Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With Ellen out due to illness (we all hope you feel better!) and our family team of Joey and Cheryl away in a cruise we have only a few things to show this week.

Well start with the latest new.  We have a new student who completed her butterfly this week.  As long time readers (and students) know,  the butterfly suncatcher is the first project that anyone makes during their first session with us.   Fran had no problems doing the work and I’m expecting her to breeze through her first window.  Here’s her finished butterfly.

Lastly(!) we have Jane’s window.  She got a lot finished while she was at home during the week.  She finished cutting out the water on the bottom part of the design and then began her grinding.  As you can see this will be another beautiful window.  Jane’s got it all down at this stage of the game, her work is excellent.   The top looks a little baron, but that will change when the glass is actually cut for that section!

Gerald will be joining us on Friday night so expect another small post to see how his latest LSU window comes along.  He’ll be cutting glass for sure…

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

It was a semi-quiet set of classes this week. Everyone was VERY intent on finishing or starting their projects. We also listened to the Survivor’s Fan Podcast while we worked because most of us are fans of the TV show Survivor. It seemed to keep us quiet while we all worked away the hours.

Joey came in and drew out a new pattern for the background pieces  of his cabinet window.  Then he traced them out onto the clear, reeded glass that makes his background.  With some careful cutting he had pieces that practically fit together with barely any grinding at all.  Within a half hour everything was ground and Joey began to wrap his pieces.  I guess we’ll be seeing this one finished soon.  Cheryl was unable to make it in this week so we’ll be looking forward to seeing her in 2 weeks.

Gerald worked on designing a new pattern for another LSU style window.  He wanted to incorporate the tiger this time and did it in a novel way.  Although all we have is a pattern this week, I think it looks great and I can honestly say that I wish I’d thought of it myself.  Shown in this small size here on your computer screen the image is easy to see.  When you see the actual full size pattern it takes a minute for your mind to piece together what it is and then you get a “WOW!” feeling when the tiger suddenly jumps out at you.

Ellen has all of her second screen panel cut out and she began to grind it during class this week.  As you can see from the picture it matches the center panel perfectly to form one large scene (See the window in the previous blog posting).  This is really taking shape now and everyone taking class with us has commented on how nice her finished panel looks set in place inthe fireplace screen.

Jane came in and decided to make a quick and easy candle holder made out of bevels, 4 pieces of clear glass, and a mirrored bottom.  She got it together all in one class and then even managed to trace out the pattern for her next window which will resemble the center panel from Ellen’s Fireplace Screen.  This candle holder is slightly different from others because she colored the lead copper rather than leaving it silver or turning it black.  As you can see the end result is as striking as can be.

As I hinted at earlier, we won’t being seeing Cheryl or Joey next week because they are going on a tropical cruise!  We wish them a great time while they are gone and hope they bring us a lot of pictures…

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

As promised, here’s the center panel of Ellen’s window all finished and set into place into her fireplace screen.  The right side panel is next and if you recall from the last blog posting (it’s below this one), she has a lot of it finished already.  I can’t wait to see this completed!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Let’s start with Gerald whose remaining work this week was fairly straightforward: repair a small break in one of the thin orange border pieces and then finish soldering. The repair went smoothly and by the end of the night he had a completed window. The last time Gerald was here he had a small run in with a ‘coon on the road. Let’s hope he made it home without taking any more lives this week.

Ellen started working on the second of three windows for her fireplace screen. Having finished the large front panel she now has two less complex windows to complete. As you can see from the picture she’s storming right through the glass cutting part of the project. The water and the leaves are all cut. Ellen will be able to breeze through the sky and brush sections of the window– they’re easy. The bird is somewhat complex but I doubt it will slow her down at all. And when it’s finished the last panel will be completed even quicker since it has the least detail of the three windows. Look for another blog posting this week that will show her large window all washed and colored. That’s all that’s left be be done on it and rather than have her waste a class playing with water and chemicals  I told her to move along to the next panel and that I would finished washing the first one.  When it’s finished (most likely on Saturday) I’ll post the picture here.

Joey ground and wrapped all but the background pieces to his window (which is another student  project that involves 3 windows). It looks like he’ll end up cutting out the background pieces next week and then grinding them.  Joey is moving along at a nice clip on this project and seems to be comfortable with the process now.  I’m going to say that this set of three windows will be finished quickly.

Jane finished her last Dove window and made a slight addition to the standard pattern she’d been using for the past few weeks. This time around the Dove is carrying some holly leaves in its beak. Rather than have lead lines trailing out of each leaf and breaking up the flow of things, she made the holly seperately and then tacked them onto the beak and adjoining lead lines. It was a small addition that added perhaps 15 minutes to the project but as you can see from the picture it really makes the window look much better. Next up from Jane will be a window of a Blue Macaw.

Last but not least we have Cheryl’s part of the three piece window design she’s doing along with Joey. She came in, cut and ground her branches and then got all her background cut out. The background glass that she’s using is a heavily textured clear and from what I can see it looks like it will work perfectly.  Cheryl is moving VERY quickly through this project and the work she did on this window while she was at home is impressive.

Her window is the center of the set of 3 and only has a border on the top and bottom. The window on the left will have a border on the left hand side as well as the top and bottom. The window on the right will have a border on the right hand side, the top and the bottom. The border, like the scene inside of it, will span the three windows rather than seperating them. Here is a picture of Joey’s window next to Cheryl’s. You can see how the branches connect making this one picture rather than two seperate windows.

The border is not cut yet so you can’t see how it will all line up. Below is a quick sketch to give you an idead of the unique border used on this project.

And that covers this week. We may have a new student next week so with a little luck we’ll see a butterfly on here then.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We’ve experienced another delay in the Blog this week because Cheryl’s window only needed to be washed and colored by the time she left and rather than wasting time doing that I told her to leave it so I could finish it up for her on Wednesday.   I volunteered to do this because it also meant that I would get to take a picture of the window in the daylight rather than in the shop at 9:00pm where it would only be lit with fluorescent lighting. The only problem is that the weather during the past few days has been nothing but rain which doesn’t leave much light for picture taking! Well, the sun was out for a few minutes this morning and I ran out to get a picture of it and this is what I managed to capture:

The black border was perfect for this because it really does make it look like an Aquarium with black trim that you would see in a pet store or even in your own home. The blue Spectrum Baroque glass she used for water has royal blue swirls throughout that help give the feeling of water without darkening the window and overpowering the colorful fish. Cheryl did a great job on this one and is about to help Joey working on the set of three cabinet windows that he is making. The pattern she’s using has been altered a bit but I forgot to take a picture of the altered pattern. (I must be getting old.) Nonetheless, here’s the basic window design that Cheryl will be starting next week.

Jane almost finished another one of her Dove in Flight windows. She cut and ground the background glass and then added the final border during class this week. If she doesn’t think that she’s got this pattern down yet she has nothing to worry about because she has one more left to do when this one is finished! She started it at home and you can see the progress she’s made on the Dove for her 5th(!) window in the picture on the right. To the left is the window that she’ll be soldering at home this week. Yet another job well done!

Now you may recall my mentioning that Cheryl will be working on a project that is a set of three windows altogether. Here we have a picture of the first of the three windows that her husband Joey is working on. He used a single piece of red spectrum to cut out the Cardinal in this pattern, but pay attention to the shading he used. By using a section of the glass that is slightly orange for the breast of the bird he was able to give it a more realistic look. Stained glass isn’t just about cutting the glass– it’s also about knowing what sections of the glass to use for a particular effect. This is looking wonderful.

Ellen brought in the center panel of her three piece fireplace screen and it’s ready to be washed and colored. She soldered both sides at home and then decided that she’d work on something different this week rather than start one of the two remaining windows of her screen. She had liked the 3D Mardi Gras masks that Russ had designed and decided to do one of those as a small diversion this week. Although there are only 5 pieces in the entire mask it’s a difficult project to make. The pieces are all angled so that the mask curves on both its horizontal and vertical planes to fit a person’s face. Yes, the mask isn’t strictly ornamental– you can actually use it! After getting the glass together there’s the process of making and attaching the handle to it. The handle is tinned copper wire that has been braided together and then soldered for strength. The finishing touch is a small decorative marble that is attached on the bottom end of the handle. It’s tricky to do but adds so much to the finished project. And as you can see, Ellen did just fine!

Lastly, we had some extra glass lying around that looked rather interesting so I pieced together a small stained glass box out of it. The glass is heavily rippled and runs from 1/4 inch in thickness all the way down to 1/8 of an inch all throughout the pieces. The ripples you see in the glass are caused by the high 1/4 inch areas in the glass. It’s a nightmare to wrap this with foil but the time was well spent because this box just sparkles. Leaving the lead lines their normal silver color looked best so I didn’t alter its color with chemicals when I finished. Here’s the completed box which you will be able to see (and purchase) at the Sans Souci Fine Crafts Gallery in Lafayette along with a number of our Mardi Gras Masks and other assorted items.

It’s been a busy week here and we’re about to start another on in just one more day!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

More of our work can be seen and purchased at:

Sans Souci Fine Crafts Gallery
219 East Vermil ion Street
Lafayette, LA 70501

and

Imperial Calcasieu Museum
204 W. Sallier Street
Lake Charles, LA 70601