A Day Earlier This Week
Ellen starts off our post this week with her finished Clematis Lamp. I’ve looked around online and have found simpler versions of this lamp available for $355.00. I can guarantee that Ellen’s will last her a lifetime while the ones you find in Lowes, Home Depot, or Walmart won’t last more than 10 years or so. Ellen’s lamp not only turned out spectacular, but the workmanship is extraordinary as well. Note the way all her pieces line up perfectly. Although you can’t see it in the picture let me tell you that her lead lines are all beaded evenly rather than being soldered flatly like you see on so many stained glass pieces in stores nowdays. That is part of the reason her lamp is as solid as it is. You can squeeze Ellen’s lamp shade and it doesn’t budge. Try that with any stained glass lamp that you see in one of the Home Improvement type stores and it will crush in your hands… This is Ellen’s second lamp and it’s perfect in my book.
Joey finished cutting the last pieces of the address window he’s finishing up and spent the rest of the class soldering his nearly completed window. I have to say that Joey has got the soldering process down perfectly now. Soldering is the hardest thing to learn when it comes to making stained glass but the nice thing is that you can go over your solder again and again until you get it right. Before any project leaves the door I make sure I touch up any trouble areas but it doesn’t look like I’ll have to do this for Joey anymore. His soldering this week was just shy of perfection (no one solders perfectly– it’s just impossible to do) and at this point I think I can safely say that when he finishes this I won’t have any touching up to do. Great job Joey!
Cheryl finished grinding and wrapping her tiger face and has taken it home to solder. That means that we’re just a few border pieces away from having this window finished! She has 2 big decisions left to make with this: 1) What color border should she use, and 2) Should the LSU portion of the window go above or below the tigers eyes? Look here next week to see what the answers will be!
Gerald worked on the clear glass background of his rooster window this week. He made a pattern piece resembling chicken wire and then proceeded to cut out close to 40 of them. After arranging them around his rooster he then cut out the sections where they overlapped onto the rooster and then cut and ground each overlaping section to fit. I have a sneaking suspicion this will be completed or VERY close to being completed next week (depending on whether he managed to get all his glass wrapped while he’s at home this week). Make sure you click on the picture below to see the large version of his rooster or you won’t be able to see the detailed background that he did this week.
Jane came back and began work on a second Birdhouse Window. The colors will be ever so slightly different from the first one, but the idea is essentially the same. When you find a winning combination of colors you don’t want to mess with the ingredients too much! Although I didn’t get a picture of her progress before she left I did find a shot of her last birdhouse window that shows what she go accomplished this week. Look for a more complete picture here next week.
Since we started this Blog entry with a completed project by Ellen, we’ll end it with Tommy’s completed LSU window.  This is the second of at least three that he will be doing, the next being done at his house and with a different pattern. He managed to make this window, start to finish in just 3 classes partially due to the fact that he’s mastered using the pistol grip cutter which means that he didn’t have much to grind on this window. I can’t wait to see more of Tommy’s work in the future.
And that wraps it up here for another week. Look for more progress next week!