A Buzz With Activity
It was a long night but once we got the class going I forgot all about the fact that I didn’t sleep the night before. In case you hadn’t read earlier, our cat Ethel had 7 kittens on Tuesday night which kept us up until classes started the next day.
Finally, noon got here bringing all 6 of our students. Julie got here first and finished the center part of her window. Then she slapped on the curvy end pieces to square it all off (Julie tackled the curvy pieces with great confidence and she didn’t break a single piece). All that’s left now is 3 borders and one of them is already cut (the center border is beveled). Soldering is just around the corner now!
Ann finished cutting, wrapping and tacking the flower section of her mirror. She’ll work on making a bordered mirror next week that the flower will be placed on top of. Below is a picture of all the parts set next to each other in their approximate positions to show you just what this will like. It’s hard to photograph a mirror so I set it on the ground outside hoping to get it to reflect the sky rather than myslef with a camera hanging over it…
And speaking of blue skys we have Kim’s Hot Air Balloons. It looks like we have a sun, a single section of grass, and a gondola or two to go. Then it’s the border and a finishing soldering. Kim has made this window pretty much on her own with very little help and she’s done wonderfully. I can’t wait to see it finished.
Billy has her hand mirror ready to go. She had planned on cutting a lot of it at home but ran into a slight snag when she discovered that she didn’t have a colored pattern with her to see what were leaves and what were flower petals. It sounds like it would be a no-brainer but the pattern is VERY difficult to figure out if you don’t have it colored in. Still, she was able to cut most of the pieces correctly and from there she ground them, wrapped them and tacked them all together. Then she cut the center mirror from the two edge pieces she had assembled. Billy was running out of time (there’s always someplace to get to) and she ran out taking her mirror home to wrap. I positioned the two edges and took a picture of what was left behind. Then I quickly photoshopped the picture to show you where the mirrored section will be next week when she finishes it.
Joann’s Mallard window is really looking good. Keeping track of all those feathers can be a real pain in the butt, however you can already see how great this window will look when it’s complete. Joann sat quietly at her workstation working away most the class and her cutting is spot-on. Look for this window to be yet another stunning finished project.
Lastly we have Ellen’s Lighthouse. We spent a good hour holding glass next to it trying to figure out a good choice for the border color and finally settled on a wispey gray. We had clear amber, the red from the lighthouse roof, assorted greens and blues, and even a number of variously textured clear glasses (Ellen is partial to Clear French Crackle glass) but in the end she went with a soft color to bring the lighthouse scenery into focus rather than the border itself. A job well done. And it WILL be done next week when she solders this window and takes it home.
And that was our class this week. But before I leave you I’ll wrap this up with Ethel’s project. She had 7 kittens altogether but only 3 survived. All were black save for one yellow kitten that lived for about an hour. Ethel, being only 9 months old herself, had a tough time during the delivery but she knew we were there to help her and accepted us fully when she was in crisis. Luckily she’s fine and her three surviving kittens appear to be very healthy. Here’s Ethel with her 3 finished projects. Don’t be afraid to ask for one –None are claimed yet. 
Paul