Bayou Salé GlassWorks

This might be the quickest turn around for a blog update yet! Hopefully it will make up for the fact that the last entry was written just 1/2 hour ago. This posting (like the last one) is being written on the laptop away from home. Be sure to read the posting under this one (Titled “Mike Hutter Shows His Face) to see what happened last week.

Ellen came in and wanted to know what we thought about the last piece of her round border. She was under the impression that it was too small and was throwing off the roundness factor of her window. that and the fact that the piece was very uneven made me agree that she should recut the piece. After she replaced it (with a piece she’d already cut!) Ellen went to work soldering it. By the end of the class she had her window finished. What do you think of Ellen’s round Magnolia window? I only wish it were a sunnier day so you could see the beautiful blue/green border this has.

Gerald has all of his window cut ground and wrapped. He’ll add the border to it next week and finish this window shortly afterwards. Look to see a new section of his window soon as well as the finished version of this one!

Joey came in with a window to solder and another one to grind. He didn’t expect to get the soldering completed so he didn’t bring in the door that it will be inserted in, but it DID get finished. Then when he finished grinding the last large door he sat down and got it all wrapped! His wrapping speed has improved dramatically as he managed to get the entire window wrapped during the class. I’d say Joey had a very productive evening. After he finishes this door he has two others in different sizes to make. I drew up the pattern for the smaller door while he was grinding and was surprised that I was able to match the large doors perfectly. I thought we would need to make some modifications to fit it in a smaller door frame but it worked out just fine. Here’s the last of the large doors that Joey has left to solder.

Wow, Janice and Grace worked together to get all of the background and most of the leaves cut out on their window. Both the birds and the flowers will be done in white glass so you can already get a feel for what the finished window will look like from what they have cut already. Just imagine that the bottom section is a blue/green and you have the idea of how this is going to look. They’re both doing a great job.

Mark finished wrapping the rest of his pieces and then tacked his window together. There are about 12 pieces left to cut and then he’ll add a border to this before he starts soldering. Now that there are some lead lines between all the pieces you can really see what this window looks like. And if you pay good attention you can see that the window that Janice and Grace are working on is a combination of Mark’s last window and this one. I can’t wait to see this one hanging up and finished.

Mary Lynn worked on her peacock suncatcher today. It’s not a simple little finish-it-in-one-night deal like the butterfly was… this one has 34 pieces of glass and some extensive wirework that flows around it when the actual glass part of the peacock is completed. I liked the way Mary Lynn wasn’t a slave to the color scheme of the picture we had of one that was already finished. Just because someone does a window with one color scheme doesn’t mean that it always has to be completed with the same colors. Mary Lynn got all her glass cut tonight and will be grinding while she’s home. Here’s what she brought hom with her to work on.

And that about wraps it up this week. We’re back on track with our work schedule so the Blog will be updated regulary from this point on. Sorry about the delays the past 2 weeks!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Although it was a slow week for classes, it was a very busy around here in general which helps explain why this Blog update is 1 week late. Since we had classes again yesterday morning and last night I figure I’d best sit down and write out the things that happened last week before both weeks blur together and I can’t recall what happened to whom and when.

Christine worked on grinding more hand mirrors and got another finished along with 2 others repaired. Here’s a look at the last 3 she took home with her.

Meanwhile, Fran cut the background and the inner border to her Owl window that she’s working on. She wanted to cut the last border as well so she could grind everything at home (she has her own grinder) but our general rule of thumb is to tack everything together before you cut the final border. The reason is simple: you can cut the border pieces and get them to fit but your window is going to change size slightly once you get everything wrapped. On a square window it may not amount to much of a difference but on an octagon window the difference will throw off all the angles on the border.

Janice and Grace got their pattern traced out and then they both began cutting out the 275+ pattern pieces so they could begin tracing them out onto glass. Here’s the pattern and the baggies of pattern pieces all sorted by color. This window will be a lot of work but I don’t think it will be as hard as Janice and Grace might think it will be.  And I know for a fact they’ll be amazed at how good this is going to look.

Gerald got almost all of his first of three sections cut out and ground. He changed a couple of pieces here and there because the colors didn’t look right but it’s looking like a complete scene now. Remember that there are 2 other sections to this window and that they’ll all hang next to each other to form one big scene. Gerald will be doing the same border trick that Cheryl and Joey did with their cabinet doors to tie the windows together. In case you forget what the trick was, it involves placing a border on the top and bottom of the middle section but not the sides. The left side panel will have 3 borders, 1 on the left side, one on the top and on on the bottom. the right section with have 3 borders but not on the left side of it. This way when the windows hang you have one border around all three windows to help create the illusion of one picture.

And that was all that happened LAST week! I will do my best to get this weeks blog up on Thursday after our Wednesday night class ends.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Look!  Mike Hutter made an appearance this week.  I’m always asking if anyone has seen him…

We’re a little late getting this posted this week and we might be running the same (late) schedule over the next 2 weeks but bear with us– I promise we’ll get back on track again soon.

Mary Lynn managed to almost completely finish her 4 cabinet door inserts while at home this week! She came in with them all soldered and ready for touch ups that were hardly needed at all. I don’t know how she managed to find the time to get all this work done or how she managed to do it so competently on her own, but she certainly did it! Here are the four inserts completed and then a closeup of one of them.

Janice and Grace have decided to work on a project together. The original design was a simple rose set in some clear glasses, but in the end they voted on a more complex scene with herons and magnolias. It’s based on a window that Mark did a few months back but this one has been elongated. I think this one will be much better looking and also more rewarding to make than their original design.

Speaking of Mark, guess who was back this week? He worked on wrapping the rest of his second magnolia window and it looks like he may be soldering it next week. He still needs to pick a border but this is VERY close to being finished. It was good to see Mark again and we’re glad to have him back.

Joey finished grinding and wrapping the second to last of his large cabinet windows. After these are finished he’ll be working on 3 more similar but smaller windows Here’s a look at what he got accomplished this week.

Ellen cut the clear baroque background out for her magnolia window and then ground it, wrapped it, and tacked it together. After that Mark and I helped with her big decision…what color should the border be? She had 3 choices and in the end we all agreed that the blue-green semi transparent piece she had looked the best. So we learned how to make a round border pattern that’s even all the way around and then we got the glass cut and ground. Ellen will be finishing this window in 2 weeks when we see her again. Look for this window to be be finished and hanging in the sunlight.

Denise had worked on her grape window while she was home again and got one complete section of grapes finished. While she was in class she cut the remaining leaves and brown stems. After they were ground she wrapped them and tacked them all together. She’s not sure about the darkness of the glass she used for the grapes themselves but we’ll see if she decided to redo them when she comes in again in 2 weeks. Right now I think it looks great!

Gerald got the house section of his window completed along with some of the bushes and the skyline.  I suspect that all of this section will be cut out next week when we see him again.  With the top section of the trees redone I think this window is really shaping up.  If you look closely you can see the original painting that this pattern was taken from above the glass that is cut out.

Last this week are Cheryl’s magic wands.  She was able to get all the staffs decorated and then soldered before getting a jewel and a crystal soldered on each end of one of the wands.  Once the marbles are attached (which they are on one of the wands) all that’s left is the basic decorating.  I like the different designs Cheryl came up with the staffs.  Here’s one wand almost complete and a quick look at the remaining center sections of the wands that she’s making.

      

This posting is more than a little late this week but we’ve been completely swamped this past week.  I promise that this will be out on a more timely fashion next week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks 

There was a lot accomplished this week as well as an equal sharing of joking around. The classes were filled with laughter about things no one would ever understand unless you were here for it all.

We’re still missing Mark and I’ve decided to put an A.P.B. out on him. If anyone spots him in or around the Youngsville area of LA tell him we’d love to see him again and also remind him that all work and no time off means your window doesn’t get finished! I’m only kidding here. I know that he’s stuck at work slaving away doing the job of 2 (or more) instead of working on his window and joking around with the rest of us. It’s a shame that we all have to work, isn’t it?
So let’s start with Gerald this week who worked away in his corner of the shop coming out only to grind each piece that he’d cut. His window is so large that he’s decided to break it into three sections to make it easier for him to transport, hang, and clean. He’s working on the left section first and is probably about 2/3rd’s of the way through with it. Next week he’ll cut the sky and the tree hanging above the scenery and then there will only be a border and the soldering left to finish this section. As you can see in the picture below, it’s really taking shape now.

Mary Lynn has been working non-stop on her 4 cabinet window inserts. As you might recall she had the center sections of the windows cut, ground and ready to wrap when she left last week. She ground one of the door sections while at home and then wrapped and tacked everything together before she came this week.  In an effort to get these finished quickly for a gathering she’ll be having at her house she came in for both of our night classes this week since she still had a lot of work to get accomplished. When she left on Tuesday night she had the double borders cut on all four windows and one of them was almost completely wrapped. When she came in on Wednesday night she finished her wrapping, tacked them together, got brass channel put on all 4 windows and soldered the front side of the first one. Her soldering is much better than I would ever expect from someone who’s only done 1 project before this.  I think we’ll be seeing these completed real soon!

Speaking of completed… Janice finished her 1607 adress window this week! She soldered the back side and then after washing it she decided that using the black patina would look better than the more commonly used copper color. Since she has a white background I have to agree with her choice because it really makes the lead lines stand out nicely. I’ve found that Janice is soldering much, much better now that she’s not fearing it as much as when she first started. It’s like anything else though as proficiency grows though experience. I think here window looks fantastic! Here’s her second window completed and ready to hang.

Christine spent most of her time on the grinder grinding out the last remaining flowers for the mirrors that she has cut. I finally heard what I suspected she’d eventually say: “I’m getting a little tired of these things.” And that’s perfectly understandable when you’re doing more than 10 of the same thing. I told her that she could take a break and work on something else but she’s close enough to the end that she doesn’t want to stop now. We have one new mirror to show you this week and then 2 mirrors that had to be repaired due to some bad mirror. Luckily we seem to have that problem under control since she’s using a new batch of mirror.

Denise picked out a Grape Window pattern, traced it out and then cut it all up into seperate pattern pieces. She started cutting the green leaves first and when I saw what she’s accomplished I was stunned at how perfectly her cutting is. It’s plain to see now that the cutting on her first project wasn’t just a fluke– she’s good! Looking at the picture below you’d think that the leaves have been ground to fit, but they haven’t. And Denise wasn’t just washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning house and minding the kids while she was home all week. She somehow managed to find the time to make a hand mirror from start to finish between her 2 classes! Here are pictures of the grape window she’s making and the finished hand mirror she made while at home.

I’ve been saving one of the best pictures for last. We see a lot of finished windows here each week, but rarely do we ever get to see the window(s) installed and surrounded by the envirement they were made for. Joey worked on grinding out another of his cabinet doors this week and then colored, washed and waxed one of the windows that Cheryl soldered while at home this week. And for what I believe may be the first time ever here at Bayou Salé GlassWorks, I didn’t have to retouch a single lead line on the window that she soldered! I honestly couldn’t have soldered it any better myself. Here’s a picture of the first 3 finished inserts in the doors and hanging in Cheryl and Joey’s Kitchen.  These look GREAT.

And while Joey wqas working on the 4th cabinet door this week Cheryl started working on her Magic Wands. She has about 9 of the center glass staffs ready for decorating so she’s moving right along. Like the hand mirrors that Christine is working on it can be tedious and monotonous working on the same thing over and over, but once Cheryl has the staffs and the 2 end pieces attached she’ll be able to work on them here and there throughout the weeks rather than all at once. There’s really not much to see yet but here’s a quick shot of one of the center staffs.

That just about covers everything here this week. Come back next week for new projects started and old ones finished…

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks