My Tranquility Needs Refurbishing

 Zoe's Sunset and Seagull on the Water Window has been completed!  As always her work was outstanding and since this is only her forth window it stands out even more.   Her water shading is perfectly staged and her willingness to utilize the white in her border glass by arranging it in opposing corners gives the window an extra bit subtle yet beautiful flair.  What's not to love here?  

 

 

 

Martha's got a lock on Christmas of 2025 as she now has eight Christmas Ornament Suncatchers ready for the end of the year!  These are not only colorful-- they are absolutely Vibrant with a capital V and will surely make great gifts.

 

Lorrie's Colorful Elephant Window is going to truly light up the room when it is completed. Although it's hard to see she already has numerous pieces near the bottom of the window cut and ground. I have to say that her work has jumped up another notch when I look at what she's accomplished this week!

 

  

 

 

We need a name for this pattern and I've decided to call it the Tulips of Life in an obvious reference to Frank Lloyd Wright's Tree Of Life design which is very similar. At any rate, Linda F began grinding her window and you can tell by the amount of pins (as well as their placement) that she's ready to start foiling. I love that she added color to this design which we've seen done many times but only ever in assorted clear glass textures.  She's made it hers!

  

 

 

Let's Flower Clock only needs a border on it to finish off the glass cutting. Since I've made this before I know for a fact that if you follow the pattern for the borders you will need different widths. To fix that we are tacking this together BEFORE adding the orders, cutting the strips the same width and then adjusting the angles accordingly.

  

 

 

Shelley has jumped on over to making a Cat Window which she drew from a picture of her cat Tootie who passed away about two week ago.   She's not only making windows, she's now learning how to trace over a picture to make a stained glass pattern.  You never want to forget your pet after they've passed and this is help to keep The Big Toot in Shelley's thoughts for years to come.

 

  

 

 

Cindy is making a few Cardinal suncatchers that will be topped off with wire work. One of the wires will form a heart in the bird's breast, some will define feathers while others hold small beads which act as accent pieces that decorate the ends of her suncatcher.

 

  

 

 

June has been plugging away at the grinder like so many of our other students and I have got to say that her grinding is top  notch.   All of her curves flow smoothly with no sharp points and the fit of all of the pieces are well worth bragging about!

  

 

 

 

Kandise is almost finished with the wrapping of her 2nd (and final) piece of her pair of corner Accent Pieces. We're going to make an adjustment or two on the fitting (things always grow a distort after all the pieces are foiled and I can guarantee that this will be a perfect mirror image to the first piece.

 

  

 

Kerry's LOVE window will certainly be completed in time for Valentines day because as your can see he's just finished soldering the back side of it. Since this is the back side I feel the need to point out the fact that it almost says EVIL in reverse! Maybe that's just me though...

 

  

 

 

Barbara has a lot of the glass cut out (all that she can, actually) for her Cross Window.  She switched over from a clear textured glass Cross to a colored one since it stands out so much better and now she's ready to grind away on this.the strips for the corner pieces have been cut on the strip cutter but she won't cut the angles on them until this has been tacked together.

 

  

 

 

Mimi has been cutting away and therefore filling up Egg Cartons at an alarming rate! Remember that she's got 3 of the same pieces in each spot that an egg would normally reside. Each set of three is then numbered so she'll be able to find things easily when it is time to assemble her Lamp. Organization is the key here.

 

  

 

Judy got all of her small Carousel Horse Window cut out and will begin grinding when she comes back in.   You can already see almost exactly what this window will look like when it's finished because it fits together nicely even before having been ground.

 

 

 

Susan D is making a Texas Longhorn Skull which will hang behind a 3D wire frame of the same design that this was literally traced from. Having the stained glass behind the framework will give it a little more depth and make it stand out better when it is hanging.  This is all cut out but not one piece has been  ground which means that she's done some impressive cutting on this!

 

  

Linda L's Mouse is looking kinda like a Mickey Mouse! That's her desired effect and she's definitely accomplished it with a minimum amount of effort. Once Mickey is tacked together she will get her background cut out and after that she'll essentially be home free!

 

  

 

 

Sheri's Koi Window is coming together now that everything has been cut out. She's begun grinding from the bottom left  hand corner and her pieces are fitting together gloriously.

 

  

 

 

With everything tacked together save for the cross and rose in the upper right corner of the sun Bee is just about finished cutting glass for her Dandelion Tribute Window. There are still a few background pieces to cut as well but that will go much easier now that Bee has tacked what she has together which will prevent things from shifting around.  She'll be soldering this before you know it.

 

 

 

Ann has all of her background cut out and is now fairly sure that she is sticking to her original idea of just using two colors for the background. Once this has been ground and she sees exactly what this what look like she may possibly decide to swap some of the pieces for another color but until then she's just going to keep grinding away on this as it is

.

  

 

 

Susan R's pair of Flowerpot Decorations are ready for solder and I have no doubt that at least one of these will be completed upon her return. She makes quick work of these and displays them proudly in her flowerpots.

  

 

Cheryl has her 'MOTOR' letters all cut and ground and next she'll be filling in all of the pieces that make up the background of the top MOTOR section. Her glass is picked and her cutter has been primed so she's raring to go!

  

 

Betty is making a quartet of Cardinals of her own and these four have almost been completely ground which means that they ready for soldering along with a bit of wire work when Betty comes back in. The pattern shows holly leaves to the left of each bird but Betty is omitting them so that these can be hung year round.

  

 

 

Let has also begun picking out colors for her Rooster Window and has decided that his tail feathers will be made with assorted iridized glasses to make the feather appear to be glistening in the sunlight.

 

  

 

 

Lastly we have Annette who will be making a rather fancy Fleur De Lis Window whose pattern has certainly caught our Tuesday night student's attention.  We may be seeing a lot of these being made in the near future!

 

 

And there you have it.  Do the day and let the day do you! 

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Small Is Swell, Big Is Bad. Unless....

Susan D finished her round Bear Panel and it packs a lot of pieces into a small circular stained glass piece.   Measuring only 8 inches in diameter it's easy to see that Susan was dealing with a lot of PPI (Pieces Per Inch) in this project.  As you can see all of that work has paid off handsomely.

  

 

 

Lorrie made this exotic Fish featuring many twisting and turning pieces of glass which she was able to make out of scraps that she had lying around.  Kudos to her for coming up with this pattern that she created herself based on an image that she found in an adult coloring book (but not THAT kind of adult coloring book).  She also picked out the blue glass that she will use for the water in her underwater Scene. 

 

 

 

Let made this beautiful Art Deco styled Oval Panel and her work on it is as exquisite as the design itself.   She actually made this while at home during the time we had off during the snow storm and brought it into class for it to be looked over, colored, and the photographed.

 

 

 

Susan D also completed a 3D Humming Bird Flowerpot Decoration and here we get to see it residing in the spot that it was made for at Susan's house. Later on we'll see another one of these that she has currently under construction. 

Since Ann was the only person we had in class last week I didn't post this picture of what she accomplished.   Here you see that she got all of her cross ground and ready for foil.

 

And this week Ann foiled and then tacked together the Cross  and then began cutting out two colors that will make up the background.  As she began placing the pieces onto the pattern she's decided that adding a third color into the mix might be even nicer so we will see what that looks like when she returns next week.

  

 

Zoe has returned and her Sunset and Seagull Window now has a border surrounding it.   The glass she picked for the border had a very light bone colored edge and instead of cutting it off we used it to for two diagonally opposing corners where the brown quickly fades into the bone for a nice corner effect that is a favorite of mine.  You can clearly see how it looks in the picture below.  Oh, and it's great to have Zoe back! 

  

Judy wanted to make a Carousel Horse but didn't want one that was too big.   We were able to take the rocking horse that I drew up a few months back and convert that into just the pattern she was looking for.  I have to admit that I think that this is going to turn out beautiful indeed because it's got the right detail to window size ratio. 

 

 

Sheri got a border cut and attached to her Sunflower Window and then cut and applied the brass channel that surrounds the window and protects the edges of the glass.   This will more than likely be a completed window next week since she already has the front side soldered.

 

 

 

Mary Grace began working on a baseball with the letter 'A' in the center of it.  The 'A' was cut, ground and wrapped this week which means that it will be ready to be tacked together when she returns.  I have no doubt that this will be completed shortly after that after which  she'll begin working on two initialed Soccer Balls.

 

 

 

And as promised here's a look at the new 3D Humming Bird that Susan D's begun work on.   With all of the pieces cut out of glass she's begun grinding everything for that perfect fit that Susan is so well known for.

 

  

 

Martha was back for the first time this year and is almost finished with her Christmas Ornaments.  She only has three more to tap-tap around the edges and then she'll wash and color these, after which they'll be ready for Christmas 2025.

 

 

 

Bee is moving right along an her Dandelion Tribute Window and it's really coming together now.   You can clearly see what this is going to look like even though she still has to cut the cross and the rose that reside in the center of the sun in the upper right corner.

 

  

Linda L is working on the largest section of her Iron Framed Mickey Mouse Lawn/Pool Decoration.  She's going to cut all of  Mickey out and even tack him together before she cuts the background glass and as you can see she's already  well on her way to having Mickey all cut and ground. 

 

 

 

 

Susan R began a new Flower Pot Decoration and got it all cut out quickly and efficiently in one class.  She says that this is one of her favorite decorations and it's easy to see why.

 

  

 

Lara's got all of her large Books and Flowers Suncatcher cut, ground, wrapped, and tacked together.   She's begun soldering it and when all of the solder has been added she will add some wire work into this which will give some of the flowers more definition as well as forming the pages in the books. 

 

 

 

Cheryl's got the center portion of her Harley Davidson Window all tacked together and had decided to do the section that says MOTOR next.   Since the center is the hardest part of this window this next section should be much easier for her. 

 

 

 

Susan D send me a picture of her bear two weeks ago that I would have put in the blog back then if there was one.   Up near the top of this post you can see the completed picture of Susan's Bear and here is what it looked like previous to her latest class time with us when she completed this Bear.

  

 

 

Lorrie also traced out this very colorful Elephant Window onto poster board   Lorrie does not sit still for long and a large amount of pieces has never scared her away from a project.

  

 

 

And then we have Barbara who is remaking an old favorite window of hers which happens to be a large Cross Window.  I didn't get a picture of the pattern during class and she has taken it home with her along with the bevels that will be used in it as well.  I'm not sure if she picked out the glass for the actual cross itself but I know that she is going to use water glass for the background.

That's about all there is this week but we'll have more to look at next Monday-- you can bank on it!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Happy Birthday Roxie!

For our first completed window of 2025 we look at Linda L's Beveled Inscription Window that she etched, cut, ground, foiled and tacked together while at home.  She brought it into class to put a channel on it and then finished it all off by putting a nice bead of solder on everything.  This is work WELL done!

 

 

 

Next up, I made this Broken Circle as a way to reduce the amount of clear scrap that I had lying around.   These were all pieces that were way to big to throw away but too small to sell in the glass rack.  I didn't quite achieve what I saw in my mind when I drew the pattern (due to stability issues) but I'm more than pleased with the end result.

 

 

 

Lorrie has begun her large Fish Window and when I saw large I mean that it will have a finished size of 37" x 28".  Luckily that means that she won't be dealing with any tiny pieces.  She's making all of the fish first, tacking them together (not soldering--only tacking) and then washing the flux off of them.  Once all of the fish and the bottom of the ocean has be tacked together she'll be able to add the background (water) pieces that will hold everything together.

 

  

 

Kerry wanted to do something a little bit Valentine Day related and decided that a Love window with two large hearts would fit the bill.   He got it all cut out in just one class and even began grinding so this will surely be short work for him.

  

 

Susan D is making another 3D Humming bird which means that her round Bear Window is going to be somewhat on hold for a bit.  She's actually working on them both at the same time since she's on a roll with her Bear but it looks like her Humming Bird will be completed before you know it because she not only has it cut out but ground as well!

 

 

 

Sheri began making a Sunflower Panel and also managed to get everything cut out for it in just one class.  The clear background glass gave her some anxiety issues but by insisting that she cut it out herself she gained more confidence and saw that she was panicking herself over nothing. 

  

Lara began the new year by resuming work on her large Stack of Books  Suncatcher.  There are only the pages of the books left to cut from glass and they will actually be accented with wire to form the smaller bundles of pages (illustrated by red lines on the pattern).  That means that she only has four more pieces of glass to cut to finish this entire project off.

  

Although Susan D is taking some time away from her Bear to work on her Humming Bird it doesn't mean that she's abandoned him altogether.   She's just not spending ALL of her time on the Humming Bird.   That said, I have to compliment her of this Bear Panel because the glass fitting is absolutely flawless.  She's even left the perfect amount of 'gap' for the two pieces of foil that will reside between each piece which is the hardest thing to get students to do because most students worry about too much space in between pieces.  What you see below in Susan's ground Bear is perfection.

  

 

Kandise has begun grinding her second Corner Accent Piece which is a perfect mirror image of her first one which she made last year.  :-)  Her grinding is moving along nicely and she's following her lines wonderfully.   And although she's more than ready to begin something different I think that this will be finished quicker than she believes.

 

 

 

Next up we see the progress that MiMi is making on the largest Hexagon Window that she's made yet.  It's also the last one that she says she'll ever make. This is another great example of perfection in grinding.  If she didn't leave space between each piece the window would expand when she added foil to each piece which would be VERY problematic since this HAS to be a specific size.  She has two pins placed on each side of each piece which comes to 12 pins per piece.   As she foils each piece she removes the pins surrounding it because the foil now takes the place of the pins. 

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace is working on her third 3D Standing Angel and it looks as though she'll be wrapping this up next week and then cutting out the two piece base that holds the Angel upright and resembles a cloud.  Practice makes perfect and that's what Mary Grace is striving for here.

 

 

 

Next up we have Ann who drew up this pattern from a Christmas card and after making a few small adjustments traced out everything onto poster board so that she can begin cutting out glass when she returns again next week.

 

  

 

 

Sometimes students finish things at home and I ask them to please send me a completed picture so we can let our readers see what the finished work looks like.   A lot of times that just isn't possible but Sheri completed her large Beveled Window just in time for it to hang in the window that it will spend the rest of its life in.   And we were lucky enough to get a picture of it in that window!

And there you have it--  The start of a whole new year with students both familiar and new.  I'm finally getting 'with it' and will begin posting completed works on Instagram on our new page there.  It will be a quick way to sort through only completed projects without having to sift through months of separate postings.  You can find us there at this address 

 

https://www.instagram.com/bayousaleglassworks/

 

or you can search for bayousaleglassworks.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks