Oct. 7th - After The Vacation

Patty's Red Oil Scope got finished this week. She's becoming a machine at making these now. Just scroll down one more picture and you'll see her yellow/orange one completed as well. And then when you get to the end of the blog you'll also see that she's got 2 more in the works with one of them pretty well soldered. Sheesh! lol


Here's a look at Patty's Yellow/Orange Oilscope. If I could think of something else to say about it I would but I think I covered it all in the description for the red one above.

Now Bonnie has actually completed a number of these Fleur De Lis' but I was unable to get finished pictures of them. (Which was completely my fault.) Therefore, this week we'll look at another one that she has ready to be soldered. It's one big Fleur De Lis production line for Bonnie and Brian and they're moving full steam ahead.


Suzy has her border and her channel attached to her window which means this is set to go. There's only some soldering left to do before we see this hanging up and winging it's way out the door. ("Winging its way", get it?)

Roxie has decided to put her 3 colored Fleur De Lis before the U and the L (which is the way I liked it best myself). She's got this halfway ground now and will be tacking it together when we see her again.


Wait, what are these? MORE oilscopes? Whoever could be making these? If you weren't reading from the beginning of this blog posting you'll never know...

Next week we have 4 finished projects to show you (which will be updated in the Blog tomorrow). These projects include 2 butterflies which means that we have 2 new students starting. Classes are filling up quickly and our space is limited in the shop. We're hoovering right around 14 students now so if you're thinking about coming into class I'd call soon because we're about to start a waiting list.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Sept. 23rd - Unfinished Business

Shira's completed her Fleur De Lis Window and without a doubt, it's a hit. We've seen this pattern take off and be used before she has even managed to complete it so you know a lot of people saw that this was going to be a great design even when it was still in pieces on the table.


Suzie was in this week and now has her background tacked on to her window. Next week she'll add a border to her window and be all set for solder. It looks like we'll see this one finished shortly thereafter.

Patty came in with her pieces wrapped in copper foil and then tacked and soldered the 2 oil kaleidoscopes together. She only needs to insert the mirrors and solder the end pieces on to finish these. She also cut the glass for the stands and took that home with her so they're be ready for assembly next week just in time to take them all home.

Bonnie's been hard at work on her Fleur De Lis. Her husband Brian was also in class this week and brought along a stained glass guitar that he made at home. It's unfortunate that I didn't have my camera with me to get a picture of his first project because it was really something to be proud of. Bonnie appears to be a good teacher! These are an old look at some of the windows that Bonnie is working on. As I said, I didn't have a camera this week to actually show you what she completed. :-(

And there's a new Fleur De Lis in town! It's smaller and much more complex than the one that Bonnie, Shira and Myrt is making. Roxie decided that she'd make this FDL to go either along side of, or in between the letters UL. Right now we're leaning toward the side but we'll know for sure next week when we can move things around and position them to see what things will look like.

And that was all we had for this week. We'll have a small set of classes next time around and then be back to standard operating procedure here at the studio.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Unfortunate News

It is with great regret that I pass along this information. Although many of our students have not met Monique they are familiar with the window she had been making last month. No project makes it out the door without the other students watching and marking its progress on a week by week basis. This is the way most of our students came to know Monique.

Sadly, Monique's husband has passed away after only 46 years of being with us. Though his time was brief he leaves in his place a wonderful, loving family who will never forget all that Glenn brought into their lives. Of this, his family, he can be quite proud.

Monique, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your children.

Paul and Russ

Sept 16th - Mouse Attack!

Here we go-- Bonnie's first (of many) completed Fleur De Lis window. She has a lot more in the pipeline in various states of completion so expect to be seeing a lot of these. They look great though, don't they?

And Terry has wrapped up all the work on her window. This one will be mounted against the existing glass so there isn't any need for hooks. Terry moved along quickly and efficiently on this window and she's planning on making at least one or two more projects down the line. I can't wait to see what she does next.


Myrt completed both of her cabinet doors. It's hard to take a picture of windows that involve clear glass because you can't see the glass at all. In this case we're seeing through to the grey table top which doesn't really allow you to see what these look like.

Roxie (a.k.a. the Cross Lady) is at it again. Here's a nice red cross made with a 1.5" bevel center. These things look easy enough but when push comes to shove they're a pain to grind. If they aren't symmetrical any mistakes stick out like a sore thumb. That makes grinding a crucial element in the construction of these crosses.

Suzy was back to work on her Caduceus window. It's all wrapped and tacked so she was able to cut the background easily enough and then grind it all to fit pretty quickly. They'll be a border to add to this and then a quick soldering job will finish it up.

Here's Janice's frog all cut out and ground. A lot of it is even wrapped already. As you can plainly see she's cut the leaves down from the top and the bottom. This will created enough room for us to put her grandson's name below the window.

Jane worked on her newest lamp-- she got all 90 pieces of her top grid work cut and ground. There are still a lot of pieces left to go before she can start taking this together but mark my words, it will get done.

Grace has started her newest project-- a New Orleans street scene. There are a LOT of pieces in this one but they're all easy cuts. And the charm of this window is not in the straight lines, but rather the imperfect lines that make it up. A little section at a time will go a LONG way to getting this window finished and I know Grace can do it.

And lastly we have a quick look at one of Bonnie's unbordered FDL windows. She and her husband have been hard at work cutting out backgrounds, grinding them and then tacking them all together. We'll be seeing finished versions of these for weeks to come I suspect!
That about does it for this post. See you all soon,

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Sept. 09 - Finished, Finished, Finished, Finished...

Wow, there are a LOT of completed projects this week. I was actually amazed when I saw how many there were in this post. So let's take a look and see what we have.

One of the big moments that everyone has been waiting for is to see Jane's latest lamp completed. And if you're reading this then you're in luck because this week we get to show it off. After making 3 of these lamps (or was it four?) Jane has decided to retire this pattern for a few months or more. She'll be making another lamp but her next one will have far more pieces than this one. You can't say she isn't adventurous!


Patty had her Sports De Lis window completed during her last class but it hadn't been washed or colored at that point in time. Now that it's cleaned up and ready to walk out the door we'll give you the full effect.

Not to be outdone, Grace finished up her Sports De Lis window on the same week. If it was a race to see who could complete their project faster I'd have to call this one a tie. There were very, very slight differences between the 2 patterns but nothing anyone would see unless they looked at the two of them under a magnifying glass. To make it harder to spot any differences I took one of the pictures from the back of the panel so we'd have mirror images rather than 2 of the exact same windows. Have fun trying to spot the differences (other than the obvious color changes).

Cheryl has completed her underwater scene and at almost 3 feet high it's a very impressive window. She's not sure what she'll be doing next but Christmas is almost upon us so gifts are probably going to become all the rage here in class. Maybe she needs to make some Oil Kaleidoscopes!

And speaking of Kaleidoscopes--We have not 1 but 2 (count 'em) Oil Scopes completed this week. Patty had decided to make one when she saw Roxie's 2 weeks ago. I'm positive that we'll be seeing more of these in Patty's future.


Suzy was another student to finish off an Oil Scope this week. All she had to do was insert the mirrors and then solder the end cap in place before she worked on the stand for this Scope. This is one of those projects absolutely needs a stand to finish it off. We make ours out of Glue Chip because it's cheap glass and it doesn't detract from the Kaleidoscope at all.

Here's a quick look inside Suzy's Oil-Scope. I took about 20 pictures but this was the only one that came out halfway decent. Regrettably, there's only a little color in this shot but trust me when I say that there's plenty to see when the scope is in action.

Now didn't I tell you that they'd be more Kaleidoscopes in Patty's future? She cut out these strips (a total of 14 pieces) just before she left class so she could take them home with her to wrap. Look for these to get assemble during Patty's next class.

Janice has started a new window and it doesn't involve Spectrum Tan or red glass. This Frog Window is for her grandson (Lakyn) and will match the one she did for her grand-daughter (Layla) back about 2 years ago. I realized after the fact that I didn't include the name "Lakyn" on the bottom of this one so I've readjusted the pattern and the change will show up in the next post. Luckily it was an easy fix.

Bonnie is now cutting backgrounds here in class and then wrapping like mad while she's at home. And she's a smart woman because now she's got her husband in on the act well. A family that does glass together.... Gee, I really don't know how to finish that one. At least I know it's not a bad thing! Look to see some of these windows completed real soon. (Note the #3 on her Fleur De Lis? That means that she has at least 3 sets of backgrounds cut out and ready for grinding.)

Meanwhile, Myrt has her coffee cup soldered together and set in the clear glass background. The only thing left to do on her Coffee Cup and the Coffee Pot panels is to solder them. And that means that we'll see these windows completed next week
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Terry isn't wasting any time either. Her geometric design has its background all cut, wrapped and is now ready for solder. That means that this is another window that will be completed next week as well. At this point in time you readers must think I'm a slave driver during the classes! (Well, I am! lol)

Everyone is moving really quickly and we have even more students lined up to start. Classes are really filling up quickly so check with us again soon to see what everyone starts next!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Sept. 02 - He's Climbin' In Your Windows!

Wellllllllll, obviously we have a finished window at Bayou Salé GlassWorks.

This is Michele's completed window and, yes, it's her first window. It took longer than 5 weeks to complete but not that much more and just look at this thing! The background gives this window a very traditional design and the Fleur De Lis make it say Louisiana in a subtle yet striking way.
Terry is almost all set here. All she needs to do is grind and wrap a few more pieces and then she can tack this together. Once that's done she'll cut the remaining 8 pieces that make up her background.


Myrt finished up her Coffee Pot and then cut, ground and wrapped her second center piece for her other cabinet door-- the Coffee Cup. The next step is to put these in clear glass and then solder them so we should be seeing these finished in no time now.

Jane's lamp is all tacked together. Not only is it tacked but the top half of it is soldered! When she came in she continued soldering and now there's only the bottom sections left to go. There's a slight problem with the cap which is about 1/16th of an inch too small to cover the opening on the top of the lamp in some sections. Rather than go with a much bigger cap that hides more of the glass we're going to wrap a wire around the bottom of the cap and solder the cap and the wire together seamlessly. No one will ever know that the wire is there and we won't see light coming out of the small gaps that are visible right now. It's a simple solution to a pesky problem.

Bonnie has been on a cutting and grinding frenzy here in class. I'm losing track of what she's been doing but I know her stack of Fleur De Lis windows is growing bigger and bigger each week. We're going to concentrate on getting some of these completed so she can get some money coming in rather than just shelling out money for these. :-)


And Patty's Sport's De Lis window is just about completed. She's soldering it now and she already has her mind set on making a few Oil Scope Kaleidoscopes after this. Aparently she really liked the one that Roxie completed last week. Look for the finished version of Patty's SDL window in our next post.

So you can run and tell that, homeboy!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks