Blog Post SE (Special Edition)
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