The Party That Never Was

Anyone want a cupcake? We had a plate of 6 cupcakes for everyone attending class Thursday night to celebrate Sonia's birthday but Sonia got sick so Russ and Paul did some MAJOR damage to the stash of cupcakes (Bonnie didn't have any-- What will power!) We ending up going home with only 6 cupcakes in tow. We really hope that Sonia had a great Birthday because we sure enjoyed her cupcakes!

Peewee came into class expecting to solder his window and when I saw what he'd accomplished on his first side I knew that he'd be taking this home with him before the class was over. This window is a nice combination of colors and textures which means that there wasn't any chance that this would come out looking anything but great.


Pam's been busy while she's at home. She came in with this suncatcher all put together with everything but a final soldering. We looked it over and then finished soldering it so she could hang it up when she gets home. She has her next project started and you'll see how quickly she's moving on that one a few entries down.
Two down and 1 to go. That's what Terry was thinking when she left class knowing that her second window in her set of 3 was completed. After making her last project Terry wanted to be sure to use some glass with color in it and she's succeeded. The pattern is her own design and it really flows nicely. And her soldering is among the best of all our students. I only had to touch up a few joints on this before it was washed, colored and photographed. Terry's soldering is superb and I really want to make sure she knows it.

This is the last of Terry's windows before she moves on to something new. It's all tacked together and she'll be soldering this at home.

Susan wanted to make a Daisy box and it's coming together nicely. With the flower cut and wrapped she only has about 8 pieces left to go before she finishes the top of this box. The current plan is to go with a clear background and then a solid color for the border and the box sides.

Pam had finished her Butterfly and Flower suncatcher and moved along to her next project which is this duck window. The head still has to be cut but the lions share of work on this project is done. I think she's going with a granite back root beer glass for the final border. A very nice panel indeed.

When Janice came in she was hoping to put a border on her window but the glass was out of stock so she moved on to her 3rd window. I'll be the first to admit that we're making these patterns up on the fly so what we did was laid out a piece of paper the size of her background, place the flowers and leaves where we thought they looked best and then traced around them. After making the flowing vines that connect everything we added grain lines flowing horizontally on each pattern piece and then cut the pattern up. Here's what she had about a half an hour into the class.


And before Janice left she had all of her background for her third window cut out and most of it ground. Even I was impressed at how quickly she's moving on this! Next she just has to wrap and tack it all together. I hope that border glass gets here soon!


Dianne filled in the few missing pieces to her window and then set upon getting her border cut and attached. By the time she left she was all set to begin soldering. She'll be returning from vacation in a week or 2 so we're going to have to wait a bit to see the first side of this soldered. Since I find soldering to be relaxing I hope this rest of this window is nice and easy for her.

And speaking of roosters, here is Bonnie's Rooster window. You can see a similarity between the 2 windows in subject only as the interpretations are completely different. I love the little barn on the hill. Adding the door and hay loft in the barn created more work but as I always say, the extra work you put into a window always pays off in the end.


Here's Cindy's front door insert all cut, ground and ready to be foiled. I suspect we'll see this one tacked together real soon. She also has most of her other window ground but she left that one at home. Cindy always has to be doing something with stained glass so while this one is stuck here in the shop (it's too big to be transported weekly) she works on a second window at home.


And Anita has begun soldering her LSU window. With the border now in place I'll bet that this one is finished next week. Anita already has about 4 other patterns picked out and lined up to start on so I doubt she's want to spend too much time on this window now that it's so close to being completed.

It's hard to see the fancy trim that Myrt cut and ground for her Fleur De Lis window because the glass matches the pattern paper but of you look closely (or click on the picture to make it bigger) you'll see that she got a lot accomplished this week. She's taken the pieces home to wrap so that means she'll be cutting background glass when we see her return.

Can you believe I did it again? Fran took her Duck window and left before I managed to get a picture of it. This week, well, look out because I'm going to be snapping pictures of Fran's Ducks every 5 minutes! Rather than repost the same picture 3 times in a row I'll simply tell you that they really look great and the window is taking shape nicely.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Spot The Difference!

We're going to start off this entry with a look at Susan's first stained glass window. She picked a Fleur De Lis pattern and added a double border which, if you have the extra space, makes any window a lot more interesting to look at. Her border and Fleur De Lis were cut from 2 different textures of a very rich looking root-beer glass. At the end of the class she walked out the door with was this beautiful window. And I have to say that her soldering was almost perfect which is not an easy feat for a first timer!


When Roxie forgot to bring the letters she had wrapped the week before she decided to make something quick and simple. This Beveled Charm Chain seemed to be the ideal project since she had some spare bevels in her bag of tricks. Last week we saw her bead the bevels, and tin all the copper wire that she would then wrap around a length of tubing to make circles which she then cut and twisted into various wire decorations. This week she randomly soldered the wire and some glass globs to the bevels and ended up with this great Charm Chain.


Forgive the picture quality here but Roxie also made this stand alone beveled suncatcher when we all decided that it added too much length to her Charm Chain. On it's own it's a wonderful gift for any window where sun comes through.

Myrt completed her Grape/Wine and Cheese window this week and while it was sitting there waiting to be cleaned Russ looked at it and said, "There's a problem with this window." I can't believe I didn't spot it myself. Can you see the problem? It's corrected in the second photo so you can play the old "find the differences in these 2 photos" game. I'll give you a hint, it's not the color of the glass. Those differences exist only because the two photo's were taken at different times during the day.
Well, the problem is that the right wine glass in the top photo is both in front of the wine bottle and behind it at the same time! It would appear that when I drew the pattern I erased the wrong hidden line. It certainly was easier to do it the first way but easier is not always correct. Either way you look at it this is a really nice window that has received a lot of compliments since Myrt started it.

Next up we have a look at Terry's 2 windows. As you can see, the top one just needs the border to be attached and then a bit of soldering that Terry will undoubtedly do at home.

The second picture is the wider center piece without the background or top and bottom borders. While I was working on the photo of this last week I felt as though something was missing. After pondering it for a while I decided that Terry needed another row of tan trim bordering the center oval of the design. And when Terry came in this week she told me that she thought something was missing as well! I told her that I'd been thinking the same thing and when I showed her what I'd do to fix it she agreed. Here it is with the added row of tan surrounding the center oval. And now, it's perfect.


Sonia left her class with her Peacock all cut out. It looks like it's going to light up really nicely (although that's hard to tell from the photo). Sonia will be grinding this when she comes back in and then when it's tacked together she'll add the 5 pieces of background glass and then decide what colors to use for her elaborate border.


Sadly, the glass for Janice's border had not arrived so she did some soldering on her window this week. At least her time wasn't wasted. Borders go on quickly and when her glass does come in this window will be completed rather quickly.

Fran came in with her ducks all wrapped but she needed to add a row of white trim on the feathers. She tacked together what she had cut and foiled and then we filled in the missing pieces with white glass giving her the 2 perfect ducks that you don't see below because I didn't get to snap a picture of them before they flew out the door with Fran. :-( Instead you'll have to look at her ducks from last week once again.

Cindy worked on her front door insert and hit a slight snag. Unfortunately we were unable to turn up another piece of the main color she was using so she found another sheet that was similar and is now replacing the pieces she cut. She started cutting this Hummingbird Flower window out while she was at home this week and when she left class she had the background glass all cut and ready to be ground into place.

Bonnie P. wanted to do a rooster window for her kitchen but she wanted a specific Rooster with specific colors. So we drew it out, found a nice farm painting online and put the two together to make this pattern. I was thoroughly impressed when Bonnie got all of her Rooster cut out in one class. And as you can see it's fitting together nicely before it's even touched the grinder! I suspect that with the hardest part of this being completed we'll see it all cut out next week.

Anita's LSU Window is coming out nicely. She has the tiger eye sitting on top of the letters and as you can see she has it all just about cut out now. In fact, the eye is all done and ready to be foiled. I suspect she'll be ready for a border when we see her next week and then it will just need some soldering.

Grace is BACK! And since Grace doesn't like to do things the easy way she's making this detailed Medical Window. The rhythm section is cut and ground so she's moving along on the hard parts first. This is shaping up to be a real eye catcher when it's completed.

It certainly was a busy week for classes with a lot of projects started. And it doesn't look like anything is going to be slowing down any time soon.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

♪ ♫ Just Bead It, Bead it! No one likes to be defeated! ♫ ♪

Anita's Heron or Egret window (take your pick) is completed. I'd say a good 90% of the work on this was done at her home in between classes. It cost her soldering iron its life (which went out with a POP!) but the end results are wonderful. I like the way her border picks up a color from the center of the window.

Terry finished the first section of her 3 piece window and it all went together perfectly. Terry isn't afraid to design her own projects and this is another example of her handiness with a pencil and paper as well as with a glass cutter.

And before you think it will be a while before her other 2 windows are complete I'd like to show you just how far along they actually are. Her center piece is in need of some foiling and a backgound but the hard part is done. And the matching panel to the one above only needs a border and some soldering. Terry is most certainly into stained glass!


Susan had taken home her inner border and wrapped it there. When she came in we tacked the border into place and then cut strips on the strip cutter for her final outer border. It's all together and that means that when she return next class we'll add a brass channel around the edges and then move on to the soldering process.



Sonia got the bottom half of her peacock feathers completed with just the background feathers of the tail left to go. They're all traced out onto the glass so I suspect that she'll begin grinding this when she returns to class (another year older!)
Myrt is ready to solder her Wine and Cheese window. And knowing how quickly she solders I'd say it a fair assumption to say that this will be one of our featured finished windows in the next Blog post. We still need to add a brass channel to the edge but that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes at the most.



Roxie made a Faux Pas this week when she accidentally came to glass without the letters she wrapped while she was home this week. She put them in her car but forgot to transfer them into the car she was carpooling with. Rest assured, Roxie, this has been done numerous times by other students. So rather than sit around she started making a hanging Beveled Charm Chain. She re-foiled some bevels that she had, put a bead on them (Just Bead It!) and then tinned a LONG piece of copper wire. The wire was twisted into full circles and cut up into half circles. Right now things are just laid out here but it all has to be soldered together yet. This will be finished next week for sure.


Peewee's Fleur De Lis is all cut and tacked together. He replaced the missing piece and added his border which means that when he comes back he'll be ready to solder this. Expect to see this one wrapped up shortly-- possibly when he returns in 2 weeks.
Janice came in and foiled all of the pieces that she had cut and ground last week. We didn't have any of her border glass due to a miscalculation but she was able to continue working on this by soldering what she has completed to this point. When she returns she will be one of many students who will be adding a border to their windows.

Dianne's Rooster window is tacked together. The only thing left to cut is the border and then she'll be soldering this. There was a lot of grinding to do in a window this complex but she managed to get through it wonderfully. Before the class was over we had it all foiled and ready for solder. There's a small fence post (?) that the rooster is standing on that will cut into the border but it still won't take long to get the rest of this cut.

Cindy is as completely cut as she can be at this point in the game. The only pieces left are from a glass that match the color of the room this window will be in and the glass has been discontinued! Go figure. Luckily it's a recent discontinuance (is that even a word?) and we think we've hunted some more of it down. While she's waiting for the glass she's begun grinding her largest section seen here.

Patty -- Seafood. Patty -- Shrimp. Patty -- Oysters. Patty -- Crabs (the good kind!!!). Moving at a steady pace now this window is coming together. But, she says, "NEVER AGAIN!" Me, I say "Never say never".



Grace is back! She started off making a small, simple Star Of Life with a Staff Of Ascelepius (sometimes referred to as a Caduceus) but it sort of mushroomed into this fancy pattern with a rhythm and fancy background that's going to look really nice. Next week we'll see the glass that Grace has cut for this design.

Anita not only completed her Egret window but she also began another project this week. I feel like a fool saying that it's an LSU window when that's so readily apparent, but that's what she's making. And she's put a tiger eye on top which may be a little hard to see right now but once it's all ground it'll show nicely.

That's it for this, the first week of August. We'll have more projects completed and new ones started when we return.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A KILLER Dip!

Roxie was feeling a little bit depressed because she read the Blog last week and said that she kept reading about how other students cut, grind, foil and tack things together all in one night. But Roxie got all of the Letters for her Camp Maypop window traced out on her yellow glass, and then cut and ground them. Now that's not a bad nights work at all. Plus, she went into the house and came back a little later with a dip for the Tortilla chips she brought with her that was SOOOOO good....

"HOW GOOD WAS IT???"

Well, it was so kickin' it made the Pope knock out a stained glass window when he tried it! So all in all it was a very good night for Roxie. Here's a look at her letters thus far. It won't be long too before we read about how she has cut, ground, foiled and tacked her border all together (in one night!)

Susan cut, ground foiled and tacked her background pieces this week (sorry abut that Roxie!) Susan, like everyone else just starting a stained glass class, is concerned about all the little things she sees 'wrong' in her window, but she has nothing at all to worry about as it's fitting together perfectly. Before class was finished she also got her inner border cut and skimmed. She's taken it home with her to wrap so that next week we can just tack it on and move on along with the final border. You can see the first piece of her inner border in the picture below.

Dianne is really moving quickly with her Rooster window. There are a lot of pieces in this and she's got them all cut out and has begun grinding them already. Everything to the left of the rooster is ready to be foiled so there are only a few large pieces left to go before she gets into the wrapping process. What a nice and colorful window this is shaping up to be.


Meanwhile, Dianne's husband, Peewee, got almost all of his background cut, ground and foiled. I say almost because we had a slight incident where we broke a piece while cutting. As always, it was at the very end when the difficult cuts where already done. Since this was cut all from 1 piece of glass without a pattern we're just going to tack it together and then trace out the missing piece so it will fit in seamlessly as the original would have. Isn't this an nice design?


Well, Fran certainly came in with her ducks all in a row! Well, maybe a column. :-) When we last saw her she had just a pattern and the sheets of glass she planned to use which she took home with her. This week she comes in and the ducks are all cut and ground. And they look GREAT! What a good job she did on these. Next comes the background.


Actually this window was supposed to be posted last week but I forgot to take a picture of it so it never made it into the proper Posting. This is Janice's newest Rose Window. She came in with just the roses tacked together and laid them out somewhat randomly on a pattern paper. We traced around them, cut a few single leaves and traced around them as well. She added some stems and then cut them all out and got them all ground just as class finished. She'll tack these and then add a border.


Terry worked on most of this while she was at home and there are a lot of colorful pieces in it. It's the first of 3 windows (she likes making windows in sets of 3) which are all tied together. This is one of the end pieces and she has the design for the center piece completed now. It was kind of a group effort in class to come up with a design for the center and I think we did well. You'll see how that window is shaping up in our next post...

Patty is moving along with her seafood window but I'm worried it's going to leave a bad taste in her mouth! Honestly, it's coming together nicely and now that we've decided to work on all these pieces with a break here and there for other projects I think she'll have a much easier time with this. Like I said though, it's really shaping up nicely! I get hungry just looking at it.

Cindy is also moving right along on her front door window. She's started the center panel and has a lot cut already. Her smaller end panels are complete and ready for solder. Since this window is so large she can't easily transport it back and forth so it's a project that she's working on solely in the shop otherwise I think she's have this all assembled already! The window is a bit too long for me to fit in the camera-- the ceiling is in the way so I can't fit the entire pattern into the picture. You'll see it when I can set it on the floor though. For now, here's the middle 3/4's of her window.

Ahh, how relaxing. Cheese, Grapes and Wine! Myrt has her voice back this week and has brough a touch of class into the class on Tuesday night with her window. It's tacked together but the 4 darker corner pieces are just cut and haven't been ground to fit yet (you can see a section that needs to be ground out under the right-most wine glass). Once they're ground and tacked into place there will just be a border left to cut and then we can share the wine!

This week was a bit odd because for the first time in months we have no completed projects to show this week. You would think that happens often but it's actually the exception to the rule. Our students can really knock out the windows! Next week I know we'll have something finished to show you but until then, foil all your glass evenly and don't forget to cut off all of your marker lines!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks