Progress Continues
Mary Lynn completed her 4 cabinet door inserts about 3 weeks ago but this week we’re showing them off in a new light– installed in the furniture they were made for. You’ve got to admit that the windows take on an entirely new light when you see them set where they belong.
As for this week, Mary Lynn learned about the strange art of wire work. The actual glass of her peacock was completed the week before but we wanted to make this look a little more special by adding some flowing wires around the peacock. It sounds easy enough but getting it to swirl around the finished piece in a graceful manor and connect at the correct sections of the glass is not nearly as easy as you might think. But as you can see, it certainly makes a difference to the finished project.
Meanwhile Joey began working on the smaller doors in the series of 8 inserts that he’s been working on. Although the pattern is identical to the 5 he did before the size is smaller by about half. After these two smaller windows are completed he’ll do one final insert that is the same width as this one but the length will be the same as the larger doors. For that one you’ll see a minor modification to the pattern but nothing drastic. With almost all of the glass cut for the 3 remaining doors we’ll be being seeing Joey finish these off soon now.
Ellen began working on what we like to call the “Traditional Windowâ€. It came out of a book of Victorian style patterns but I have always felt that the design looks very regal and classy. We’ve seen this window made twice before; once by me in shades of greens and once again by Julie (who did it in clear glasses). Ellen has chosen do hers in varying shades of Blue and it’s already looking striking. The picture below gives a great representation of what the window will look like when it’s finished because the only thing left to cut is the clear background and a thin border.
Denise cut and ground another cluster of grapes out of a semi-transparent geen glass. She’s a bit unhappy with her color choice for the first set of grapes that she made and has decided to re-cut those out of a much lighter purple so you can see the color in them without needing light behind it. Nothing will go to waste though as Denise will recut some new leaves for the first bunch of grapes and turn it into a suncatcher. Here are the green grapes half wrapped and the rest very close to being completed.
Janice and Grace finished cutting out the water for their window and then moved on to grinding what they’ve been cutting for the past 2 weeks. With the two of them working together this window is moving at a really quick pace. Thet started grinding on the left section of the window and are probably a good quarter of the way through it already. I can’t wait to see this one finished with some light behind it!
Cheryl’s wands are on hold for a week or two while she quickly knocks out another one of her most popular windows– the LSU Tiger Eye. Less then a week ago she dropped by to picked up the glass so she could begin working on it at home. Tonight she came in with the bottom LSU section already soldered together and before she left she had the left side of the toger eye cut and ground! I don’t think I could have done it any faster or any more exact. Look for this to be completed real soon!
Gerald will certainly have the first section of his window finished next week. With the black border completed this week he was able to concentrate on soldering both sides of this panel. All that’s left to do is to apply the Zinc Channel that frames it out and then wash and color it. Check back next week to see this window with some light behind it.
Finally we have the latest in a batch of Mirrors by Christine. As you can see from the picture she still needs to cut the mirror for one of them but I thought it would be interesting to let you see just how they get assembled. She cuts the mirror last to fit in between the two stained glass sections which ensures a perfect fit with minimal grinding on the actual mirror. Now that Christine is getting towards the end of her mirror making she’s thinking of other projects that she can work on. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that one of the mirrors pictured below was made by her son at home! Christine touched up the soldering a bit but I have to say that he must have inherited his mother’s talent for glass work since this was his first project!
And that about wraps things up for this week. Come back again next week to see even more finished projects.