Preventative Measures

Well, we were going to cover foiling and the effect of 'stair stepping' (which is bad) but I forgot to take a picture today to demonstrate the problem.  So I guess we'll cover that next week.  :-)

So let's look at Carol's Wood Duck now that she's completed it.  Let's start with all the faults...  Well, since there are none let's start with the praises!  You have to admit that a double border really adds a lot to a window.  And her sky is seamless and joins together perfectly even after the leaves cut through it.  This is a class act through and through.

 

And we also got to see Janet completed her Modern Art Guitar this week as well.  As you can see her color combination work perfectly.  It was hard to tell that her background glass was clear when it was sitting on the pattern but now that it is hanging up with some light behind it you can easily make out the difference in the glasses that Janet used.  I love that the thin inner border is made with the same glass that Janet used for the bottoms of the tuning keys.  Matching a small amount of color always works well and, of course, this is another double border window and we all know how I feel about that.

Becky S has come really far really fast with her Monogrammed 'C' window.  She has her background all cut out and used iridescent white glass for the inner background sections and clear for the outer edges to help give the window a more oval look while it's contained in a rectangle frame.  The amazing thing is that the glass in the picture below has NOT been ground which means that Becky wont be spending much time at the grinder.  Taking your time cutting always pays off in reduced grinder time.

 

Betty certainly surprised me when she came in with her irises all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  And they look GREAT!  I just love her choice of glass.  She's using two different colors of green for her stems and leaves and this week she cut out all of the darker green.  I know Betty was worried about making this project because of the number of pieces in it but she's doing just fine with it.  On second thought I take that back--  She's doing GREAT with it! 

 

Brenda has her Baby just about wrapped now. There's really only the background and letters that make up Baby's name left for her to cut so I think the tough part of this window is pretty much behind her. Brenda constantly doubts her abilities but she always comes through in the end. I hope she sees that she has nothing to worry about and starts trusting her abilities because this dog looks great. (And I love how she added a tongue to it.)

 

 

So, Carol not only finished her Wood Duck Window but she started this Tabasco Window as well.  We've seen this done once before and it had really turned out nice. I just know that Carol's will end up drawing just as much attention as the original did.  And she's already made great progress with just one class of cutting under her belt.  With the table and bottle just about completed Carol will be doing 'brick work' when she returns.

 

Cindy hoped to put her Magnolia lamp together this week but I never expected her to get as much done at home as she did.  I had told her that she needed three of every piece but neglected to tell her that she'd need 18 of each of the gridwork pieces.  Although she ended up being sixty pieces short she was able to start work on this Cat Tail Window.  It's going to be a nice one and the best part is that she'll only need one of each piece to make it! 

 

Jeannette has begun the hardest part of her window and decided to start right out with the biggest cluster of grapes that she has.  By getting that one out of the way first she's going to find each successive cluster to be easier and easier-- not that she's having a hard time with this big one though.  She already has the first cluster cut out and just about halfway ground!

 

Linda F came in and filled in a few missing pieces in her Manger Window and then proceeded to cut, grind, wrap, and finally attach her border.  There's only the soldering left to go an then she'll begin working on her next project which I can't wait to see competed.  In fact, someone else already wants a copy of the pattern!

 

Susan's Raspberries are ready to wrap!  Once these are tacked together we will adjust the background glass to fit the new edge of the raspberries (which are slightly larger than the old cluster).  And then after that I think we'll be ready to solder this beast and get the bottles in place.

 

Linda L resumed work on her Mickey Mouse By The Sea Window and cut and ground the wooden chair and table. Linda picked a heavily textured glass and decided to place the rough side up to really give a wood-like effect to the chair. She's paid special attention to the grain of the glass and by subtly altering the grain lines she's accomplish a great 3D effect for her window. Just wait until you see the top edge of her wood slats. Great Job!

 

Jeanne has her pattern all traced out is now ready to start cutting out her glass pieces.  You can see how she transformed a simple geometric design into a cross by stretching out the bottom end.  She has her glass picked out and will be ready to start cutting it when she returns.

 

Terry brought her Convex Geometric Window all cut out and ground, just waiting to be wrapped so she diligently went to work and ended up taking home a window ready to be soldered.  Knowing Terry this could very well be finished when she comes back in next week!

 

And Martha has her State Trooper Window almost completed.  She has her letters firmly in place and everything has been tacked together.  She even got her channel attached and has begun soldering the front side of this widow in class and has taken it home to finish the second side there.  I have no doubt that this will be a completed piece next week and that's just in time for its big event.

 

Mary Grace cut out the flower portion of her Iris window and it is nothing if not spectacular.  The glass she picked (the same that Betty used) is a little odd to cut since the texture on the top of the glass is so rough-- It's almost like pushing your cutter over sandpaper.   But I have to say that the glass breaks well even though it doesn't feel like it should.  And Mary Grace also has her Iris ground so she's really doing well!  It's ribbons for her next week!

 

Myrt finished grinding the two bottom sections of her Cross window and then moved on to re-cutting the dove that will be placed in the upper left corner.  Myrt is really moving through this project quickly and it already looks great sitting on the pattern so I can't even begin to imagine how good it's going to look when its up in the air with some light behind it.

 

Paula's Mudkip suncatcher is nearing completion now.  With just about everything cut and ground (save for the eyes) I'd say she'll be soldering this next week.  I said this was for her granddaughter in our last post but I need to state for the record that it's for her grandson.  No matter who it's for, its certainly turning out nice.  There's no mistaking that this is a pokémon character.

 

Then there's Rowena who has her grape leaves all cut and ground.  In fact, she's so close to cutting the actual grapes it's not even funny.  You may notice on closer inspection that the oval border is now missing from her pattern.  We did a few last minute alterations on her pattern and made it more rectangular rather than oval.  The shape was just a little off for Rowena's tastes so we fixed it by keeping the same grapes but squeezing in the pattern by 3 inches.  It's still going to look great though!

 

And then there's Shelley who now has all of her glass cut, ground and essentially wrapped (she's taken all but one piece of her purple border home to foil throughout the week.  She planned on taking all of her border but we found one piece in the driveway and that's how that story goes.  I did wrap it for her though!  Expect to see her soldering this when she returns.

And that's it for this week.  It was a busy one with most of our students attending.  We missed seeing Ann but that was my fault-- an emergency trip to the dentist made me late for class leaving Ann to find a locked door leading her to believe that we were pulling a no-show.  Sorry about that Ann!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

What's The Point?

Here's something that takes a while for students to accept.  It has to deal with pieces that come to a point and how much of the point is actually unnecessary.  When cutting a long thin point into a piece of glass we sometimes break off the point when removing the excess glass.  And even if we're lucky enough to get it to break cleanly a lot of times the point will break while grinding it.   Usually this isn't the end of the world as many students would believe.  To see what I mean just look at this example.  I managed to get this 10 inch long piece of glass cut and ground without losing any of the sharp point to the right of the piece.  Not bad, huh? 

 

But it's not entirely necessary because, as you can see in the next picture, when I wrap my piece with copper foil I end  up losing a good portion of that point under the foil.  That means that it will end up being covered in lead even though the point exists underneath it all.  In fact, in this example I end up losing almost 1 inch of my point to foil!   So the next time you end up breaking a point off of your glass try using it anyway.  Most times no one will ever know because the point would have been covered with solder anyway.

Now let's move on to our student's work and in doing so we'll start things off with Ann's latest  Fleur De Lis 'L' Window which turned out to be just beautiful.  This is her third window in this series and she's really got it down to a science now.  If you blink you might miss the fact that she was working on one and just see the finished product!  She has another to do but for now she's going to take a bit of a break and work on something else.

 

Terry's latest Fleur De Lis window is completed and ready to hang.  This is another window that Terry drew up completely on her own and I'd say she's got that whole perfect symmetry thing going on quite well for herself.  Even the grain of her glass matches perfectly when comparing the right and left sides of her FDL and that says a lot about her work.

 

And Cindy finished the work on her Stained Glass Window Repair and it turned out wonderfully.   It's gone from a piece ready for the garbage to a piece ready for hanging. 

 

Here's a look at the 'round' window that Myrt has begun making.   She needed something with a cross in the center with rays radiating outward from the center and a dove in the upper left panel.  The problem was that there are wooden slats sectioning the window into 4 equal pieces.  Even though it's broken up I think the cross is plainly evident so it all works out in the end.  Sadly, Myrt had the dove all cut out but the pieces slid off her board and broke which means one thing:  RE-CUT!  I really think this is going to look great when it's completed.

 

This is Terry's latest design which is a geometric convex design --judging by the curved corners.  She's working quickly on this and managed to get a lot cut out before she called it a night.  But that's just S.T.O.P. (Standard Terry Operating Procedure)

 

This is Mudkip and if you don't have access to video game playing children you might not recognize it as a Pokémon character.  Paula is making this bright suncatcher for her granddaughter and it's already looking like a winner!  I've discovered that determining it's gender isn't nearly as easy as you might think.  Go ahead and look it up for yourself (if you dare!)

 

Becky B has begun grinding her Pony Window and she's doing a GREAT job! We've lost the pattern pieces for the hooves so we're just leaving them empty until everything is tacked together and then we'll just drop some glass behind the window and trace them out accordingly.  The same goes for the single piece of glass used in her sky.  With only a few pieces left to grind I think this will be tacked together before you know it!

 

I'm loving this modern art Guitar that Janet is making.  With all the glass officially cut out she's going to be soldering this soon. Janet was concerned about what color to make her final border but we all agreed that going back to the background glass would be the best look.  We were going to be cutting it very close though because she didn't have much glass left over from the background and this glass is no longer being made, but as you can see, she did it!  And the second border just adds so much to this window.

 

Carol's Wood Duck is ready for solder.  In fact, it's already got some solder on the front side already.  Carol took this home with her so she could work on it during the week so I think this will be a completed project when you next see it.  I almost hate saying it over and over again and again but just look at how wonderful this window looks with that thin inner border.  It really gives a window an extra hit of classiness.

 

Becky S has just the background and the flourish pieces left to cut on her Monogrammed C window.  I love the  interweaving border that will become even more apparent when the lead lines are added.  Actually, the hard part of this window is now completed and I expect that Becky will be able to knock out the background glass rather easily.  What you can't see in this picture is the beautiful blue/green that her borders have been cut from.  That will change once this is lit up.

 

Rowena got far starting on her version of a Grape Window this week.  After tracing out her pattern on to poster board and then cutting it out she began cutting her leaves out of glass.  And she's got them all cut!  Next she'll be doing her branches and grinding everything to fit.

 

After completing her L Window, Ann started cutting out this Cross suncatcher that Becky and Janet have both made.  Ann is making hers out of Blue Iridescent Glass and she's reversed the blue on a number of pieces so there will be a mix of iridescence and regular blue on either side of the cross.  It's actually a very neat way to make a project that technically doesn't have a front or back to it.

 

Martha's paint pen came in the day after she had her class with us so she didn't have it in time for class.  But rather than waste time she resumed grinding the Stylized Fleur De Lis Windows that she's had cut out for a while now.  Expect to see her Louisiana State Trooper Window completed when she comes back in because she'll have her letters baked onto the glass leaving the window ready for solder.

 

This is Jeannette's Grape Window and it's really coming along nicely.  With all of her leaves cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together Jeannette is going to start cutting and grinding her grapes one cluster at a time.  It's not going to be hard at all, just a little tedious when it comes to grinding and wrapping all of those little similar pieces.  Look for a cluster to be finished when you see this again in our next update.

 

Lynn is just one border away from having all of her Black Swan Ballerina Window all cut out.  Her final border will be the very light pink that she used in this ballerina's slippers.  The double border she's making will add so much to this design (not that it needs it!)  She's also incorporating a few bevels so look out!

 

Cindy has begun cutting glass for a 11" Magnolia Lamp.  This is Cindy's first lamp but she is eager to make it and already has the pedal to the metal on this project.  With her flower petals all cut and ground I suspect that she'll be using the pistol grip cutter when she returns to cut out her background gridwork.

 

Jeanne liked this design that she saw on our website and decided to make a few changes to it, the biggest of which is to make it resemble a cross.  What you see below is the original design but just wait until you see how great it looks now that Jeanne has re-arranged it a bit.  There are still a few issues to work around but the centerpiece has been altered perfectly.

 

And, in the end, I'm going to show you this wonderful Iris Window that Mary Grace will begin cutting out next week.  We've made a few slight modifications to the pattern from the original design that I drew up over a year ago so that the leaves flow more naturally.   Expect to see Mary Grace cutting glass for this during her next class.

 

So that wraps things up this week.  Look for another update shortly along with some more tips to help make your stained glass look like it's been made by a professional.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

LOUI IA ATE

Ok, I see something done by so many students that I need to address it in this week's post.  We use two different types of pliers when making windows: Breaker(/Grozier) Pliers and Running Pliers.  Breaker Pliers are used as an extension of your hands so you aren't really squeezing them so much as holding the glass with them.  But the Running Pliers work very differently-- those you squeeze to get your glass to break along the score line.  And glass is, as we all know, delicate.  If we squeeze it to hard it will easily break where we don't want it to.  That's why Running Pliers come with an adjustment screw at the top edge.  It's easy to set but few people do it.  As a rule of thumb I always re-set my pliers if my score line is longer than 6 inches or if there's a deep curve involved.

What is the screw for, anyway?  Well, it technically sets the maximum amount of pressure that the pliers can apply to your glass.  It does this by stopping the pliers from squeezing down too far but they can also be set too high which means that the pliers won't even touch the glass let alone break it.

If you look at the front of your pliers you'll see that they are actually curved.  The pliers put a downward pressure on both sides of your score line while keeping the center stationary. You need to have both the left and right ends of the pliers on the glass and you should position them fairly close to the start of your score.  I see too many people push their pliers deep into the score line and that doesn't help matters especially if the pliers are incorrectly set.  Oh, and don't forget that the score line will always be in the center of the 'frown' and that the set screw will always be on the top of the pliers.  No exceptions.

If the set screw is too tight then the glass won't be 'flexed' by the pliers.  You can see in the picture below that the pliers are set too loose and the glass (the red line) isn't touching any of the pliers at all.  When this happens most students just twist the set screw so far that the pliers come together too tightly.  This is NOT a solution to the problem!

If the pliers squeeze too tight the sudden pressure will cause your score line to fracture and run  in unpredictable ways.  You can see the pliers are set to close in our next diagram.  Do you see how the glass can possibly break along 5 different places?

This next picture shows a correctly set pair of pliers.  When they are closed there is just enough enough room for the glass to receive pressure only along the centered score line.  We're dealing with glass so we want our pressure to ramp up slowly.  Never suddenly squeeze the pliers.  In longer cuts you'll notice that the break may not  travel the full length of the score.  When that happens just put your pliers on the opposite end of your cut and gently squeeze again.  The two breaks should meet somewhere in the middle and your glass will be cut.  Another trick that  I use is to position my hand far back on the pliers so they take less pressure to get your glass to start running along the score line.

So, let's get to the important part, setting your pliers.  1) Simply turn the screw counter clockwise so the pliers are close to being closed.  2) Place the glass you are cutting in the pliers and squeeze the pliers firmly enough to hold the glass in place.  3) Turn the screw clockwise until it stops turning freely.  4)  Now back it off counter clockwise less than a quarter of a turn.   That's it.  I do need to add that you may need to make adjustments on the fly if your glass varies in thickness throughout the sheet

And lastly, remember that you are dealing with glass.  It never pays to be rough or abrupt with it.  Treat your glass gently and you'll find that cuts you never thought you could make will come out with relative ease. 

OK then, on to our student windows!  Rowena had seen Martha's variation on Lynn's Humming Bird/Hanging Fuchsia window and fell in love with it.  Once she completed her Cross Window she decided it was time to make the Humming Bird for herself but in a slightly larger size.  I guess that means this is Rowena's variation on a variation.  :-)  No matter what you say about it you can't deny that it turned out beautifully.  And by the time Rowena finished the soldering on the second side she had learned how to get the perfect amount of lead on her window-- and that's 80% of the battle to soldering.

 

Becky S has completed her Cowgirl Boot Window and it's full of extra frills.  Becky added some wire work to the green and orange section of the boot and then to top it all off she epoxied 7 different colored gems to the the boot as well.   Look for another great project to be started by Becky next week.

 

Jeanne's latest Beveled Fleur De Lis window is looking great.  She decided to go with a single border rather than adding a second smaller border.  As you can see, the brass channel really doesn't hide any of the outer edges of the bevels.  On the other hand, had this been a larger window she would have had to use a zinc channel to give it some added strength and the thicker zinc would certainly cover some of  the outer edge of the bevels.  This is a great example of how window size can affect design.

 

We welcomed Linda F back to class this week and she celebrated by completing her Beveled Cross Window.  She soldered the front side and then began working on the back in class.  When she was finished this is what it looked like.  Next up for Linda is a Coke Window. 

Our last completed projects are a pair of suncatchers that Paula made.  Her Ballerina Slippers and her Treble Clef turned out spectacular as you can see for yourself.  I had done the edge leading on the Treble Clef because that was really going to be a problem for a first timer-- or so I thought.  I let Paula do the slippers and let me tell you that she has the touch!  In fact, there was no retouching needed on her slipper suncatcher.  And look at how wonderfully her Treble Clef flows.  When a piece of glass disappears behind another it lines up perfectly on the other side.  And the curves all flow smoothly without any jagged sections along the way.   Paula may be new but she seems to have a firm grasp on how to make stained glass.

Ann's latest Fleur De Lis L Window is just eight pieces away from becoming a solder job.  She been careful about the positioning of her glass and making sure that she got as much of the lighter amber grain in the darker sections of her border.  Ann says that she plans on taking a break from this pattern and will move onto another project after this is finished.

 

Brenda's Baby Dog is making progress.  As you can tell from the generous amount of pins (the yellow dots) she's begun to grind all of her pieces to ensure a nice even fit.  Pieces that haven't been ground have been pushed aside which makes this dog window somewhat resemble a Pablo Picasso painting right now!  That will be fixed soon enough.

 

Carol's Wood Duck is very close to being ready for solder.  Her sky was cut from one piece of glass and she made sure that the whiter section of the blue was on the top portion of her window allowing for a more realistic cloud effect.  Once that was done she ground, wrapped and tacked it together and then cut out a thin inner border which she took home to wrap.  I'd say this will be ready for soldering next week.

 

Now here's something that looks completely different.  These are Susan's Raspberries which will fill the center section of her Abita window.  Since she's altered the pattern she'll have to make some adjustments to the background pieces that she's already cut but she's made sure that this is slightly larger than the opening that already exists so there won't be any gaps.  Once this section is ground she'll tack it together and then be able to treat it as one large piece rather than 50 small pieces.

 

Betty has the bottom section of her Iris and Waterlilies Window cut, ground, wrapped and tacked together.  She traced out the top Iris pieces onto her glass but discovered that she didn't have enough purple.  She looked everywhere but couldn't find any more of it.  I thought it was in the large rack but when I pulled it out the glass was a different shade of purple.  When Russ came in he simply reached behind the sheet I looked at and turned up the correct piece that Batty needed so she's on track again.  And her window is looking GREAT.

 

Jeannette decided to begin cutting out the grapes for her window (using the glass that I originally thought Betty was using for her Irises) after she grinds the leaves that she cut out last week.  I love the glass and she's got some good control on using the grinder because what she completed in class is fitting together perfectly. I suspect she'll be doing grape work when she comes back in.

 

Linda L's Mickey Mouse, which she's talked about making since she started classes, is now official.  After getting her paper pattern traced and cut out she began cutting glass.  Mickey's symbolic black ears are cut as well as her sun and the cruise ship in the background. 

 

Shelley has her LSU window all ground but had an issue or two trying to straighten some of her crooked lines.  She thought she might have trimmed some pieces too small and would have to re-cut them but we simply reduced the spacing in between the letters to get everything fitted together.  Although you can see this variance on the right side of her letter 'U', once the pattern is removed no one will ever know that the letters weren't supposed to be that close to one another.

 

Terry's Fleur De Lis window is very near completion now.  With her border tacked in place and her brass channel added all that's left to do is solder it and then add some hooks.  And since the first side is soldered already I think that we'll see this completed in our next update.

 

And here's where our obscure Blog Title comes into play.  With everything cut out Martha will be ready to solder this soon.  She's decided to remove the letters that she painted onto the glass and start fresh.  The only problem is that all of our paint pens are dried up.  But we have more ordered so Martha should be painting when she comes back in. 

 

And in the end we take a look at what Cindy was doing this week.  She's doing something that all students are asked to do by friends once they discover that they know someone who makes stained glass-- repair a window.   This poor thing had a top that was completely smashed.  Cindy rebuilt it and now has only once piece left to replace towards the center of the window.  That shouldn't take long though because she already has the broken piece removed and the replacement piece cut out.

 

So that about wraps things up this week.  Remember to set those running pliers-- that's my secret to getting long cuts out without breaking my glass.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks