Paul's Lips

Patty was back in this week after taking 2 weeks off to attend a wedding out of state.  It sounds like she had a great time visiting with family along with her sister and fellow student Sonia.  When she came back in this week for class she had a pattern and a plan.  She had found a card holder design online and wanted to make it with one slight modification-- she wanted it to hold post-it notes rather than business cards.  We measured a post-it, added a a little to the depth of the box and ended up with what you see below.  After it was finished Patty discovered that it makes a wonderful iPhone holder as well since the phone fits in the box in both portrait mode or landscape mode (horizontally) behind the front lip in case she wants to watch a Netflix movie on it.  Patty now calls this her "Multi-Purpose-Desk-Accessory" and I think that's now a permanent name for this project from here on out.

Myrt's Hummingbird and Morning Glory Window is officially complete and she's as happy as can be.  Myrt thought her soldering on this window was better than normal and I'd have to agree with her.  I only made spot adjustments on this to smooth out the few rough areas that we found before washing all the chemicals off of it.  This is another job well done for Myrt.

 

So when Myrt finished up her Hummingbird window she decided to start working on her Hot Air Balloon design.  She's cutting out all of the balloons and tacking them together before cutting out any of her background pieces.  Cheryl made this window a while back and said that it was one of the most enjoyable projects she ever made.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Myrt will feel the same way about it.

 

Martha now has all of her borders cut and ground for her 3 Fancy Fleaur De Lis Windows which means that she'll certainly be soldering these when she returns to class next week.  In fact, I would be completely shocked if at least one of these Fleur De Lis' isn't completed before her next class ends.  

 

Lynn has begun soldering her window and it looks GREAT!   This is the first time anyone has made corners like these and I think we may be seeing the idea used again.  It was a simple-to-do effect that adds some style without looking overdone.  The only thing this needs other than solder is some channel surrounding it and I promised I'd do that for her outside of class so she wouldn't have to waste time on such a menial task. 
 

 

Brenda is making some serious progress on her first window.  As you may recall from last week her center was already cut and when she brought it back in she had it ground and wrapped as well.  So she set off tacking it together and then started working on her background glass.  Once that was cut she moved on to the surrounding border.  As you can see she's got it all cut out now.  Brenda will be soldering this before we know it!

  

Cindy's done a redraw of her Zebra Hand Mirror pattern and it involved joining 2 pieces into 1 which makes this version of her mirror MUCH easier to make.   The original pattern had a total of 36 pieces in it while this one has less than 20.  The zebra design is still apparent so I say it's a change for the better.  I also expect that we'll see this completed real soon.

 

Sonia made her return to class this week along with Patty and has completed cutting the glass in her Charlie Brown window.  With that out of the way she stepped up to the grinder and started in the lower left corner to make sure everything fits in place.  You know, it was Sonia's idea to add the setting sun to this pattern and it really looks to me as if it belongs there.  It gives these Peanuts a reason to be sitting there staring off into the distance.  Talk about a peaceful window.

 

And the glass for Susan's Louisiana Tiger Window is 100 percent officially cut.  With the center of this already soldered I'd say that Susan is well on her way to finishing this project.  Her attention to detail has really made this window stand out and I can't wait to see this with some light behind it. Sadly, she won't be in next week so we're going to have to wait an extra 7 days to seer this completed.

 

Jane is one of our 2 new students that started this week and she's already taken stained glass classes before so we decided not to bother making a butterfly.  Jane has picked this intricate Egret pattern to be her first window.  She wants to learn some of the tricks of the trade when making stained glass and she's picked the perfect pattern to get a good demonstration of all the things I do when making a window like this.  She has the tops of her trees cut and next week we'll see far more cut glass on this pattern.

 

Donna is our second new student and like Jane she has also made a stained glass window or two before coming to us.  She's decided to make this Bluejay and Flowers design and has already gone against the grain (so to speak) but using glass globs for the flower centers rather than a flat pice of stained glass.  It may not seem like much but it's a small element that will make this window stand out even more when it's completed.

Roxie has 2 more hummingbirds cut out and either 2 or 3 more traced out onto glass.  I suspect that Roxie will be sentenced to doing some grinder time next week even though, as you can see, these suncatchers  are fitting together wonderfully already.   The grinder is your friend and can fix almost anything but there's a price to pay for that help and that price is extra time.  Making sure that you cut the lines off of the glass while you are cutting ensures that you won't have to spend extra time at the grinder.  And Roxie's work is proof of that.

Now look at this.  Now that it's almost completely ground Shelley's Cat window looks great!   And to think that she was worried about how this one was turning out.  We're still undecided if she's going to add the name TWISTER to the bottom of it but either way it's going to be a very nice window made in tribute to a cat that is very much missed. Her sister will be proud to hang this stained glass piece.

Terry actually completed a window this week but we aren't going to get a look at it until our next post because  I still haven't found the time to put the channel on it, wash it and take a picture. That said, Terry also began working on this Scarlet Letter window.  Could it be an Alabama Crimson Tide Logo?  I think maybe it is and I promise to find out for sure when Terry returns.

So be sure to come back to our blog to read the next update and see Terry's last completed project (as well as any others).  I'll make sure to get a pictures of everything.  And as a bonus we'll get to see Terry's window in the sunlight which is a luxury that we don't always have with the projects completed in out night classes.

See you all soon!


Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Gangnam Glass Classes

Although we have 5 completed projects this week they're all the same pattern.  But there's plenty so see when it comes to projects that are in the works.  Our classes are officially full as of next week so expect to see a lot of new projects getting started.

OK, let's start this off like we normally do-- with a look at a completed project.  Roxie has completed 5 of her Hummingbird suncatchers which means that she has only 3 left to go.  She doesn't have those cut out yet so I know what she'll be doing next week!  She made these as gifts and I think they're going to go over in a big way.

Next we'll take a look at Bonnie's Humingbirds and Flowers window which is really making a lot of progress.  She's ground all her leaves, cut out the red flowers and then ground almost all of them before calling it a night.  She only has to grind the 4 small pieces that make up her flower bud in the upper right corner and then Bonnie will wrap and tack all of this together.  Then she'll lay them on the background glass and trace the pattern directly onto the glass.  Once it's all cut there will be very minimal grinding to get everything to fit together. 

 

Brenda started working on her first official window and it's (as you can see) a geometrical design.  She was so surprised when her first cut broke flawlessly along her score line.  Then, by the end of the class, she just sort of expected all of her cuts to run perfectly which they did for the most part.  I think she only had one break and that is a great batting average especially for someone who's working on their first project.

 

Lynn has only 4 pieces left to cut and then she'll be ready for soldering!  She made her border match the background of her two ovals and it all ties in together beautifully.  Rather than going with plain square corners Lynn is going to add some flair to her corners by curving the lines that touch the blue border pieces.  You'll be able to see what that looks like next week.

 

Martha got all of her backgrounds cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together  this week  Then she added some thin inner borders on each of her windows and got them all tacked together as well.  She's going to add one last border on all three windows and those last borders will match the background glass and be thicker than the borders you see on these.  These are all gifts and they're really going to really stand out.

 

Shelley has begun grinding her cat window now that she has everything cut out she's not 100% sold on how it looks.  But I've promised her that once it's ground and it all fits together she'll see just how nice of a window this is.  This is a normal reaction since the glass she has cut doesn't quite fit together yet, but that's why we have a grinder.  Once this is adjusted correctly on the grinder I'm sure Shelley will have a change of heart for this stained glass kitty that we're calling Twister. 

Now, I may be wrong but I only see 11 pieces left to go before Susan can start wrapping this window up (get it?)    She's really done a great job on this complex design and has never taken the quick and easy way around any of the obstacles she encountered while cutting and grinding this.  All of her pieces fit perfectly and line up within her pattern lines so it's impossible to find any fault in her work!  Kudos to Susan for making this design seem so simple.

 

So after Terry left last week I expected her to come back this week with a border around her window but I never expected it to be this elaborate.  What a great look!  (And talk about a lot of work making it!)  It's like I always say, a fancy border really adds so much to any window.  And you can see that effect here in Terry's project.

That's about all that's fir to print about what happened in class this week.   Have I mention our class Cruise yet?  About a month ago we  suggested that our students should tag along with us on the Carnival Elation in January and now 5 students are joining us!  It's only fitting that the Elation has a Stained glass design throughout the ship.  If we manage to learn the moves we're going to set the Gulf on fire when we all Gangnam Dance on Lido deck!  

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

(Psy doing his Gangnam Style Dance)

Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

Those birds.  Those colors.  That design!  We've had more than a handful of students keeping their eye on Patty's bird project as it was being made and now that they're completed I'm going to miss having them around the shop.  The color choices are all perfect and the work itself is impeccable (get it?)   Patty did a great job on this and all I can say is, "Wow, they even photograph wonderfully!"

We had a new student this week so that means that it's Butterfly time!  Brenda is someone I've been hearing about for a while now so when Terry asked if she could bring her sister in to start classes I said, "No Way!"  Well, actually I told Terry to bring her on in.  I just want to see if anyone reads all this stuff I type out each week.  lol  Anyway, Brenda's butterfly worked out perfectly.  She didn't have a single problem during any of the steps that it took to make this so I can't wait to see what she decides to make for her first project.

Ann now has a good three quarters of her first Geometrical Window ground.  She'll most likely complete grinding this when she comes back in and then she can start grinding the second one that matched this and is already cut out.  We also worked on the pattern to her larger 3rd panel this week and it's going to look great.  I think we'll be seeing that one soon considering how quickly Ann is moving on these two windows.

Bonnie's Humming Birds and Flowers window has a very delicate and elegant look about it.  The lead lines actually form the stems that weave all throughout this pattern which does three things: 1) it gives us plenty of freedom to position the flowers and birds anywhere we want to make the pattern feel more 'balanced' , 2) it gives the pattern a graceful quality, and 3) they make cutting the background easier since the pieces aren't very large.   This is going to be one beautiful window.

Cindy's got 2 more Zebra mirrors in the works and this is a look at her first one.  She's made a few adjustments to her pattern to make sure the handle stays securely attached to the mirror.  There's nothing worse than stained glass that falls apart!  This is the second mirror that she's made in this design and all I can say is that sometimes you learn from experience.  That's why this mirror is going to turn out perfect right from the start.

Lynn has only 6 pieces of background left to cut and then she'll be working on her border.  And we all know that a border is an hour long project at best.  So I think she's going to be doing some soldering on this window real soon now!  It really sparkles and the beveled doves look great! Wait until we see this with some light behind it.

Martha has two of her three Fleur De Lis windows ready to be tacked together.  She also picked a background glass for her third window and has decided to make that one square rather than rectangular.  If you look closely at the picture below you can see that Martha didn't use the same background glass for these two panels.  The one on the left uses Glue Chip glass while the one on the right is cut out of Krackle.

 

Roxie is making headway with her 4 hummingbirds.  She's got all four of them ground and then she even got a fifth one cut and ground before she took them all home to wrap.  All she needs now is some foil and Bonnie is going to help get some to her before they come back to class on Thursday.  I only managed to snap 3 out of 5 of the humming birds because she's using the same pattern to grind them all.  That means that I only had a few seconds to take a picture before the pieces all went into a ziplock bag so Roxie could start on the next bird.  On a side note, sorry about not answering the phone Roxie-- it was nothing personal, just those &#%@ cell phones!

This here is Twister the Cat and now that there's only the background glass left to cut I figured I'd best get this little guy's name drawn out so Shelley wouldn't have to waist time waiting for me to do it during class.  Shelley modified her pattern slightly since we last saw it and I really like the 'cuts' she's made.  None of them take away from the detail of the cat yet they make the window easier to make.  We like that a lot.

Keeping with 'cats' we'll now take a look at Susan's LSU Tiger Window.  You can see that she's moving along nicely and she even has all of her background cut out now.  If you enlarge the picture (by clicking on it) you'll see that I traced out a large white section with a green trim to show that the glass is indeed cut and ground.  It's just lost sitting on the white pattern paper.  I can tell Susan is having fun making this and that is what these stained glass classes are all about.

 

And our last piece this week is a rather breath taking pattern that is almost completed already.  Terry got the idea for this window while looking at a box of soap!  She took the design, enlarged it, made a few modifications so it could be done in glass and this is what she brought in with her.  Everyone agrees that it looks stunning and I can't wait to see it completed.

I guess we're back up to date so we'll ba back with a new update either Sunday or Monday.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Snoopie's Stuff

Cindy's Pelican Window has now been officially completed and has flown out the door.  This is a nice pattern and Cindy did a great job on it.  I love the way the purple in the sky is reflected in the water.  And the contrast between the background glass and the bird is perfect so he isn't lost in the busy water and sky sections.   Since the water was cut up into so many pieces Cindy was able to use thin scraps of blue/purple that were just lying around.  Sometimes it pays to save all of those medium sized scraps...

 

Cindy also completed this football hanging ornament that's been LSUified.  The tiger eye itself is a football but the stripes that Cindy added make it look so much more complete.  Her eye for detail can't be beat.  :-)

  

Terry had an insanely busy class this time around.  She started things off by completing her 2nd large Victorian window design and as you can see below it's a stunning window.  Her choice of colors really give this pattern a more delicate look.

 

And Terry didn't stop there.  She also managed to finish this window that she made with the superfluous pieces that she cut while making her 2 Victorian windows.  Waste not want not! 

Susan finished this Lawn Ornament Pumpkin, which she now has down to a science.  For some reason I think this one came out looking particularly attractive.  Maybe it's just the shape of the pumpkin or the shade of the orange glass that she made it with.  All I know is that it really catches your eye. 

 

Susan couldn't decide what Holiday she wanted to celebrate so she finished her snowman this week also.  Again, this is a Lawn Ornament so it will be decorating a yard once the feeling of Christmas Cheer is in the air.

And as you may already know (if you read last weeks update), Susan couldn't wait to get started on her LSU/Louisiana/Tiger Window so she didn't let the 2 Lawn Ornaments she made stop her from also working on this window as well.  And I must say that Susan's made some serious progress on it.  It looks like there's only the Orange/Yellow left to cut and she'll be ready to put this all together.  Susan's doing a wonderful job especially when you see how many tiny, thin pieces of glass this window is made up of.  Just wait until you see this up in the air with some light behind it.

 

 I don't think this window needs any introduction at all.  Even though it's the back of his head and there isn't a face in sight I find it hard to believe that there's someone out there that couldn't recognize Charlie Brown and Snoopy.  Sonia's really excited about this one (she's a big Peanuts Fan) and the only thing left to cut is the setting sun that CB and Snoopy are looking at  That means that Sonia is going to be standing in front of the grinder when she makes it back into class.  It won't be next week though because she and Patty will be traveling to Texas for a wedding.  I hope they eat some cake for me!

  

Ann has most of the cutting done for her 2 windows.  I say 'most' only because there may be a piece or two that we overlooked while tracing things out.  Nonetheless, Ann has been busy at the grinder and she's managed to get the upper right corner of this window fitting together nicely along with a good portion of the lower right as well.  I think she'll be at the grinder for another 2 weeks but when she has this all soldered and you realize just how small this is, you'll be thoroughly impressed.  

  

Ann had a visitor this week so she ended up bringing her daughter Korie along to class with her.  Korie decided to make a butterfly rather than just sit back and watch her mother grind glass all night (which was a great idea considering how boring that can be).   Sadly, Korie won't be returning as this was just a one week deal.  I say sadly because Korie really made making this butterfly look easy.  It's just a shame that she can't be closer so she can continue with this new talent she developed.  Look at her butterfly and see for yourself.

 

Meanwhile, Lynn worked on the miscellaneous pieces of her large door insert.  The only thing left to do on this project is to cut out the background glass.  Since they're all fairly large pieces I don't think she'll have any problem finishing this off.  We're going to cut everything from the peices you see in the picture so grinding won't be an issue at all.  Everything should pretty much fit together after it just gets a quick skim at the grinder.

 

Bonnie made a quick trip into class this week and left early due to a Baby Shower that she was helping to organize.  She had a hummingbird left to grind and that's what she did.  All the pieces you see below are already ground so this is going to fly together since once it's all cut she'll be able to move directly to wrapping her pieces.  

Roxie, who is also working on Humming Birds managed to get 4 of hers cut out and a 5th one repaired.  She's had the 5th one for a few years now and it accidentally fell to the floor and damaged its largest tail feather.  But it's fixed now!  And Roxie will begin grinding these when she returns for her next class.

 

Meet Twister the cat.  Sadly, Twister isn't with us anymore so Shelley decided to make this window as a memorial to Twister.  She's got the colors all picked out to match and just to be sure there's no mistaking just who this cat is she's also going to spell out the name below it as well.  Shelley has done a wonderful job cutting out her glass and I think that she's really going to be pleased with this when it's completed.

 

Look!  More Humming Birds!  This is Myrt's window and she's certainly got this one completely under control now.  In fact I'm going to go out on a limb and  predict that she finishes this  when she comes in again.  But that won't be next week because she has a Garden Club meeting that we can't seem to convince her to skip.  I guess we're going to have to learn how to share her from time to time.  :-(

 

Now, for our last exhibit we're going to take a look at the work that Martha has accomplished.  As you can see her two red Fleur De Lis' are all ground and tacked together but what you might not be able to see is that she has the background glass all cut out for them as well.  Since the background is clear glass it's hard to get a picture so you'll just have to take my word for it.  Next week Martha will be wrapping and prepping her windows for double borders.

And that is going to do it for this update,  We still have one more to go this week so expect a new post Monday night which will bring us back up to date.  Until then take care and don't spit on your glass cutter no matter what you might have read elsewhere!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks