Gee Willikers

This weeks tip is a simple but important one.  When you wrap your pieces be sure that your glass is clean.  Even a weeks worth of accumulated dust will affect the way the foil sticks to the glass.  Never forget that the strength of your window is determined by the lead that holds it all together and that lead, in turn, is secured by the foil you wrap you glass with.  If the foil isn't  adhering to your glass well, then the lead is only decoration.  Always wash your pieces if you see they are dirty or if the foil isn't sticking well.

Barbara H completed her Crab Window and did quite the bang up job on it as is plainly evident.   She's really caught on to the soldering process and you can see from the finished look of the window that there's little room for improvement.  Slow but steady always wins the race when it comes down to soldering.  The other thing that I like about this window is the irregular border that really sets the entire window off.

 

Bonnie's circular female Cardinal Window is finished and it matches her other Cardinal Window wonderfully.  Bonnie's so good that when she finished soldering the second side of this she took it to straight to the sink, washed it, and then colored it.  She never asked once if I look over her solder because she knew she had done a spectacular job.  And it shows in the picture below.

 

Susan R completed her Summer scene and has used contrast perfectly in this window.  The letters stand out easily from the lighter pastel colors that make up a lot of this window.  Susan's lettering is beautiful in this.

 

A few weeks back we saw Terry's second, top section of her Spiraling Flowers window completed.  This week we can show you the full effect of both windows because they were installed this past week.  Go ahead and tell me this isn't something you wouldn't want in your home-- I won't believe you!

 

Cindy completed this Diamond Fleur De Lis and although there was a minor issue while she was making it, it looks perfect now with the workaround that we used to cover an issue.  The real beauty of this window is that you'd never suspect anything went wrong when looking at the finished window. And the reason for that is because the problem was handled beautifully, like the window itself.

 

Jeannette completed this version of our most popular Nativity Scene and she's done a fantastic job.  Her work has grown in leaps and bounds and the speed and accuracy in which she completed this demands admiration (and believe me, the pieces in this window fit together wondrously!)

 

Susan D has finished five more flower suncatchers for her project.  We've seen a ton of leaves and bugs and flowers get completed and will continue along the same path when she returns.  Sparse is that last thing you'll think when you see her project completed. 

 

Betty finished work on both her beveled Fleur De Lis Window and her Single Sunflower.  She seems to have these down pat now and has even cut her own channel for one of these windows.  It won't be long before Betty won't need me anymore.

 

Carol finished another Robin but this one is going to hang as a suncatcher rather than mount as a Lawn Ornament.  She also added an extra feather on the back of this Robin to balance things out better.

 

Rowena has the bottom tail feathers of her peacock window all cut, ground, and tacked together already!  I can't believe how quickly this is coming together.   She's started working on the top section of the window and to make things easier for her she's ground the body feathers to mesh perfectly with the tail feathers and will now remove the tail section so the window is more easily moved in and out of the shop.  This is a key element to working on large window:  Do it in sections!

 

Mary Grace got the background almost completely cut out for the letter section of her Welcome Window and learned how a piece of glass only 3/4 the length 'needed' could be stretched out.  There are only 3 pieces left to cut and then Mary Grace will add her final border.

 

Betty also began working on this long Nativity Scene window and is already well underway cutting the glass for it.  She's done this one before so the only surprise she had while working on it was that it wasn't the pattern she thought it was.  It certainly won't go to waste, however, so Betty will complete it and then move on to that other Nativity Window-- the right one..

 

Brenda did indeed stop working on her duck window and is now happily wrapping bevels.  She had to cut and grind four of the straight bevels so they line up nicely with the large bevel cluster in the center but that was child's play.  You just cut close to the line, snap it in half, and then grind to fit.  Cutting the bevel is easy-- it's wrapping the cut bevel that can drive you crazy!

 

Carol has begun working on a new panel lamp.  This will be her third lamp and it's based on the Peacock Feather window that I had made for a customer years ago.  Regular blog readers may recognize it as the lamp that Susan R completed a while back but Carol has put her own spin on it by omitting pieces and coloring it her own way.  I like that!

 

Sheri is making amazing progress on her Flowers and Fleur De Lis Window.  With the two flower panels already tacked together she's moved along to cutting the straight strips in the center section.  Since the cuts are straight Sheri got a pistol grip lesson!  After passing it with flying colors she moved on to cutting her actual pieces.  Looking at this window I have to say that she's got the hardest parts of it completed and that she will find that working on the rest of this project will go quickly and easily.

 

Terry got all the background cut for her window and only has the border left to cut.  She'll do the border after everything is ground and fitting together and this is the correct was to handle a window like this.

  

Cindy's Sugar Skull is nearing completion and although you can't see his teeth in this picture, they exist as a separate piece.  Cindy has cut one piece of glass to fill in the opened mouth and then covered that piece completely with foil.  Now she's removing the areas that will form the teeth and once everything is soldered she'll have a large black section with white teeth inside of it.  You'll see exactly how that looks next week when Cindy returns.

 

Jeanne resumed foiling the pieces in her Fleur De Tiger window and things are really coming together now.  Perfect fits are NOT required for this project because of the leading technique that she will be using.  It still looks great already and Jeanne has learned that with tiger stripes it's not all that important to follow the pattern exactly.  That's the beauty of nature!

 

Shelley finished her Boat Window while at home but will bring it in next week so I can get a completed picture of it.   Since finishing that window she's begun work on this Rose in a Vase panel whose vase is constructed from puzzle pieces to represent the Autism Logo.  What an interesting twist on a rose window!

  

Linda L has so much of her Fleur De Lis Window cut out and ground already.  She's now working on the thin clear texture pieces that runs inside the bands of lead in the actual Fleur De Lis design.  Her work is perfect and I have no doubt that Linda will love this window when it's completed.

 

Myrt worked on grinding her mermaid window and believes that she'll be able to complete the grinding on this when she returns next week.  I believe she will as well.  She got the majority of it fitting together and only actually has a few pieces left to go

 

Next we take a look at Lara's version of the same Mermaid that Myrt is working on which is just set in a different part of the Sea.   Lara has her thin inner border firmly attached to her window and will tack the second border on when she comes back.  Once that's tacked together she can begin the actual solder process which will involve a lot of jumping around on this window since there are so many thin pieces that can easily crack if too much heat stays on them for too long.

 

Linda F's Pumpkin Window is all tacked together and even has its channel attached.  That means that she only has to solder this to finish it off which also means that we'll most assuredly see this completed next week!

 

Ann now has the final border of her large Fleur De Lis Window attached and it's all ready for a zinc channel to be attached.  She's also started soldering the front of this so it's coming right along with no wasted time at all. 

 

Becky S has all the glass cut for her mid-sized Magnolia Window which includes the outer clear border that is barely visible in the picture.  The texture of the glass she's using in the final border matches the board she's working on so perfectly that I was losing track of the pieces that were set away from the window.  They are in the picture though and next week you may very well see this completed.

 

Tasha has begun cutting the glass for her 3D Flower Mirror and is moving along nicely with it.  Although the pieces are small, they aren't tiny enough to cause problems.  Sometimes when you cut small pieces you have to grind them into shape but these are big enough for us to recognize the pieces before they even come in contact with the grinder.

 

Lastly, Susan R began work on a stained glass box and has designed the top herself.  I'm sure the top will be completed when Susan comes back to class and then she'll work on making the box bottom to attach this to.

And with that we'll call this a week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Where The Oeuvre Isn't Monochromatic

Drawing It Out

When soldering a window it's very easy to suddenly notice that your bigger joints are flooded with solder.  Even the most innocent joint can have many connectors as you can see below.  You;d expect the flower center to have 6 connectors but there's a leaf in the lower right with 6 connections as well!  These are easy to overfill with solder unless you know the simple trick around it.

 

Simply draw outward from the joints rather than into the joint.  It's true that you'll always have a connector on both ends but when you see a joint begin to fill with solder take a minute to draw some of that solder out and onto the other lines running into it.  Also remember that you should  never have your solder on your soldering iron tip when you come into a joint.  Always remove your lead from your iron at least a half inch before you stop.

So Betty's Kokoppelli Window was completed this week and I have to say that it made a wonderful conversion from Indian art to a modern stained glass window.  The black glass that she used makes up for the lack of detail in the man by turning it into a silhouette.  Perfect!

 

 

Charlie's American Flag Window turned out to be one of the nicest Flags I've seen yet.  His insistence that the flag have furls paid off in dividends for this project.  So far the stars are a blank but I think a silver paint pen will most likely come out when he gets this home.

 

Carol finished her first Robin Redbreast Lawn Ornament and has done a bang up job on it.  This would even look great surrounded in glass to make it an actual window. 

  

Susan D finished three more of her Flower Suncatchers that will form her Flower Cornucopia.  She also had a slew of leaves in tow with her so I think things are really coming together for her.

 

Betty also finished this Angel Window that she's always been so fond of.  It's a great window and according to Betty it's a great gift or donation as well.

Becky S started cutting on this Magnolia Window that she traced the pattern out for last week.   With the flower and leaves all cut I'd say that she's making excellent progress.   This window is the perfect size for this pattern-- not too large and not too small.  Sometimes the size of a window affects its overall interpretation (far too often you'll see a small window blown up larger than it should be) but in this case it's a perfect match for perfection.

 

Sheri began working on her Flowers and Fleur De Lis Window and has learned how to look for repeated patterns throughout a window to make things easier to cut out.  This window repeats in quarter sections so only 1/4 of the pattern had to be traced.   Sheri traced each of her pieces onto the glass in two's, first two on the front and then two backwards.  This gives her all the pieces for the entire window while only having to trace one quarter the amount of paper pattern pieces.

  

Brenda took one look at the pattern for her Transom Window and forgot all about her Duck Panel.   The inner beveled border adds so much to this design including extra strength which is why she's making this window in one long piece rather than three sections as originally planned.  She's wrapping her bevels now and once that's finished there will only be a handful of background pieces (20) to cut out.

 

Linda F has all but her border cut ground and ready to wrap on her pumpkin panel.   This is going to be a popular pattern as I already know someone who plans on starting one of their own next week.

 

Jeannette came in with this Nativity Scene almost completely cut, ground and wrapped.  After cutting out the pieces for her sky she tacked everything together and then added a final border.   That means that this window is done save for the soldering!   Talk about fast and proficient.  Jeannette has done an amazing job on this while she was at home.

  

Paula  completed the top of her UL Box and then began working on a Sunflower Box Top.  With the sunflower all ground and tacked together she then traced it onto the piece of tan glass that she's using for the background and then cut and ground those (tiny) background pieces.   By the time the night ended Paula was ready for solder.  Next week we're going to see at least one of these boxes get its bottom attached.

 

Cindy resumed work on her Sugar Skull and has changed the glass that the skull will be cut from.  She was originally going to use a clear non-glare glass but has now decided to cut it from a standard Spectrum White.  The change is a good one in my opinion because clear textured glass is still clear and skulls are traditionally white.  Cindy also got the final border cut for her Fleur De Lis Window as well which means that these are both almost complete.

 

Terry has begun cutting out the pieces to her humming bird window and has things moving along nicely.  Once she's got the oval center tacked together she'll cut four corners on it to 'rectangle it out' and then add a final border.

  

Linda L is making incredible progress on her Fleur De Lis Window and this week you can see just how this window will look once it's finished.   Her work is flawless and Linda is proving herself to be an excellent glass craftswoman!

 

Mary Grace now has the top section of her Welcome Window tacked together and has begun working on the bottom letter section of the window.  When working on letters we break the rules and cut out ONLY the pieces that make the letters and then grind them to fit inside a frame (made by the actual window and a wooden yardstick in this case).  The grinding of the letters determines the quality of the 'handwriting' in the finished window and cutting the background afterwards helps maintain a nice even fit.  Mary Grace cut her letters from white glass which you'll see far easier when her background is cut.

  

Myrt now has all of the water cut out for her mermaid window and has even begun grinding it.  And yes, those are actual Sea Shells that she has in the corners.  Next week she'll place the rest of the mermaid pieces in the window to avoid and problems as she's grinding.  This mermaid even has a name but you'll have to ask Myrt what it is.

 

Susan R has almost completed her Summer Window and now only has the back side left to solder.  We found a heat crack in one of the outer border pieces and luck was with us because it was discovered BEFORE the channel was put on (which would have made the repair harder if it were already attached).  You can't see any sign of the repair and that's how we like things to appear after  'disaster' strikes.

Rowena  is making her Peacock window look downright easy.  All of her bottom feathers have been cut out and a lot of it has been ground as well.  Once this section is completely tacked she'll move along to the top section of the window where the pieces are bigger and easier to work with.

 

Bonnie got her border attached to her circular female Cardinal Window and has the front side soldered as well.  When she comes back in she'll get the round zinc channel attached and then flip this over to finish it all off.

 

Barbara had a class to herself this week which enable her to get some quality work done on her Crab Window.  With the front side completely soldered and the back side only needing the borders soldered I think it's safe to say that this will be finished when Barbara comes back in next week.

 

Ann's got all of the glass cut out now on her Fleur De Lis Window and only needs to skim, wrap, and tack the third and final border into place.  Once that's done (next week) we'll get the zinc channel attached and then she can begin soldering.  I'm thinking that it won't be long until she gets to work on the Cross Window that she really wants to get cutting on.

 

Shelley and Chad got the borders attached on their Boat Window and by the time Shelley left class she had a zinc channel surrounding her window to give it some added stability.  The front side is  completely soldered and the back is nearly there already.  Shelley's on a roll!

 

Lara's version of the Mermaid Window is all wrapped and ready to be tacked.   We've discussed what she should do with a border and I think we have her convinced to give this a double border.  Lara talked about a clear texture for the inner accent border but I have another idea that I'm going to show her when she comes back in next week.

 

Martha put the last few pieces of her background in place and even hid a break in the best way possible.  One of the pieces of background was just a bit too curvy to cut without breaking so we added another lemon to the pattern to cut it in two and now everything is hunky dory!

 

Carol has two more of her Robin Redbreasts in the works and they're almost finished so she'll be moving along to something new (like the lamp pattern that you see above the right Robin) real soon now.

 

Lastly there's Betty who also worked on a Sunflower Panel as well as a Beveled Fleur De Lis Window.  These are very near completion and I think we'll see one of them finished when she returns next week.

And that's about it this time around. Classes start again tomorrow and I'm all ready for them!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks