Busy, Busy
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