Life's A Big Orgy

Cindy's Golfer Window is complete and on par with the best of any golf window that I've ever seen.   I'd even consider it to be a hole in one! 

 

 

 

Linda L's Fractured Background is a multi-colored delight. The bevel in the center proudly displays a Mantra worth living by and her work on this was top notch. I know she said that she really wasn't into making this but I saw her smile when it hanging up with some back light behind it.

 

 

Lorrie's Birds on a Wire are 100% finished and they are a striking piece of stained glass. You can never lose with this design (or similar birds strung together) but people rarely notice just how much work is involved. Cout those pieces and be impressed.

Lorrie also made this Large Flower suncatcher with the help of her daughter and she really liked the assembly line that the two of them formed while making this. I think we can all agree that it paid off handsomely!

 

Let completed her Flower and Ribbon teardrop suncatcher with ease. We can almost always count on seeing a finished piece of stained glass by Let because it's practically a weekly occurrence.

 

Betty's first Toy Solder looks marvelous and she really did a bang up job on all aspects of creating him.  Her only problem is determining which is the front of the soldier and which is the back but you know what?  It really doesn't matter since she won't have any control as to how it is hung/hanged after it is purchased.

 

 

Paula was kind enough to send me a picture of her completed Ironman Suncatcher.  I do believe that Tony Start would be quite proud of the work Paula did on his new Armor! 

 

Judy has begun working on a large Teepee Suncatcher.  Or is it a wigwam?   This is something I'll have to look up. It's a Teepee!  FYI, a wigwam is a rounded or oval-shaped Native American dwelling made of poles covered with bark or mats, while a teepee is a conical tent made from animal skins over a frame of long poles. 

 

 

 

Sheri has the first Alligator Santa started and she almost completely finished him in this class.  Look to see him completed when she comes back in next week.

 

 

Kandise got her Camera all ground and then whisked it home with her where she hopes to foil all of the pieces. She's planning to attach two small chains at the bottom of the camera where a picture frame will hang to give the finished camera a very personal touch. We still haven't figured exactly how to affix a photo into the said frame but I'm currently working it out in my mind. 

 

 

 

Keri's Stitch Suncatcher is all ground as of this class and she's taken him home to hopefully foil so she can tack him together upon her return. If she finds the time to foil these pieces over the holiday weekend I see no reason why this can't be completed in time for our next blog post. Her work as one of our newest students is amazing!

 

 

 

Barbara's small Tiffany styled Flower Panel is just about ready to become a window hanging. After getting her background cut, ground, foiled and tacked together Barbara was able to pick out a border and get that cut and ground as well. Even if she doesn't have the border foiled when she comes back in I can say without a doubt that this will still be completed upon her return.

 

 

 

 

Cindy is working on new Christmas Hearts to end the year. She keeps a detailed log of which teacher has received what Heart in years previous so that the recipients can assemble a complete collection without the fear of receiving repeating hearts.

  

 

MiMi put aside her lamp for a bit while she repairs this 3D Beveled Cross.  Since there wasn't much left of it that hadn't collapsed the best way to fix it was to rip it apart completely and then rebuild it from scratch.  Tonight she disassembled it, washed all of the pieces and now has all of them foiled which means that this will go back together next week.

 

 

 

It's official- Susan R has all of her Autumn Leaf cut and ground!   I know that I've said it before but I'm going to say it again.  I'm proud of her work on this and her drive to see it through.  The rest of the work on this will be child's play for Susan.

 

 

June has almost all of her Multi-colored Cat cut and ground and she even has the head of the cat foiled.   It won't be long now.  I showed her a Multi-colored Dog that I saw on the internet and it turns out that her husband Peter had also shown the dog to her.  She told me the same thing she told him-- "No way".

 

Lastly, Betty also made three more of her Cat Suncatchers which sell as fast as she can make them.  Alas, I didn't get a picture of them.  Also, Lorrie soldered the last three stands for her Oil Kaleidoscopes which means that next week she will begin the final eye pieces for each of the wands.

And that would be all there is that's fit to print this week.

Sayonara!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

See, For Me That's A Possibility!

Paula's Spiderman is easily recognizable by anyone who's over the age of five.  For the past 20 years he's been everywhere as his movies are always making money.  Paula isn't the first student to render him in glass but this one stands out due to the detail in the webs on his face.   All in all it's a fantastic likeness! 

 

Cindy finished her Cardinal Cross and it's ready for delivery.   It's wonderful that so many or our students are selling things to help offset the cost of continuing their hobby. 

 

 

Cheryl's latest Wedding Box looks fantastic and hopefully it will steal the show when all of the wedding gifts are opened! I see no reason why it wouldn't.

 

 

 

Susan D completed the first of five of her Dragonfly Spoons and the other four won't be far behind this one as you'll see a little further along in this post.

 

 

Betty's Christmas Bird (the first of three others) is now complete. There are a lot of pieces in this small piece which means that making these takes both time AND patience but Betty has proven herself to be up to the task. Having it look this good certainly helps motivate her to get the others completed.

 

 Let's Cross was made from all clear iridized glass with straight cuts that line up spectacularly.  All that precision makes it hang nice and straight as well!

 

Barbara is working on miniscule Bird and Flowers window that reminds me very much of something that Tiffany would have made back in the day.  Here's a fun fact for you: Barbara's 'window' measures only 6inches high and contains 36 pieces. My oh my!

 

 

Keri has begun work on a large Stitch Suncatcher. In just one evening (and not even a complete evening) she managed to trace out the pattern onto poster board and then cut out all of the glass for this cute little guy. Sweet!

 

  

  

Kandise is another fast worker who managed to trace her project pattern onto poster board, cut the pattern pieces out with scissors and then got almost all of her Camera cut out of glass as well! I'm going to show her how to get a large whole cut into the center of the lens without any lead lines leading up to it.  More on that next week. 

   

 

Julie tacked her Hamsa Hand together and then got an arched background cut out as well.  Once that was all tacked together she got the straight strips cut for her  first border.  That's a productive class for sure!

  

 

Betty currently has three more Cat Suncatcher ready for whiskers along with a new Christmas Toy Soldier Suncatcher that we've not seen before. This entire work board is simplicity at its finest.

 

Tracey made a lot of progress this week as she managed to get almost all of the petals cut out for her Magnolia. Let me tell you that the glass she picked did NOT want to work with us because those long thin pieces just wanted to break in all of the wrong places. But in the end Tracey won and I know that the green for the leaves will cut far easier.

 

 

 

Let has a Christmas Poinsettia teardrop in the works and if you think it looks as though she's only got a few pieces left to wrap in foil before she solders it, well, you'd be correct! 

 

  

 

Cindy's Golf Window was all tacked together and after a little agonizing she settled on a green glass with some wisps of brown throughout it for her  border.  I think it's a perfect match and it really brought the window to life when compared to the light amber that Cindy was originally leaning towards.

 

 

 

Martha's Art Deco Lady is looking particularly spectacular. The head band on the woman will be done in all lead and after I showed Martha how to foil the front side she immediately did the second side herself and tacked everything together. Next she'll add the final border and do some soldering.

 

  

 

Susan R's Autumn Leaf is very close to being completely cut and ground.  She has really shown off her skills with this project along with her excellent color choices.  When it comes to making this leaf it's no walk in the park, but Susan is working both determinedly and steadily through its creation.

  

 

 

Bee's Dragonfly Window is really coming together nicely.  She's going to cut down the number of pieces in the wings and that will be fine because there ARE a lot of pieces in them and it IS possible to over do things.   If she uses a textured glass it will help with the illusion of them looking like actual dragonfly wings.

 

  

 

Mary Grace resumed the work on her small and somewhat delicate Nativity Scene which features a beveled stable whose roof sits perilously atop two small upright bevels. The hinge point that this creates is one of the worst I've ever seen so we needed to come up with a way to sturdy this structure. First we added some brass channel all around the stable which helped a lot but the addition of wire buried in the solder of the inside arch made this a sound as can be. Where there's a will there's a way.

 

  

 

Here's a look at the other four Dragonfly Spoons that Susan D is currently working on.  As you can see she's got these just about ready for solder.

  

  

Paula's Ironman head looks particularly masculine in all of that red and gold armor. She's doing another great job on this and it will certainly be completed before she comes back to class since it will be gifted to it's owner on Sunday. Paula says she'll send me a completed picture so I can share it here in our next post.

  

  

Linda L's got all of her glass cut, ground, and attached  for her Fractured Window which featured a square bevel in the center with the words "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much" inscribed on it.   She hopes to be soldering this while at home so who knows how far along this will be when Linda comes back in.

 

Even though Mary was unable to work on her Tiger Eye Window while at home she still managed to get it all ground while in class. She then began foiling each of her pieces and got pretty far on that as well. You may notice that there's a small piece missing along the top edge. We will fill that in after she's foiled everything and tacked this all together.

 

 

 

Lorrie is now extremely far along on her fleet of twelve Oil Wand Kaleidoscopes. She spent this class assembling the stands for the scopes and got eight of them completely assembled, soldered and washed and waxed. Next week she'll finish off the stands, insert all of her mirrors and work on the final eyepieces that will complete these.

 

  

 

Jan dropped in and picked up her pattern for a Sweet and Simple Heart panel that will be displayed on a small easel which will reside on a table rather than hanging in a window.   Glass choices are limited when making something that will have an easel or a wall behind it because you don't want to use anything too transparent to see through the window.  We'll see what Jan picks when she returns.

 

Forever persistently yours,

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I Only Teach For The Prestige and Glamour

Keri's Round Dragonfly is everything I thought it would be.  This is the first time that she's done a considerable amount of tap-tapping on a project but she handled it like a complete professional.  Matching the round border to the small round eyes was a perfect move color wise.

 

 

 

  

Let's Christmas bird is downright adorable!  Look closely for the cute little wire feet that wrap around the Holly Berries and marvel at how much beauty is added to this piece by just attaching a few small pieces of wire.  Of course, those small pieces of wire are a complete pain in the @ss to attach but in the end they are well worth it by adding to the 'ohhh, ahhh' factor. 

  

 

Betty completed her latest Christmas Frog and rather than dealing with a three piece eyeball which has a lead line running across the center she's opted to simply put a drop of glass paint on the center of a yellow eye thus eliminating an unsightly lead line. Since the yellow that the paint was applied to is transparent, the pupil is visible from both sides of the suncatcher. Nice!

 

 

 

Sheri completed not one but two Grinch hands. I'm being lazy by only showing one of them because 1) they are identical and 2) because it saves me time during a time restricted week for me. Both of these Grinch hands will certainly find a new home almost as soon a Sheri hangs them and puts them up for sale.

 

 

 

It's official! Bust out the champaign because Judy has completed her last Cross (of the year)! She's excited to be moving on to something else although what that might be is currently unknown. She's got a little time to think about that though. 

 

  

Lorrie made this Dragonfly Suncatcher while at home and brought it in for hooks and a picture. Alas, the night was so busy that she never got to wash it so I could get a good picture of it but I think this shows it off well enough.

 

 

Julie had begun making this Hamsa Hand on her own before she even began taking classes with us. When she came into class she had all of the glass cut and about half of it ground. Best of all she'd done an incredible job all on her own and by the time she left class she had this completely ground and foiled as well. What started off as a suncatcher is going to end up becoming a window because Julie will be adding some background glass to this as well as a border.

  

 

  

Cindy has shifted to another project so that she could get this Cardinal on a Cross completed quickly. Since this is her first class working on it and she's already got the Cardinal itself all cut and ground I'd say that she's plowing ahead on this with fantastic speed and grace!

 

  

 

 

Mary Grace has begun a Beveled Manger Scene which was VERY problematic as the two pattern sheets that came with the bevels were from two different Manger scenes! Once we realized the mistake we were able to back up a bit, re-group and make adjustments but all of that DID cost time. Alas, this should be completed when Mary Grace returns. 

 

  

 

Bee is cutting background pieces for her Dragonfly Window and she's picked out a blue glass which will join and compliment the green as part of the background. Once this gets colored in more I suspect that many people's eyes will widen in shock at just how beautiful this design actually is. 

 

 

 

Lorrie got all twelve of her mirrors cut and assembled. Cutting these delicate mirrors into perfectly even 7/8" x 8" strips was a delicate maneuver so I used the strip cutter to cut them for her. It took three mirrors arranged in a unique pattern to form the reflecting tube so it took most of the night to get them together. Once that was done she got all of her pieces cut for the stand of her oil scope. I showed her how to assemble one of them and she's taken them home to grind, wrap and possibly assemble.

 

With the lid of her latest Wedding Box completed I'll make an educated guess that Cheryl will complete this project when she returns. She has a lot of traveling coming up but one more class should allow her to get the bottom built and then get the top hinged into position. 

 

 

 

Tracey is back and she's beginning her second coming with a Magnolia Window. She's done it before and figures that it will be a great way to get her feet wet again.

 

 

 

Susan R is so closed to finishing cutting her multi-pieces Autumn Leaf that she's already thinking about all of the 'fun' she'll have foiling all of these little pieces! I guess you can call that planning ahead?

 

 

Shelley resumed work on her Ballerina Hoop by cutting out the remainder of the glass that makes this. That means that Shelley will next be working at the grinder. She does have the legs cut but we're going to cut them to size after everything else has been tacked together so we can guarantee that everything will touch the hoop.

 

  

 

 

Martha has her Art Deco Lady all ground which means that it's ready to be foiled.  Her grinding has made her pieces fit as perfectly as the gloves that this glamorous woman is wearing.  I'm watching you! 

 

  

 

 

Mary's Tiger Eye Window got some of its pieces ground as Mary prepares to take this window over the goal post. She had taken it home with her but was unable to work on it because of an illness that even prevented her from showing up in class last week. Now that she's back on her feet again she going to be moving right along on this.

 

 

Linda L, as expected, got the background cut and ground which squared or 'rectangled' this oval design into a more standard window shape.   Getting the off-white colored border attached was a serious plus in getting this window completed quickly because this window is just about ready for solder!

 

 

 

Barbara has her second Mini Tulip Panel all cut, ground, tacked together and awaiting solder. She's got two more of these cut out so she will really be cranking these things out now! 

 

 

 

And MiMi got two more egg cartons worth of lamp pieces ground and is down to just three more cartons in the shop and another pair at home. She sees the lamp at the end of the tunnel and it's provided her with a boost of adrenalin to finish this show stopper. 

 

 

And that's what we have to show this week. We'll miss a post next week but we will return on the 24th with our regularly scheduled programming. It seems like a long time but this post was done VERY early this week.

 

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks