Cabinet Door Inserts Are All The Rage!
Joey and Cheryl were working at home again this week grinding and wrapping glass long before class even started. When they came in they had another door ready to be tacked together. Once that was finished Cheryl soldered the door while Joey ground and wrapped another one. Then Joey cut the few missing pieces for the remaining 2 doors to be made in this size. Later on in the night Joey wrapped the pieces you see below while Cheryl went to work on her wood door.
Russ began to rout out the back of the wooden door to make room for the glass insert and then the glass insert was screwed into place. When he walked away Cheryl jumped in and continued with the carpentry work! Once the wood insert was removed they inserted the glass and held it in place with some clips. The finished project looks identical to the one you saw here last week but that’s because they are all supposed to match! Here’s the latest door.
Jane has had to miss classes for a few weeks in the past 3 weeks but that doesn’t mean that she’s not working on glass while she’s at home. When she came in today she brought a window in that only needed 2 borders to complete it. The big decision was whether or not to make the outer border green or some other color. I wasn’t thrilled with the green border but I thought that using the background glass again as the final border would really look good. Everyone agreed and this is what Jane left with. I just love her colors.
Mary Lynn missed a class last week but made up for it this week by coming in on two nights. With a big move going on at work I hope she doesn’t wear herself thin trying to squeeze in class next week! She got a lot accomplished this week though. She’s making 4 clear class inserts for a cabinet she’s just had made. It’s a Fleur de Les design with two borders made out of 4 different textures of clear glass. We got her pattern drawn up and then she cut and ground the 2 of the 4 Fleur de Les on her first night. Then on Wednesday night she finished grinding her pieces, wrapped them and then tacked one together so we could cut the background glass out for her first window. She’s moving along at a break-neck speed but her grinding and wrapping was absolutely flawless. Her Fleur de Les came out perfectly symmetrical and that’s not easy to accomplish this early on in learning this craft. I can’t wait to see her finished doors!
Gerald got his Irises all wrapped and tacked together and then began cutting the glass for the grass behind the Irises. Rather than using the pattern he’s laying the Iris section on top of the sheet of glass he’s using for the grass and then tracing out his pieces. It’s a pain to keep shifting things back and forth but he saves time because there’s very little grinding involved in doing it this way. It’s really starting to take shape now.
Grace finished her first project this week. Her LSU with a Tiger Eye looks great and her soldering is really amazing. She can make some long perfect lead lines on the first pass that don’t need any touch ups at all. We’re not sure yet what she’ll be working on next week but we do know that it will be going in her kitchen. Here’s her finished LSU window hanging out in the sunlight. Expect big things from Grace because she’s handling all of the work like a pro!
While grace was finishing up her window Janice was busy grinding her address window. She must be feeling really confident now because she managed to get the entire window ground before she left and everything lined up perfectly without any need for pointing out any flaws (there were none!) Regrettably, I forgot to take a picture of it before she left but I colored in the pattern using pictures of the glass samples so you can see what she’s got accomplished. The picture below is a very accurate rendition of what she finished this week. This window will be finished soon!
Ellen came in with her magnolias all cut and ready to be ground. She spent her time at the grinder getting everything to fit perfectly and when she left she accomplished her task. She planned on wrapping as much as she could when she got home so next week we should be able to see better what her flowers look like– all the white pieces tend to blend into one another when the pieces aren’t wrapped to show all their edges. This window is going to be about 24 inches wide when it’s finished so don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s a small window by the picture here. As you already know, Ellen is a consummate professional at this.
We had a new student join us this week. Her name is Denise and she’s caught on to the whole stained glass making process about as quickly as a person can. Her cutting was perfect, her grinding flawless and even her wrapping and soldering left me nothing to find fault with. She plans on doing something with grapes in it for her first project (which she’ll start next week). It will match the butterfly that she made this week which was done in a nice deep purple waterglass.
And finally we have Christine. She was busy as can be assembling and then soldering the flower sections of two more hand mirrors. After that was finished she went to the grinder and ground some more. We are having a problem with the batch of mirror that we have and and waiting for some new mirror to come in before Christine cuts any more mirror and that’s the only reason we don’t have any finished this week. Christine is moving faster and faster each week and I think she’s very confident about her abilities at this point. Hopefully we’ll have some finished mirrors next week!
