The Floor Is A Cold, Hard Surface
The title of this weeks Blog comes from an unfortunate incident involving a piece of glass that was ground and ready to wrap. The unfortunately part of the story is that it ended up in a few hundred pieces on the cement floor rather than in the window that was being worked on. So we just cut another piece and pretended it never happened. All in all it’s just another day in the life here at Bayou Salé GlassWorks.
Let’s start with Ellen who wrapped the flowers and bird pieces for one of her ovals and then cut the oval backgrounds for her 2 Hummingbird Windows. She got one of the backgrounds wrapped and even tacked together (see the left side of her picture). She took the pieces of the background for her second oval home to wrap during the week. We’ll see even more progress next week when these ovals get placed in the background glass.
Grace came in and finished cutting out the eye section of her window. We made one color change to avoid having the eye disappear into the purple that surrounds it and everything is looking good. Grace not only finished cutting out her glass but she made great progress in getting her window ground. Most people are timid about using the grinder and worry about grinding away too much of the glass or they simply don’t apply enough pressure for the grinder to cut into the glass but Grace ground each of her pieces perfectly and quickly. The bottom left corner of this window is fitted and ready to be ground. Great job, Grace!
Cheryl cut out and ground the pieces of glass for her sky. She picked a pale blue mixed with purple that looks fantastic behind the bright glass that she used for her balloons. The picture below shows her window resting on a table with no light behind it but even unlit it has a great look about it. I can’t wait to see this with some light behind it.
Joey soldered one of his cabinet doors and will finish it off next week for sure. Once again, his soldering has come a long way almost overnight. I always say that soldering is like riding a bike– it’s hard to explain how it’s done but once you do it you’ll never forget how to do it. Well, Joey is certainly riding his bike now. 
Next week he’ll grind his second window in this series of cabinet doors he’s doing. Don’t you just love the Southwestern/Frank Lloyd Wright design…
Janice got her border tacked onto her window and then got her first real soldering lesson. The butterfly that everyone makes on their first night in class just doesn’t have enough lead on it for someone to really get the feel for soldering so it’s the second project that a student does that allows them to ‘get messy’ with the leading of a window. It’s usually slow going at first but Janice (although a little unsure of herself) is doing just fine for a beginner. She’s getting a nice amount of lead on each line and doing it in a smooth manor. I’m thinking that this window may be finished next week.
Mary Lynn, like Janice, walked in a bit apprehensive about starting to solder her Iris Window. This is always the case with the second project so her fears weren’t anything new to us here in the shop. But Mary Lynn put her best foot forward and not only soldered the front of her window but the back as well! Considering that this is her first real project she’s done remarkably well. Next week she’ll wash it, color it and then we’ll take a picture of it hanging before she takes it home with her.
Tiffany and Jimmie got to see how a strip cutter is used to make borders nice and even. Their window was off ever so slightly (about 1/8 of an inch) in one corner they also got to see how easy it is to fix that by trimming foil to cover gaps that might appear. And trust me when I say that being 1/8th of an inch off is NOTHING bad at all. Now that it’s all together it’s 100% square with the correct measurements all around and no one can tell that the window was ever off. I have to say that I honestly don’t know what will happen with this one next week. Since Jimmie and Tiffany will both be soldering it together they may move through it quickly. Or they could get in each other’s way and slow each other down. With one person working on it I’d say that it would be at least two weeks until it’s finished but with 2 of them doing it at the same time I just don’t know how far along we’ll get next week. So come back and see what happens a weeks from now!
Last but not least we have a picture of Christine’s latest Hand Mirror. It’s the same pattern that she used for the one she made last week but this time she went with different colors for the flowers. As she was waiting for the mirror sealant to dry she cut out another set of flowers that she’ll assemble next week but this time she’s altered the pattern a bit. Let’s see if you can see what’s been added in the mirror that she finishes here next week at Bayou Salé GlassWorks…
