A Night In Paris With Sammy

Paula is the first of two people who are making Blue Roses.   This is absolutely stunning and as always Paula made the majority of it while she was at home between classes.  She would come in with questions and do time intensive steps while in class (foiling, grinding etc.) but she's basically on her own throughout the cutting and soldering processes which is wonderful because as you can see her work is exemplary.

  

 

 

 

Susan R put the finishing touches (the soldering) on her Four Birds On a Branch and then added some wire work to accent her pretty birds all in a row. This is the perfect size for the pattern itself with pieces that aren't what you would call small but certainly not large either. The end result is what you see below and I know Susan was very happy with it as was I.

 

 

 

Linda L was kinda sorta in between projects and decided to make this Flower Pot Ornament.  In just one class she began and finished it after having drawn out the pattern while she was at home.  The flower center is actually a a depression style bowl that when sitting on a table is about 3 inches high.   That makes this a three dimensional piece!  The stake is a piece of zinc channel that has been soldered along the inside channel section to make it sturdier but if there's any hint of 'wilting' Linda can always run a length of steel rod from Lowe's or Home Depot inside the hollow of the zinc.

 

 

 

Cindy finished her two Hearts Within Hearts Suncatchers and don't you agree that they look great?   She's made quick work of these cute Hearts Nettie was busy making 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornaments at home and brought them all in to see how they get soldered together to make that 3D angle to the wings and how to hide the seam with a stylish Butterfly Body.   Two of her flock where completed and leaving about 4 more left to go, some of which will be completed next week.   If they look anything like this pair then Nettie is going to end up with  beautiful set of Butterflies.  (And I have to admit that I DO know that all look as good as these.)

 

 

 

 

Nettie was busy making 3D Butterfly Lawn Ornaments at home and brought them all in to see how they get soldered together to make that 3D angle to the wings and how to hide the seam with a stylish Butterfly Body. Two of her flock where completed and leaving about 4 more left to go, some of which will be completed next week. If they look anything like this pair then Nettie is going to end up with beautiful set of Butterflies. (And I have to admit that I DO know that all look as good as these.)

 

 

 

Betty finished her three Dimension Bee Lawn Ornament and learned how to curve her pieces as she tacks them together. The body of the Bee is curved along its horizontal axis while the wings curve vertically. Hopefully the second picture of the Bee will help illustrate this.

 

Sheri began a Love Heart and only has a few pieces (four) left to go before she begins foiling and then soldering this. Once it's foiled you will easily see the word 'Love' within the heart because all of the cuts will become more apparent. 

 

 

Susan R has already begun a new USA Star Panel which she hopes will incorporate a beveled star. We've ordered the bevels but the sizing is hard to account for since we aren't exactly sure how the star is measured. Hopefully it's the overall height / width of the Star which sounds logical, but when the description says that it's made of five diamond bevels you just don't know for sure.

 

  

 

 

Julie came in and filled in the few missing leaves on the right side of her Heron Window and then cut out the remaining pieces of the Heron itself (save for the beak). This window is taking shape quickly and it's going to be spectacular. And keep in mind that Julie is our newest student because you'd never suspect that judging by her work on this! 

  

 

 

MiMi has begun soldering the inside of her lamp and is moving steadily to cover the foil with lead while not making a full bead. The inside of the lamp only needs to be neatly tacked to prevent the lamp from sagging. This also helps keep the weight of the lamp down to a minimum. It won't be long now.

  

Let filled in the lighter green sections of her Oval Flower and is officially soldering this attractive Panel. These irregular shaped windows are popping up everywhere on the internet and Let's Window will soon join those beautiful windows next week for sure.

  

 

Mary has all of her Sunflower Window cut and ground!  In fact, Mary got the center all tacked together and then picked out the perfect glass for the border of this magnificent window.  All Mary has to do is foil these border pieces after which she'll begin soldering.   I can't wait to see this one hanging up because it might just be Mary's Tour De Force.  When this is finished and hanging up Mary says that she'll be doing windows with larger and fewer pieces in them but I don't believe that at all!

 

 

 

June spent her night grinding the smaller pieces that make up the tail of her Seahorse Window.   Her grinding is exceptional because as you can see, she's clearly mastered the art of grinding. 

 

  

 

Martha's Butterfly got all of its accent nuggets cut into place which you'd think would go quickly but since each of the pieces that surround the nuggets  had to be ground out rather than cut out the process takes much longer than initially thought.  Now that it's done Martha will tack this together and then get her background cut.

 

 

 

Tracey's Circular Magnolia was wrapped and is all set to be tacked together. The tacking process will take less than 15 minutes to accomplish and then Tracey will pick out a border which we will get cut and ground quickly and efficiently.  It's safe to say that this lovely window is drawing to a close!

 

 

 

Kandise foiled all of the remaining pieces of her Circular Magnolia Window and began soldering it. The two big differences between the Circular Magnolias that Kandise and Tracey are making is that this one wont get a border around it and the flower actually extends beyond the circular background of her window. This means that we won't be putting a zinc channel around this but the lack of a border and a channel with give the overall window a 'softer' effect. Look to see this completed when Kandise comes back in.

 

  

 

Cheryl got all of her Buffalo Bills Helmet tacked together and then worked on picking out a border.   In the end she decided to use a double border with a thin red inner border followed by thicker blue pieces.  Both colors perfectly match the Buffalo Bills logo on the side of the Helmet. 

 

  

 

Betty would have had a second Bee finished this week but just as she was finishing it we discovered a crack in the upper left wing. We removed the piece and Betty will fill that in and show us her completed Bee in our next post.

  

 

Barbara not only ground her last two large background pieces of glass but cut, ground and foiled the border as well. She's already got her border tacked onto the window and the channel applied to the edges which means that she's soldering! 

 

And Lorrie got her final border attached to her Flowers and Humming Birds Window, finished soldering the front side and then flipped it over to begin soldering the back side. She plan on finishing the soldering while at home throughout the week so she can bring it in and get the zinc channel attached as soon as she walks in the door so she can wash and color it before class is over. I wish I could show you a picture of it but I forgot to take one. At least you''ll see the completed window when we return next week!

Lastly, Jan was in and has begun working on a birthday present window that we can't post here for fear of ruining the surprise. Oh well.

 

I'm at a loss for words here,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Why Can't Lettuce Be Delicious?

 Linda L began and completed a cute little Pig Suncatcher for her neighbor who actually has a pet pig.   Instead of painting black nostrils Linda etched them into the pink glass that forms the nose and this is another example where subtle is better.   The nostrils don't stand out and steal the viewer's focus as they would if they were pitch black.  That said, Linda does want then to be a little darker and will readdress the situation while at home.  All in all another job well done!  

 

 

 

 

Bee finished her Honey Bee and turned it into a garden stake project rather than a suncatcher that would hang in the window.   Her colors express  a unique, wonderful, cheeriness to this simple but effective pattern. 

After completing her Bee, Bee set to work on designing a 12 x 10 panel with an inner beveled border and a Fleur De Lis in a circle. The circle ended up making the FDL too small so we elongated the circle into an over and then resized the FDL to match the new dimensions. With her bevels all picked out Bee is ready to cut glass.

  

 

Cindy is working on not one but two of her new Heart Within a Heart Within a Heart Patterns. It's a great design albeit with one or two semi difficult cuts that Cindy handled effortlessly. Now that they are both ground these could be completed before you know it. 

 

 

 

Let is working on a uniquely shaped mid sized panel in the form of a stylized Flower whose colors remind me of either a sunrise or a sunset. She wants the upper part of her leaves to be cut from a darker green than the bottom of the leaves hence the openings that you see below. The glass she wants to use is home in her workshop so I'm sure we'll see this tacked together or even more when she shows up again next week. 

  

 

 

Lara started a Monstera Leaf suncatcher that she's hoping will fit into one of her wooden bookends. The only thing left to do on this is to tap-tap around the edges and then Lara will have another project tucked firmly under her belt.

 

  

 

 

This week Julie began cutting out the Heron that is the focal point of her Heron and Flowers Window.   She's grinding as she finishes each color that makes up her Heron and I commend her on using assorted colors rather than using just one color for the bird.  She got a lot accomplished this week and I suspect that the rest of this will go pretty easily for her.

 

 

 

Cheryl ground the remaining pieces of her Buffalo Bills Football Helmet and then started foiling all of her glass. She's going to be leaving the lead silver on this so she'll be using silver backed foil on any of the pieces that she can see through to the back of the foil after they are wrapped. That means all of her background will be foiled in silver back but the rest of the window will be wrapped in regular copper backed foil.

  

 

 

Barbara has finished foiling her pieces so she can now tack the bottom portion of her Iris Window together and then slide the last two large pieces underneath the flowers and leaves so that she can ensure a perfect fit on those large focal points. They may essentially be blank but the last thing that we want is a lot of extra lead around the flowers and the leaves within those large expansive pieces. After that we'll see if she wants a border or two on this.

 

  

 

Kandise has all of her Magnolia Window ground and more than half of it foiled as well.  I love the true to life colors in this and I'm sure that she'll have this tacked together when she comes back in.  This will certainly be spectacular.

 

 

 

Betty's Bee is all ground and she's working on foiling it with only the wings left to go. When she comes back in she'll learn how to tack this together so that the entire Bee has multiple curves throughout it. Yes, it sounds a bit scary but it's actually very easy to accomplish

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Keri has begun a new Flower Window and wasted no time tracing out her pattern, cutting it all apart and then getting all of the green leaves cut out of glass.   The thing about Keri is that she sets a goal and wastes no time in getting to it.

 

 

 

Linda F has all of the glass ground for her Transom Window and does it look wonderful. The background looks darker than it will be once it has light behind it but the general look of the window is easy to see already. Alas, Linda won't be back into class for a while as she takes a few weeks to rest and relax so don't expect this to be completed until sometime in June.

 

 

Lorrie's Humming Birds and Flowers Window got its first inner border attached and the glass she picked for it will make a perfect frame since it is as colorful as the window is itself. She's going to go back to glue chip glass for the final border which will make the small inner border carry more focus as a delicate but colorful frame.  What you can't see in the small picture below is the fact that Lorrie also completely soldered the front of her window already!

 

  

Martha's Butterfly has been ground although that might be hard to tell since all of those perfectly fit pieces are hiding under a veritable sea of pins! Martha know how important it is that pieces don't shift as you are grinding and she goes all out making sure that she's used enough pins to prevent slippage. The added bonus of all of those pins is that they allow for the growth that each piece will experience when foil has been added into the mix. The thing that students sometimes forget to do though is to remove the inside pins as you foil and reposition each piece. 

 

 

 

Paula had the background to her Blue Rose Window all cut, ground, foiled and ready to be tacked together as soon as she walked in the door. Once she tacked it she began working on her double borders by first cutting and tacking into position the inside white border and then following it up with a final blue border which is ever so subtly different from the blue in her Rose. There's nothing wrong with a perfect match but I've always been a fan of using something similar instead. It gives an added bit of shading that works so well.

 

 

Sheri's almost got her Yellow Rose Suncatcher completed. She hopes to finish it at home so there's a possibility that we won't see this completed, but I know better than to assume anything.

 

 

Lastly, Susan R has her Four Birds On a Branch all tacked together and will begin soldering this when she comes back in. I'm pretty sure that we'll see these cute birds among our completed projects in our next post. 

 

And there ya have it!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

She Still Has To Polish Her Woodpecker

Linda L's Mickey and Minnie Mouse Window is her stained glass chef-d'oeuvre!  She's made many fine windows in the past but this is the one that takes the blue ribbon.   The mice themselves are only fairly challenging for her-- It's all of those intricate repeating and overlapping hearts that form the background that requires extreme precision so that they don't twist and distorting the end effect.  There's also some wire work involved which although tiny is very effective.  Can you pick out the five pieces of wire that bring these mice alive?  Amazing work indeed.

 

Cindy's Butterfly/Roses Suncatcher is large, colorful, and stunning.   It came together looking even better than she thought it would but it really wore her out while working on it this week!!! 

Meanwhile, near a different pond we have Let's colorful Fish Suncatcher.  Bright colors and a smile made of full pink lips makes me think that this fish is undoubtedly a female.

 

 

 Sheri has a Yellow Rose well under way but I'm unsure if this is going to be a Window or a suncatcher.   The answer to that will be obvious upon Sheri's return. 

   

 

Look out because MiMi has the front of her lamp completely soldered! Her soldering skills on a 3D Lamp are amazing because I'm used to re-soldering plenty (if not all) of the lines on a student's first lamp but MiMi's requires no work at all. She'll be applying solder to the inside of this when she comes back in which means that we will probably see this completed within 2 weeks. 

 

 

 

Kandise went through many pieces of green glass before settling on this particular color for her leaves. Russ even went outside and brought in three different Magnolia Leaves to she could get a more accurate idea of the actual color. In the end her choice is perfection.

 

 

With just two more 'square panels' to go on her Transom Window Linda F is nearing the end of her reign of grinding. That means that there will be no more walking back and forth from the table to the grinder which means that Linda will be able to sit all throughout the foiling process of the gorgeous window.

 

 

 

Susan R's Four Birds On A Branch have all come together now that the branch and the bird's little feet have all been cut and ground. I have a snaking suspicion that this will be completed when she comes back in. I've said in the past that size can affect the overall look of a pattern and this is the perfect size for these four Birds.

 

Our second Magnolia of the week is being made by Tracey and she's already in the process of foiling her pieces now that everything has been cut and ground. Once this is tacked together she'll pick a color for her border and get that done quickly and efficiently.

 

 

 

 

Cheryl was a grinding fool this week and what a spectacular job she's been doing. The white Helmet has yet to be ground but the rest of this is fitting together wonderfully! I'm pretty sure that she has only one more weeks worth of grinding left to go and then it's foil all the way.

 

 

 

 

Bee has completed grinding all of her Bee body pieces and is now foiling all of her glass.  With her being this far along I have no doubt that this will be completed upon her return.  She's also been busy working on her Hearts and Roses Window and we may soon see a picture of that once it's a little easier to transport back and forth from her house to the shop.

 

  

  

As you might have noticed Martha has re-cut the body to her Butterfly.  What you can't see is that this is the third body that she has cut out and the one we all agree looked best for a butterfly with blue wings and yellow accents.  All of those pins show you just where she is with her grinding so it's safe to say that this is moving along quickly.

  

  

 

And that's all there is to say this week aside from Happy Memorial Day!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A Shih Tzu Named Chucky

Keri's Deer Head Skull was completed this week and it really has a vibe to it, don't you think?  The antlers were just a little too top heavy even though they cut into the skull itself so we added bracing wires along the outside edges that added a huge amount of stability to this piece while remaining completely hidden.

 

 

Sheri's Scissor Tailed Flycatcher is now under her belt (figuratively) as she finished it off while attending two classes this week. Her attention to detail is impressive and she just gets better and better with each project she makes.

 

 

 

 

Nettie appears to get home from work only to sit herself down in her glass studio to knock out a new window each week! Her latest Flower Window uses iridised glass for everything but the clear background. Alas, getting that iridization to show up in photos is not easy unless the glass is either white (like her border) or clear.

 

 

 

Betty finished off another Mardi Gras Mask Window using a very heavily textured glass for the border. The problem with this glass was that it was too thick to fit into the brass channel that we normally use and she didn't want to weigh down the delicate design with a heavy black zinc channel. The solution was to make sure that her border pieces all aligned perfectly and then use the tap-tap method of soldering to finish off the edge. In the end it was perfection!

 

 

 

 

Let has completed two more of her Mini Beveled Crosses. I love this size but what I always worry about is pricing them because even though they are smaller than the normal size you still need to sell them for the same (or more) amount of money since the smaller bevels can cost more and the work is even more tedious! But Let isn't selling these so she's fine with the extra bit involved in making them.

 

 

 

After her Mardi Gras Mask was finished Betty completely cut out a Bee Lawn Ornament which she will assemble as a three dimensional piece rather than a flat piece of stained glass. As you can see she's all set to begin grinding it.

 

This should look familiar. It's the same Bee that Betty is making except it's being made in different colors.  Bee (of all people) is making this one with one other difference from Betty's-- she's going to assemble hers as a flat piece rather than in three dimensions.

 

Cindy's Rose Butterfly has been completely cut and ground and she's only got a handful of pieces left to foil before she can begin soldering it. Although the body looks sturdy enough to support the wings we are still going to add a bit of hidden wire to add extra support just as we did with Keri's Deer Head Skull.

  

Linda L's Mickey and Minnie Mouse Window is so very nearly finished! She only has to solder a few more lines on the back side, attach some zinc channel, add a piece or two of wire here and there and then finally do some minor touch up work. Once that's done she can wash and color this.

  

 

 

Paula got a beautiful Blue Rose Window started with the actual flower being completely cut, ground, and wrapped in copper foil. My advice is to finish the stems and the leaves, tack it all together and then cut the background out of one single piece of glass. It will be quicker and involve FAR less grinding that way.

 

 

 

Martha is well under way with her blue Butterfly (it's the color of the week) but she isn't happy with the color that she's picked for the body. It's only two or three pieces so I say re-cut them! Oh, and she's actually used two different blue glasses in this so when it lights up you will see far more detail than you see with it laying here on the table with no light behind it.

 

  

 

 

Julie finished foiling all of the glass that she's cut and ground and also has all of those pieces tacked together now. She wasn't sure if the color variations in her Irises were showing very well but I held it up to the light and boy do those flowers look incredible! I'd post a picture of them but I'd hate to ruin the big reveal when this gets completed.

 

 

 

 

Lorrie has begun work on a Sea Turtle Window and although the legs and head have some small pieces in them I have no doubt that Lorrie will plough through those pieces with ease. After that, the rest of this window will be a breeze for her.

 

  

 

Linda F's Transom Window is mostly ground at this point in time. It won't be long until this is ready for foiling. I'm always impressed in her ability to follow a pattern with absolute perfection. She asked me if one of her pieces was too small and if she should re-cut it but there was no need to. It was easily well within the tolerance for acceptability. That said, it's her attention to detail that is making this look so wonderful.

 

 

Tracey's got her Magnolia Window all cut and ground save for the few background pieces that will circle this off. Will this get a border? Only Tracey knows for sure but I'm thinking it will since all of her other Magnolias did.  The thing with Tracey is that she makes this all look easy.

 

 

Check out that beautiful blue sky that Mary has all cut out. What a difference it is from the drab gray that she initially had picked. Again, I must commend her for re-cutting all of that sky after she felt that the gray was too gloomy for her beautiful, colorful Sunflowers.

 

 

 

If you look closely you can see that MiMi is coming VERY close to the bottom edge of her lamp.   Once she has the front soldered the inside will be like walking through the park on a gorgeous sunny day!

 

 

Susan R's Four Birds on a Branch are ready to be tacked together. She has her branch pieces cut out already and she'll be using wires to separate the little feet into cute little toes (or claws). A little more wire work will finish off the red and the orange bird's eyes to give them more definition but all of that wire work won't be added until everything is completely soldered.

  

  

Lastly we see that Barbara is grinding away on her background pieces and there's actually not much more to go. Will this get a border? Perhaps this was the window I was thinking of when I recalled someone asking if they needed to put a glass border around their window. Barbara likes the thicker zinc channel so this could easily hang from that but I don't want to steer her in a direction that she doesn't want to go.

  

 

And yes, Paris was wonderful!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks