Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Tuesday night brought us 1 new student. Jane showed up right on time but Rita had to cancel as her husband was taken to the hospital. We all hope things go well for both of them. Jane had no problems doing the work necessary to complete her butterfly. She chose medium blue transparent wings with a dark cobalt blue body. Since Jane is taking an evening class we couldn’t take her butterfly out in the sunlight to photograph it. Here’s what her finished butterfly looked like while sitting on a piece of white paper:

Wednesday saw a flurry of activity during our afternoon class. We had our regular gang of 5 show up plus a new student. Ann was back in action this week and was able to finish up her angel. The gown was cut from a Teal/Rose glass mixed with Green Baroque while the wings were made from a clear irridised granite back glass.

Billie finished a Cardinal suncatcher then cut and ground two others that she took home to wrap so she could finish them during our next class. After the Cardinals she’ll work on a hand mirror which she’ll most likely start next week.

Julie worked on another traditional style window. She’ll be using all clear glass of different textures so her progress will be somewhat hard to see here since there is no color to it. But when it’s finished and hanging you’ll easily see what you couldn’t while it was lying down being worked on. She took her pieces home to wrap during the week so she can cut around these pieces that she’ll tack together next week. Julie made GREAT progress and her speed and acuracy have improved greatly. Here’s what she cut and ground today:

Kim went to work on a window that would match the Rooster window that she finished last week. The new theme is Hot Air Balloons as she hails from a town famous for it’s balloon events. We took the basic background of her last window and substituted a fancy, colorful Hot Air Balloon for the rooster. Then for good measure (and to give the window some depth) we put a smaller balloon in the background. Here’s the pattern with what she’s got cut so far:

Ellen started her first project this week. We knew she wanted to do a lighthouse but we weren’t sure what size she wanted. In the end she went with an oval shaped window which is a first for any of our students here. We traced out an oval the size she wanted and then dropped the lighthouse in the center of it. She then traced her second pattern, cut it all out and started cutting her red, green and some of her blue water.

And lastly we have our newest student, Jo Ann. She made her butterfly without a single problem and soldered it wonderfully. Oddly enough she used the same glass that Jane used last night—Medium cathedral blue wings with a cobalt blue body! The head of the butterfly was slightly different but the basic idea was the same. And here’s what it looked like…

Things were slightly hectic today but we all managed just fine. It’s a very friendly atmosphere and everyone is willing to pass along the knowledge that they might have with anyone else who needs it. In short, it’s a great group of people doing great things.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

First off, Ann couldn’t make it in this week due to health reasons.  We all hope she’s on her feet soon and want her to know she was missed.  Wednesday just wasn’t the same without her.
Billie worked on a Cardinal suncatcher that she will finish next week.  Actually she’ll have two finished next week.  She really went all out to make sure her cutting was perfect and she succeeded in a big way.  She needed to only skim her pieces on the grinder rather than grind the pieces down to get them to fit together.  Her cutting this week couldn’t have been better.

Kim was able to solder the back side of her Rooster Window and then finish it off.  We added hooks, hung it and then took some pictures.  Alas, it was a dreary day and the pictures we took of it outside came out blurry so I have to post one that we took indoors with a florescent light behind it.  Still, you can’t help but love this fun and colorful window, it’s character comes through even without natural light behind it.

Julie’s window is finished and ready to hang at home.  Julie tackled the biggest project and managed to handle it without any problems.  I think she was a bit surprised at how well it turned out after it was washed and colored.  When your window is sitting there covered in chemicals it’s hard to imagine that it will ever clean up and look so wonderful. But hers certainly did!

Lastly, we had a new student join us this week.  Ellen started her classes today and made her requisite butterfly which, as usual,  I  managed to forget to take a picture of.  Her butterfly was a peach/champagne color with a tan body.  In fact it was made out of the same glass that Julie used in the center of her window.  Posted below is a picture of a butterfly that I made a few  weeks ago out of clear glass.  Ellen’s  is just a different color.

NEW PROJECTS:

Everyone has had such a great time that they have decided to stay on for more classes and tackle more projects.  Here’s what we have planned so far.

Billie will finish her cardinals and then move on to a hand mirror.  From there she may start a lamp.

Julie is starting a window very similar to one I have hanging in the shop.  Hers will be made entirely in clear glasses with different textures.  After that she has a mission style lamp in mind.

Kim is going to make a Hot Air Balloon window the same size as her Rooster window that will be hung in the same room.  Although the windows will be different they’ll match in style.  She also has a great idea to personalize it.  More details on that as it works itself out over the next 5 weeks…

Ann is playing it by ear.  She’ll finish her Angel suncatcher soon and from there I think she has numerous projects in mind but she hasn’t set anything down in stone yet.  I know she’ll keep busy though.

Ellen will begin her first window next week.  She’s decided on a lighthouse so all we need are some measurements and she’ll start cutting next week.

New Classes Starting!

We have 2 new students starting next Tuesday evening for our night classes.  Expect to see seperate posts showing what goes on here on Tuedays starting next week…

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Billie’s window, which will hang in the transom above her front door, is completed! The dark green numbers are set in clear glue-chip glass and then bordered in the same green used in the numbers. 4 corner accents give the window a friendly and less “strictly business” look that would have occured had they not been included. I played around with the picture of her finished window and came up with a crude representation of what the window would look like without the accent corners. As you can see, they add so much to the character of the window.

Julie is finished save for touching up the soldering job. Her finished window will be one of 2 spotlight pieces next week. We hit a minor snag when we found a small crack in one of her pieces that we’ll need to repair before we wash it up and color it. I’d do it before she got into class next week but I would rather let everyone see how you knock out a broken piece from the center of a window. Luckily, it’s a quick easy fix.

Kim’s Rooster window looks like it will also be finished next week (That will be the second spotlight window). She added her border and soldered the first side this week. The second side should be a lot easier for her now that she’s had a lot of soldering practice on the front of her window. And since she didn’t seem to have any trouble at all with it I’d expect her second side to go quicker than her first side did. Look for her finished window here next week.

Ann has decided to make a Stained Glass Angel for her next project. The pattern is a resized version of an Angel I used to make a few years back. I wish I could take credit for the pattern but it’s a Warner Crivellaro design. Come back next week to see what it looks like.
The music selection this week was Fleetwood Mac and all the band members solo hits, I neglected to mantion that last week we listened to a-Ha.  Yes, they do more than just “Take On Me”. 
Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Sorry this is late but Satellite Internet doesn’t work well when it’s overcast. And the site itself was down on Wednesday night when I first tried to post this.

Anyway, The big news of the week is that Ann’s window is finished! By now it’s hanging for all to see and for those of you who can’t see it in person I present to you, ANN’S WINDOW!!!

Julie choose a nice red jewel for an accent piece in her traditional style window. She soldered some of it this week and will resume soldering it next week. She’s moving quicker that I had thought on a window this size. I’m fairly sure she’ll finish it next week.

Kim has a border to cut and a sun. Although she won’t finish it next week, she’ll be well on her way. I’d say we’ll see the finished rooster shortly. It’s hard to believe she started late as compaired to the other ’s in class.

And Billie’s house number is looking wonderful. I can’t wait to hear what she has to tell the mailman if he delivers the wrong mail to her house once she hangs this beauty!

We’re about to start a second round of projects here and are working on getting some people together for a night class. We’re leaning towards Tuesday nights but we’re opened to other suggestions. If you’re interested in signing up give us a call and let us know when a good night for you would be. Out contact information is available at the link below.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

The Magnolia lamp is the perfect first curved lamp project.  It’s a nice size without being either too big or too small, it consists of 180 pieces with 3 repeated sections.  A lamp is usually designed to have a repeated pattern revolve around the lamp much like flowered wallpaper repeats throughout the roll.

There are 3 sections to this lamp and the top is all gridwork which makes for easy repeated cutting.  Check out our webpage soon to see detailed pictures on how this lamp was made, start to finish.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It’s taken some time for all the glass to arrive (ordering online can be a pain when you aren’t told an item isn’t in stock) but the glass for the sky finally arrived the other day. This window sat on the table waiting first for the water to come in and then the sky.

The pattern actually came from an etched window I saw in a catalogue. I modified it here and there until it matched what the customer wanted. Here’s the original picture that I saw:

And this is the finished version of the window:

We originally planned on a different color for the border but when the center scene of the window was finished it was easy to see that the color we originally chose was not going to work. Luckily we did have a green that framed it wonderfully.

Also finished this week (and installed) is the new front door panel. Made of all clear glass and bevels it measures 50″ x 23″. Here’s 2 views with light coming through at different times of the day:

Please note that the windows are not out of square, it’s just my inability to correctly line up the camera with the windows (I’m not using a tripod).

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We’re certainly making headway now in our classes with soldering becoming the main thing on everyone’s mind. Billie needs to cut 8 corner pieces and she’ll be set to solder. Her window is tacked together for the most part right now:

Kim is almost finished grinding her Rooster window. She’s taken a lot of it home to wrap so she can be ahead of the game next week. When you get this far along you don’t want to stop working:

Julie has all but 2 pieces and her border cut, ground wrapped and tacked together. She’ll probably find that the 2 pieces we broke will be cut and ground for her when she comes back in next week. I doubt it will be a surprise since she reads this blog.

Ann is finished cutting her window. She’s also finished grinding and wrapping her window. In fact, she’s even finished soldering the front of her window! With only the back side to solder she’ll be finished during the next class without a doubt. Keep your eyes peeled on our blog to see her finished piece next Thursday. This is the front of it, soldered and ready for a good washing:

Classes ran late today because we were all on a roll and having fun. No one had to be home and we were fine with having the shop filled with lively, talkative people so we worked until 5:30 or so before we started to get ready to call it a day. The music of choice was ABBA but when we finished listening to their 4 disc set we moved on to assorted hits from the 70’s.

And that was what we did yesterday, March 1st, 2006 during our stained glass classes.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

 

I made this lamp in December and it’s the perfect example of not paying attention to the glass you decide to use in a project. Unlit, the background was a very light wispy green. The leaves were a DARK solid green that went well with the dark blue and purple flowers. I never lit up both pieces of green and held them next to each other to make sure there was enough contrast in them. After the lamp was finished I discovered that the leaves washed out with light behind them and the background actually got darker making them VERY similar.

The lamp is very nice but it wasn’t the look I was originally going for in this particular lamp. Because of this the lamp will not be staying in my living room and is for sale for $400.00
Considering this was the first lamp I made in 5 years I have to say that it went together extremely well. Next week I’ll be making a 11″ Magnolia lamp which is the lamp we start students on when they graduate to the lamp class. Pictures will be posted next week of the finished lamp.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks