Is It A Coincidence???
Well, Cheryl started it but Joey ended up finishing it which makes this window the first of two joint projects this week. We weren’t sure about how it was going to be hung but when the actual window was brought in I knew we’d have no problem at all since I’d done a few like this in the past. What made this easy is the fact that the window this is going to hang in can be removed for cleaning. Joey just sized his stained glass window to be the exact same size of the one that pops out and then used a thick zinc channel very similar to the channel around the original window. When he got home he just pulled the original window out and snapped the new window into its place. And it went in perfectly! Now I’ll have to drive by to see it in front of their house. This window was finished on July 4th, 2007. Now look at the color scheme that was used. Coincidence? Who knows….
Mark worked long and hard at grinding the remaining pieces of his Magnolia window this week and save for the flower stamens and two thin pieces of white trim it’s complete. The funny thing is that each time I posted the pictures of Mark’s progress I posted them Çpısdn uÊop! When it didn’t fit together because it was still unground you couldn’t really notice it, but as soon as I moved in to take a picture this week I noticed it immediately. It’s amazing what a difference grinding makes. 
Anyway, it’s looking great and should be finished soon now.
Mary Lynn was able to finish cutting all of the oval section of her Iris Window out and then she moved over to the grinder to get everything to fit together. She’s moving right along and making good time at it as well. You can see the bottom and left side of the window is ground in the picture below. It’s really starting to take shape now.
Gerald finished his Rooster Window last week and began working on his latest project when he came in Tuesday night. Gerald never takes the easy way out with his windows and I can honestly say that no one in my 25 years of teaching has ever attempted a project this large. It’s almost 5 feet long and 3 feet tall! To make it easy to transport he’ll be doing it in sections. He traced out his pattern and began cutting it out this week; cutting starts next week…
Fran has her rooster all wrapped and ready to go. She had taken it home to wrap last week and ground the head of it when she came in this week. I’m not sure how long it took her to wrap but the wrapping was flawless which means that soldering this will be that much easier. Look for this project to be finished soon.
Ellen tacked together the center of her window this week and then cut, ground, wrapped and tacked on her deep blue border. We added a zinc channel on it and all that’s left to do on this is to solder it. I have to say that when she showed me the pattern for this window I didn’t think too much about it. It wasn’t that I didn’t care for it– I just thought it was an average pattern. But now that I see it cut out and fitted together I have to say that I’ve changed my mind about this window. I love it! And when she changes the lead from a silver color to black it’s going to be spectacular.
Cheryl was busy working on another of her balloons for her Hot Air Balloon window. She got a lot accomplished at home this week (having finished cutting and grinding one of the larger more complicated balloons) and then she cut out another balloon of similar complexity in class this week. The background scenery will be really easy to do after working with all these small pieces and I’m impressed at how fast she’s moving throughout this project. In the picture below you can see the top balloon is the one she cut out during class. I believe there’s only one balloon left before she gets to work on the nice easy scenery in the background.
Our second joint project this week was done by both Tiffany and Jimmie who decided to make a large window for a transom in their home. Even with the two of them working on it together I have to say that I’m impressed at how fast they are moving. I figured something this size would take 2 sets of classes to complete but I don’t think it’s going to that long at all now that I see the two of them in action. With only the background left to cut I’m going to guess that they start grinding this window next week.
Lastly we have Janice’s Oval Iris Window (which will end up being a rectangle when it’s finished). She cut out the ribbons that wrap through the double borders and then started grinding everything so it fits together well. She’s really got the hang of it now.  You can see she has a lot of her leaves completed along with the bottom pieces. She moving along wonderfully and we’ll see even more progress next week.
And that about wraps it up for this Holiday Week here in the Bayou.