The Broccoli Incident: A Nasal Assault

There are two rules that all students ignore for fear of causing problems later on down the road.  Those tough to follow rules are: 1) Cut the line off of your glass when you are cutting and,  2) SLOW DOWN while you are soldering.  Any lines left on your pieces when you've finished cutting need to be ground off before the pieces can possibly fit together.  Then you need to leave room for two pieces of foil between every two pieces of glass.  Never be afraid to cut your pieces 1/8 of an inch short-- it will all balance out in the end.

And ALWAYS move at a snails pace while soldering.  The lead will form a bead all on its own if you just allow it to completely melt.  When your soldering is lumpy and uneven it means that you need to slow down.  That's the only secret to soldering like a pro.  Anyone can do it, but so few do.

Mary Grace came in this week and aggressively re-soldered the front side of her Fleur De Lis Window that she soldered last week.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't near as good as I knew she could do.  This week she went over it a second time, took her time doing it, and sat in her seat amazed and dumbfounded as this stunning window emerged from mediocrity!   I'll admit that the second side needed some touch-ups when she was finished but that's only because she used very bumpy glass for her background.  All in all I'd say that Mary Grace has got it--  This front side is all her doing and it is MARVELOUS!

 

And Terry does it yet again with another design of her own.  She started this last week and completed it this week so she's certainly not slowing down at all.  The conception, the colors, and the workmanship in this window are top notch (as always).  If a picture says a thousand words this one has that many as well as a thousand more.  She's already drawing up her next design and I can't wait to see it.  

 

Carol is our newest student and this is the Butterfly she made during her first class with us.  She certainly seems confident and has no problem wielding a glass cutter.  In fact, she had no problems with any of the many steps it took to make this first project.  She has a lot of ideas in mind for future windows and I suspect that it won't be long before they all become reality and we get to post their finished pictures here on the Blog.

  

Ann's 'L' window is really looking great.  She only has 8 pieces of glass left to cut and fit into place (inside the 'arms' of the FDL's) before she can start soldering this window and then move on to her next project.   I heard her talking about a big window like the flower window she made last year so I can't wait to see what she decides to do next.

 

Well, it's official-- Becky has all of the glass cut for her trio of Three Ladies Windows. She came in with the first black border tacked on to all three windows so she just needed to finish them all off with the final clear granite border.  She got those final borders cut, ground and mostly wrapped while she was in class and since she already as the front sides soldered I suspect that it won't be long until we see these ladies walking out the door for the last time. 

 

Last week I somehow managed to skip Bonnie in our weekly rundown of what's happening.  She had started cutting out one of the smaller Tiger Claw LSU windows and this was what she ended the night with two weeks ago.

 

This week Bonnie resumed where she left off and finished cutting and grinding all of the glass making up the LSU letters as well as the clear background glass.  Then she got them all foiled and cut out her tiger claws.  The hard part is just about over with and next she'll just add borders to flesh it all out ( or should I say 'fur' it all out?)

 

Brenda's Magnolia Window is really taking shape quickly.  I'd say that more than half of this window is ground and at the end of the night Brenda told me that she hoped to start wrapping it at home during the week.   I suspect this will be done before you know it and that it will be another student favorite.  At this point in time pictures just don't do it justice since there's a lot of clear glass in it so you'll just have to  trust me when I tell you that it's stunning.

 

And Beau the dog looks fantastic!  Cindy is working on this window and it's the spitting image of the picture that she brought in.  Even the color is perfectly matched to the real life Beau.  With just a few pieces left to grind and then just four background pieces to cut, Cindy will most likely have this completed faster than a speeding bullet.

 

Jeanne should be proud of the soldering that she did on her latest Beveled Fleur De Lis Window.  The front side looks great and although she had a little difficulty getting the second side to flow smoothly she did very well indeed.  And the only reason she had more trouble on the second side is because she used the same bumpy glass that Mary Grace used for her background.  Crinkle glass is very pretty but it can be a pain to solder.  Still, I have no doubt at all that she'll finish this one next week and then move on to her Horse Head window.

 

Linda L has started making her very own 'L' window and it's about half the size of the 'L' window that Ann is making.  She's gone with a nice easy pattern and is flying through it quickly.  Although you can't see it Linda has cut the clear glass that surrounds the L and forms the forms the oval.   Linda has taken it home with her to wrap so next week we should see her putting a border on this project.

 

Lynn has the bottom portion of her lamp tacked together now.  She constructed it upside down in a bucket to ensure that it was perfectly round an not oval. (Seriously!)  The spider is in place (the spider is what attaches the lamp to the base) and all it needs now is the crown that sits on top of it and a little solder to seal the deal.  This perfectly matches the lamp she made back in November.

Whoa!  Look at all those pieces!  You can't say that Susan hasn't been keeping busy working on her Abita window.  This week she's even positioned the bottles on top of the pattern so we could get a good feel for the finished project.  There's still a lot of grinding and wrapping left to do and that's the bane of working on a window with a lot of small pieces.  But in the end all that work shows and the window turns out to be spectacular.  Madonna sang it best when she sang, "You'll See!"

 

This picture of Myrt's Beveled Fleur De Lis Window makes me wonder just what I was thinking.   I had hoped to show Myrt how to cut the straight line through the center of the window while veering off  the straight line and then following the curved FDL.  For some reason I started breaking it from the wrong end of the glass and the cut decided to run straight instead of curving, thus ruining the piece.  For some reason I was thinking that the large piece was ruined but then when I saw this picture I realized that I'd screwed up yet again.  (Hey, I'm only human.)  Only the small curved piece needs to be re-cut, so that ought to make Myrt feel better about having me 'help' her.

 

And my hat goes off to Martha this week for cutting all of these pieces, grinding them and getting everything to fit so nicely, so quickly.  She only has 16 pieces left to go before she starts cutting her background glass (which will fit inside an inner beveled border).  I'm extremely impressed with her work this week!

  

Susie started working on her Duck Window while she was at home and she's got a major portion of it cut and ground already.  During class we got the eye cut and ground into place which only took 4 minutes at best to accomplish, but if you don't know how to do it you could be at it all day trying to figure out how to cut a circle of glass smaller than a quarter of an inch round.  With the majority of work done on this window I suspect Susie will complete it in no time.

 

And we'll wrap things up this week with he window that will surely be featured first on the Blog next week-- Shelley's Nude Woman with a Moon and Sun.  She soldered the front side of her window this week and will finish the back side when she returns next week.  When this window is hanging in the sunlight it is going to sparkle like mad due to her use of iridized glass.  Look for that beautiful view when we return...

 

That's about it for this edition of On The Cutting Table.  By now you should know that the fun never ends so join us again next week when the broccoli is fresh, the wine bottle never empties, and the solder all flows smoothly. 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Dry Erase Boards Are Remarkable!

There certainly are a lot of window to look at this week.  We have seven completed windows which added to the uncompleted windows makes for a total of twenty-one projects in the works with 2 others just starting. And next week we're adding another day class into the mix!  Calgon take me away!

Okay, first off  we have Linda L who completed her Beveled Fleur De Lis Window.  Linda is a newer student but her work makes it look as if she's been doing this for years.  I colored her window for her and said that I'd touch up her soldering but I can honestly say that I only touched up 2 lines on the back side of this window.  That means that Linda gets our new Solderer Of The Week Award.  She and her husband will be whisked away by Delta Airlines to Aruba for a week of fun in the sun!  And she can document all the fun with HER NEW DIGITAL IMAGING PACKAGE!  Well, maybe I'm lying about the trip and the digital imaging but she still gets the honor of being the best solderer of the week.  :-)

 

Next we look at our other Linda who has finished her LSU Tiger Claw window.  There's something ever so slightly different about this one from the others but unless I tell you what it is you'll probably never notice (and the difference does NOT make the window 'wrong').  So go ahead and compare Linda F's LSU Window to the one further down that Susie made and see if you can spot the difference.  The first person spotting  the deviation (aside from it's size) will win one hundred dollars!  (I have an abundance of Monopoly Cash I need to get rid of.)

 

And is it just me or does Costa looks like he's looking for his food bowl?  Martha finished him before she left class but she still needed hooks put on him which allowed me to take a picture with some sunlight behind him rather than fluorescent light.  I'm going to give a shout out to Martha for her soldering (which has greatly improved) and her use of shading on Costa.  He looks great.

 

Last weekend we had four of these Stylized Fleur De Lis Windows made,  They were all very similar and I thought I'd seen enough of this design for at least a few weeks but Myrt's take on it is so different that I can't help but love it.  Of course, my favorite color is blue so that doesn't hurt!  Myrt did a stellar job on this window and I think she should be very proud of it.

 

Susie completed her LSU Tiger Claw window and I feel that she's learned a lot while making it.  Excluding borders while making a project is a major part of creating a window that is perfectly square.  Figuring out what you should cut and what you should leave for the Strip Cutter is probably the biggest tip that Susie learned while making this.  Just look at those nice straight lines she has on this window.

 

Terry has certainly perfected her Fleur De Tiger that she first drew up last year.  This one, like the others before it, is design perfection (and Terry's workmanship is nothing to sneeze at either).  I wouldn't mind having one of these (hint, hint, hint!)

 

Janet finished her second Cowboys Star Logo and it's even better than her first one.  And I even got to take a picture of this one with some sunlight behind it so the colors look correct in the picture.  Janet is about to start working on 3 transom windows and I think she's really going to enjoy working on them.

Ann's L window is moving along nicely.  She's going to curve the lines coming out of the points of the four Fleur De Lis' since everything else about this window contains curves.  I think it will be a nice effect and one that we should see realized next week.

 

Wow, Becky is really moving along quickly on her three Three Ladies Windows.  And that's not a typo because as you can see in the picture she is working on three separate windows that contain three ladies each.  When she started cutting these she cut each of the three women out of red, purple and blue glass.  Once they were cut she was able to arrange them any way she wanted without repeating the color scheme.  It may sound confusing but even I was able to follow it so it really isn't that perplexing.  Anyway, she's about to add a final clear border to these windows.  Since she already has the front of these soldered we'll be seeing them completed RSN (real soon now).

Brenda has begun working on a Magnolia window and I love the pattern (which I believe Terry drew, but I may be wrong about that 'fact').   She has a good deal of the first magnolia cut out as well as half of the leaves and you can see already that it's fitting together nicely.  This is a perfect example of what happens when you cut the line off as you're cutting your glass.  If you follow that simple rule you get to simply skim your pieces and have everything fit together almost instantly.  Good job, Brenda!

 

Jeanne has added the final border to her Beveled Fleur De Lis Window and has it halfway wrapped. She's taken her window home with her in case she ends up with some free time during the week so she can finish wrapping it and then possibly start soldering it as well.  This will surely be finished soon  and I know it's going to turn out beautiful.

 

Betty is as busy as can be (what's new?)  and is working on four separate windows:  A Stylized Fleur De Lis, a Hot Air Balloon, a Tiger Claw LSU window, and a Cowboys Star.  The Hot Air Balloon window is pretty much completed save for a bath.  Hopefully she'll bring it back next week so we can see it lit up.  And her Fleur De Lis and LSU are just about ready for solder as well so it won't be long until we see them as featured projects.  I have to say that Betty's soldering on her Hot Air Balloon was pretty close to perfection.  I think she's got it!

Mary Grace has the final border on her Fleir De Lis Window and has begun soldering it.  There's even a chance that this will be completed when she comes back in. With only the back side left to solder it's certainly possible.  I'm not sure what she plans on working on next but I like the progress that she's made while working on this window. 

 

Terry's latest window is already more than halfway completed and she only started it this week!  Of course she's been working on it at home as well as in class but as you can see she won't have much to grind on this because her pieces already fit together nicely.   And again, that is the HUGE benefit of cutting inside the line when you cut your glass-- you only have to skim your pieces and then wrap them

 

Susan has a lot of her Abita window wrapped now (a lot of the small parts) and is following my advice:  Slow and steady wins the race.  Everything lines up even after she's applied the foil so things are still looking good (not that I expect that to change).  I can't wait until the bottles are in place so I can calm down about this window!  LOL (That ought to make her feel REAL good to hear.)

 

Don't you think this is THE perfect border for Shelley's (nude) Lady with the Sun and Moon Window?  When she said she wasn't sure what she (nude) wanted for a border I knew instantly what I would pick (nude).  And Shelley felt the same (nude) way that I did.  Now that everything (nude) is tacked together Shelly will begin soldering this (nude) project.  I guess it's time for her to start thinking about what she plans on doing next (nude). My, I find this window to be beautiful but (nude) distracting. 

  

Cindy did some repair work on her Texas State/Star window this week which met with a somewhat unfortunate accident.  But Cindy was able to fix it easily enough and even overcome a second unforeseen obstacle during the repair which she handled like a Pro.  Once that was finished she started working on the first of her Dog windows.  Very much like me, Cindy decided to start with the hardest part first and cut and grind the nose with its deep inset curves.  With that completed the rest should go quickly for her.

  

And lastly we look at the window that Linda F is starting.  Although she doesn't have anything cut out yet she does have numerous pieces traced out and onto her glass.  This Mardi Gras crown has a nice feel of femininity about it due to its open design and that's just what Linda was looking for in this window.

 

Wow, after a few weeks of having short and easy Blog posts this one has left me exhausted.  And classes start again tonight!  I guess there's truly no rest for the wicked!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Are You On Vacation?

We had our first Weekend Workshop on the 1st and 2nd of the month and this update will deal with what happened in the shop during those two days.  They were certainly long (but fun) days, each lasting from 9am until 6pm.  We did take a lunch break to eat and clear our minds and there were snack breaks throughout but on the first weekend of February, WE ACHIEVED!!!

We had four students: Jeannette, Rowena, Becky (who had done one Weekend Workshop with us last year), and Martha (who is a regular weekly student) who showed up to provide moral support for Becky.

When everyone arrived we took about an hour and a half to learn how to cut glass.  The term 'cutting glass' is actually very misleading however.  What we actually do is score the glass, making a weak section that a break will (hopefully) follow.  It requires the perfect amount of pressure on your cutter and the ladies all took to it easily.  Once everyone made their straight cuts, their curved cuts and compound curves we moved onto a circle and then ended with inside curves.  (Point To Point!) We then cleaned up the tables, pulled out our patterns and began tracing the pattern pieces onto the selected glass.  Everyone had decided to make the same Stylized Fleur De Lis design that's been so popular in class lately, so having everyone working on the same project helped keep everyone at about the same pace.  That was a big plus, but sorting through all of the photos and trying to figure out what window was whose was NOT easy especially since I was bouncing around here and there while taking them.

We're all sorted now though so let's take things one student at a time, in no apparent order, starting with Rowena (who was very new to the process of making stained glass).  The first thing she did was cut out her clear background glass.  Those pieces consisted of nice simple curves that weren't hard to cut-- and since confidence is gained through success this seemed the way to go to me.  By 2:30 everyone had all their windows all cut out (save for the border pieces which we put on AFTER the window is tacked together).  Here's  a look at Rowena's window with all of her glass cut.

 

Next came the grinding process.  She had  to make sure that all of her glass lines up with the other pieces perfectly and that they all have a rough edge so that the copper foil can stick to it. This next picture is Rowena's window with everything fitting perfectly.  This was also the stopping point for the first day.

 

When Rowena returned on Sunday morning she began wrapping her pieces.  Wrapping can be tricky but Rowena caught on quickly and definitely has a natural ability to roll the foil out evenly onto the glass.  Once she was done with that she tacked everything together and we added the final border.  Then she began solder.

 

Once the soldering was completed we gave the window a few baths in water, chemicals and then water again to clean it all of.  And this is Rowena's completed Fleur De Lis!  I'm going to say that that she did an excellent job on her first window and I know for a fact that she loved it when she saw it hanging in the sunlight. 

Next up we look at Becky's window.  The steps are identical to the steps Rowena took so I won't waste everyone's time repeating myself four times but I will mention anything interesting that happened along the way.  Becky has cut glass before so she had a bit of an edge when it came to cutting.  That said, this is what Becky's window looked like before it spent some time at the grinder.  You can see that she decided to change the colors up a bit by adding some red accent pieces which made identifying her window's pictures a lot easier for me. 

 

And after spending about 3 hours at the grinder Becky had everything fitted and ready for copper foil. Becky was ready to call it a day at this point.  Everyone left to get something to eat (Becky might have even had some wine-- she was with Martha so it's not out of the realm of possibility...) and then it was off to bed to be well rested for Sunday.

 

It's day two now and Becky's window has been foiled, bordered, and brass channel is now surrounding the window.  Becky can now begin the solder process.  The thing about soldering is that you have to take your time.  Moving quickly only makes you waste time when it comes to making your window to look good. That's Becky's hand holding the soldering iron that melts lead onto the foil surrounding all of her pieces.

 

And now we're at the end of the day and this is Becky's finished window.  I like how she angled the grain on the red glass so it wouldn't all line up perfectly and just look like one piece of glass split into three sections.  On the top and bottom pieces of the banding her grain runs like this: / , while the middle band runs the opposite direction like this: \.  It's a subtle, yet effective, touch that sets off her red accent nicely.

Up next we have Jeannette!  She also used a bit of red in her design but she only used it in 3 pieces.  And since the red is different from the red that Becky used you really can't tell what the difference is while the glass is on the table. 

 

Jeannette did a great job cutting her glass and then headed over to a grinder with her window. Grinding is something that I love doing and actually look forward to when I make a window.  Jeannette made short work of the process and made it look easy.   I was very impressed with her work at the grinder because she never asked any questions and just took to it instantly knowing just what needed to be ground to get things to fit.  Here's a look at the wonderful job Jeannette did grinding her glass

 

And here's Jeannette's window all tacked together and about to get some brass channel added to the edges at noon on Sunday.  You can see the unattached channel to the right and left of the window.  You may have to enlarge the picture to really see it (just click on it), but it's there.

 

And now with some (fading) sunlight behind Jeannette's Fleur De Lis you can easily see where the three red accent pieces are.  Jeannette used red glass in the center of the three piece banding section of her Fleur De Lis while Becky used three red pieces and altered the grain to set hers off  Neither way os right or wrong and both look beautiful.  I really like the added red accents that Jeannette used and think that she's got a natural talent when it comes to making stained glass.

And last of all, but certainly not least, we have Martha's window.  I remember when she first saw the Stylized Fleur De Lis pattern-- she wanted to make it immediately but decided that it would be the window she would do during the Weekend Workshop.  The only problem was that the workshop was months away and she wanted it now!  But here we are looking at her pieces all cut (and some of them already having been ground).  All it took was a little patience.

 

Martha got everything ground and fitted together with relative ease because Martha knows her way around a grinder.  There wasn't much of anything for me to touch up on anyone's grinding but I will state for the record that Martha could teach a class on grinding.  She worries about her speed but Stained Glass shouldn't be rushed.

 

Next we take a look at her window all ready for it's final solder bead.  It was about 3:00 by the time she got this far which left her with three hours to solder the window.  And that's plenty of time.  One thing that I've learned about Martha in this Workshop is that she doubts herself too much.  She knows what to do and how to do it, but then becomes her own worse enemy by second guessing herself.  In the end she gets it done and this widow that she made all by herself proves that she knows what she's doing.  I barely had to touch it with the soldering iron when she was through because her lead lines looked THAT good!

 

See what I mean?  Here's Martha's window all washed up and sparkling with a fluorescent light behind it (The sun was too low for sunlight by this point).  I dare anyone to say that it isn't beautiful.  My final words to Martha are to simply trust yourself.  You know what you're doing!

 

So, were Saturday and Sunday long work days?  I'd say definitely so since they ran 9 hours each day.  But the thing is, everyone was having so much fun getting to know one another and laughing and joking around that he hours didn't feel long at all.  Before anyone knew it, it was the end of the day and time to go.  There's one thing that I know for sure though, and that's the fact that EVERYONE had a great time.  Jeannette and Rowena are already aboard to come back again in a few months with a friend of theirs and some new windows.  And Becky is hoping to get into our regular classes  (once someone drops out!).  It will happen-- It's just a matter of time.

Everyone did wonderful work and the four windows you saw above are a testament to that.  Making stained glass is very time consuming task but it can also be a lot of fun.  And this past weekend was enjoyable for both Russ and I as well as out students because of the company we had in the shop.  And that's the best thing anyone can hope for in a weekend workshop.

In the end I want to thank Jeannette, Rowena, Becky and Martha for the fun weekend that didn't feel like work at all!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

And Then There Were Two

Well, it's been a while but I can explain why that is.  First we had our annual Stained Glass Cruise (pictures to follow) which means that we didn't have classes for a week,  and then when we returned we were hit with freezing weather and a lot of closed roads.  Because of that we only had one class that only two students were able to attend.  And that means that this is going to be one short post!

Janet and Susie come in during one of our night classes and luckily for them the temperature took a nice turn upward during the day their class was held.  By the time 6pm rolled around the roads were open and the shop was warm.  And Janet surprised me by having not one but two(!) Cowboy Stars cut out and ground.  When I last saw her she had nothing but a pattern in her hand as she walked out the door.  She was able to cut and grind the two stars and was even going to wrap them but she wanted me to look them over first.  And of course, they were perfect so she started wrapping her glass in class.  When she had the first one foiled she tacked it together and then soldered it as well.  Here is what it looks like (and you can expect the second one to be completed next week).

Next, and last of all, we take a look at Susie's LSU Tiger Claw Window.  When we last saw it Susie had the LSU section ground and wrapped with the Claws cut and ready to be ground.  When she came in the claws were ground, wrapped, and ready to be tacked to the LSU section.  Once that was done it was a simple case of adding the borders to her window.  We do those one row at a time which makes lining everything up and keeping things square a lot easier.  By the time Susie left she had it all tacked together.  She's taken it home to solder during the week so I'm really expecting this to be completed when she returns.

 

And that's all there was to see last week.  It was a small but fun class and both Janet and Susie talked about  about getting rid of Ann and Becky so they can always have all of my attention to themselves!

We'll have another post shortly because this past weekend we had another one of our Weekend Workshops.  Four women came in on Saturday at 9am and by 6pm on Sunday they all left with completed Fleur De Lis Windows.  They didn't spend the night working but they were two long days.  I'll write all about it and give you an update on those windows when we return again sometime before the weekend.

Until then, stay warm and may all your glass break along your scores!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks