Everything Is Moving Along
Every week I’m more and more amazed at what our students are accomplishing on their own. They are walking in the shop with completed projects or telling stories of things that they’ve started and finished at home without me ever seeing it! I’d have to say that our students have all moved past the beginner stage and are now very capable glass artists.
The first person to walk in the door on Tuesday was Jane. When she left last week she had the bigger pieces of her window cut out but still had a lot of tiny flower petals to go. So when she walked in the door with a window that was completely cut, ground and soldered I was amazed. That was a lot of tedious work to get done in 7 days. She only had to put the border on her window and the only reason she didn’t do that was because she wasn’t sure of the glass was too similar to the other colors in the window. One look told me that she could search for years and never find another piece of glass that would work better. By the time she left she had it finished. Just look at the great use of color throughout this window.
Ellen walked in right behind Jane and set to work on her lamp. She has a lot of it cut out already and by the time she left she had the background and half of the flowers finished. There’s really nothing that I can show you here in terms of a picture because everything is laid out piece be piece in a container waiting to be ground before it’s placed on the mold. This is going to be one of those projects that suddenly comes together all at once. And trust me when I say that when it does you’ll be very impressed! Here’s a picture of the original Tiffany version of the Clematis lamp that Ellen is making.
Next up we have a new student by the name of Tom who did his obligatory Stained Glass Butterfly. Like 99% of our students he had never cut a piece of glass but he handled his glass cutter as if he cuts glass every day. His butterfly turned out perfectly and next week we’ll have him working on an LSU window. Here’s Tom’s butterfly. Expect great things from him in the near future.
And speaking of great things we have Joey and Cheryl’s cabinet doors to show you all finished and inserted into the actual doors! The project was split between the two of them with Cheryl having completed the center Flower Window while Joey did the two Bird panels that bookend the Calalilies. I know we’ve posted pictures of them before separately and then ‘Photoshoped’ together to give you an idea of what they would look like installed, but this week we have the real deal. My hat’s off to both Joey and Cheryl for getting this finished so professionally!
Cheryl was working on a number of smaller projects this week which, like Ellen’s work, doesn’t exactly lend itself to photographing very well. Next week she’ll be working on her Street Address Window again (we ran out of glass and as luck would have it the order didn’t come in until the day after her class). Since Cheryl always has something planned and it didn’t slow her down at all. Here’s a ‘picture’ of Cheryl just for the Blog. My thanks go out to Danielle for providing the picture!
Joey was another one who came in and shocked me with his project. He’d finished cutting the remainder of the glass for his ‘Rooster-With-Attitude’ window and then proceeded to grind it all during class! The colors look great and the work is flawless. His attention to detail has alway been way above average and as you can see here it really shows. When you look at the picture below you’d never know that this isn’t the finished project! I’m not sure what it is that Joey will be working on next but he shouldn’t be afraid of tackling anything now. He’s earned his stained glass badge!
In a surprise visit we got to see Danielle this week as she popped in to see what was happening and to help out her mother for a bit with some of her wrapping. It was nice to see you again Danielle and don’t forget that you can drop by ANY time. I thought it was funny when she recognized so many of my standard lines that I spout off while teaching a new student (in this case it was Tom). It goes to show that she was paying attention when she was taking stained glass classes about a year ago!
The next night we had Gerald come in to work on his Pelican Window. He finished wrapping what he had cut and ground last week and then he worked on fitting a wire onto the lead line that separates the two bodies of the overlapping Pelicans. The wire will raise the solder line a little higher than the rest of the solder which will help create a dividing line that helps the viewer’s eye to keep the two birds separate. It’s a simple little trick that works wonders. Gerald has a few pieces of glass left to cut for his sky which will be easy enough but his water will be a bit of a challenge. He’s got a complex pattern drawn throughout the bottom of the window to show wavy, choppy water which will make it look more like an ocean rather than a smooth, still pond. As I always say, extra work always pays off. Here’s the window as it looks this week but just wait until you see it next week!
Jessie was in and finished her Horse window that she had started just before school began back in September. It may have taken her a week or so to get back into the swing of things but this week Jessie worked as though she never took any time off at all. Her soldering was wonderful and as you can see her window turned out perfectly. She brought her mother, Kim, with her this week and it was nice to catch up with her again and just do a lot of laughing in general. Jessie’s sister Amanda showed up as well to see what was happening. All in all it was a fun night all around. Jessie has big plans for a few more windows and will be doing an Owl window next. You’ll see the pattern here next week as well as some cut pieces of glass!
Last, but certainly not least, we have Mark’s window. This has that old-school Tiffany look about it. The use of green running throughout all the different leaves and then reflecting onto the rippled water makes the white flowers and birds stand out in direct contrast to everything else. And it works so well! Before Mark began grinding he cut the brown branch sections which leaves him with only the birds feet left to cut. Mark wrapped all the pieces he took home with him and he did a great job. This week he has fewer pieces to wrap while at home, but they are smaller and more difficult to handle than the ones he did last week. I have no doubt that he’ll do fine and I can’t wait to see this all ground and wrapped so we can see what the top will look like when the lead lines are added. Note that you can really see what the flowers look like (as opposed to last weeks picture) now that they are wrapped in copper foil.
And I think that covers it this week…