Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Who is Mike Hutter and why am I always asking if anyone has seen him?

This week brings us an extended weekend workshop session with returning student Craig who managed to finish 2 windows in his 3 days of work. He got in on Wednesday night and managed to get all but the background of his geometric window all cut, ground and wrapped. The next day he was back in the shop at 7am where he finished cutting the background and taked it all together. He decided to go with a zinc channel because the window has no border and the zinc makes it much more sturdier. By 2:00 he had it finished and moved on to a project that he didn’t think he’d manage to finish in his remaining time. But by midnight (talk about a LONG day!) he’d gotten the window all finished except for the soldering. The next morning was another early one for him and by noon he had his second window soldered and ready for hanging. Here are the two windows he made in about 25 hours.

              

Fran managed to get almost all of her rooster cut out and will be ready to grind next week for sure. It looks like she’s only got about 4 pieces left to cut. You can compare this to the Rooster that Joey did last week to see what a difference colors can have on a pattern. There’s no right or wrong in choosing the colors, but they do make you see the piece in a different light (no pun intended).

Gerald has almost all of his Rooster cut out and it’s already ground. The only thing he had left to do was to cut out the eye sections and then a few pieces for the background. But in typical Gerald fashion he’s decided to add a bit more work to this by cutting the background glass into a chicken wire pattern. It will be a lot of small pieces but the effect will add a lot to the finished design. I can’t wait to see how it looks.

Jane came in with her deer window just about finished. She picked a deep brown for the final border and she finished it in class just in time for us to hang it up and snap a few pictures of it. She’ll be making a moose window to match this one next. Great job!

Ellen’s lamp is completely tacked together and the flower centers are all in place. She also has the cap of the lamp soldered on which means that she’s set to solder it! I don’t think it’s going to take her long to solder it at all. We help it up to the light and everyone agrees that the colors are fantastic. Alas, you will have to wait a bit longer to see it finished and lit up. Meanwhile take a look at a small section of the lamp tacked together and off of it’s mold.

Mark came in and picked out colors for his latest window which was taken from another painting that he found online. After he picked out the glass for this project he traced out his pattern and then cut it all apart. He decided to cut his green leaves first and traced everything onto one large sheet of glass. By the end of the class he had all his green cut already! Mark works very quickly and his cutting is perfect. He understands the importance of cutting on the inside of the line and because of this he won’t be spending much time at the grinder trying to get pieces to fit together. Here’s where his window stands this week.

           

Tommy returned this week and decided to remake the same window he made last time around. Since his pattern was already cut out he saved a little time this week (even though it took us 10 minutes or longer to find where I hid it) and was able to immediately begin tracing out his pattern pieces and cutting his glass. By 7:30 he had most of the window cut and then by 8:30 it was all ground. We expected him to take his pieces home to wrap them during the week but he managed to wrap it all before 9:15 and will only have to cut, grind and wrap the borders for this piece next week!

We got a lot accomplished this week and we’ll see a lot more next week. See you all then!
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Joey came in with some soldering to do on his Rooster window which is actually a large (a VERY large) sun catcher. He soldered the front and back and then when I was finished working with Mark (you’ll read about his window below) I showed Joey how to apply a bead around the outside edges of the Rooster. The process is slow and tedious with a normal sized sun catcher so going around the edges of this took about 45 minutes or so. Once we were finished with that it was time for a quick touch-up on the front and back of the Rooster. I have to say that Joey’s soldering has improved immensely since his cabinet door windows that he made last. I hardly had to fix anything and the amount of lead that he used was perfect. Since we were running a bit late I had Joey leave his window with me to clean up so I could get a nice picture of it in the sunlight. As you can see from the picture I took, his Rooster appears to be more colorful than the one I did a few weeks earlier. I like his choice of colors!

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived– Ellen’s lamp is actually viewable this week! Rather than posting a picture with close to 400 pieces of glass we have a picture of almost all of her pieces assembled together on the mold. We’ll be working on the flower centers next week and I’m 100% sure that we’ll actually have it off the mold. Soldering this lamp will be a piece of cake compared to the last one that she made since it’s only curved on 1 axis rather than 2. Even without a light inside it looks great. Remember that there are 2 more borders that get attached to the bottom of the lamp along with yellow flower centers.

Next we get a look at Fran’s Rooster which she started this week. She’s going to use colors that are very similar to the one that I did. The only real difference will be that the shade of purple she is using is lighter than the one I used. Although the pattern was already cut out, Fran made excellent headway into her second project (as you can see by the picture below).

Mark came in to finish soldering the back side of his Flowers and Birds window knowing that this would more than likely be the last night he’d spend working on this project. It didn’t take him long at all to finish it and then after some touching up he was ready to start washing, coloring, re-washing and then waxing. I wished that he had finished his window during the day class rather than the night class because I thought we’d get a better picture of it in the daylight but it looks fine to me pictured below with a florescent light behind it. Mark did an excellent job and will be moving on to a new project involving magnolias next week.  And everyone seems to love his choice of border color!

Cheryl came in with the LSU letter portion of her window all soldered. She left it for me to touch up but there really doesn’t appear to be much to touch up as Cheryl has the soldering down pretty good at this point. She cut out the right section of the Tiger’s face and set upon cutting  and grinding it. I was so busy that I really didn’t get a good look at it until she was packing it up to take home and what a surprise I got when I saw it.  It’s been cut and ground wonderfully and really looks amazing! She had her doubts about it but I’m going o state here for the record that I think it looks and fits together fantastically. I do understand what she’s saying though because as I drew the pattern for her I thought it looked nothing like a tiger at all until I stepped away from it and then saw it again a few hours later. It’s one of those patterns that’s hard to see when you are working so closely with it.  You lose focus of what you are making and only see the strangely shaped pieces in front of you rather than the tiger face. It’s a classic example of not seeing the forest from the trees. Since Cheryl is unsure of what she’s going to do for the eyes she left them solid yellow so she can cut it later. To help see what it will look like I’ve photoshoped an eye into the proper place.  Also, I took the liberty of mirroring the face and attached it so it looks like the window is complete (the picture on the right).  I dare anyone to say that’s not a tiger!
                              

Our last Rooster this week is an original design by Gerald.  It’s just a closeup of the face (Gerald is apparently fond of that perspective) but like his tiger window it’s distinctive and stunning.  After drawing out his pattern he started cutting and grinding as he went along.  I think this one will be a fast one for him, and I think it will be another show stopper– this bird has definitely got some personality!  I think we’ll see most of the glass cut next week so serf on over here then to get a better feel for this window

Finally,  last but not least we have Jane who got back from her cruise and decided to start working on a deer window. After tracing it all out and then cutting up the pattern pieces she picked out some glass to match a photograph that she had and began cutting away. You can see the photograph she’s using as a color guide in the picture below. As always, I can’t wait to see how this one turns out when it’s finished. Knowing Jane, she may finish it at home!

That about wraps it up here.  We’ll be back next week with some brand new projects.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

We have quite a few windows to cover here this week and I’m more than a bit late in getting this page updated so let’s jump in and see what we have to show.

Due to a miscommunication we missed out on having Joey show up this week. Because of that we have no Rooster to show you but mark my words well see it and one other next week! We do, however, have Jessie’s almost completed Owl window pictured below. She got all of the feathers ground which only leaves her with 17 pieces left to cut and grind. She’s taken her glass home to wrap this week but I’m not expecting her to have it finished when she comes in since it’s been a hectic week here on the Bayou. Nonetheless, I’m sure she’ll get pretty far along when we see Jessie again next week. Meanwhile, enjoy her owl window with the center all cut and ground. She’ll add the final borders when she gets all of this wrapped and tacked.  If you had any misconceptions about how this window was going to turn out when you saw it sitting here all unground last week, well, think again because it’s turning out PERFECT!

Cheryl was in and out and then back in this week all in the span of about 4 hours. We’ve hit yet another snag with her address window glass– the wrong glass was shipped to us for the second time in a row. We’ll figure this one out soon enough and get her back to work on it shortly. Luckily Cheryl has a number of projects on the burners so she was able to jump over to another LSU window that she’s trying to get completed. She’s not quite sure of the placement of the actual LSU letters on this window so I can’t say if it’s the top or the bottom section that she has completed but rest assured that she did complete the section with the letters. She’s leaning towards putting the letters on top of the Tiger’s eyes as shown in the picture below. If you think that they’d look better on the bottom leave us a comment and let us know!

Fran has completed her Camaro window as I suspected she would. I hate to sound like a broken record but I am amazed at how quickly she’s picked up on the soldering part of making stained glass. Because of her great soldering I didn’t have to work at all to smooth over any rough spots. The window looks great and Fran should be proud of it. Next up for Fran will be the Cocky Rooster that Joey is working on only with a different color scheme.  Don’t you love the chrome and the windshield in this window??

Ellen continued working on the 369 pieces for her Clematis Lampshade. The only thing left to cut are the flower centers and we’ve decided to fill them in after the lamp is tacked together to make things a lot easier. This week she continued grinding pieces and then left with roughly 100 trim sections cut and ground. There’s a good chance that we’ll be arranging all the pieces for this lamp in the coming week so we’ll finally get a good look at what this Lamp she’s been working so hard on is all about. Here are some of the final pieces that she completed before taking her remaining pieces home with her.

Gerald finished his Pelican Window Tuesday night and what a window this turned out to be.   Pay attention to the detail all throughout this window and how the small pieces that make up the water just make this window stand out so well.  The colors are slightly washed out because I needed to use a flash on the front of the window to get the colors to show.  Since this will be hanging against a wall Gerald picked colors that worked well without being back-lit.  Gerald has plans for one of the largest windows ever made in class (luckily it will be done in 3 sections much like Ellen’s Fireplace screen) and I can’t wait to see how that turns out.  If it’s anything like any of his other projects I’d have to say it will be amazing.

Tommy, like Gerald, came in and finished his window this week also.  You got a good look at what it was going to look like last week but the finished project always has a certain charm to it that you can’t see when the window is laying on the table covered in chemicals.  Tommy’s soldering was nothing short of amazing.  It seems that our 3 newest students (Fran, Mark and Tommy) have taken to soldering like fish to water.  After it was finished Tommy got to see the process that turns the silver solder into a coppery color (his butterfly was finished in silver so he didn’t get to see this process before).  After scrubbing off all the chemicals from his window he dried it off and we simply coated all the lead with a copper sulfate solution which chemically alters the silver solder to copper.  After one finally wash to remove the Copper Sulfate Tommy was able to clean up his window one last time and take it home.  As you can see, Tommy’s window turned out perfect!  He has plans to do another LSU window but is a little unsure when he’ll start it so keep your eyes opened on here to see when he jumps back in to tackle another project.  In the meanwhile, we’ll be missing him!

 

And lastly we have a look at a window that will certainly be finished next week for sure.  Mark soldered not only the front side of his panel, but a lot of the second side as well!  Like everyone else he was very worried about starting the soldering process but as I said earlier, he had nothing to worry about.  His soldering is fabulous and because of this his window will be going home at least a week earlier than I expected it to.  The colors look a bit drab and washed out here in the picture but believe me when I say that this isn’t the case when you see the actual window in person.  Once again I had to use a flash against the front of the window to take the picture which in turn lightened the colors.  I could have lifted the window in the air and lit it from behind to give you a good look at it but I’d rather wait until next week when it’s completely finished.  I’m going to warn you, it’s going to knock your socks off!  Great work Mark!

That about wraps it up this week.  We’ll be back on schedule next week and Joey and Jane will be joining us again so expect the blog to arrive at it’s (more or less) usual time of Thursday morning.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

So many windows are about to be finished here that it’s just amazing.

Tommy got all three of his borders cut while he was in and then we got them all wrapped and tacked together. After we added a brass channel to the outside edge of his LSU window we gave Tommy a quick refresher course on soldering and let him do a few lines on his own. I don’t think he’s going to have any problem at all with the soldering as he took to it like a fish to water. If he doesn’t get a perfect line on his first pass he manages to get it on the second pass over it. He only had a chance to do a few lines but from what I’ve seen I’m confident that he will have this finished next week. Tommy’s window has a clear textured glass for the background but in the picture below it’s sitting on the work table so it looks kind of strange. Those aren’t cracks you’re seeing, they are just random markings of the well-used surface of the work table that his window is laying on.

Mark spent some time tonight trying to pick out the perfect border for his window. After trying about 12 different pieces we all decided that the glass that looked oddest in the rack looked best surrounding his window. It’s a green/pink combination glass that adds just the right amount of color to make this window really stand out. Like Tommy, Mark is now to the point where he will be soldering next week. He’s got a lot of lead lines to go before this one is finished so I’m going to guess that although he’ll get at least one side completed he won’t have the time to get his window finished next week. I think his border choice was perfect and can’t wait to see this hanging and completed 2 weeks from now.

Fran got her border all wrapped and tacked onto her window this week and then we added the brass channel along the edges and sat her down to solder. Everyone seems to be afraid of the soldering process and Fran herself said that she was no exception. But the fears she had were all for naught because her soldering is MUCH better than the average first time solderer. We walked her through a few lines and then left her on her own so she could practice without someone watching over her shoulder making her nervous. When I walked back over to see how she was doing I was happy to discover that she’s one of the few people who are able to solder wonderfully right from the start. It won’t be long before I won’t have to touch up anything on her windows at all…

Let’s see who else needed a border put on a window this week. How about Gerald? He came in and laid out all the pieces he’d wrapped while at home and then tacked it all together. He went for a pure black border which ended up being perfect as you can see from the picture below. He’s making this window with colors that look great without having any light shining through it because when this is finished it will be hanging on a wall rather than in a window. Now that it’s almost completed (he only has a few lead lines left to go) I can say that it turned out even better than I thought it would– and I had VERY high expectations for this window! The second picture posted here is a closeup of the eye of one of the Pelicans. Gerald found little beads at a store that worked PERFECTLY for the eyes of both Pelicans. Make sure you click on the closeup picture to see what a great find these beads were.

Are you tired about hearing how our students just needed to have a border put on their window this week? I hope not because Jane was at the exact same place with the window she made last week while she was at home. Again, she walked in the door with a window that was completely cut, ground, wrapped, tacked and even fully soldered! She did all the work on her own while at home and only stopped at the border because she was a little unsure about the choice of a border color and wanted some input as to what everyone else would think she should use. She brought in what she refers to as her standard border color: Blue. But in the end we all agreed that going with a white border was the better choice. Click on her picture below and you’ll see what we mean. Also, pay attention the the yellow piece of background glass on the center of the far right side of the window. It’s a very difficult piece to cut and solder without having it break and although she was intimidated by it at first, she decided to tackle it herself and got it out in one piece! It’s yet another job well done by Jane.

Ellen spent her time working at the grinder this week. She has most of the pieces cut for her lamp and is now grinding them down before she wraps them. I helped her grind only a few of her pieces but I have to say that it was easy going. Her rounded edges are already round before she even shapes them with the grinder, and her cutting is so good that all she really needs to do is skim each piece. The problem with making a lamp is that you don’t get a chance to fit everything together as you go along. You grind all your pieces, wrap them and then when it’s all wrapped you assemble it onto the mold with either double sided tape or wax (which is what Ellen will be using for a lamp with this many pieces in it.) If your cutting isn’t exact then you’ll have to unwrap pieces, grind them again and then re-wrap them. It’s a tedious process and it’s why we don’t let students make lamps until we see that their glass cutting abilities are better than average. We have a picture of what Ellen managed to grind this week but remember that these are stacked 3 deep so there are three times as many pieces as you can see here.

We’re going to wrap up this weeks Blog entry talking about Jessie’s progress with both her current project and two of the windows that she’s finished in the past. Jessie worked on her Owl window and managed to finish cutting the remaining feathers in the owl. When that part was completed we concentrated on getting her background cut out. She had picked a deep Spectrum Purple that we only had one piece of and when she traced out her pieces onto the glass we knew that if she broke even one little piece we wouldn’t have enough to finish her panel. I helped cut some of the more complex cuts in the hopes that I’d be able to get them out without breaking anything and together we managed to get it all cut. Jessie moved over to the grinder at that point and began to get all that she has cut fitted together.

You’d think we’d be moving on to someone else or ending this now that we’ve finished talking about Jessie’s latest window but we have some great news about two of her older projects that we’d like to share with you. We got a phone call from Jessie’s mother telling us that the Horse Window that Jessie finished just 2 weeks ago took 2nd place at the L’Acadian Art Guild Contest! You might think that Jessie could be disappointed that she didn’t get first place but that’s not the case at all because her Ballerina Window won 1st place! So when she brought her ribbons into class this week we had to take pictures of them to post here along side her winning windows. While Jessie was telling us her story about winning both 1st and 2nd place she also informed us that her mother got a 3rd place ribbon for her beveled window that she made here in class last summer. I guess it goes to show you that our students don’t just play around while they are working in class. Here are the pictures of our winning windows!

That about takes care of this weeks classes. We missed Cheryl and Joey this week and the place just wasn’t the same without them. But we’ll see them again next week and catch up on what they’ve been doing both at home and here in class.
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks