Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Tonight was a lot less hectic than it was last week but that doesn’t mean that Cheryl and Joey just sat around doing nothing. On the contrary, both of them got major portions of work finished.

Joey tacked his Mickey Mouse together and then cut the 9 background pieces out of Glue Chip glass. Since we used Mickey as the actual pattern there was very little grinding involved to get everything to fit together. One that was finished he wrapped it tacked it and got ready to do the final step– the border. Joey picked a colorful Spectrum blue that compliments the bright colors in Mickey’s robes and hat and then cut and ground them. He’s taken them home to wrap and next week he’ll be finishing this window for sure. There’s no mistaking who this mouse is.

Meanwhile Cheryl ground the background scenery she had cut at home and then wrapped and tacked all of it together. She was able to modify the pattern herself when she ran short of some sky blue. I always say that the pattern isn’t set in stone and that you should feel free to re-arrange as needed. She added a cloud and then had enough blue to finish the sky. She’s taken her window home with her this week so she can solder the front of it and get a head start on her work next week. There’s only a brown border left to cut and then this window will almost be finished.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We were missing both Gerald and Lane today so that left us wih three students. That’s not to say that plenty of work didn’t get accomplished today!

Ellen finished the last clump/cluster/bunch or grapes and then tacked the window all together. The few missing pieces were filled in and a brass channel was put on 3 sides. All that’s left is the soldering and Ellen has decided to do that at home and then bring it back next week for some hooks and it’s first real photo-shoot. The grapes look great now but wait until you see them next week with the copper patina hiding all the silver solder… You’re going to love it. I know I do already. Look for Ellen to begin a wedding box next week. There’s nothing she can’t do!

And speaking of working at home– Jane ground all of her window and wrapped 90% of it, stopping only because she ran out of foil! How’d she manage on her own? PERFECTLY! It fit together better than I’d ever imagined. Jane is no longer a beginner at this art and she’s demonstrated her ability to complete the toughest of tasks all on her own. Next week she’ll begin soldering this large window.

Murlin finished cutting the white background of his window and then tacked it together. He then used the strip cutter to make perfect 5/8″ strips which (when cut into 3 inch sections) form the inner light blue border of this window. The border was then numbered with a marker and he has them home now to wrap. Next week he’ll tack the innner border onto his window and then cut a wider final border to complete this. His cutting will be finished next week and he’ll start soldering it for sure! It’s looking great and Murlin is doing a wonderful job.

Lastly, although Gerald couldn’t make it in he does get a spot in the blog this week because we want everyone to know that he took third place in the “Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival” Arts and Crafts Competition! You may have seen his window from the previous Blog entry but if not, here it is again. Congratulations Gerald, we hope to see both you and Lane again next week.

And that was what we did today…

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Gerald has faced the wrath of a deadline this week. It’s a common problem (at least in the glass business)– you think you have plenty of time to get something finished but you never really do. You come to realize that your deadline is now only hours away and you are nowhere near finishing. I’ve done plenty of overnighters at the store getting jobs finished so they could be picked up on time so I knew that no matter what, Gerald would be able to get his window completed.
With the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival coming up on Labor Day Weekend, Gerald thought he had plenty of time to finish the window he was working on for the Arts & Crafts Show & Sale portion of the Festival. But then he discovered that his window would have to be there a week ahead of time (Saturday the 26th). So he came in on Friday (the 25th) to finish it up and let us snap some pictures of his completed window.  There’s nothing like a little pressure to help spark the creative process!
The design of the window was created by Gerald and measures about 18″ x 24″. The stained glass consists of water, a sky and an oilrig framework that is cut into the sky. A black iridescent baroque glass was used as a border. A small 1/8 inch slot was left opened about an inch above the water line so a copper plate could be inserted and soldered into place. This plate would extend forward from the window approximately 4 inches.

The basic framework of the oilrig was carefully cut into the sky and a small ‘box like’ shack was cut out to the right of the rig. The rig was cut directly into place on the the glass used for the sky so that when it was reassembled the grain of the glass was intact which helped create the 3D effect that the rig is in front of the glass. The grain (or flow) would not have lined up if he’d pieced the rig together from another piece of glass. Two more wider slots were left opened in the water part of the window to allow for 2 pieces of copper tubes to be soldered onto the front of the window as the rig’s platform legs.

Once the glass was all cut, ground, wrapped and tacked Gerald soldered the window as if it were finished. Then he inserted the copper plate and attached it from behind as if it were a simple solder line. He placed the copper pipe into the slots and soldered them onto the glass from behind. Everything was rock solid. In fact, there would have been trouble had any glass broken or if anything was out of allignment because once the copper pieces were attached, they weren’t coming off without a Hell of a fight.

Gerald then make a framework of the rig out of copper tubing of different sizes and soldered it all together. It lined up perfectly with the outline that was cut into the glass. Next he put small copper posts onto the back of the wire framework. Smaller posts were used at the top and larger ones at the bottom so that the wire framework would taper as it went up the window. The framework was then soldered onto the glass by attaching the posts to the solder joints.  The 3D look was now very striking.

The shed stood out because it was flat next to the 3D rig so he cut another piece of glass to match what was already cut into the window, then he cut 2 walls and after everything was wrapped he soldered them to the outline of the shed. Next he needed a roof. A piece of reeded glass worked perfectly for this. He put a copper backing on it and when it was soldered into place you’d swear it was a piece of corrugated metal. A small roof was added to the top of the rig in the same basic manor.

The window looked fantastic, but it wasn’t finished yet. This is the Shrimp and Petroleum Festval, not just a Petroleum Festival. A large shrimp suncatcher was then made out of glass and soldered onto the metal frame of the rig. He added some wire legs and some ‘whiskers’ to complete the effect. He even went so far as to split the ends of the thin wire legs so they had small pinchers!

The window was finally complete. It took a while to clean, color and wax everything but in the end it was well worth it. Below are 9 different views of the window so you can see the 3D effect. Good job, Gerald! He even got it finished before Saturday… 

While all this was going on Russ was busy finishing a repair that had come into the shop about a month or so ago. An old antique window that had been soaked in the flood waters of Katrina in Chalmette for about a month (with numerous items having fallen on top of it). Surprisingly, the window suffered only 2 breaks and the owners decided to keep the original glass with these small cracks rather than replacing the broken pieces with something that’s similar but not a complete match. All the lead had to be cut away from the window and then each glass piece was washed and numbered so Russ would know how to reassemble it correctly.  It was important to number the pieces because there were 2 of everything.  If only 2 pieces were out of place when he reassembled the window it would not have fit together correctly.  Russ built a new frame out of zinc channel and then set about re-caming the window. It took a few days but he more or less finished it while Gerald was finishing his window. It only needs to be sealed before it makes its way back to its new home near Lockport. Russ did a fantastic job and I’m glad he did this one as I am not fond of working with lead came.

I was busy finishing up a wedding box that will be headed off to New York shortly. I had the top all tacked together and soldered but I hadn’t managed to get the bottom of the box cut until Gerald came in. With only one person working on a project it was easy to finish up the box bottom and then attach the lid. The invitation has a silver flower border and the text is printed in a light lavender. I enlarged 2 of the flowers that repeat itself throughout the border and used that as the design for the side of the box. I cut the flowers from 2 iridescent sheets of glass which give the flowers a lavender effect when the light hits it. The borders where done in an iridescent clear granite backed glass. Finally, we decided to leave the solder silver rather than patina it copper colored so it would match the invitation better. I’m very pleased with the finished box, and Richie has seen these pictures and seems to be happy with it as well.

And that’s what we did on Friday night during our extra class this week.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We had 5 different projects going on tonight, including Murlin who was starting his first big project. Now, where to start…

Cheryl has all of the RV completed and is is now working on the background. She was originally going to use an etched piece of clear glass for the windows of the RV but then Russ turned up a colored piece of glass that turned out to be perfect. She had to re-adjust her sky a bit so it would fit on the piece of glass she picked. All we did was slide the sun to the center of the window. She’ll be cutting at home so we’ll probably see a lot of progress next week. I know Cheryl is a little leery about how this is going to look, but when it’s soldered it’s going to look great.

Danielle has finished with all the feathers in her Parrot window. The yellow ones were a bit stressing, especially when they popped out of place twice (or was it three times?) on her. But perseverance prevailed and she’s on the home stretch now. It looks great.

Joey finished up his mouse and has it all cut, ground and wrapped. There’s only 17 pieces to go and then we can say that his glass cutting is finished on this project. He has only 8 border pieces and 9 background pieces left to cut . Look for big progress next week!

Gerald worked on the shrimp part of his window from a pattern that he drew himself. Then we attached the copper legs and copper platform base to the window which starts giving the window its 3D effect. Next week we’ll see some framework completed. The shrimp in the picture below is merely resting on the platform and is not attached to the window yet. It will get wire legs to finish it off and then be attached to the copper framework. The shed will also be raised from the surface of the window. I can’t wait to see this next week.

Then, lastly, we have our newest student, Murlin. He brought along his roommate, Joe, to help pick the color scheme of his Fleur De Lis window pattern. In the end he picked a royal blue for the actual Fleur De Lis and the square accent pieces. These will sit in a white background and then be framed in a light sky-blue glass. The second (and last) border will be a return to the royal blue that was used in the accents and the Fluer De Lis. Murlin was able to cut, grind and wrap all of the Fluer De Lis and accents pieces, then he cut four of the background pieces. He’s moving along wonderfully. Here’s 2 views of his window.

It was almost standing room only tonight, but we all managed to get a lot done and have fun along the way.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Gerald needed to get a window ready for the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival and with time running short  he showed up Saturday to get the basics of his window cut. Once we drew out what he wanted he was able to move at incredible speed and get it almost completely finished! The window you see in the picture with have a 3D wireframe built outward from the oil rig. It will be made of different thicknesses of copper rods, pipes and include a flat deck. Then the small shack on the right side will be brought outward (done in glass) in a similar 3D fashion. Finally, a stained glass shrimp with be placed onto the wireframe oil rig. Look for more of this very original design tomorrow night.

This brings us up to Tuesday’s classes. Jane had been working at home on her window and got her flower petals cut and ground. When she came in today she got the bamboo and all the background cut. Then she recut a number of the leaves to add more contrast to the colors and help seperate the bamboo leaves from the leaves on the Lillies. We’ve modified the pattern slightly from it’s original drawing in an effort to make this a more managable window. The original design was about 60 inches in length and the issues of transporting it back and forth as she works on it  both at home and then again here in class were a bit scarey at that size. What you see in the pictures here is the finished pattern and all the glass that’s been cut in boxes waiting to be ground. Next week we’ll set it all up on a table and lay it all out. As always, Jane works at a perfect, steady pace. She worries about what she can accomplish and then ends up amazing herself at the end of the day. This is a HUGE undertaking and certainly not a window for a beginner. Jane’s handling it wonderfully and I can’t wait to get pictures of the glass all laid out so we can get a real feel for this window.

I expected that Ellen would be able to get 2 bunches of grapes cut today, but then she went above and beyond by getting 3 bunches finished! I helped her grind a few of the grapes and have to say that she cuts her glass EXACTLY as I do. By cutting off all the line that is on the glass she makes the grinding process go so much easier. All we did was skim the pieces and smooth out the points that occure when you cut a small round circle. When the ground pieces were placed on the pattern 98% of them fit perfectly without any need for adjustment. I can’t stress how important it is to cut the line off when you cut your glass but apparently I don’t have to stress this to Ellen who cuts like a professional. And just look at this window!  Do you remember the picture of all the pieces she had left to cut from last week?  Just look how manageable they are this week. 

Lane came in right on time, cut the lighter green sections of his Iris window and then set on grinding what he’d cut. He’s working smoothly and precisely as the picture below will show you. The borders of this window will go together just as easily as any smaller square window would so they aren’t even worth thinking about. All that Lane really has left to do is cut the purple Iris flower petals and then the clear background glass. As you can see, his pieces fit together almost perfectly already and most of them aren’t even ground yet! Look for some purple to be added to this window next week.   There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be wrapping glass at home next week.

Cheryl was able to work on her RV at home and most of the vehicle itself is cut and ground. We had to make some minor adjustments along the way but that is to be expected on a window that’s this detailed. The grinding on each piece must be perfect or the lines won’t flow together and will therefore ruin the look of the vehicle. I know Cheryle is worried that there were a lot of adjustments being made last night but this is normal on a window of this complexity. When you foil all the pieces they get larger and the design swells and shifts when you put it back together. That’s when you regrind key pieces so it all comes together again as it did last night. Once we were happy with it we tacked the RV together. It’s still missing a piece here and there, but most of the hard work is finished on this one. She’s started cutting a few of the background pieces and will be back in tomorrow night to get back to work on this. Good job, Cheryl!

Russ started finishing up a restoration job. The antique window had been damaged during Hurricane Katrina after it fell to the floor, had other items land on top of it and then sit in flood water for weeks.  Luckily there were only two breaks in the glass that Russ will be reusing during the repair.  The glass could be replaced with something similar but this window is too old to match perfectly.  The lead came that holds this window together had been affected by the salt water that it sat in for so long.  It had buckled and was very loose which means that it had to be completely disassembled and re-camed.  That’s what you see Russ doing here now.  He’s well beyond the halfway point so this window is almost finished.

Lastly, I worked a little on a Wedding Box that we have an order for. The top is complete save for it being soldered. Hopefully the box bottom will be finished during classes tomorrow evening. Look for a finished picture tomorrow night.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

We had a new student tonight and of course that means we have a butterfly here to look at.  Murlin picked a transparent seedy blue glass for the wings and used clear seedy for the body.  The picture was taken against a piece of white paper rather than with the butterfly hanging.  If there had been daylight outside you could see it a little better, but as I’ve stated before, pictures are tough to take during our night class.

Murlin did a great job and I’m sure he’ll have no problems working on his first project which is pictured below next to his butterfly.

       

Danielle’s Parrot is VERY close to completion.  There are only a few pieces left to grind and since she’s been wrapping the ground pieces at home throughout the week we’ll be able to tack it together and get the background in place very quickly.  In fact, both Danielle and her father Joey look like they will be finishing their projects at about the same time.

Joey’s Mickey Mouse Window will most likely get it’s background cut next week.  Like Danielle’s Parot, we have not cut the background glass yet.  We will tack everything together and then set the mouse and the parrot on top of the glass to trace out the pieces.  This insures an almost perfect cut and minimizes grinding.  The work on this mouse is flawless.

Cheryl was a bit under the weather this week and we all wish her a speedy recovery.  Class just isn’t the same without her around.

Next week we’ll have Gerald joining us on Wednesday night since he’ll be busy on his normally scheduled Tuesday.  We’re more than willing to shuffle people around so they can get their projects done!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Ellen and Jane were in today during our morning class and, as always, they both kept very busy.

Ellen ground the right side of her Grape Trellis and then cut and ground one of the grape bunches.  Needless to say, she’ll be doing more wrapping at home this week.   It’s really starting to look like a window now that everything is fitted together.  Do you see all the little white things near the bottom of the pattern?  That’s the pattern pieces for the remaining grapes that have to be cut out!  If anyone has a preference to which bunch of grapes gets cut and ground next week just leave a comment here telling us which 2 you want to see worked on next week.  We’ll let Ellen decide in the event of a tie.

The title of our blog comes from a comment made during class.  No matter how many towels we have laying around, I always walk away with them.  I had ground and washed 2 grapes and I then stole Ellen’s towel to dry them off just as she needed it.  We shared the towel a bit before I told her that “This towel ain’t big enough for the two of us” which made us both chuckle.  I told her it would make the perfect title for the blog today, and it is. 
Jane wasn’t sure what to expect when she came in.  She’s working on a window for her daughter and although she knew what the pattern looked (having seen it online and in a catalog) she didn’t know what size it would be.   We started out trying to squeeze it down into 2 seperate windows for sidelights but they proved to be too narrow for basic design of the pattern.  So now we have a FULL sized window.  Jane came in, picked out glass, traced her pattern, cut out all the leaves in the lower section of the pattern and then cut out the two shades of green.  That’s a lot of work for one class!  Here’s her pattern and then another shot of the pattern with the green leaves she cut in place on the pattern.

      

Our night class consisted of Gerald and Lane. Gerald had wrapped the border of his cross window, came in and then tacked it all together.  He added a brass channel around the edges to finish it off and to help protect the glass from and sharp hits against its edges.  He added two hooks, soldered the six leaves at an angle to the front of the window onto the vine that is actually cut into the glass, washed it, colored it and called it finished.  Here’s what it looks like hanging in the shop.

And lastly we have Lane, who came in to work on his huge Iris window.  To his surprise, the actual glass cutting appears to be fairly easy –there aren’t a lot of sharp curves throughout the window.  Most of the pieces are nice steady curves that he had no problem cutting.  First he had to trace out the pattern onto another paper that he could cut up and place on top of the glass he picked.  After he got all the pattern traced out he cut it out  placing the leaves and flower petals back onto the pattern.  We decided to start cutting the leaves out of glass first and he managed to get almost all of the dark green cut.  He also discoved rather quickly that you don’t have to press evry hard on the utter at all to get a nice even cut.  I’m guessing that next week he’ll have all the leaves cut and ground.  He can then take his peices home to wrap.  I’m guessing he’ll do that on a table rather than do it where Gerald wrapped his glass…  And that’s all I’m going to say.

Although it rained while we were all working and there was plenty of thunder and lightning but we had no power outage tonight!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

First off. I must thank Cheryl for bringing to my attention the fact that this entry wasn’t posted yet. Two minutes ago I got an email stating that I must be on vacation since I always get the blog posted within a day or two of the class. I read the email, scratched my head and said to myself, “I know I wrote it…” but sure enough when I looked on the blog it wasn’t there. It turns out that I hit the SAVE button rather than the POST button when I finished it so it never went public. I’m so sorry about my screw up! So here’s what I wrote Thursday morning:
It was a wild night for sure as a thunder storm knocked out our power for a good 2 hours tonight. We were able to light one table with a portable battery and an inverter which served us fine until we were able to get the generator up and running about a half hour later. Then with the use of a few extention cords were were able to make the most of the night…

Joey came in to get some more work done on his Mickey Mouse and accomplished exactly what I thought he would even though we had our power problem for 2 hours. Tonight he cut the black features of the face, the white gloves and eyes, the tan face sections and finally the red robes. We had saved the toughest cuts (the red glass) for last so Joey could gain more experience and confidence with the cutter before he tackled the more curvey pieces. In the end he had no problem at all and his cutting has improved dramatically since he cut his butterfly just 2 weeks ago.

When it was time to grind his pieces we plugged in the grinder only to discover that it caused a bit of a drain on the generator which caused the lights to flicker quite a bit. As we began unplugging lights in areas of the shop we weren’t using the power came back on and solved our problem. Talk about good timing. Joey was then able to start grinding (we’ll cut the background after the mouse is all tacked together) from the bottom on upward. He’s up to the belt on Mickey’s robes and doing wonderfully as you can see from the picture below. I’m confident that all the grinding will be finished next week and Joey will be wrapping his pieces before he heads home.

Russ finished soldering his latest beveled window which is made of baroque glass with a final waterglass border. It features a beveled cluster in the center with 2 seperate bevel borders. All this needs is a quick touch up to take care of some ‘run-throughs’* and then a bath and some color on the lead. We’ll have finished pictures of this one next week for sure.

Lastly, I worked on finishing Lane’s pattern for next week so we can get an idea of how much glass we’ll need to have on hand. The peacock window is now wrapped and all ready for some solder to hold it all together. Next I have to draw out the background and the curved-rectangular inner border. The glass is ordered so we should see more progress next week.

Lastly, we had some visitors in the shop tonight who wanted to see the process of making stained glass windows. As luck would have it they arrived at the height of our little blackout and I have to apologize for not being able to show them more while they were in although Russ did a great job of filling them in on just what’s involved and how a stained glass window is all put together.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

* A ‘Run-Through’ occures when you solder the second side of a stained glass window. The melted solder can get hot enough to melt through to the first side this creating a blob of solder that has to be removed and then smoothed over. They’re common occurances and happen to the best of us.

Tuesday morning we had Danielle and Cheryl come in since they would be out of town during their regular Wednesday evening this week.  Ellen was unable to attend and our new student had to cancel due to illness.  Next week Jane from Tuesday evenings will join us as a regular addition to Tuesday mornings.

Danielle sat at the grinder and ground here pieces for a good 2 hours taking a small break here and there so her fingers could have a rest.  I told her that she could start wrapping some of the pieces she’d ground so she could break from the all the monotonous grinding she’d been doing.  So, as you can see below, she took me up on the offer and started wrapping her pieces that had been ground.  Since she took it all home with her I’m assuming she’ll be wrapping it while at home also. 

Cheryl made HUGE progress on her RV window.  She was cutting at home and did wonderfully because most of the vehicle is finished.  We’re going to try etching some clear glass to use for the windows.  It’s a process I’d done once before in the past that worked rather well.  Here’s a look at what she accomplished this week.  Like the parrot window, this one is also home to be wrapped during the week.  Great job Cheryl!

Tuesday night brought us Gerald and Lane, but we were missing Christine due to illness.  Gerald almost finished his cross window.  Everything is cut and he’s wrapping the border at home this week.  Although it looks like the leaves are cut into the window, they’re not.  They were soldered seperately at an angle and will be tacked onto the ‘vine’ that cuts through the cross and background glass after it is finished to give it a 3D effect.  Next week it will have a transparent white border surrounding it and you’ll get to see it finished.

Finally we have our latest student, Lane, who is a co-worker with Gerald.  Like Gerald, Lane took to each process like he’d done this before and mastered each part of the course quickly and effeciently.  His first window  will be an Iris design measuring 35″ x 35″.  It’s a big project but judging by the way he handled himself this first week I’m sure he will manage his window without any problems.  Here’s the butterfly that he made this week.

Next Tuesday morning we’ll have our 2 regulars, Ellen and Jane with the possibility of Bryan if he’s able to make it in.  In the evening we’ll have Christine, Gerald and Lane with the possibility of 2 finished windows.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Danielle started grinding her Parrot window and we’ve decided that the best way to finish this project is to not cut her background glass just yet. She’s doing this to help make the grinding process go a little faster and to ensure a perfect fit. Once she has everything else ground she can then wrap it and then tack it all together. We’ll lay the project on top of the sheet of her background glass and then trace the outline as pattern pieces. When it’s cut it will fit perfectly and barely require any grinding at all. She’s working from the bottom up on and doing great.

Cheryl started work on a large and possibly intimidating project: a Recreational Vehicle. There are a lot of tiny pieces in it but if she just takes it a little at a time and focuses of what she’s doing rather than what’s left to do she’ll make it thru this fine– and she’s off to a great start. She’s managed to cut some tiny pieces and has started assembling it . She’s starting with the RV itself and will cut the rest of the scene after the RV is cut ground and wrapped. If she were to cut the entire window out, grind it and then wrap it she would have trouble getting it all together again because the foil in between each piece of glass will cause it to grow thus making it lose it’s shape. In a window like this it’s extremely important to make everything line up or else it will look like modern art rather than a RV. Having all the lines line up is VERY important here so we’ll take it a step at a time. She’s doing great and I don’t see any problems in the future for this window. Here’s what she has so far, it’s going to be an incredible window.

Joey got to work on his Mickey Mouse window which has always been a favorite of mine. Since this is his first project I’ve started him off on the simplest pieces first to help give him confidence with his cutting before we move onto the small pieces in Mickey’s face and his flowing robes. I can already see a huge leap in his ability to cut glass and I know that this will be all cut out next week and ready for grinding.

And that leaves us with Russ who wrapped some of his bevels in between everything else he was doing. He’s just about ready to start cutting his background which should happen in a few days now. Me, I’m working on a peacock as you can see next to Russ’s window.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks