Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It was a very easy and uneventful night.  The power stayed on, the rain stayed away and Joey finished cutting his Mallard out.  The sky was the trickiest part since we didn’t have enough to cover the entire window.  We wanted the grain of the glass to run perfectly behind the Mallard, Sun and Leaves so we needed to position things just right to make it look like everything was positioned on top of the glass and then cut around it.  I think you can see from the full sized picture that Joey achieved his goal.  He then moved over to a grinder and started grinding everything he cut.  It’s moving along very quickly since his cutting was so perfect.  If I say it a thousand times, I can’t say it enough– cut off your black line and your grinding will go easily and quickly.

Here’s what Joey got accomplished.  It looks great already and it’s only a quarter of the way ground!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

A: A Box Of Quackers.  (OUCH!!!!!)

We had two classes today with 2 people in each class. A lot of work was accomplished so let’s see what occured.

Ellen finished her wedding invitation box last week and had another invitation to be done this week. She didn’t want an identical box design so we changed it up a bit by placing the two hearts in the center of the design and then addinging a flower and leaves both above an below the hearts. Ellen chose a wispy white glass for the hearts and then used the same wispy purple she had used previously in her grape window for the flowers. She cut out all the hearts, flowers and leaves; ground them, and then wrapped and tacked them together. Next week she’ll cut the background, add the borders and solder it all together. I’ll bet she even gets the bottom of the box started!

Meanwhile, Jane finished her box this week right on schedule. If you recall, she was at the same place Ellen is now when Jane left last week. She got her background cut, tacked it together, added the borders, soldered it all and then got to see how the actual bottom is made. Before we knew it she was finished! Next week she’ll be working on a 24 inch octagon flower window that should look great! Here’s 4 views of the box Jane finished this week. The last picture shows it opened with the top reflecting in the mirrored bottom.

Lane came in and ground the rest of his Irises. His cutting was very exact so he didn’t have too much grinding to worry about. After he finsihed grinding all the petals he wrapped what he could and then took what he didn’t finish wrapping home with him so he could get it all tacked together and start working on the background next week. With the majprity of cutting under his belt we should see this window all cut soon.

Lastly we have Gerald’s big teeth/smile window. As I said before, I didn’t know what to make of this when I first saw the pattern but once he had it cut out I fell in love with it. It’s different, bright, vibrant and makes you smile when you see it. THe background glass and border glass all work perfectly together to make the red lips stand out. Make sure you click on this one to see the full sized shot — it’s infectious. And make note of the diamond he drilled into one of the upper right teeth!

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It was a slow week so to make things a little easier I’m just making one blog entry that covers all the projects that were worked on so far this week.

Jane finished her bamboo window and decided to color it in a black patina rather than the standard copper color. Black makes the lead lines really stand out against the almost white background glass. The fact that the zinc channel will turn black also helped us decide that a uniform black coloring would look best for this window and I think it turned out great. Jane finished this window in record time and her work is wonderful. Check out the full sized image by clicking on the picture below.

Next up for Jane is a box very similar to the wedding box that Ellen finsihed this week. The only difference is that there will be no invitation in it. She cut, ground and wrapped all the flowers today and will most likely have this box finished next week. It’s hard to see what it will look like from the picture below because the colors are dark and not backlit but it’s the best we can do in this unfinished state. You’ll see a much better view next week.

Ellen has finished her wedding box and what a beauty that turned out to be. She finished the lid last week and went to work on the box bottom this week. We cut four strips for the sides and angled them so that the box has a slight downward tilt to it. A mirror was cut for the bottom and then tacked into place. Ellen soldered it all together, waxed it and then she attached the top with 2 hinges.

She left all the lead lines silver to match the silver text on the invitation. Since almost all the glass is clear you can see the flowers and hearts reflecting in the bottom mirror from any angle. The finished box is perfect. Look for yourself.

Joey came in and got to work cutting out some more feathers for his Mallard window. He got a LOT done last night in a short span of time. In fact, the only thing left to cut are the leaves, sun and sky. He has 71 pieces cut and only 35 pieces left to go before he starts grinding. His Mickey Mouse window had 89 pieces in it altogether so you can see where he’s moving along much faster than he did when he first started taking lessons. Joey has fallen right into place with his glass cutting ability and I can’t wait to see how this looks next week.

Cheryl was out of action this week due to her surgery, but she still managed to come in to visit and get her window waxed. The RV is finished and what a job it’s been for her. Sure, it was a lot of work but after accomplishing this anything else should be child’s play. Luckily I was able to get a picture of this while the sun was still out so we can see it in natural lighting. What’s not to love about this custom designed window?

Next we have Gerald popping in tonight (Thursday) to work on his window. Look for an addition to this blog or a seperate one tomorrow morning to see how he made out…

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We had Cheryl and Joey come in tonight and they managed to get here right before the clouds let loose. We didn’t even get a chance to start to unpack the glass and tools they had brought with them when a clap of thunder hit and the lights went out. I was the only one to comment aloud. A “Not again!” peirced the darkness because all I could think of was how we needed to set up the generator about a month or so ago when we lost power during the last thunder storm. Luckily the generator was right outside the door and even more luckily, the power came back on within 20 seconds. There was a lot of thunder and it rained and rained outside, but the power never flickered again during the night.

Joey finished up his Mickey Mouse window. He washed it up, added hooks, colored it, washed it again, waxxed it and then hung it up to take pictures. That’s a lot of trips to the sink but that’s just the way it is. Mickey Mouse looks great and Joey did a great job on it throughout the entire process. Next on Joey’s list of things to do is a Mallard Window that you’ll see started next week. There are a lot of feathers in it but I have no doubt he can handle it after doing the above average Mouse window you see here.

Cheryl finished soldering her RV window and added hooks to it. She left before it was washed and colored so look for another picture of it next week when you see it with the final touches on it. I think she’ll find that it somehow managed to finish itself at this point.

And we all wish Cheryl all our best with her surgery which will happen this coming week. The Carpal Tunnel may have slowed her down in the past, but it won’t any more. Look for Cheryl to come back better than ever in a few short weeks (if not sooner).

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Jane came in fully expecting to get the back side of her bamboo window finished and she accomplished her mission. It’s a fairly large window so Jane’s progress was slow but steady. By the end of the class she had finished the second side and decided to call it a day. We’ll have this window washed, colored and ready to hang next week.

Jane will be working on a box next week and then she’ll move on to a 24 inch octagon flower window with Daffodils as the main accent. Look for a finished picture of this window next week along with the start of her box and the pattern design for her next window.

Ellen resumed working on her wedding invitation box and finished the lid. She had taken the pattern home to cut and ground the flowers of the side panel. When she came in we tacked them together and cut the background for it. After grinding it and insuring that everything was perfectly square she tacked it together and cut 5 strips of wispy white to use as the thin border that holds the side flower panel in place along side of the wedding invitation. There’s a strip between the invitation and the flowers, and then a strip along each edge. After it was cut ground and tacked we cut a length of brass hinge that will allow the lip to raise and lower onto the mirrored box bottom when it’s finished. Ellen soldered it all together, washed it carefully (We don’t want water to get at the invitation) and then waxed it. Since the lettering on the invitation is silver she’s decided to leave the lead it’s natural silver color. The soldering is flawless on this and next week we’ll see this attached to the box bottom and finished.

Lane arrived right on schedule and set to work cutting out his purple Irises. We laid out the green leaves ontop the pattern and then placed the unground flower petals onto the pattern to get an idea of what this window is going to look like. As you can see, there’s not much grinding to do as Lane’s cutting is spot-on. After he finished cutting these pieces he began to grind them so he could take some home to wrap rather than waste time in class wrapping them all next week. He should have the flowers and leaves all tacked together next week and then he’ll begin cutting his clear waterglass backgound.

Murlin walked in with his window and announced that it fit perfectly into the spot he made it for. With that settled he sat down and soldered both the front and back sides of his window. About 2 hours later he was finished. He washed the window and decided to color the lead black (which always looks good against white or clear glass). After applying the black patina he washed it off again and then waxxed it which left him with a window ready to hang! As you can see, it turned out wonderfully. Murlin did a wonderful job on his first window and plans on making something again in the future.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Our ‘test run’ of a weekend workshop was held on Saturday and Sunday. The weekend workshop is equivilent to our standard 5 week class but everything is compressed into 2 days. You have a choice between 11 different windows to make and after a half hour lesson in cutting class we get down to business and start cutting. I call this past weekend a ‘trial run’ because we only had 1 student (we can handle up to 4 students at a time) which allowed us to see if our time assumtions were correct involving making these windows. Below is a detailed description as to how things went.

Jack arrived right on time for out 11 o’clock start and we got right to work. We handed him a glass cutter and had him cut his first piece of glass. He cut straight cuts and curves followed by a crescent moon shape successfully and we then declared him ready to begin his window. All in all the glass cutting lesson took about a half hour.

Jack picked a geometric design made primarily of clear glass and bevels. The border was going to be cut from alternating purple and blue glass. The use of bevels cuts down on the amount of cutting that will be required for the window as they are cut to size and ready to insert into Jack’s window. Here’s the pattern with the 12 bevels in place.

We decided to take an ‘inside out’ approach to cutting this particular window. We cheated a bit by cutting our pattern pieces for only 1/4th of the window. We did this because those same pieces are cut 4 times to make this window. These are Jack’s first 8 pieces cut out of clear rough-rolled glass laid out on the pattern in their respective places.

We had 8 pieces to finish cutting the main window which would leave us with only the border left to cut. Jack used a clear glue chip to finish the center of his window. All in all, Jack had no problems cutting these pieces. The center pieces took some time to cut only because there’s a natural tendency to worry about the glass breaking incorrectly. After you’ve cut a few pieces correctly and you get a feel for the glass you tend to move quicker and worry far less. Jack was able to cut the Glue Chip pieces much quicker and more precisely than he did his first 8 pieces.

With the center portion of his window all cut there was only the two colored border left to go. To ensure a perfect fit we always cut the border after the center of the window is tacked together. With the center of this octogon all cut we moved Jack to the grinder and had him grind all his pieces so they would fit together perfectly. As each piece is ground we hold it in place with pins to make sure that nothing slides out of place. Below you can see that Jack has half of his window ground and fitted perfectly.

With everything ground and fitting together we moved jack onto the final step of the day—wrapping all the pieces of glass with copper foil. Here’s a picture of Jack’s window all pinned into place with 2 pieces of glass foiled.

Every piece (including the bevels) must be wrapped with a copper foil that runs along the edge of the glass and is then folded over onto the front and back sides. The trick is to align the foil on the pieces evenly so that the amount of foil that folds onto the top of the glass is the same as the amount of foil folding over the bottom of the glass. The lead that we will use to hold this window together will adhere to the copper foil and NOT the glass itself. If the foil is uneven your lead lines will be uneven as well. If your foil is thick on one side and thin on the other you will see thru the glass and see a large lead line on the other side of the window with a very thin line on the front. Anyone looking at it can tell that something is not right with it if this happens. The rule of thumb is to take your time when you foil your pieces. Lead lines are one of the first things that people notice when looking at a stained glass window. Here the center portion of Jacks window all wrapped and ready to be tacked.

Once Jack had all his pieces wrapped and put into place he proceeded to apply flux onto all the visible copper foil and then go over it with solder to secure it. When tacking a window together we don’t care about how the solder on it looks– at least not just yet. The object is to hold everything together so we can move it around while cutting the border pieces.

Jack cut 8 strips of glass on the strip cutter—4 purple and 4 blue. He cut the proper angles on each end, making sure to alternate the colors, and everything lined up perfectly. He wrapped his pieces and we called it a day at about 6:00. Jack got a bit further along than we anticipated and it made for a quick easy day on Sunday when we resumed this project.

Jack got started on Sunday morning at about 9:00. All we had to do before soldering was to cut 8 pieces of brass channel and attach them to each edge of the window. It was a simple case of laying the channel next to and edge, marking it at the opposite end and then cutting it with a pair of wire cutters. We did that 8 times and then tacked each corner of the brass channel to the window. Once that was secured Jack began soldering. Here’s a picture of the back side of the window all ready to be soldered.

Both sides of the window now need to be soldered. Soldering is a tricky process that is somewhat like riding a bike. It’s easy to explain how to do, but there’s a feel to it that you must master to get a good solder line on your window. The solder comes on a 1 pound spool like a large spool of thread. You must apply the solder to the tip of the soldering iron which in turn is resting on the glass. You slide the tip of the iron along the window using the foil as a path. As the iron travels across the foil the solder melts and leaves a bead behind the iron as it moves along. The trick is managing all this at once. You must pay attention to how much solder you are melting onto the window. Too much and you end up with clumps all along the lines, too little and you end up with flat lines that may even have sharp ends. I’ve found that the first side of a students window is quite rough looking and that by the time the student finishes their second side they pretty much have it under control. The good part about soldering is that you can go over the lead lines as many times as you want until they look good to you. Jack had the soldering almost completely mastered before the front of his window was finished. The second side looked great and after that was complete we touched up the first side so the quality of work matched the second side and we got ready to wash and color the window.

When you are finished soldering a stained glass window the lead is silver. We have 3 options in the final color of the lead—silver, copper, or black. Most stained glass windows are finished with a copper finish with turns dull over a period of time and gives the window an old-style look. I’ve noticed that a lot of windows and lamps you see in stores today are colored with black patina. (Largely because these pieces are mass produced and the black hides imperfections in the soldering job.) The choice is a purely a personal one—there’s no right or wrong in choosing one over the other but as a general rule of thumb I like to finish windows that contain a lot of clear, colorless glass in black. It adds a sharp contrast against the clear glass and makes the lead lines pop out. Jack agreed that black would look good on this window and in about 15 minutes we had his window washed and colored. We were finished before 12:30.

Jack’s window came out perfectly. All his hard work and attention to detail really paid off when you look at his finished work. You can see what a difference the black lead lines make on this window when you compare the picture below to the picture above where the lead lines are still silver.

We had a good time with this class. In the span of a day and a half Jack started and finished a beautiful stained glass window that he can say he made himself. And there was no mistaking that Jack had a good time doing it. It fact, he’s already talking about coming back to do another window in the future!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I was busy getting Cheryl and Joey all set up and when I turned around I saw that Danielle had already placed her parrot on top of her background glass and traced around everything! I helped her separate the pieces (it’s a bit confusing when you see all those lines all over your glass) but then she cut it all out and gound everything into place without any problems whatsoever. Danielle is really pushing forward and handling all the aspects of making a window with very little help from me. She’s doing great! The picture below of her parrot looks like it has a tan background but it’s actually clear textured glass. The tan color you see is the work surface below it. And those are metal carpenter squares holding everything into place. The window will have a border but I’m not sure what color it will be. Danielle has really come a long way from the first day when she wasn’t even sure if she could cut glass!

The RV looks like an RV and there’s NO doubt about that. Cheryl cut her border on the strip cutter like she’d been using it all her life! It doesn’t seem tricky, but a lot of people have trouble initially while trying to maintaining even pressure to the left while pushing downward on the cutter while keeping a constant steady speed and holding the glass so it doesn’t twist out of the strip cutter. As you can tell, there’s a lot going on while cutting strips! Cheryl cut her first strip perfectly and then finished off the rest of them without any help from me at all. I showed her how we measure out the breaks along the border and then she finished it on her own. We slapped on a brass channel and she has it home to finish soldering the back side. Great job, Cheryl! Look for the completed window next week.

Joey set about soldering the front and back of his Mickey Mouse Window. We heard hardly a word from him but when we did he was finished with both sides! Like Cheryl, he had the perfect amount of solder on his project and it will be real easy to touch up the joints to get everything nice and smooth. Next week he’ll wash it, color it and then start working on his second project– a Mallard window. Joey is moving right along and has picked up the soldering techniique extremely fast. We can’t wait to see his next project get started!

I worked a bit more on the Peacock window. I got the corners all cut out but I still need to grind, wrap and tack the upper and lower right hand side. There will be a flowered border surrounding what you see, followed by a thin red border, a beveled border and then a final thin red border. I’d say that the majority of the work is finished on this window but the flower border is a bit complex and time consuming.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We had five people in today and a lot of work was accomplished.
Ellen had soldered her window at home and brought it in for finishing touches. Although I could have easily left it alone, I chose to nitpick and take care of small problem areas. The reasoning behind this was because Ellen had put so much time into this gorgeous window — I wanted to make sure that it was perfect. But as I said, it was a finished project that I would easily have left alone without it detracting from the overall effect. Ellen is an accomplished stained glass artist at this point and I beleive she can do anything she wants at this point. The proof is in the grapes:

After she finished coloring and waxing her window she moved on to making a wedding box. She has the pattern drawn, the glass picked and we’ll see progress on this next week.

Jane approached her latest window with some worries– she always gets a bit nervous when it comes time to solder her windows, but in the end she has nothing to worry about. She has the perfect amount of solder on all her lines and only needs to run the soldering iron over them a second time to starighten out the inconsistancies. Her window looks great so far and all she has left is the back side for next week. Jane has already picked out her next two projects with her next one being a box and then it will be onto an octagon flower window.

Lane continued grinding the green leaves of his Iris Window so he could take them home and begin wrapping them. All his leaves are now cut and ground so he began tracing out the flower petals onto his purple glass. His leaves were fairly easy to cut but his Iris petals will be a little more complex since they are smaller and have a lot more curves in them. Still, Lane’s cutting was spot on and I’m sure he’ll have all the flowers cut and will start grinding them next week. Here’s a look at what he has finishd now and a quick look at a few of his flower petals traced out onto his purple glass.

      

Murlin finished cutting and grinding his window this week. He’d wrapped his inner border at home the night before class which proves that, like me, he works well under pressure. He tacked the border in place and then cut, ground and attached his final border. A brass channel was added to help size the window correctly and to make the window less susceptable to breaking along the outer edges. A window becomes much stronger when you add a channel around it. Right now it’s at home with Murlin where he’s making sure it will fit into the spot he’s made it for. The window will be finished next week and I have to say that Murlin has done a great job. He’s handled every step without showing any worries or doubts about what he’s doing. And why should he? This picture proves he knows what he’s doing.

Lastly we had Gerald with us. After he finished his Oil Rig window he didn’t mentioned what he would be making next so I was completely surprised when he came in and showed me what he had decided on. It seems that he has a dentist in the family and Gerald had found a pattern on the internet of a mouth with nice big teeth that he felt would be perfect for the office. We printed out the pattern and Gerald went right to work. He’s got it all cut and ground and has it home now to be wrapped. I have to say that it looks GREAT! Lane says he should put a diamond in one of the teeth or even make one gold. What do YOU think???

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks