Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We had small classes this week due to the fact that it was a holiday week. Nonetheless, a lot was accomplished.

Ellen came in with the pieces she had taken home all wrapped. She put them into place and then ground the remaining leaves and flowers that make up the lower section of her window. I was shocked to see that Ellen got as much ground as she did– she accomplished a lot of work in a little time. I guess I just keep forgetting how well Ellen cuts her pieces to start with. Here’s the window as it stands today. The only hard part left to grind now is the tree.

Joey had put his sign together at home and when he came in he had it all soldered. All we needed to do was add the brass channel that goes around it and then touch up the lead lines. The soldering on this window was some of the best soldering that Joey and Cheryl have done yet. With each project they do I see great leaps in their abilities. Take a look at the finished Kean sign.

While the Kean sign was being finished Cheryl began cutting the glass for her newest cross. She had traced out the pattern pieces onto the glass while at home so she was able to start cutting as soon as she walked in the door. Like Ellen, Cheryl’s glass cutting skills have become almost perfect because she finished cutting her pieces and then ground all of them before the class was finished. Here’s her cross all fitted together.

After getting the Kean sign squared away with the brass channel trim, Joey moved onto tracing out and cutting all the pieces to another cross that was identical to the one Cheryl was working on. His cutting also looks great and his cross is ready for the grinder at this point.

Lastly, Russ made a pair of candle holders over the last 2 classes that we thought we’d show you. The first is made with bevels and is a perfect square. The second one, made without bevels, stands a little little higher than the first candle holder he made. Make sure you click on the beveled one to see exactly what it looks like when it has a lit candle in it.

And that’s it for this week, we hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Due to a slight miscommunication we only had 1 student in this past weekend for our workshop class. Regular readers will recognize his name from 2 previous workshops. Jack has already made a geometric window and a second window consisting of colorful letters, both of which you can see below.

                      

Jack had a lot to do this time around. Instead of working on one window he was aiming for four small windows. Luckily they were all the same design which makes things a little easier. And although they were small (13 x 4 inches) they each had 35 pieces in them which means 35 SMALL pieces. Let’s just say that larger pieces are easier to work with. Here’s the pattern he picked out for his front door.

To ensure that everything is even and consistant between each panel we made a jig out of 3 boards. By building each panel in the jig we know that they will all be identical and that there won’t be any size variation between them. Here’s a look at the jig behind some of the clear pieces that are cut out.

After all the glass had been cut Jack ground each piece and placed it into the jig. He had to make sure they weren’t too tight or they would never fit back in after they were wrapped in copper foil. You can see that everything lines up nicely in the jig.

                        

Once everything was ground Jack made sure that he had 4 different piles of glass. Small differences in the grinding would make it difficult to mix and match the glass pieces between panels. They would most likely NOT fit back together if they were mixed and matched. Jack and I wrapped all the pieces of glass, fitted them one panel at a time into the jig and then tack soldered each panel together. Here’s the first one ready to be soldered, a second in place ready to be fit into the jig after the first is tacked, and the remaining two panels still in piles in the foreground. Once they were all tacked together we called it a night and stopped to eat and get ready to solder Sunday morning.

The soldering went fairly quickly on these panels after a good night’s sleep. Due to the small size of the pieces we had wrapped them in 3/16 foil rather than the wider 7/32. It doesn’t sound like a big size variance but it makes a huge difference when you are soldering the finished pieces. Less lead is used and more of the glass is visable. Once all 4 were soldered Jack washed the flux off of them and dried each one to get ready for the patina that will turn the lead lines from silver to black.

We use a small piece of felt to apply the patina onto the lead. the chemical reaction is quick and fairly permanent. The only way to remove the black from the lead is to steel wool it off and even that leaves a fair amounts of black coloring on the lead. The difference in the look of the panels with black lines is astounding. I always recomend black lead lines if you have a lot of clear glass in your panel. The contrast makes for a very rich looking window.

And here’s one of the finished panels. You couldn’t see the texture of the clear glass with it laying on the table and since there are no hooks on these panels I had to wedge the window into a piece of styrofoam to take the picture of it upright. That’s why the bottom clear piece of glass is not visable– it’s in the styrofoam.

These windows all came out perfect in look and later on in their fit when Jack called us after arriving home to tell us that they all fit into the door. Jack seemed to have another great weekend with us and is already talking about a forth project later on down the line! He knows he always welcomed here. The big questioin is, will the next project he makes be his forth window with us or his seventh…
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Three of us drew blood this week in class giving it a halloween atmosphere with all the blood that was flowing. lol Luckily they were all flesh wounds and some of them didn’t even require bandaids…

Jane came in with a modified candle holder pattern that she had found in a book . She made it a little bigger by substituting 2 inch bevels for the 1 inch bevels that the original pattern called for. She also staggered the middle bevel to make the candle holder more sturdy by avoiding having a straight line running all the way around her project. By the end of the class the project was complete and then she was able to get the glass cut for a second smaller candle holder. Here are 2 views of Janes finished project.

Ellen finished cutting all the remaining green for her bayou fireplace screen and then took to grinding it. Ellen moves at a fast pace but her work is flawless. Even after cutting all the green pieces out of a second shade of green she managed to get a good quarter of her window ground. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it before she boxed up the ground pieces to take home to wrap but you can see from this picture that this is going to look wonderful.

Joey got really far on his KEAN’S sign. The background is cut ground and wrapped and the last (blue) border was cut and ground. He took it home with him again to wrap and then solder it. My guess is that next week I’ll only need to touch up the soldering and then it will be finished. Great work Joey!

Cheryl wasn’t sitting back letting Joey do all the work– her LSU sign was completed tonight but due to a small crack in one of the pieces she left it with me giving me the oportunity to take a picture of it during the daylight today. She had changed the pattern slightly on this one from her last LSU window, you can see that the shadow on the S is more defined. It’s more work to do it this way but she didn’t shy away from doing the extra work when she saw another logo with this variation of the S. You did a GREAT job Cheryl - don’t let the broken piece upset you. If we didn’t have a piece or two break on us every once in a while we’d get cocky about the whole process!

Lastly we have Gerald who worked on a top secret project this week. That’s about all I can tell you until later on when it isn’t such a secret. Meanwhile, Gerlad finished his butterfly and added a wire to support the heavy wings. It’s nice and sturdy and turned out great.

And that was pretty much it for classes this Tuesday. Check here tomorrow for the post about our recent Weekend workshop. The pictures are all cropped and resized with only the text needing to be worked on.
Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

…to get your picture on this site???

Lane has been anxiously awaiting the picture of his finished window on here so without further ado I present Lane’s window…

(drum roll)

Lane did a great job on this window that measures almost 3 foot by 3 foot. The reason he’s been waiting to see the window on here is because he hasn’t seen it completed yet. I went over the soldering and did my best to smooth out the sections where the re-bar runs throughout the border but it wasn’t easy. The re-bar and the 1/4 inch foil made for some slow soldering as they just sucked the heat right out of the iron.

My official word to Lane is that it’s finished and you can pick it up anytime.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Ellen went to work on the water and the tree of her Bayou window. She cut the tree first and then dove into the water. It may not look like much, but the water is the hardest part of this window because it isn’t planned out when drawing the pattern. The leaves and the flowers are drawn first and whatever is left becomes water which leaves you with a lot of irregular and small sized water pieces that are a pain to cut out. Still, Ellen handled it wonderfully and next week she’ll be grinding this monster. Even with the missing leaves you can see that this is already looking GREAT!

And a special thanks goes out to Ellen for loaning us her kiln so Russ can play with a new toy over the next few weeks. We really appreciate it!

Next we have our other large window. I’m happy to say that Lane’s Irises are finished! He soldered all of the second side tonight and then we repaired 2 breaks that occurred while he was soldering it. Breaks are a part of the stained glass process and you should always expect them especially when you are working with something this size and you have re-bar running in between the glass. Both breaks were on pieces that touched strips of re-bar which I attribute to the cracks. The heat builds on the copper re-bar and causes any imperfections along the edges to break. Luckily, we had no problem repairing it and when it’s washed and colored you will never even know that there were 2 pieces replaced in this window. Look for a completed picture taken in the daylight of this window before the weekend.

Joey cut up his pattern and then cut out the red letters for his KEAN’S sign this week. The window will have a clear textured glass background and a blue border to match the business logo. Everything was taken home with Joey so he can work on it there if he manages to find the time. It’s looking great and Joey’s work is meticulous.

Cheryl is making a second LSU panel for a friend. She had the letters and the background all cut and wrapped and then Gerald pointed out a better shadowing pattern. So Cheryl redid a few pieces and ended up with the variation that you can see below. All that she needs to do now is add the final purple border and she’ll be set to solder and finish this.

Last, but not least we have Gerald’s latest project. We thought it was going to be another Fleur de Lis variation but instead he needed a last minute gift. He decided on a butterfly (or ‘Mothra’ as Lane likes to call it) but not the simple, standard pattern that he made when he first got here. Here’s his giant butterfly all cut, ground, wrapped and then tacked together. He’ll most likely finish this at home so look for something new from Gerald next week. Maybe a matching Godzilla…

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

These are the two windows that Craig finished during his 2 day workshop.  The first contemporary design was picked by his daughter who also decided on the color scheme.  Craig cut this window out at home on his own and brought it in to grind and solder.

During the first day after he had ground his first window Craig cut this second flower window out and then soldered it the next morning.  Craig is doing wonderful work and will be making more windows throughout the weeks to come.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

Craig was back in this week for another Weekend Workshop in the middle of the week.  He had one large contemporary design window all cut and ready for grinding.  After he ground that I wrapped it for him while he cut out a second flower window.  By the time he was finished grinding and I finished wrapping pieces, the door opened and lane and Gerald walked in thus officially starting our Wednesday Night Class.  By the end of the class Craig had his first window soldered and his second smaller flower window ready for soldering.  Here’s his contemporary window ready for a bath.

Lane was hard at work soldering the back side of his 3 foot by 3 foot Iris Window.  He kept fairly quiet most of the night as he concentrated on his lead lines.  In fact, we were all working so hard that there was little conversation until the music stopped for a bit.  Once there was a little silence Lane, Gerald, Craig, Russ and myself started talking a little more.  At the end of the night Lane had accomplished a lot.  There’s no doubt that the soldering will be finished next week but since this is such a large window I’ll wash it and color it for him during the day so that I can use the hose to wash it and not get hauled off by mosquitos.  If you look closely at Lane’s picture you’ll see the pattern showing through the clear sections since it no longer lines up (the window is sitting upside down on the pattern).  This is going to be finished real soon now so keep looking for a finished picture.

Last but not least we have Geralds window.  His Fluer de Lis needed some solder on the back and although he had a bit of trouble with some of the soldering he did ‘fabulously’.  The problem was with the reeded glass that he used for the oval of the Fleur de Lis– the high points of the reeds go to almost 1/4 of an inch thick and the low spots are a standard 1/8 inch thick.  This means that he’s got little valleys that want to fill with too much solder while nothing wants to adhere to the peaks.  It was tricky going but he did great.  By the end of the night the window was soldered, washed, patina’ed and waxed.  I think it’s one of the nicest looking windows done in here.  It has a very distinct and
regal look about it.

So come back tomorrow and see the finished pictures of Craigs windows–  I’d show them to you now but my computer has crashed and I’m doing this on a laptop that doesn’t have the pictures from Thursday morning on it.  Hopefully the Microsoft Windows reinstall will have things running smoothly by tonight.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Technically we have 5 finished projects to show so far this week. We’ll start with Jane who brought in a visitor — her niece, Brenda. Jane had decided last week that she wanted to do a stained glass candle holder, so the first thing we did was find a pattern she liked. After deciding on a pattern and the size we drew up a full sized pattern and Jane went to work cutting the strips  that make up the sides of her candle holder on the strip cutter.

There are 4 sides to her project and each side had 5 pieces so she was able to finish this in only one class. Her niece like it so much that Jane ended up giving it to her! Look for Jane to make another one to take to her own home next week!

Meanwhile, Ellen went to work on the large center panel of her 3 piece fireplace screen. As you can see from the picture below she wasted no time at all and got a ton of work accomplished! With most of the leaves cut she moved up higer on the pattern and got the sky, sun and the brush all finished. It all lays out perfectly on top of her pattern already and it hasn’t even been ground yet! I’d expect to see this all cut next week since ythe only pieces she has left are the water and the lighter green for her leaves.

Joey had taken his Mallard window home to finish last week and when he arrived this week the window was completed save for some quick touch-ups and the hooks to hang it by. All I can say is that Joey has learned well and has this down pat. He was worried that he had too much solder on the back side of the window but I can’t complain about his work at all. He’ll be making a sign next and I’ll bet that after he completes it his soldering will be perfect. As for his work this week, I’d have to say that his soldering skills are way beyond average and that he has nothing to worry about– especially when you consider that this is only his second project.  Here’s his finished Mallard Window. It looks great!

Cheryl was busy at home also because, like Joey, she had everything completed on her window save for the soldering. The only difference was that she had both the front and back sides to solder on her LSU window. When she came in tonight she had it finished and ready for hooks. She also had almost 60 bevels wrapped for stars (with a little help from Joey and Danielle) so she started on her first star tonight. After she finished the first one she did a second for good measure. Her work is wonderful as you can see from her pictures here!  Next up is another LSU sign with a different color scheme.  I can’t wait to see what she and Joey walk in the door with next week. 
      

Be sure to check out Gerad and Lane and Craig’s progress tomorrow.

Paul

Bayou Salé GlassWorks