when you hold it up to the light and see it in action your eyeballs just about pop out of your head.

Here are 2 views of a look inside the scope. Imagine images like these continuously twisting and morphing into and out of each another like mini explosions of color-- That's what the Oil Scope is all about. And it's never the same view twice.


Terry came in to her second class with a pattern of her own design. This is going to fit directly into a window rather than be hung in front of it so the overall appearance is that of a built in look. This is Terry's first project and therefore it's her first time really doing this own her own and just look how far she's come in just three hours of class time! Impressive.

And Myrt isn't sitting around twiddling her thumbs either. She came in, explained what she wanted to do, and provided a drawing of what she had hoped to make. A few minutes later we had this drawing of a coffee pot for one of her two cabinet windows. The other window will feature a steaming cup of coffee. But that one is for next week. Also, we'll see a common thread in these windows to subtly link them together.

Bonnie has been cutting and cutting away but this week she spent a lot of time at the grinder fine tuning all of those pieces so that things fit together perfectly. She's taken all the glass that she ground home with her to wrap so that when she returns next week she'll be tacking them together and then cutting the background glass. She's not moving slowly at all- she's just making so many of these that I've honestly lost count of them all!

With her clear background cut and her border now firmly attached to her Sports De Lis Window Grace needs to just add a brass channel edge and then solder this window to finish it up. Soldering doesn't scare Grace (of course neither does any other part of making a window) so this will be out the door shortly.


It seems like I've been doing nothing but working on Blogs but I still have a way to go before we catch up. Almost all of the pictures have been sorted, adjusted, cropped and resized so hopefully I'll be up to 1 post a day soon.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

August 19 - Who Made What?

I'll be the first to admit that it's been a while and I have no idea which butterfly is Terry's and which one is Myrt's anymore. I did know at the time but that was a few weeks ago and my mind isn't what it used to be. So here's my guess with a 50/50 shot of getting the owners correct.

So then, we had 2 new students join us this week and we all know the drill when that happens: A glass cutting lesson followed by a butterfly. This is the butterfly that Terry made (if she didn't make this one then it's Myrts) Nonetheless, Terry had no problems at all in her first class and I know she'll take to this easily.

Hopefully this is the butterfly that Myrt made. Like Terry, Myrt showed a natural ability to cut glass so these both turned out perfectly regardless of who made which one. Look for bigger and better things from Myrt and Terry in the weeks to come.


Identifying student projects doesn't get any easier with our next two projects. Both Suzy and Roxie decided to make Oil Wand Kaleidoscopes and they both decided to make them out of the same glass. So, once again, I have no clue which one belongs to whom. In the end I suppose it doesn't really matter since they're both identical. This is the one that Suzy is working on:

And the one below is (maybe?) the one that Roxie is making. All the hard work was completed on these during this class. All that's left to do is install the mirrors, cap off the end with 2 solder lines and then make stands for them. These aren't standard Kaleidoscopes because instead of a wheel that must be spun to see the effect, a clear tube filled with oil and glitter is mounted on the front of these. All you have to do is watch as the glitter slowly descends down the length of the tube in front of the mirrors to make the kaleidoscope effect. We'll get a look at still images of what it shows in our next post.

Janice is SO close to completion on her last window. The borders are attached and the front is soldered. That means that this will be completed next week (I know this for a fact) and Janice will be FREE of her year long project!

Grace has all of her Sports De Lis center together and has drawn out a pattern to cut the background glass. She's picked a nice unevenly textured clear that will give the window an old feel to it. This is coming out nicely.


Cheryl has attached the border to her window and I fixed the piece that I broke when I was was moving it to her car the other week (hey, what can I say, I'm only human). With everything soldered the only thing left to do is add the zinc channel to this and then wash it and color it.

Bonnie has been unbelievably busy making her Fleur De Lis windows. She has 4 more cut out this week: 2 in amber and 2 in purple. All four are stacked up on top of each other here but you get the general idea of how busy she's been! She'll be grinding some of these as well as cutting some more out next week.

Make sure you come back for our next post when we'll see a finished kaleidoscope and take one last look at Janice's final window.

Paul
Bayou Salé Glassworks

August 12th - A Liquid Gold Spill

We're on a roll now, 2 posts in 2 days and I have the pictures edited for another post and ready for uploading. Soon enough we'll be all caught up again!

Roxie completed her 2 LSU windows. When she first saw the pattern she thought it would be extremely easy but upon its execution she's decided that making all those straight lines line up is a b_tch! But as you can see she not only did it but she did it with precision and everything lines up beautifully.


Lisa finished soldering her windows and got as far as coloring one of them before she called it a night. Since it was dark out I took this first picture in the shop with a white backdrop. I told her That I'd color the last window for her during the week. All the real work was already done by Lisa-- all that was left was the cleanup. Here is her first window:

And I must confess that by washing and coloring Lisa's window the next day I had the privilege of taking a picture of it hanging in the window in the daylight. Now you can really get a good look at Lisa's window.

Suzie cut the scepter portion of her window and then spent time on the grinder making sure everything fit together. When that was over with she started wrapping her glass and even got the wings tacked together.

This is Patty's SDL window. Now that it has its background cut out I can easily tell the differenc between Patty's window and Graces.

And here we see Grace's Sports De lis window is all ground and mostly wrapped.About the only thing left for her to do are the antlers before we can cut out the background glass.

Jane has made MAJOR progress on her lamp today-- we got all the sections put together and then tacked on the cap so she can solder this one at home.

Janice is ready to attach her border. She got it all cut before the class ended so this means that she's officially cut the last piece of glass for this series of windows that she's making. It's been a long time but she's just about through with it now.
The front side of Michele's window is completed save for 3 small pieces of accent glass that she needs to place in the center stems. Once that's done and the zinc channel is added she'll be able to flip this over and finish it!
It comes to my attention that I may be missing a picture here or there during the ext few posts. Rest assured that no project will be completely forgotten but my mind is a bit of a blank while going through the weekly folders of pictures. And that explains the lack of detail in these posts. I just can't remember what happened!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

August 05 - Seeing Double

The first week of August brought another completed window, this time from Bonnie. We had difficulty picking a border but in the end all those rejected choices brought us to this decision: Make a thin border and then make a second border in the same color of the background. And as you can see by her completed window it worked.

Michele got all of her background cut and wrapped. That means that she'll be tacking her window together and then adding the final border to it. She'll be soldering this one soon.

Meanwhile, Lisa got all her soldering completed on her first window and then started on her second one. These will be finished next week without a doubt.

Roxie is also doing a pair of windows. She has one all almost completely tacked together and she's taking the other home to wrap so she can begin soldering in her next class.

Patty's Sports De Lis window is really taking shape here. She has it tacked together and will fill in her missing pieces and her background when she returns.

Look, it's another Sports De Lis window! Grace has half of hers ground now the rack on the deer is the hardest section of this window so she may be grinding a lot next week.

And Janice is just moving right along with her final window. She only needs a few pieces in her background which will then lead to the final border. As I said, she moves quickly on these windows!

That about wraps things up. Look for another post shortly.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

July 29th - A Fishy Situation

Welcome to our Blog where once again we're behind by a number of weeks (months! in fact.) The windows we'd been working on tied us up in ways I can't begin to describe and although there were times when I thought that canceling classes might be a good idea we stuck it out and did what we always do: manage. Now we're ready to play catch up on here again. The following postings will be brief and to the point but you'll get to see what transpired each week and how far along each project progressed. So without further ado...

Monique completed her fish window! The eyes are actually solder blobs held in place with a thin (but sturdy) wire that attaches it to the nearest lead line. Monique did a wonderful job and we've missed her here in class since she finished her window. Hello Monique!


Mary Lynn came back in to fix a broken piece of glass in the border of one of her windows. While she was here she cleaned all 4 of her windows and re-patina'ed them and re-waxed them as well. If you've forgotten what they look like or are new to reading the Blog since she made them you're in luck because I took pictures of them again. :-)


In one of our last class Blogs we had a special tribute to Suzie who just had a birthday. It's been so long since we've updated this that her birthday may be coming up yet again! Actually, this was the week that Suzie started making her latest window, a Caduceus. She's only one week into this and she has her snakes and wings cut out. Way to go!


Shira has her window tacked together and added her border which is ready to be wrapped and tacked. About the only left to do to this is solder it.


Roxie is making 2 LSU windows. It may not be the fanciest window but it's a very distinguished looking pattern. When the border gets attached I can guarantee that you'll ohh and ahh over it. :-)

If I'm not mistaken this is Patty's Sports Le Fleur window. Hers is a tad bit smaller than Graces but aside from size the patterns are the same. I really can't wait to see this completed because I think all the work in dealing with these tiny, thin pieces is going to come through in spades and make this a VERY nice window. (Oh who am I kidding? I've seen the windows completed and they ARE exceptional!)

Michele completed the background for the right side of her window. It's not very obvious in the thumbnail here but if you click on it you'll easily see how nice the background glass is.


Meanwhile Lisa managed to get her borders attached to both of her windows. That means that once we attach the brass channel to these next week (which will take all of 20 minutes) she'll be set to solder. These are almost done!


Janice is on her last window. That's right, she can see the light at the end of the tunnel! And since the center is all wrapped and tacked that means that this window is well under way. It won't be long before this is completed and Janice moves on to different windows!


Here's Grace's version of the Sports De Lis (hereafter known as the SDL). She's got the white trim all traced out and ready to be cut next week.


This is Cheryl's Turtle window and it's been so long I don't recall what she did to it this week! Looking back I can see now that she had soldered it during this particular week. All that's left for this one is a border and then the soldering of the back side. I'd call this window just about completed.

And lastly we have Bonnie's window. It was in pieces the last time we saw it but this week she came in with it all wrapped so we tacked it together, cut the 8 pieces that make up her background and then spend a good half-hour trying to find the perfect border glass for it. She tried everything and nothing really looked great. Some of the colors we looked at were Okay but nothing really stood out. Then we decided that a double border was in order for this window. A thin iridized white border which would then be framed with a larger border of the background glass. And as you can see, it was exactly what the window needed. She's taking the final border home with her to wrap and will begin soldering this next week.

That will do it for this installment. We'll be back again tomorrow with another update.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Mission Accomplished

Back in May we met with Ken Dugas and his daughter, Mary Lee who were looking to donate 2 windows to St. Jules Catholic Church in Franklin, LA. It had been about 5 years since they began looking for someone to help realize this labor of love for their God and their parents without finding anyone they felt comfortable with in handling this task. Shortly after our meeting we were honored with the request to help them fulfill their dream. We drew up the patterns and at the end of June they came back to approve the full sized drawings and to pick out the glass we would use to make their windows.

The idea of having a window made came from Ken's Wife, Doris. Before she had passed away she requested that a window be constructed in memory of her parents and Ken's parents. The inscription on this one would be easy:

In Memory Of
Tanos & Adele Joseph
Rebert & Adele Dugas

Ken had decided that he wanted a second window in recognition of his wife (Mary's mother). The original inscription was going to read,

In Memory Of
Ken and Doris Dugas

But after some thought Ken decided that it should be changed since the text could be interpreted that Doris and Ken had both passed on. After some deliberation the text was changed to,

'Jesus I Trust in You'
Ken & Doris Dugas

Work began on the windows shortly after the 4th of July and Mary and Ken were updated with photos of the progress. We were hoping to install the windows between the 20th and the 24th of September which afforded us little time. We hit a few snags along the way and during the last week we had issues with the flashed glass we had originally chose to inscribe the text into but on the night of the 23rd of September the windows were complete.

The next day we arrived at St. Jules and spent approximately 4 hours installing them. When we stepped back and saw them in place we were able to really see the windows as a finished piece rather than hundreds of pieces of glass assembled and laid out on a table. To say that we were pleased with the outcome is an understatement.

The next day Mary picked up her father and took him to the church so they could look at the windows together. Mary told us that they loved them and that they spend equal amounts of time laughing and crying at what they had managed to accomplish for the church. Ken made the comment that his work here was complete now that his wife's request had been fulfilled.

On Sunday Ken went to church with his grand daughter so she could see the windows with him for the first time during Mass. At the time no one knew that it would be the only Mass that Ken would attend where he could look upward and see the windows that he had helped create.

Sadly, during the following week, Ken passed away. Knowing that he was able to see a dream of his accomplished puts a smile on our faces here but the smile does nothing to cover the tears in our eyes. Ken Dugas left a mark in the world and in the church he loved so much.

Thank you Ken and Mary for the pleasure of knowing the two of you.

Paul and Russ
Bayou Sale GlassWorks

In further fulfillment of Doris Dugas' wish to have stained glass in her church, we have been informed that all of the remaining windows in her church have been commissioned to be filled with stained glass.

Kennedy J. Dugas, Sr.