Pucker Up!

Sometimes when cutting glass you have to look at things in a different light to find ways to make your cutting easier.   Take, for example, a small square that has a circle in the center.  Altogether it's  5 pieces of glass and getting small pieces like that to fit back into a perfect square isn't easy unless you know the secret.  That secret is to make the square as one piece of glass and then trace the completed circle(cut, ground and wrapped) onto it.

Here's what we're trying to achieve:

 And here's the easy way to do it:
1) cut a square to the finished size the above piece will be.
2) draw a line horizontally and another vertically across the centers.
3) center the ground and wrapped circle on top of the square and trace around it
4) make your 2 straight cuts and then break the square into four pieces
5) cut point to point across the curve (it's an side curve so we ALWAYS make a cut straight across it first)
6) repeat the point to point cut on the remaining three sides being careful to NOT mix up their placement.
7) cut the rounded section out
8) cut the remaining curves out being careful NOT to mix up their placement.
9) grind the four corners and when it all fits back together with the circle in the middle you will have a circle in a perfect square. Remember to leave a little wiggle room for your foil so the square doesn't get thrown out of shape when you wrap it. You can simply skim the straight lines, it's the circular section that will need the most grinding.

The above method is a much easier than cutting out pattern pieces for 5 small pieces of glass and trying to get them to fit perfectly.  You'll see how Sue did this for the corner of her Santa Face Window a little further on down.


So first off in our completed windows we take a look at Ann's Rosebud Window.  Her choice of colors truly made this all her own.  Look again and you'll see that that Ann has only used two colors in this entire window.  The idea of using the center most color (the pink/champagne glass) for her final border ties everything together beautifully.  Well done!

 

The longest section of Rowena's five inserts is officially complete now and it's a beautiful design.  I never would have thought to combine a hummingbird and flower with an abstract design but Rowena did and that's how this beautiful window came to be.  I love it!

 

Linda F's Ship In A Bottle really impressed me.  The design is beautiful and Linda's execution of it is flawless.  Cutting the bottle around the ship rather than overlaying it on top was, by far, the best way to go with this pattern.  You lose the 3D effect but gain stability and cleanliness since no chemicals or dirt will get caught between the clear and the opaque glasses.  It's also a much sturdier piece when done this way.

 

Sue's Santa Face is complete and Santa turned out beautifully.  The green and red border that Sue picked really makes this window say, "Merry Christmas!"  Note the four corners and how nicely they fit together.  This was achieved using the method discussed in the beginning of this post.

  

Betty has another Snowman under her belt and really has the hang of this suncatcher now.  I showed her how to attach the bow and the holly leaves and now she's coming in with completed snowmen.

 

Charlie's knocking out hand mirrors at a rate of one per week.  I think it's safe to say that he's going to get all 5 (or is it 6?) of the mirrors he needs done in time for Christmas.

Brenda fell in love with the Candy Canes and Bow that Sue made a few weeks back and asked me if I had the pattern (which I didn't).  That's when Terry came to the rescue and drew up her own version of a candy cane and bow.  Although the subject matter is the same the execution is completely different.  I'll be the first to say that Terry's pattern is amazingly well designed.  Here's a look at the first one that Brenda is making almost completed. 

 

Carol has all of the final border cut ground and wrapped for her large Beveled Window.  She has two of the sides attached and when she gets home she'll add the remaining two sides and then start soldering.  She used the same glass that she used to frame out the bevel for her final border and it works wonderfully that way.  A great choice for sure.

 

Carol also has two more crosses started, or perhaps I should say that she has two very near completion.   All they need now are some hooks to hang them by and then a good bath.  Everyone is making copies of this pattern so expect to see a few more of these throughout the next few weeks.

Betty brought this in thinking that she might re-cut some of the pieces of blue and change them out for another color but Bonnie and I thought it looked great the way it was so Betty ground what she had and then began wrapping her pieces.  You can't lose with green and blue!

  

Cindy's working on her Tiger De Lis Window but she'll be 'pulling a Martha' soon by pushing this project aside so she can begin work on a large Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Logo Window.  Just wait until you see the pieces in that!

 

Janet's got her Cross of Many Colors Window all ground and wrapped which means that she'll be soldering this when she comes back in.  Ann loved how Janet expanding the Cross out into a full fledged window and may end up on working on one of her own.  Meanwhile, Janet is making huge progress on this window which had been pushed aside for a few months.  Everything gets done in it's own time and it's nice to see this window get its share of the spotlight..

 

Linda L's three  Mardi Gras Masks have all got their backgrounds cut out. Now she's in the midst of soldering these panels and before you know it she'll be moving along to her next project.

 

Bonnie has started making two candle holders with reversed sides which will give them a nice effect.  As I said, she's making two of these but I only have a picture of the green one.  Next week we'll see the one she did in red as well.

  

Mary Grace gets two HUGE thumbs up and an A+ for her work with her pistol grip cutter.  When she said that she wanted to make a window with nothing but straight cuts I told her that hadto use the pistol grip cutter that she bought ages ago to make it.  She was a little leery about it but she caught onto cutting with it almost instantly and look what she's accomplished in just one class.  And did I mention that she did all of this WITHOUT a pattern!   Impressive.

 

Myrt got new curtains for her Cat in a Window Window and don't they look great.  It's one of my favorite waterglass colors and I have to say that I was right-- it does make nice curtains.   As you can see Myrt is moving along nicely on her Pussy Cat Window and there's not all that much left to go on it.

 

Rowena started making one of her own crosses and she decided to make it using  a rich brown Baroque Glass.  We've had this sheet for a quite a while now and I like to think that the glass sat in the rack all this time just waiting to be turned into this cross.  I wonder if this may just become a popular glass now...

  

Shelley now has all of her Duck Panel tacked together save for the border.  The border is already cut however,  and will be attached next week when she returns.  This is a great window but the thin pieces can drive a less experienced glass crafter crazy!  I love the iridised background that she picked.

 

Natalie's Pelican is cut and mostly ground.  We had a few issues with some of the incredibly thin pieces that now need to be re-cut but we've tacked together what already fits to make re-cutting the thin pieces that much easier.  By tracing out the opened area on a piece of glass we should get a perfect fit on the first cut.

 

Paula did a repair of her own this week involving a familiar pokémon that she made shortly after she started classes with us.  By the time class ended she had her Mudkip completely repaired.  Mudkip, alas, is hiding in his picture here.

 

Susan has all of her LSU Tiger ground and ready to be wrapped.  The background will go quickly on this window once the sheet of glass gets delivered.  I believe Susan said that this will only get a single border which means that it will be completed even faster yet!

  

 

This week we saw Terry complete the repair work on her 'V' for Vendetta Window.  She changed the size of it ever so slightly so we could use the unbroken border pieces without fear of them coming up short.  By changing the height of the window by 1/8 of an inch we we sure that with a simple trim everything would fit back together without any gaps.  Terry also started on her own variation of a Bow and Holly Leaves suncatcher.  Terry recognized the original pattern's weaknesses and redrew it to be a much more solidly constructed suncatcher.  Great job! 

  

Sue has begun to cut out a trio of Cardinal Lawn Ornaments.  She found the pattern on the internet, printed it out to the size she wanted it to be and she's a cuttin'!  I know the picture below looks like it was taken outside but that's only because Sue is placing her glass on top of a picture she found on the internet!

  

And lastly we have another one of Charlies 6 (or 7?) hand mirrors that's in the process of being ground.  Look to see this one completed next week and then Charlie will start his final two.

 

Well, we're getting close to being caught up on our weekly classes but I still have 2 Weekend Workshops to post after that.  It's certainly been a busy end of year here!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Teaching Old People New Tricks

Our tip this week is simple yet so very important.  When making stained glass windows you should never rush ahead and solder the back side until all of the glass is attached to the window.  Why?  Because once solder is applied to the back side it raises the window up almost an eighth of an inch higher when you flip its front side back upright.  If you try to attach more pieces they will be considerably lower than the rest of the window and cause instability. 

In this first side view picture you can see how two pieces of glass line up even though there is solder on the top of the project.

 

In this next picture there is solder on the front and back side of the window making the two pieces of glass rest on the table at different heights.  This is very problematic and MUST be avoided.

 

The solution is very simple and very important.  Never solder the back side of your window until all of the glass is cut, ground and attached.

OK then, let's see what we have finished this time around.  Bonnie's variation of the Rose Bud Window is officially completed this week and she's more than happy with it.  Bonnie is a sucker for a Blue Hammered Glass as a border and I have to admit that when it works this well it's hard to stray away from it.  This is another great job by Bonnie!

 

Jeannette completed her Cross, Grapes, Wine and Bread window and now that it's off the table and has some light behind it you can easily see the different purples she used for the borders.  Most of the time when borders intersect you'll see the same color used for both borders but in this case I think this worked out much better.  Jeannette has been making some excellent choices with color lately and you'll see that happen again for her a little further on down in this post.

 

Gale finished her Owl Window and it turned out perfectly (as to be expected).  She changed the eyes to globs and the end result is wonderful.  Sometimes it's the simple things that makes a window look so great, but beyond that there's always the quality of the work which Gale has no problem with.

 

Paula's Dragonfly Suncatcher is another example of her ability to easily work with tiny pieces of glass.  This design is very easy to mess up if you don't pay attention to symmetry but Paula knows how to follow a pattern and this is one perfect Dragonfly.

Myrt finished her Cross De Lis Window and it's as flawless as can be.  Myrt has really got every skill down when it comes to making stained glass.  This window just proves my point.

And here's Vickie's interpretation of a Fleur De Lis Window.  She went with very traditional glass colors and used the darkest section of the glass for the bar near the center of her Fleur De Lis.  It's a way of adding more color without actually bringing in a complete change of color which can be very distracting.  It's very subtle yet effective choice.

 

Betty put the finishing touches on her LSU/Tiger Claw window AND her pair of snowmen.  She says she's done with the Tiger Claw version of the LSU Window but that she loves making the snowmen.  That means that we'll be seeing more of these Frosty guys before Christmas gets here.

Janet's latest Butterfly and Sunflower Lawn Ornaments are also finished and she's knocking them out so fast that we're going to start calling her a Lawn Ornament Machine!  This is yet another example of the great work that Janet does.

Martha has put her Seafood Window on hold for a little while as she starts working on this beautiful pair of Duck Windows.  Whoever drew up this pattern is amazing, let me tell you.  It incorporated everything that Martha could ever want in a Duck window-- a duck, a dragonfly, a cat tail, water and a sky.  There's even extra detail without it having that overdone look.  And the work that Martha's done on these is pretty amazing too because she's already begun grinding them!

 

Now, Ann's Rose Bud Window is nearing completion and just needs to be soldered now.  With the last of her border attached and the brass channel firmly in place Ann got the front of this window soldered and then began the second side.  With more than half of the back started I'm sure we'll see this window finished in our next update.

 

Myrt's started working on this Pussy Cat in a Window Window (get it?).  With her cat all cut out and ground she hopes to be working on the red curtains when she returns next week.  And the glass that she has picked out is one of my favorite reds available which I think will look great.

 

 

Carol got the background attached on her large Bevel Window and then added a thin border of Fractures and Streamers Glass.   This is the glass that she originally wanted to use as her background but because we didn't have enough of it in the shop she decided to use it as an accent color instead.  There's one more border left to go on this window but I'll say it here and now-- this was the better way to use the Fractures and Streamers glass because using it as the entire background would have made this too busy.

 

Jeannette was cutting out two different colored Crosses this week when someone mentioned that she could mix them together since the colors complimented each other so perfectly.  Both crosses were cut from the same pattern so she just swapped out every other piece and low and look at what she ended up with!   Everyone thoroughly agreed that this was the way to go and the smile on her face when she saw how they looked told me instantly that she liked this variation.   Jeannette only needs to solder these and then we'll see them hanging in the light.

 

Terry got more work done on her Tiger Window but had to put it aside while she worked on repairing the 'V' Window that she had made a few weeks back.  At first it looked like it was just two pieces but in the end there were so many border pieces broken that it was easier to pull the entire border off and then work from there.   Accidents happen but luckily we can repair those accidents.

 

 

Rowena has everything ground and tacked together in her long Abstract/Humming Bird Panel.  This is the top section of a five panel window and they all join together to form one big scene.  We'll see that finished scene soon enough.  All Rowena has left to do on this is to solder it and then wash it and install it.

 

Linda L is making incredible progress with her three Mardi Gras Windows and this American Flag Lawn Ornament that she cut, ground, wrapped and tacked while she was home.  But while she was in class she cut and attached the borders for her three masks which she now has to fill in with her background pieces.  This is backwards from how we normally do things but in this instance it's a much better way to handle the situation.  All of those background pieces are very similar and cutting them from a pattern would be tougher than simply filling in the holes she left in her window when she attached her borders.  This method ensures a perfectly straight line on all of her edges.  Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

 
Cindy completed one of her small Poinsettia flowers and has a second one nearing completion.  She's going to wash and color these at home and hopefully they'll sell at the show that she's doing next week (along with plenty of other things that she's made).

 

And Sue has made great progress with her Santa Face Window.  She made short work of her corners and we'll explain how she did those fancy corners so easily when we return in out next update.  We'll also see this completed then as well!

And Susan's second LSU/Tiger Window is moving along quickly as she has the majority of it ground now.  There are a few piece here and there left to grind but Susan's got this one fitting beautifully in record time.  The second times the charm, that's for sure!

 

Shelley's Duck Head Window is almost completely ground and almost ready to be wrapped-- there's just three pieces left to go (which are already cut out).  Once they're all  tacked together it will just need a border and a little solder to wrap this all up.  Look to see this completed shortly.

Lastly we have Brenda's latest Tiger De Lis Window is nearing completion now.  Knowing Brenda it won't be long before this window is ready to hang.  She's not one to mess around!

We have another post ready to go so expect one in two more days.  I hope to have all of our weekly classes caught up by Christmas!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Just For A Little Tail

We're going to start things off with not a tip but with a very stern recommendation.  Most (if not all) rolls of foil that you purchase has the starting end attached to the rest of the foil with a plastic backed tape.  If you foil glass with this section of the foil the solder will NOT adhere.  So be sure to always discard the first round of foil from a new roll.  Failure to do this simple task will cause you to have many problems when you hit this nasty spot with your solder.

 
And now I'll toss in a tip since we're already talking about foil. I always mark the inner plastic core of my foil with all of its pertinent information along with my name. In the photo below you can see that this roll is 3/16th, black backed foil which belongs to the shop. Marking all of your foil ensures that you'll always wrap glass with the correct size, and keeping your name on the roll will make sure it returns back to you if someone else accidentally picks it up or if you accidentally leave it in the shop after class is over!

Now onto our finished projects. Susan has completed her LSU Tiger Window and all her hard work has paid off. It's hard to appreciate the background glass in this picture unless you see it in person-- the forest-like effect is truly beautiful. Susan liked making this so much that she's making two more! Wait until you see how far along she is on her second one already.

 

Shelley's Aquatic Window was washed and colored this week and she's already got it hanging in a window at home (according to her Facebook post). Shelley has come a long way in class and her cutting and grinding skills really show in this window. It's over three feet tall so the amount of detail in it just can't be seen in this little 4 inch tall picture. A nice job all around.

 

Here's the last of Mary Grace's Christmas Trees. This is Tree number three for her and she says she's done with them now. So what's up next for Mary Grace? It will be Pistol Grip cutter lessons so she can make an abstract window with all straight cuts. More on that in two more posts.

 

Janet has another Sunflower under her belt and has no problem put these together by herself now. She was concerned about the inner circle of lead but there was nothing to worry about at all. Perfection!

 

And Charlie has another Hand Mirror completed, this one even better than his last one. These are always challenging when you make the first one but they get easier as you go along. And as you can see, the proof is in the pudding. (What the heck does that mean, anyway?)

Now we'll move on to the projects which are under construction. Carol's got the center of her large Beveled Window started and she decided that she'd border the bevel in a heavily textured fibroid glass. We started by cutting a number of 3/4 of an inch wide strips and then bordered the beveled cluster all the way around until Carol ended up with what you see below. It's a technique that I use often to expand on bevels and it gives you a GREAT way to tie in border color/texture.

 

Rowena has all of the panels cut out for her five paneled window and four of them have all been soldered on the front side. I love the top long panel and feel that it would make a beautiful window all on its own. Rowena says she'll get us a picture of all of these panels when they're installed. I can't wait for that.

 

Mary Grace started cutting out this angel while she was at home but worried about the direction of the grain one one of the pieces in the bottom section of the dress. I saw nothing wrong with it at all because the piece itself is set apart from the rest of the dress so making the grain run in a different direction seems to be the fitting thing to do in this case. Regardless, this is looking great.

 

Here's a look at Paula's newest project. It will be a stand alone Dragonfly Suncatcher and as you can see Paula has wasted no time working on this with all it's tiny pieces. There are only the wings left to ground on this and then Paula will begin soldering it. And kudos to Paula for getting those tiny round eyes to be so perfectly circular AND perfectly matched in size! Little things mean a lot.

 

Check out Linda L's three Mardi Gras Masks! These will each become a separate panels to drop into the metal frames that Linda had purchased. In our next post these will gain frames and then Linda will add the background pieces (which is reversed from the way we normally do it and we'll explain why when we come back in our next post.)

 

Shelley was somewhat in between with her projects since she forgot to bring in the glass for the window that she's working on at home. Rather than wasting a class she started to work on this double Butterfly window which she'll put on hold next week so she can return to work on her Duck Window (which is at home this week). But look how far she got on this new window. Impressive.

  

Here's a look at the Fleur De Lis Window that Vickie started just two weeks ago. There are only a few pieces of the border needing to be wrapped before this can be tacked and then soldered. I'm thoroughly impressed at how quickly Vickie has moved on each of the projects she's made so far.

 

Susan resumed work on this Santa Face Window that she had found on the internet. The original picture was somewhat askew but we've fixed it so that the background glass is now perfectly square and will make a perfect window when the border is added next week. It's hard to see the clear textured background glass but if you look closely you'll see that it IS there.

 

Jeannette has all of her Cross, Grapes, Wine and Bread Window tacked together. Not only that but she has the front side completely soldered as well as the second side. That means that this window just needs some hooks and a bath to finish it off. And we'll see this completed in our next post.

 

Susan's not wasting any time at all and proving my point that the second time around goes quicker. Look at how fast her second Tiger Window is moving along. Amazing! The colors are different in this one and there have been little tweaks here and there throughout the pattern, and the background glass will be the most striking difference between this window and the Tiger that Susan completed in the beginning of this update.

  

Now you may have noticed that we're missing a few people in this post and there's a good reason for that. Our Wednesday night class opted to skip class this week so we could celebrate a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas diner at the Yellow Bowl Restaurant. Betty, Bonnie, Linda, Natalie, Russ and myself all ate wonderful meals and had a grand old time just laughing it up while enjoying some GREAT food. Our only regret is that Jeanne wasn't able to join us, but she was in Disney World so she was having fun as well.

And that about wraps things up for the third week in November. We're catching up, slowly but surely and I plan on getting at least one other post out before the weekend. So check your email for the notice for our next update.




Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks