Getting Busy
Ellen Had all the glass cut for her 3rd and final panel of her fireplace screen and spent most of the day grinding. She accomplished a lot today and managed to get just about everything finished but the sky. She hopes to make some serious progress on it sometime this week while she’s at home, but I think she’s made serious progress on it already. Ellen long ago reached the point where she expects a piece of glass to fit and to line up and look good as well. When people start taking stained glass classes there’s so much to learn that when a piece fits into place the student thinks they are finished. But fitting a piece is only half the battle. There are other things that a professional worries about as much as the fit of the glass. The orientation of the grain, the way the points of the piece line up with the glass pieces next to it and the shading of the glass are part of the equation of a great looking stained glass window. Look carefully at the shading of the tree in Ellen’s window and you’ll see that attention to detail. There’s a very good chance that this project will be finished next week.
Ellen is thinking about making a Tiffany Style Clematis Lamp next and I have no doubt that it will turn out perfectly!
Jane finished her window last week and is still awaiting word on one of 2 windows that people would like her to do for them. So she decided to do this birdhouse window that she had in a book she had purchased online. She had the pattern pieces cut and ready to be traced onto the glass when she came in and you can see what she accomplished in the picture below. I have to compliment Jane for not being afraid to alter the pattern that she’s working on to make it better than what it was originally drawn as. Minor details here and there needed some tweaking and Jane fixed them as she was cutting.
Fran’s Camaro window is all cut and ground and is ready to be wrapped. She had wrapped some of the pieces she ground last week while she was at home so she’s already got a head start on the process. She’s MUCH more comfortable with the grinder than she was last week and she’s getting the feel for figuring out what you can skim off of a piece to make it slid into place better. It all sounds rather cut and dry– you grind the piece until it fits into place, but there are little tricks that you learn along the way that help the process go much faster. Fran’s got a great window here and I’m sure she’ll be soldering it next week.
Cheryl, who finished working on her Franklin Foundation Hospital Window last week has started on something a little more close to home for her: a window for the front of her house showing her street address. The window is rather large but there are a lot of repeated elements throughout it so she’ll just take it one corner at a time. And speaking of corners, she has all four of the red sections cut and ready to grind. Here’s a picture of the pattern with some colors thrown in to show what the finished window will look like.
Joey finished the 3rd and final window of his cabinet door inserts this week. After he washed it, colored it and waxed it I managed to snap this picture of it.
And here’s a picture of the 3 windows side by side. We’ll have pictures of them in the actual wooden frames shortly so you can get the full effect of these windows.
Joey moved on to a large Rooster suncatcher that is so large (about 2 feet high) that you really have to call it a window. It will be made out of 5 different colors and Joey has all of the blue glass finished. That leaves 4 colors left to go! Here’s what he has finished so far.
Mark was in during an evening class this week and I have to say that his work has really impressed me. He picked a complex pattern for his first window and I’d have to say that he’s a good week ahead of where I thought he’d be in terms of progress. All his glass is cut and he even got 3 of the pieces ground before calling it a night! The window looks great already and I can’t wait to see it finished.
Long time readers will surely remember Jessie who took classes during the summer and then left to go back to school. Well she’s back and almost finished with the horse window she was working on when we saw her here last. She’ll be putting a green border on this window and will definitely be soldering it next week.
Gerald continued working on his Pelican Window and finished cutting all but the bill of the front (smaller) Pelican. He’s been grinding his pieces as he cuts them so he’s moving faster than you may think. The pattern looks great, the colors are perfect and his attention to detail is superb. He took it home with him this week so there’s no telling what he’ll accomplish while he’s at home.
That about wraps this up. In fact, that wraps it up for the second time for me since I wrote this all up, uploaded the pictures and then had my computer crash while I was writing up Gerald’s progress. So excuse the fact that a rushed through some of this and it’s posted late; it’s no fun rewriting something you’ve already written. I guess the lesson I’ve learned is to save often!