Hold Your Horses!

 Kerry's Mardi Gras Mask Window features a solid black background which make the yellow, green and purple cathedral glasses that he used light even brighter than ever.  Black as a background is a very bold choice but if you have enough bold color in the remaining pieces it can be used to great effect as you can clearly see here.

 

 

 

Jan completed her Pelican Window and although she complained about the time it took to make I think it's safe to say that the stunning end result made all the hard labor well worth the time.  I always say that slow and steady not only wins the race but also makes a great window.

 

 

 

 

Susan R has made a Pot of Gold so perhaps she'll make a rainbow to go with it next??  She's used beautiful gold colored globs to form the gold nuggets which looks so much better than the yellow or amber globs that we had in the shop.  I mean, they would have worked but not nearly as nicely as these do!  This is actually a Garden Ornament that Susan will display with pride just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

 

 

 

Taking a quick break from her Name Panels, Linda L  put the finishing touches on a pair of Cardinal Suncatchers that she needed to get done quickly.  The good news is that she accomplished the 'quickly' part without sacrificing any of her standard quality in these two lovely birds.

 

 

 

Beveled Snowflakes are becoming the rage here in class and Betty's latest rendition shows that all points do NOT have to meet in the center.  Her smaller diamond bevels are anchored firmly and the fact that they do not touch the center jewel gives the finished piece an airy and delicate feeling that belies the actual strength of her finished piece.  It's all an illusion.

 

 

 

Patrice is showing all of her colors with her latest interpretation of the Modern Cross design.  She's changed the pattern here and there and then sprinkled a little U, S and some A on the top of it for good measure! 

Unless I'm mistaken, Linda F now has all of the glass cut for her Carousel Horse.   By utilizing two different clear textured glasses and cathedral colors for the background she's made the horse itself stand out vibrantly from the busy background to become the true focal point.   This is already a stunning window before it has even been completed!

  

 

Sheri's latest window implores an inner calmness.  For those unfamiliar, this is a Shuni Mudra hand pose.  This position is supposed to enhance discipline, patience, and self-control. This is also known as the 'Seal of Patience' and Sheri seems to be very much at peace while making this!

  

Multi-colored cats are a great way to use up scrap glass and Lisa is is making her Peeking Cat with the boldest of colors.  When this is finished it may also go into another wooden corner frame as she did with her Peeking Rooster but I'm not entirely sure.  What I do know is that she's flying through the creation process of this so we'll learn exactly where this will end up soon enough.

  

 

Barbara was going to use a clear textured glass for her LSU Window but in the end she went with yellow instead.  The purple letters stand out far nicer against the yellow background and make the window all the more striking (as well as visible).  The big question is, what will her border be?

  

 

Judy's Cowboys Window is already all cut out and ready to be ground.  This appears to be a father and son cowboy and she's decided to give them matching outfits with perhaps a few minor variations.  What can I say other than it already looks great!

  

 

That jumble of pieces that you saw on the right hand side of Annette's New Orleans Window last week has almost been completely ground and boy has this window taken shape.  Nettie's work on this has been wonderful and I have to admire her for not giving up even when the going was tough a few weeks back.   I have to give her credit because her glass abilities have grown so much while she's been making this!

  

 

With the background for her Religious 3D Window all wrapped and soldered, Ann is ready to get to work foiling the pieces that will make up the Borromean Rings part of the window.  Wrapping those pieces will be a bit trickier than usual because each piece needs to be completely enveloped in copper foil.   For that she will be using a sheet of copper foil that measures 12 x 12 out of which she'll cut pieces that align to those that she's already cut and ground in glass.   We will go over that process next week when Ann returns.

 

 

 

Bee has almost literally been flying through the creation process of a window that will be inserted into the front door of her new house.  This week she managed to cut and grind a good portion of  the background glass.  She'll be using restrip in this for both strength and stability and she will be applying that restrip to upon her return BEFORE she tacks the center together.

 

 

 

Betty noticed that this Sunflower pattern didn't have a stem.  Most likely the artist of the design expected one of the lead lines to double as a stem (I've seen this done many times in Sunflower Windows) but a lead line never looks as though it could support such a heavy flower.  To rectify this situation Betty has widened the lead line and put some green glass along it to  give it some more 'body'.  She's also added a lime green border this week and even has the front side of this soldered already.

 

 

 

Meanwhile Lorrie is hard at work on her own Sunflower which utilizes various shades of green and yellows throughout to give it a denser effect.  I have to say that this has always been one of my favorite patterns and Lorrie is certainly doing it proud!

 

  

 

 

With all of the glass having been cut out for her Sewing Machine Window, Melissa has moved on over to the grinding process.  She was a little unsure on how to get the cut on the top of the heart to look natural but she handled it very easily by grinding away the glass using the small grinder bit and then placing the glass at a 90 degree angle to even further deepen the 'notch'.  We call that thinking outside the box.

 

  

 

 

Steve's Southern Belle has her background almost completely cut out which means that he'll be working on her face before you know it.  Steve has some mad painting skills so I have no doubt that this woman is going to look just as good as the rest of this window. 

 

  

 

 

With her black border now firmly attached to her LSU Tiger Window, MiMi has begun soldering.   In one night she's already managed to get through about three quarters of the front side and that is no mean feat indeed. The reason this window is coming together so perfectly is because MiMi strives so very hard for perfection, and then achieves it.

 

  

 

Speaking of perfection-- can you believe all the work that Martha accomplished on her Birdhouse and Roses Window this week?  Everything has been cut and ground save for the flowers but rest assured that she will begin cutting those intricate petals upon her return. 

 

 

Cheryl's Teapot Window is almost ground now but she's pretty sure she wants to remove the base of the teapot and replace it with the same glass that she used for the background.  I think I may understand what she doesn't find appealing about it and maybe I can come up with a 'best of both worlds' fix for her.  We'll see what happens when we return and show you what she's decided in our next post.

  

 

 

With the front side soldered and the back side 85% of the way finished I'm going to go out on a VERY short limb and say that Let will complete this Flower Window when she returns on Tuesday.   It would have been finished this week had she not been so unfortunate as to become ill last week.  Still, she's come a long way on this window VERY quickly and feels MUCH better.

 

  

 

 
Darth Vader is coming together even after he fell apart while being driven home last week.   Sometimes things get disheveled when you have to hit your brakes hard but the good news is that everyone was safe-- even Vader.  June is working through this at a nice steady pace and before you know it she'll move onto a new window with a little more color in it (hopefully).

 

  

 

 

Patrice also worked on her Umbrella Lady and has all of the front side soldered.  She's flipped it over and has already begun soldering the back side of this lovely window.  The end is near after which Patrice will work on designing a decorative top to her round Bathtub Lady.

 

 

 

 

We just keep adding more and more sparkle to these Beveled Snowflakes.  Susan D is now incorporating Glass Chandelier Crystals to the outer edges of her latest piece.  I love the look of this and have to say that all of that 'bling' that surrounds the outer perimeter will not only dress it all up but will help make this snowflake rock solid!

 

  

 

And to end things here we're going to see that Cindy is about to complete her Cardinal Panel after which she will then move along to a Dove Cross (pictured to the left of the Cardinal).  There's only a bit of soldering left to go so I'm sure it will be completed upon her return and then we'll get to see some progress done on the Cross.

 

  

 

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

 

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I Suck At Tap-Tap

Lisa was as busy as could be and completed not one but two stained glass pieces this week.  Her Peeking Rooster has been mounted into a wooden display that allows it to be places anywhere in the house-- not just within a window.  But I think that the highlight of her two projects is her Spinning Girl which we reinforced with wire so that it could endure the forces of spinning without pulling apart.

 

  

 

 

 

Cheryl has been missing in action for the past three weeks but she returned with a vengeance as she quickly finished her address window.  It's looking good, don't you think?  She also moved onto another project as well.

 

  

 

 

Helen made two more Crosses this week and although she left early she managed to knock these both out before walking out the door.  She keeps asking me if her work is improving week to week and I have to say that it most certainly has, especially with these two fine pieces.

Patrice may have missed class last week but it didn't stop her from being productive at all as she cut grounds, and wrapped a Modern Cross.  When she cam into class this week she soldered it and then took it home as a completed project.

 

 

 

Next we take a look at Steve's Southern Belle Window with his latest panel in position.   There's only one piece left to go and we'll take a closer look at that a little further down in this post.

 

 

Susan D finished her third Beveled Snowflake in which she mixes bevels with glue chip diamonds and clear glass globs.  It's another stunning pieces which will throw rainbows all throughout the room when the sun shines through it.

 

 

 

Speaking of rainbows, Susan R's Pot of Gold is moving right along and reminds me of an old saying:  "When you find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow quickly look for another rainbow!"

 

 

 

After finishing the fifth panel for his Southern Belle Steve jumped right along into the sixth and final piece of his window.   This is the one that will require the most work as he will have to paint a face onto the glass and then fire it in the kiln.  There are also more pieces in this than perhaps any of the other sections so don't expect it to be completed inside of two weeks as he's been doing lately!

 

 

 

Wasting no time whatsoever, Melissa has got almost the entirety of her Sewing Machine Window cut out.  She's unsure about the color of two pieces in particular and, judging by what she told me, she'll be re-cutting those pieces upon her return.  Meanwhile though she's grinding away!

 

 

 

Cheryl's second piece for the week is a Teapot made from a china plate.  She got it all  cut out quickly and will begin grinding this upon her return.

 

 

 

Martha has decided to go with a dark green for the background of her roses which  will contrast beautifully with the lighter green leaves in the 'foreground'.   She not only cut out those pieces but has ground them as well which means that when her window is all cut out she'll most likely be ready to begin foiling all each of her pieces.

 

 

 

With only the cuts in her bridge left to be made, Lara has begun wrapping her pieces  so that she can tack together everything that surrounds the bridge   This way, if anything grows, she can make adjustments and still keep the perfect silhouette of the bridge looking picture perfect!

 

  

 

Linda has the background for her Carousal Horse drawn in and has already traced our her new pattern pieces and has begun cutting the glass for it.  She says that she's in no hurry to finish this because she wants it to look great but I believe that she'll get this great looking window done quickly because I know what she's capable of.

 

 

 

 

Jan is so close to completing her Pelican Window that it's not even funny.  With the front side soldered and the second side more than half way finished this will easily be completed upon her return.

  

 

 

After soldering her Modern Cross Patrice got the border for her Umbrella Lady ground, wrapped and tacked into position.   She's about ready to do a final solder on this but she also wants to work on her Bathtub Lady as well.   We'll see what she decides to do next when she returns next week.

 

  

 

 

Susan D is hard at work designing and assembling her next Beveled Snowflake.  Look closely and you will see that this one has a new twist-- Crystal end pieces!

  

 

 

Darth Vader is taking shape as June has all of the first black cut out for him.   She's moved along to the second black texture of which there isn't much left to cut.   Before you know it June will be ready to grind.  This is a striking window as only Vader could be so bold....

 

 

 

Lorrie, who I will remind you is our newest student, is moving along at breakneck speed on her complex Sunflower Window.  This is only her second week on this project and it's already all cut out!  Not only that-- she's already begun grinding it as well.  She's taken this along home with her where she hopes to get some more grinding done on it with her new grinder as the week progresses.

 

  

 

 

Annette continues to amaze me with the work that she's doing while at home.   Apparently her confidence is at an all time high (as it should be) because each week that we see this more and more of it fits together.  The fact of the matter is that there's not much more left to go on this other than foiling and tacking.  And it already looks SPECTACULAR!

 

  

 

With her LSU Tiger completely wrapped and tacked together MiMi was able to get to work on her border.  She's picked a solid black glass which fits in nicely with the darker tones that she's used throughout the window and she's already got all of the border ground as well as having some of the pieces wrapped in foil as well.  I think it's safe to say that this is the beginning of the end here.

  

 

 

Bee is cutting out background and next week she'll continue to do so when more of the glass she's picked comes into the shop.   I know for a fact that it will be her in time because it arrived today.

 

  

 

That darned fluorescent light ruins many of my pictures which is why I normally tale multiple shots of projects from slightly different angles.  Alas, I didn't take multiple shots of Cindy's Cardinal Window so this is all I can show you.   It just needs a border so this could easily be completed upon her return when I will the get a good picture of it and hopefully make up for this mess of a picture (which is my fault).

 

 

 

With his border all cut out, ground, wrapped and tacked together Kerry has begun soldering his Mardi Gras Mask Window and even managed to finish the front side.  With the second side more than halfway completed I'm making a sure bet that this is easily finished next week.

  

 

 

Linda L is taking a quick break from her nameplate windows to make two Cardinal Suncatchers.  She's already got them cut and ground with one of them even about a third of the way foiled as well.  Linda doesn't mess around!

 

  

 

 

Betty has a Sunflower Panel all ground and ready to be wrapped as well as a new Beveled Snowflake design.  The beauty of Snowflake Bevels is that you can arrange them any way you want (as long as you avoid hinge points).

 

 

 

So far there isn't much to see here but that's only because Judy traced out her newest window onto poster board, cut it up and then began cutting a hat, two belts and four shoes.   I'll bet we see a lot more progress done on this next week since Judy will be able to start cutting glass the minute that she walks in the door.

 

  

 

I didn't manage to get a picture of Barbara's LSU window but rest assured that I will when I see her again next week.  She just loves to slip out the door before I think of taking a picture.   I may have to take her photos at the start of class just so that I have something to show!

Adios!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks