I Was Waiting For You To Shut Up

Numerous students tell me that they aren't sure how to differentiate an inside curve from an outside curve.  It all depend on how the curve is positioned in reference to the piece of glass that you are saving.  An inside curve cuts into the piece you are trying to save while an outside curve always pushes away from the piece you are saving.  A circle consists of all outside curves while a crescent moon shape has an outside curve and one inside curve.   Inside curves must be removed CAREFULLY starting with a straight cut across the two ends (points) of the curve.  We call this a point to point cut. An outside curve can be cut in one pass because any unplanned breaks will happen to the surrounding waste glass.  Cutting outside curves in multiple passes only adds sharp points to your piece that will need to be ground off at the grinder later on 

Betty made this Beveled Window while she was at home and brought it in to get some hooks attached and its photo taken.  There are 32 pieces in this window and only four of them aren't bevels.  If you look again you might notice that there isn't a single curve in the entire window-- it's all straight lines.  My hat goes off to Betty for keeping all of her lines straight without any waver whatsoever.  That's what makes this window look so good.

 

Paula's MLB baseball Suncatcher looks great!  To make sure the bat stays securely attached to the ball we ran a thin piece of wire around the outside edge of the suncatcher and then buried it in the lead edge.  The end result is a wonderfully stable suncatcher that without the wire would fall apart quickly.  Now it's strong enough to be hit out of a ball park!

 

Ann's Crosses turned out beautiful.  She used one piece of iridised glass for each cross but positioned her pieces to get the maximum effect of the colors that each sheet had in them.  The top left Cross is made out of purple iridised glass which didn't have much color throughout so she flipped key pattern pieces over and used the back (un-iridised) side of the glass to give the cross some variety.  The Cross on the lower right is made out of black iridised glass which has many colors throughout the sheet.  By carefully positioning her pattern pieces it looks as though she used at least 4 different colors to make that cross.  But she didn't!

 

Bonnies work has been conspicuously missing from our Blog updates for the past few weeks because she had decided to make this Horse Window for her daughter and didn't want to take a chance that it would be spotted on the Blog so Bonnie asked me not to post any ongoing pictures of it.  I've been documenting it week by week and promise to show you the progress it's made  in a future post.  And the reason I'm unveiling this now is because the cat is out of the bag... Or is the horse out of the stall?  Let's just say that it's not a secret anymore.  And that came from the horse's mouth. :-)

 

Baby the dog is moving right along.  There are only a few pieces left to grind in the name and then Brenda will tack this all together and add her border to it.  I can certainly see that border happening when she returns next week because this window is almost history now!

 

Carol's Tabasco Window is all ground, wrapped and tacked together.  The actual label for the bottom isn't painted yet so what you are seeing is just the pattern beneath the window but it will certainly be ready to be tacked into place when Carol comes back in.   In fact, Carol has taken this home with her so she can get a head start on the soldering process.  I loved this window when Patty made it and think that I'm going to love Carol's version of it as well.

 

Janet's Rooster Window is almost all cut out and ground.  This is bigger than you might think by looking at the picture so I'll get some actual dimensions to pass along to you next week.  I may be wrong but I think that all Janet has left to do on this is to cut out 10 pieces of clear background glass.  It's really looking great and I can't wait to see her face when she sees it completed because it's going to be a looker!

 

Terry's latest Symmetrical design is just about out the door.  With the center section all ground Terry set upon wrapping all of her pieces during class.  Before she left she had the center tacked together and the pieces of her border all cut and ground.  This is yet another window that I think will be completed when Terry comes back for her next class.

 

Cindy started soldering her Magnolia Lamp after she got the cap attached to it and filled in a few pieces that overlap the three sections that make the lamp.  She's got all the upper grid work done and some of the flower band which means that this lamp is almost finished!

It looks like Linda L only has five pieces of glass left to cut out and grind into place before she can start working on the border for this window.  And we all know how quickly borders go.  She's taken it home with her to get a head start on wrapping her pieces so this is ANOTHER window that just about completed now.

 

It's hard to see what's going on here but that's only because there's so much clear glass in this terrarium that Lynn has begun making.  She's got a huge portion of the project cut out and has already begun grinding all of her pieces and wrapping them.  This will be hard to see as she's working on it but the end result is going to be spectacular and will photograph perfectly.

 

Moment of truth here.  Everything is filled in save for the bottles in Susan's Abita Window.  Well, technically there are three small holes but they've been filled in since this picture was taken.  We've devised a way to support the actual Abita bottles while Susan solders this but our next endeavor will be getting the bottles to fit into the window perfectly.  And that will be explained in detail when Susan returns and we fill in the last two pieces.

  

Myrt officially completed all of the grinding and wrapping on her Cross and Dove Window so she's going to be soldering these four sections when she comes back in next week.  It's going to be difficult to photograph these with light behind them but I think I may have an idea.  We'll probably see how that works out next week or the following week when Myrt completes these.

  

For some reason I was under the impression that Martha was making three or four of these Stylized Fleur De Lis Windows but she's making a pair of them.  They're for different people so she's not worried about them matching but now that the FDLs themselves have been tacked together Martha has begun cutting her background glass out.  She has one down and that leaves her with just one more to go.  Before you know it Martha will be working on the borders to these.

 

 Rowena's first cluster is officially tacked together and I think she had a lot of  'fun' wrapping those tiny little pieces. (Read that with a tad bit of sarcasm.)  Making sure nothing got mixed up added an extra level of difficulty to the process but in the end it all worked out.  Once everything was tacked Rowena began cutting out her second cluster.  In fact, you can see all of the pieces arranged in numerical order traveling along the top and the right side of the pattern.  That means Rowena will be grinding when she returns.

 

Betty's Three Wise Men are all ready for solder.  In fact, the front side is already soldered and her brass channel is on the window so I can't wait to see what she comes in the door with next week.  I know this will be ready for its closeup but I have no clue what Betty plans on starting next.

  

Check out Mary Grace's Iris.  With just the background left to cut I'd say that Mary Grace has this window completely under control now.   Once this is tacked together she'll cut out her background and then consider what she plans to do for a border(s).  It's going to be tough to screw this up at this point, all of her choices have been spot on so I expect nothing less than perfection from her finished piece!

 

Becky S has her Monogrammed 'C' Window all cut out and ready to be soldered.  In fact, she had soldered the front side of it while she was at home but couldn't do the back side because she still didn't have the border attached.  While she was in class she got her border pieces completed and she's ready to wrap them (which I'm sure she'll do during the week).  I love her border glass which is a textured series of squares that line up perfectly with the bevels that she's using in the corners. 

 

And last, but certainly not least, we take a look at Jeannette's Grape Window.   She's got all the hard parts completed since she has two clusters tacked together and her third cluster all cut out.  Once she gets that last one tacked she can move on to her background which consists of about 20 pieces of glass. There are a lot of pieces in this window but once this is hanging up Jeannette will be happy that she went the extra mile and didn't cut back on the grapes.  All that extra work will easily shine when this is completed.

Coming soon we're going to have a little test that you can take to learn just what needs to be ground to make your glass pieces fit specific shapes.  I could go into detail but I'll save that for the actual test.  Oh, and if you're a student and you don't get a passing grade you have to do sit ups for us!  ;-)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I'm On Watch

This week we're going to start by talking about the positioning of your pattern pieces on a piece of glass.  Most people place their pieces in one of the corners (see the picture below) which leaves you with an irregular shaped piece of glass left to store.

 

What you should try to do is line up your pieces across the entire edge of the glass and line up any straight pieces you can with the straight edge of the glass.   A simple straight cut leave us with a more usable piece of glass for future projects and allows us a small piece of overage to cover any breakage that may occur when cutting out your pieces.  I know that grain and color are an important part of deciding pattern placement but if you lay out the important pieces first you can fill in with the rest of your pieces accordingly to make a clean break from the remained of the sheet of glass.

Okay, so I've been dying to reveal this next window because Betty's Iris and Water Lilies Window is amazing. Consisting of almost 300 pieces in a window that measures about 22 x 16, you know that Betty had her work cut out for her.  Just look at all of those leaves and stems!  But the end result was certainly worth it and I feel that it's safe to say that this is Betty's tour de force. She also managed to pull off the perfect border combination (using a different but similar purple glass) which makes the window look even better than the original pattern could have ever hoped to acheive.

 

And then we have Lynn's Black Swan Ballerina Window which is another showstopper.  Based on a drawing of her own design Lynn went all the way with this project.  Her clear baroque background glass was cut from one fitted piece making the texture lines match all throughout the background.  She also made use of bevels in her outer border which, I think, looks better than a border made entirely out of bevels.  All bevel borders work best on all clear windows.  Lynn did a fantastic job on this window-- she should be very proud of it.

 

And Shelley completed her LSU Window this week.  She says that she's staying away from patterns with straight lines but I think everything worked out just fine on this project.  From the colors to the textures to the workmanship, Shelley has proven that you can't keep her down!  Next up for Shelley are more Mermaids.

Becky S has her 'C' Window all ground and has taken it home to foil during the week.  She even plans on soldering the front side at home if she can find the time.  She has a definite plan for the final border involving a very interesting clear textured glass and 4 bevels that we'll most likely reveal next week.

And Brenda worked on the name portion of her Dog window and as you can see from the picture the dog's name is Baby.  (Although you might have guessed that from the previous posts about this project.)  She's only 12 pieces and a border away from completing her window so I think we'll see it finished soon.

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Carol has finished cutting all of the glass for her Tabasco Window and even began grinding it this week.  She only has a few pieces left to go and then she'll be wrapping each of those pieces with copper foil.  We hope to have the Tabasco logo drawn onto her glass when she comes back in which will be fairly easy.  This window is looking great already and Carol is becoming more and more confident with each piece she cuts and grinds.

 

Cindy got her Magnolia Lamp all tacked this week and it fit together about as perfectly as one could ever hope.  She put this together in three sections and then soldered them together to make one globe.  I think we ended up adjusting less than 10 pieces of glass to get it all together and on a sectional lamp with fill-ins, that's not bad at all.  In fact it's GREAT!  She'll add the cap next week and then begin soldering.

 

Janet had her pattern with her this week :-) and was able to really get her Rooster ground perfectly.  She just has a few tail feathers left to go and then there will only be the background and border left for her to cut out.  The border on this is unique in that it it not a straight border connecting to the background glass.  It's actually made of randomly positioned semi-squares which will give this a very distinctive look.  As you might have noticed, Janet is also worked on a small multicolored cross which will be the first of three that she plans on completing while her Rooster is under construction.

 

And speaking of the Smaller Cross design you can see two of Ann's variations on the pattern below.  Both crosses are made of solid iridised colors, one in purple (which looks incredible in the light) and the other in black.  The iridised black cross is possibly the more striking of the two because of the way Ann positioned her pattern pieces on the glass.  Black iridized glass really highlights the mother-of-pearl effect of the glass and Ann has managed to make one sheet of glass look like many different colors by utilizing certain spots of her glass as you can see in the cross on the left.

 

Next up we have Jeannette's Grape Window and she is really advancing quickly on it.  With her first cluster all tacked together she's got the second one all cut out and partially ground.  We've placed all of the pieces on the side of the pattern and have them laid out in numerical order to make grinding the cluster easier without having all of those extra grapes to work around and worry about mixing up. Organization is the key to working on projects with many similar pieces.

 

Myrt's Dove and Cross Window is almost 100 percent ground now.  With 2 of the sections wrapped I'd say that this design wasn't hard for her to do at all.  In fact, I'll have to see what she wants to do next because this will be completed before you know it!  I was really impressed with her grinding because she left plenty of room for the foil without there being gaps between the pieces afterwards. 

  

Betty's Three Wise men Window is moving along quickly.  With just a seven boards, three pieces of sky, and the border to go I think that she'll have this one finished before you can say gold, frankincense and myrrh!  Betty says that this is a one time only window, but since Betty is a woman who likes to works in pairs, I think I'll wait a few weeks (or even months) before accepting the fact that this is truly a one time deal. Something tells me that when she sees this completed she's really going to like it.

  

Susan's Abita window is almost completely filled in now.  There are only a few white spaces poking through which means that those bottle spaced white openings will need to be filled with bottles soon.  The nice thing about windows with small pieces like this is that they are generally a breeze to solder.  I really believe that this window is going to be everything Susan hoped it would be.

 

And next we take a look at another logo design.  Linda F's Coke Window is already looking like a winner even though the only glass she has cut out so far is the red background.  But the lettering itself will be cut from white glass so the picture gives you a pretty good idea of what this will look like when it's completed.  I can already tell that this is going to be a fun one for Linda.  There are five or six pieces that are going to have to be ground out rather than cut, but that's what happens when you reproduce a logo that wasn't designed to be done in glass.  That said, I have no doubt at all that Linda will do wonderfully on this.

 

Jeanne has begun cutting her cross out and has opted to do her grinding as she cuts.  Sometimes this can be a valuable way to do things, especially if your border will be cut from one piece of glass.  And in this case, with all of those straight lines, we want the background to be as straight as possible which means assembling the cross portion so it can't shift easily before she cuts her background.

 

Mary Grace is moving right along with her Iris window.  In fact, the background is the last part to cut out and it's almost ready to be traced out.  There's a missing piece of ribbon border in the picture but it's only missing because Mary Grace had it at the grinder when I took this picture.  She agonized a bit over the color of the four accent pieces but in the end I think she couldn't have picked a better color then the one she picked.

 

Terry's latest Geometrical window show me that she has mastered the art of making a symmetrical pattern.  She knew what she wanted to do but was afraid that two of  the cuts would be too difficult so she drew out an alternate plan on top of the pattern and then asked my advice.  I saw that her original idea had some complex cuts in it, but nothing impossible so that's what she went with.  You may not realize it  but there are only a few pieces left to go in this window because her white background is already cut and laid in place.  I suspect that this will be another quick window for Terry.

 

I know, you're looking at this wonderful baseball suncatcher and thinking the letters stand for Major League Baseball, but you'll be wrong!  The letters are actually initials and they belong to Paula's Grandson who will most certainly be hanging this in his room next week when I'm sure Paula will complete it. She's done a wonderful job getting this suncatcher together and her attention to detail is something that will only make her work look better and better.

 

Now this version of the Grape Window that Rowena is doing may look like the same one that Jeannette is making but upon closer inspection you'll discover that there are subtle yet distinct differences.  First off, this version is missing the cluster of grapes on the far left.  And most importantly, it is smaller that the window Jeanette is working on.  Had we included the cluster of leaves we would have had to make the grapes even smaller than they already are and that wouldn't be nice to do to Rowena.  But she's moving along as quickly as Jeannette is so I can't say that the smaller grapes are giving Row much of a problem.  She'll be wrapping all those little round pieces when she comes back in next week and then she'll tack them all together.

 

Lastly we take a look at the first of Martha's Stylized Fleur De Lis Windows.  The FDL itself is all cut, ground and even foiled so Martha is going to grind the second one that she has already got cut out.  Once she has all of her FDL's ground, wrapped, and tacked together she will start cutting her background pieces out.  Martha is doing a great gob here--- all of her curves flow smoothly and the design is perfectly symmetrical.

And that's what happened this week during our classes.  We have a new week just about to start and a lot of projects that should be completed so be sure to check out our next update.  You never know what you'll see our students making next!


Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Experiencing a Dummy Ache

As promised in our last update we're going start thing out this week by calling attention to something called 'stairstepping'.  It's a problem that I see in many stained glass windows that can easily be avoided. Stairstepping occures when you finish foiling your glass and don't match the end of the foil evenly with the start of your foil where they overlap.  Sometimes it's unavoidable, especially if you tear your foil rather than cutting it with scissors (like I do).  If you tear your foil it can stretch making it impossible to get a smooth connecting point where the start and stop meet.  When this happens you end up with a stair step which the red arrows in the picture below are pointing to.  If we just ignore these the solder with follow the foil and the stair stepping will become even more apparent.  But fear not because there's a simple solution and all it involves is a razor blade or a razor knife.   Just start your blade where the foil overhangs (the arrows are pointing to these locations in the pictures) and apply a bit of pressure while moving the blade to the left on the top piece of glass of to the right on the bottom piece.  If you apply a firm amount of pressure the blade will trace along the edge of the foil under the stair step.  When you're finished cutting (it should only take one pass) just pull the excess foil off with the blade and make sure the foil lines up perfectly.  Even small stair steps should be trimmed (as shown in the upper piece of glass).  But remember to make your trims BEFORE you start to solder because after the solder is applied to the foil there's no fixing the problem. 

So wow, I have to say that Terry's latest window looks spectacular when it's lit up.  I liked it when it was on the table but I love it now!  It's a great design with some excellent craftsmanship pulling it all together.  I wanted to see this completed because I wasn't sure of we were going to have anything other than Martha's State Trooper Window to feature as a completed project this week but as you'll soon see I had nothing to worry about because there are plenty of finished windows this week and Terry's is just the first.

Martha's State Trooper Window is a smashing success (but not in a literal way).   She completed it just in time for its big event and her work on it is beautiful.   She took extra care with the painted letters and it truly show in the finished window.  Utilizing two different shades of blue and yellow, this  window really lights up nicely proving that sometimes less is more.  In fact, you barely even notice the white background because the bright yellow and deep blues are what catch your eye rendering the white glass essentially neutral.  At any rate, it's a great combination and Martha should be proud of her work.

 

Paula's Mudkip Suncatcher is officially completed this week and her grandson loved it!  And even if Pokémon aren't your thing you have to admit that it really did turn out nicely.  The only problem is that there's another grandchild involved here and he's going to be needing an initialed Baseball Suncatcher.  That means that I know what Paula will be doing next week!

 

Ann's first Cross Suncatcher is now completed and I love how she used blue iridescent glass for  all of the pieces but the center.  She reversed some of the pattern pieces so that both sides of the cross have a mixture of regular blue and iridised blue making this a suncatcher without a definitive front or back.  No matter which way you look at it you will always be looking at the front!  Next week Ann will be starting a a few more of these but in a smaller size rather than this large version.

  

Linda F put the finishing touches on her Nativity Window and I will state for the record that her soldering has improved dramatically.  Slow and steady is the way to go and I think she's right there now.  So many people tell me that they don't know how slowly they should be moving their soldering iron and my answer is always the same:  go slow enough to see that the bead you're leaving behind is smooth.  If it doesn't look good you are probably moving too quickly.  Many students think that soldering involves 2 steps, the initial soldering phase and then the touch-up.  Nope.  When you solder at the correct speed the solder bead will be perfect on the first pass and not require any touching up.

Our final completed piece is a window that Betty made at home to help her learn how to use her new Strip Cutter.  All of the straight pieces were cut using her new tool as well as the squares.  I have to say that I do enjoy this window and I hope that the picture can show you just how nicely the amber glass stands out in it. 

Woah, just look at this!  Susan has her window almost all cut out now save for the fill ins behind her raspberries which are now officially cut into place.  Reworking the existing pieces of background to the new raspberries turned out to be very easy and probably took less than 20 minutes to accomplish.  We're about to add the actual bottles themselves into the window and we think we have a way to keep everything stable.  More details will follow on that when we get to it.

 

Janet's Rooster window had a slight problem this week but she managed to trek on no matter.  Let me put her mind at ease by telling her that this isn't the first time someone has brought all of their pieces to class but forgot to bring the pattern!  Still, Janet made the most of her time and cut out the red comb of her rooster and then skimmed all of the pieces till they fitted together all the while making sure that she wasn't skimming too much so that everything would still fit on the pattern without being too small.  It was almost like working on a puzzle figuring out where everything went but Janet persevered and there's certainly no mistaking what this window is even without the pattern being underneath it.

 

Becky S's Monogrammed 'C' Window is more than halfway ground now and it's really coming together beautifully.  Thin borders can be difficult to work with but Becky is making her double border look easy.  All of her joints match perfectly and her curves are smooth and even.  I can't wait to see this one tacked together so I can hold it up and get a sneak peak at it!

 

Carol's Tabasco Window is ready for the grinder!  About the only left to do with this (besides a possible border) is to cut out the Tabasco tag and paint the lettering on it.  Carol is doing great and this window didn't give her any problems at all.  Carol's going to have to start thinking about what she wants to do for a border--  Does she want one or two, and what colors they'll be.  

 

Linda L's Mickey On Vacation Window is looking great!  With the water cut you can now easily spot the cruise ship in the distance.  There are only three more pieces of glass left to cut on this project and then she'll move onto the double border that will surround it.  But first Linda will be taking a real life cruise to Alaska so we we aren't going to see her for the next two weeks.  We'll miss her but she promised to have a few drinks for us while she's gone!

 

The top section of Brenda's Baby Window is pretty well set and this week saw her turn her attention over to the nameplate that will go underneath this wonderful dog.  After that it will be border time and then we'll cut and grind the eyes so they end up in a natural position..

 

Martha now has her full attention on her three (or is it four?) Stylized Fleur De Lis Windows.  I know she has one completely ground and is now working on the second one of the series.  Things get easier to make when you do them a second or third time but the work can become monotonous as well.  Sometimes taking a break in between repeated projects can be a good thing.  We'll see what Martha decides to do as she moves forward on these.

 

I'm very happy with this piece is turning out because Shelley was having some issues with her straight lines which caused us to shrink the pattern inward a bit to get everything lined up nicely.  Just look at this window and tell me that it isn't perfect.  Shelley re-adjusted her pattern on the fly and now has her LSU window all ready for solder.  This one might very well be finished next week!

 

Myrt's Dove and Cross four piece window is so very close now.  I'm amazed at how easily she's making this look-- I almost didn't make the rays of light two toned when I was drawing it because I didn't want to overwhelm her, but when I saw how good it looked I just had to put it in.  And Myrt is making it all look like child's play.  She's hoping to get some bevels in for her next project and I think it may be time to call and check on her order since it's been so long.   (All of her bevels got shipped to China!)

 

Rowena's Grape window is moving along nicely.  With her leaves all tacked together Rowena began cutting out her largest cluster of grapes.  She has about half of them cut and will be spending her next class assembling the center cluster.  We had one slight setback when she cut the branches and forgot that the pattern had been altered.   That left her with a few branches coming out a little short, but as you can see, everything is fixed nicely now.

When Betty walked in the door with all of her leaves not only cut but ground and tacked into place, my jaw just about hit the floor.  Yes, it took her a lot of time to do but just look at this Water Lily and Iris Window!  With both of her borders now cut I suspect she'll have this finished before you know it.  And while she was waiting to get her border glass Betty started working on this sister window to the Nativity Scene that she likes so much and that Linda F has completed this week.  Look out because Christmas is less than half a year away already!

 

Jeanette's Grape Window is like a train moving full steam ahead.  With the largest cluster of grapes now completely tacked together she'll be moving on to the medium sized one next (the one on the right).  There's a lot of detail in this window but when it's completed you'll see just how all of that details pays off in the end by turning what would  normally be a great project into a spectacular project.

 

Next we have Mary Grace who now has her Iris wrapped and her leaves all cut and ground.  She'll be cutting the glass for her ribbon border when she returns next week.  I think the hard part is well behind her now because once the ribbon is completed (and it won't be hard to cut) the rest of the work will go very quickly.

 

Well, Cindy has all of her Magnolia Lamp cut and wrapped.  Next week she'll put it all together and then start soldering.  The magnolia lamp is one of my favorites and it's a great first lamp to make.  I'm thinking that Cindy's will be finished before you know it!

 

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Lynn's Ballerina Window before she left.  In fact, it wasn't until 10 minutes after the fact that I noticed her empty spot and asked where she was-- I guess it was a hectic day!  But this is a piece of the glass that she attached to her Ballerina Window as the final border.  There are some bevels throughout the border as well and I promise to get a better picture when she returns!

 

And that about wraps things up this week. 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks