Don't You Have Some Grass To Cut?

Jeannette's Sailboat was completed this week and her hand cut circles are perfection.  Curves are easy to do but making a completely round circle is the sign of a great artist. There's no doubt that this will be appreciated.

 

 

MiMi's elbé Window features a color pallet that looks even more lovely in person.  The inner deep blue border is much more sparkly and shimmery when you see it  outside of its picture.  That said, you CAN differentiate between the two borders, just not  as easily as you can when there isn't a florescent light behind the widow.  Also, letters ARE tough but MiMi's are perfectly formed and a delight to read.

 

 

 

 

Let has made her first box and it actually features a beveled top with a pair of dog paws etched into the bevel.   The basic construction appears to be complex but once you've done two or three boxes the process becomes much clearer and very easy to repeat.  Will Let make more boxes?  Time will tell...

 

 

 

Cindy made a Dogwood Window which utilizes glass globs or nuggets to form the centers of her striking white flowers.  Set within a sky blue background and suspended on a root beer branch this window is the very definition of lovely.

 

 

 

It's Christmas in May!   Susan R has made a Santa's Sled to go along with the Reindeer that she's been working on over the past few weeks.  Now that the Sleigh has been completed you can clearly see how wonderfully the completely leaded glass runners look!

 

 

 

 

 

Linda L's first Sunflower Suncatcher has been completed and it's equal parts colorful and vibrant!  You'll see her second Sunflower become finished when she comes back into class but that will take another two weeks or so since Linda is taking some time off of classes to get away with her husband! 

 

 

 

Jeannette has finished her Dove/Cross Suncatcher which is the first of its kind here in class.   I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll see more of these because first off, they aren't that hard to make and second of all because it looks so great when it's finished.

Steve made this Mushroom and Flower Flowerpot decoration in just one class.  However, he didn't just make it, he also designed it while in class.  That's some impressive turnaround there!  Art is always interesting because people can see what they want in various pieces and this is no exception.

 

 

 

Cindy is the Bicycle Wheel Queen for sure because she's made more of these than I can even keep count of.   Since they all turn out wonderfully I can't help but think that Cindy will make another of these in the near future.

 

  

 

 

And up next we take a look at Ann's  latest Modern Cross.  Even she has said that she can practically make these in her sleep now!

 

 

 

Susan D soldered five different Crow suncatchers which are almost hard to make out since everything about them is black.   Luckily the flash has revealed the details in each of these birds but I've really got to hand it to Susan for coming up with five different crow designs all on her own!

 

 

 

Address Windows are nice because they serve two purposes.  1) They provide important information and 2) they do it with a sense of style.  Melissa's use of subtle colors ensure that this sign will match her house no matter what color the house may change to in years to come.  And let's face it, this is something that isn't practical to take along with you if you should move!

 

 

 

Jan was back this week and she's currently grinding her Humming Bird and Flower Panel.  You can clearly see that the wings of the bird fit perfectly so you know she's moving along nicely on this.   I don't think that this will take her too much longer now that most of the glass has been cut out for it.

 

  

 

 

Now at first look you may be thinking, "Roxane is back!"  But she just isn't feeling up to doing glass right now so Jeannette has stepped up to the plate to bat for her.  And by that I mean that Jeannette is finishing Roxane's Nativity Scene Window.  All of the glass has officially been cut and there's just soldering left to go now.

 

  

 

Barbara's Rooster is looking better and better with each passing week.   Believe it or not, the body is the hardest part of this window to grind.   Once that's done the curved tail feathers are easy!

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace is back and not letting a boot slow her down.  With HEALTH and now WELLNESS essentially completed I think she'll be moving along to a new word (HOUMA) when she comes back in!

 

  

 

 

Lara was undecided on what she would make when she first came in but after going through patterns she settled on this large Heart Suncatcher. It's cut, it's ground and it's wrapped so it will easily be completed when we see it again.

 

 

 

 

As we know from her past artistic sensibilities, Shelley's esthetic values have been forged on a path oscillating rapidly between the surreal and the sublime.   Classic throes of expression have never tainted her ability to elucidate an eager, yet harrowing reluctance which clings tightly to an inherent emotional discomfort.  The portrait she weaves in glass cuts a striking a figure, terminal though it may be. The carmine dread followed by a tinge of unassumed release envenoms the viewers mind as a claxon of distant warnings erodes the soul.  Yes, it's one dimensional.  Even, dare I say,  excessively obvious, but  understated notions of complexity have inundated our lives with enough superficial banality.  How utterly refreshing this is!

 

 

Our second Rooster is being made by June and she's also grinding away on hers just as Barbara is.  This one may not be as complex as the Rooster we saw earlier but it certainly is just as attractive.  The nice thing about making a rooster window is that colors should range far and wide and you can even use a lot of scrap glass to make it.

 

 

 

Two weeks ago this was an un-ground window.  This week the word Coffee is fully on display now that all of it has been ground.  I always say that letters are hard but Sheri is making this look easy. Next she'll need some glass for the table top and then she'll warp and tack it so we can get a border cut for it.

 

  

 

 

Welcome to Buc-ee's!  With all of the glass cut out for her mascot window Judy has taken to the grinder and has gotten most of this fitted together already.  Whether you need gas or food, Buc-ee's can help you out.  Ever since their inception in 1982, Buc-ee's has been committed to providing a clean, friendly, and in stock experience for all of their customers. Regardless of where you may find them, if the store is big or small, near or far, their mission remains the same.  (And don't forget about their cleanest RestRooms in America!)

 

 

 

Shells are in vogue now and Angie is about to put the finishing touches on her Shell Window when she comes back in.   As a fan of blue glass I really appreciate her inner border!

 

  

 

Geaux Tigers!  With her letters completely ground Martha has moved along  to grinding the harder Tiger Face.  The beauty of this window is that when you are grinding the face you don't have to follow the lines as precisely as you would any other window.   That's because tiger stripes are somewhat random and NOT symmetrical at all.

 

  

 

 

With the majority of her Winged Cross suncatcher foiled I'm going to go out on a limb and say that she will have this completed upon her return.  It's a complex suncatcher but the soldering part is easy when compared to the work she had to do to get it to this point of of its creation.

 

 

 

Lastly we look at the pattern that Kerry is working on.  He's been wanting to do a Bayou Scene for a while now and here it is.  He's got the roof cut out in one large piece that will be split into five pieces after his window is all ground.  This is a trick that he'll be using throughout the creation of this window.

 

  

 

And that's all we have for you this week.  Come back again next Monday to see just how far everyone has gotten along with their current projects.

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

 

 

 

Have you Tried Squeezing It?

Annette's Winged Cross is a popular design but certainly NOT a beginner pattern.  There's a veritable slew of tiny pieces in this and if that weren't enough this is a mirrored image meaning that it's very easy to place and grind pieces backwards which mixes up the front and back of the glass.  Slow and steady wins the race though and Annette did WONDERFULLY with this.

  

 

Cindy completed not one but two Stethoscope Heart Hoops.   These are a perfect example when it comes to using a metal hoop with your project.  Without the hoop these stethoscopes would collapse due to the thin pieces of glass and the number of hinge points throughout those thin pieces.   Filling in the area inside the heart helped to strengthen the piece but the thin pieces that hang off the bottom would surely break off if it weren't for the hoop holding everything in place firmly.

 

 

 

 

Every time I saw a Hoop being used I thought that one of the best possible uses for one would be to make an acrobat inside it.  And you can hang her from many different places for different effects.

 

 

 

 

It's a Kitty on the Moon!  It only takes eight pieces of glass to make these with all but one of them being among some of the easiest cuts in the world.  That tail requires grinding with the small 1/4" grinding wheel but the rest of the cuts are a piece of cake.

Let is well underway on a pattern that we've never seen done before: a Flower in a Vase.  The thing is, she's worked on this exclusively at home so this is the first time that I've seen it, just the same as you.    And I must say that it's looking very good!

  

 

 

Barbara's Rooster Window has taken shape in a big way now that all of the glass that makes up the Rooster itself has been cut.   She's going to grind all of this and even tack it together before she cuts any of the glass that makes up the 'scenery' or the 'background' of this colorful window.

 

 

 

Shelley's got a new woman in the works this week.  Bree Van de Kamp was a force to be reckoned with on the TV show Desperate Housewives and Shelley's newest project puts her squarely in the spotlight.   She's going to paint her features onto the glass and then fire it in the kiln to really flesh Bree out, but that won't happen until she grinds, wraps and tacks the rest of this window together.

 

  

 

 

Judy's  started work on her Buc-ee's window and did she ever get far on it in just one night.  Sadly though, she would have gotten even further along but we didn't have the proper color glass for the few remaining pieces.   That just goes to show you that it doesn't matter how well you plan-- there's always something that will elude you.

 

 

Linda is experiencing color perplexion and is therefor taking some time off from her third Nativity Scene Window so that she can think through her color choices a little more thoroughly.  In the mean time she's begun working on two Sunflowers which she already got cut out this week.   Great job!

 

  

 

June has her Rooster all cut out now and has moved on over to the grinder so that she can get all of her pieces fitting together nicely.    Slow and steady may win the race but the early bird gets the grinder with the best grinding head!

 

 

 

Martha cut like a demon this week while she was in class.   First she had cut out all of the tiger section of her LSU window and then with just over fifteen minutes left to go she was able to trace out and cut the dark purple background glass that go behind the LSU letters as well.  Now that's impressive.

 

  

 

 

Jeannette's got her Dove and Cross well underway and I know it's safe to say that this will SURELY be finished when she comes back. She's been working on two projects so we'll be coming back late on to see what she's done with her sailboat window.

 

  

 

 

Susan D's murder of Crows are coming together  quickly now and the beauty of having them all on one board means that she can transport the lot of them very easily (they even fit nicely in her tote container).   There are a ton of little pieces throughout these but they've been ground to perfection which is something to be expected when we examine Susan's work.

 

  

 

Cheryl spent the night grinding her Angel Wing Cross and I have to say that she's done an excellent job on that!  There are only a few pieces left to go go on this and then she'll be able to begin wrapping.  It may be made of all clear glass but you can color me impressed that she got so much done so quickly and so accurately!

 

  

 

 

Susan R has the sled runners for her Christmas Sleigh all cut out and will end up covering them with lead for a nice silver blade effect.   Next week we will learn just how that is accomplished so be sure to come back to see just what 'leading your pieces' involves.

 

 

 

 

Jeannette's Sailboat is sort of an optical illusion which we see happen quite often in our Blog Posts.  At first glance this Sailboat looks as though it's a small suncatcher, alas it's anything but.  This is actually 14" in diameter but the camera lens somehow makes us assume it's much smaller than it really is.  Now that it's all ground Jeannette plans on wrapping this project while she's at home so she can solder it when she comes back in.

 

  

 

 

Although it isn't completed yet, Angie's Seashell Window has all been cut ground and wrapped.   She'll be tacking this together upon her return and then she'll get a border cut (or possibly two borders-- at this point it's unclear) so that she can finish this off.

 

  

 

 

MiMi's Traditional Window gained it's beveled border this week as she tacked it into place along with the small clear fill-in pieces that reside between the bevels and the pink and grey 'teardrops'.   Once that was completed MiMi got her final border both cut and ground.  That  leaves just four corner pieces to cut before she can tack this window and then go over it with a nice even bead of solder.

 

 

 

Sheri's Coffee Window is now clearly evident as she grinds her letters into shape which in turn  spell out exactly what this window is all about.    She's short a piece or two for the coffee cup but I'm sure that time will reward her with another broken piece of blue willow so she can complete her coffee cup.

 

  

 

Melissa now has the front side of her Address Window all soldered and I'm expecting the second side to go just as quickly which means that this should be completed when she comes back in.  And that's just a different way of saying that Melissa can solder both quickly and efficiently.

  

 

Lastly we see that Let also has an Eagle Window in the works and this week she managed to get all of the pattern traced and cut apart.   I'm quite sure that when we next see this a fair portion of the window will have been cut from glass.

 

 

And there you have it.  All the news that's fit to Blog!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

 

It'll Just Be Saggin'

MiMi's Lighthouse Window is a certainly stunning.  Although it would be a stretch to claim any similarities between MiMi's psychological and physical work, the symbolic effectiveness of this piece can only be diminished by a viewer's untrained eye.   Truly, details dominate the scenery while its differentials become distorted through MiMi's diverse artistry.  X marks the spot and wire work is always the special sauce.

 

 

 

Is it Seafood or is it life?  Angie's work explores the complex relationship between Jungian archetypes and overextended predilections of unfulfilled consciousness.  Within her art Angie procures new variations of still life which are manufactured from mundane and transcendent discourse. But is it really news?

 

 

 

 

Kerry's Cardinal Window dictates that shifting replicants can indeed turn into frozen stills through diligent and artistic perseverance.  What the viewer is left with is a swooping tribute to the darkness of our existence and the lightness of our being.  And still, he flies.

 

 

 

 

 

The hands of a Warrior.  Ever since Melissa was a pre-adolescent she has been fascinated by the endless oscillation of the spectral perceptions of religion. Her colors and the unblemished clears s that she's utilized prevail a sense of what could be along with a dawn of new understanding.  Now, let's put our hands to Heaven.

 

 

 

Annette's pair of Suncatchers become more detailed and thrive even harder as she digs deeper into her cognizant origins.   The mainstream public's taste for bright and loud are ignored by Nettie's exploratory use of wholehearted traditional hues counterbalanced with a swath of grand arcing themes. A Rose by any other name.

 

 

 

 

Linda F's Cross is ice personified as its sparkling elegance become transformed through her diligent and academic practice.  The viewer is left with a moving tribute to the possibilities of enlightenment and guidance to weather our current climate.  It's a calming presence on a turbulent sea of antiquity.

 

 

 

 

Running the risk of scoring superficial points, we should note that Jeannette's Shell Suncatchers exhibit a punk esthetic without being saddled by an underlying  faux narrative. These post-counterculture entries elicit meaning for the truly lost.  If you listen closely, you can even hear the ocean. 

 

  

 

 

Why did Let feed the need to create a Suncatcher containing colors that she deemed to be cinematic for her united conceptual Cross of presentation? Perhaps the viewer (and I) can answer this burning query
 by presenting meaningful facts about subjective matter in an attempt to understand more about Let.  Live and Let lives!

 

 

 

 

Is it a state, or a state of mind?  Lara asks this question from within her latest unassuming piece of art.  We are all aimless at times, not knowing where we are or where we should be.   These are deep, layered questions that cannot be easily answered unless we cast our fears aside and look deeply into our heartfelt emotive preclusions. We're not there, we're here!

 

 

 

 

Traditional gender roles need not apply here as Susan R's Reindeer disassociates from its identity from within its Christmas accoutrements.  Alas, people will experience that which they require, regardless of pseudo-popular trends. Supposition aside, the reindeer knows the way to carry the sleigh.

 

 

 

Not being saddled with the same baggage as her less skilled Thibodeauxian counterparts, Jeannette has come full circle on her Sailboat Window.  Lovely new tensions are synthesized from both orderly and random textures in this exquisite piece. Sailing takes her away.

  

 

The noir aspects of parenthood have clearly taken relevance to the birthing process Barbara undertook to begin this Rooster Window.   Even in this incomplete state it already speaks of the darkness of our era, intermittent derivatives becoming transformed, and the social outposts of our culture.  These, as we all know, are themes inherent to a Rooster.

 

A less consummate glass crafter would search throughout their distant past for evidence and/or reasons for collateral damage within a modern family for inspiration.  Alas, Susan D has abandoned traditional reasoning and embraced the current ebb of ethnic apathy in her latest works. The green flesh simply, yet succinctly, screams of injustice.  The black crow thinketh its own bird's white.

 

 

 

Sheri's coffee Window has  provided her with a vehicle to further navigate glass avenues she began to explore when she abandoned them in her youth.  There's a sense of nihilism here surrounded by a blooming possibility of, dare I say it?  New order! Yet there's a burning axiomatic question clearly postured within the piece which can only to be answered by the viewer: Caffeinated or De-caf?

 

 

 

Martha's newest work explores the relationship between the tyranny of ageing and the effects of self-imposed ethic values. With influences obviously derived from her readings of both Soren Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen, Martha's staggering palette arouses new insights created from both opaque and transparent layers.  Geaux Tigers!

 

 

 

Desperately searching for an escape hatch from a false paradigm, Linda L has captured the tiniest slice Christmas and immobilized it in time.  With fears fast becoming the tying laces of the straps of the life which bind us, this window makes us question the gifts of others. It also erases the 'so-called' lines between genres without exploiting the Frankincense and Myrrh.

 

 

 

 

Angie's hard at work forging symmetry between what she once was as an individual and what she has now metamorphosized into.  Her Shell Window plumbs glorious new depths while resisting the temptation to search throughout obsolete emotions for evidence and reasons explaining how and why Angie resolved to present four shells rather than five.  She sells Sea Shells.

 

  

 

New combinations have been generated from both the opaque and transparent structures within Cheryl's Winged Cross.  Subtle shifts in detail reveal a deeper meaning and mood behind the lesser obvious significance of this piece.  Her wings already exist-- all she need do now is to fly.

 

 

 

Lastly, is it minimal?  Perhaps at first glance, but if you look deeply into the abyss of red you'll discover a full rich tapestry buried beneath the obligatory layer of crimson in Susan R's Sleigh.  If the spectator truly opens their eyes they'll discover a richness of colors beyond the obvious which resides over the river and through the woods.

 

  

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks