It Was The Class Before Christmas…
Our last set of classes before the Christmas Holiday have come and gone. Everyone seems to have finished everything that they needed to complete before the big day has arrived so I’d say it’s safe to say that all went well. 
Fran worked at home to get the background cut out for her Fleur-De-Lis window so she could get it finished and wrapped (in wrapping paper) for Christmas. She did wonderfully! And her soldering was almost perfect which meant that she required very few touch ups. I have to compliment her on how well she did with this project!
Ellen came in and soldered her glass propeller wheels for her airplane kaleidoscope and then attached her mirrors and wooden landing gear to the body of the plane. When she left, this is what she took with her! Look here to see another one completed next week by Joey.
Jane wasn’t just baking cookies while she was home last week. Nope, she was busy making an oval Iris window. When she came in she had the oval section completed and just wanted to square it off to make it rectangular. She cut and ground 16 final pieces which finished off her latest window!
Gerald started cutting and grinding the flower bed of his center panel. He’s only got about 6 pieces left to go before he starts on the top part of the window. I’m not sure if he’ll do the houses or the trees next. It’s really looking like a window now that he has half of it cut and ground.
Joey was in and began working on his own Aeroscope. He got the glass for the plane all cut, ground and wrapped and then cut out the two propeller wheels. He ground them to complete perfection (which is not an easy task) and had them wrapped before he called it a night and left for home. Since there’s not much to show this week I’m only going to post a black and white picture of ‘his’ aeroscope. Look for a completed version in full color next week!
Mark ground some more of his Peony window making his way past the halfway point. I suspect that well see his begin wrapping his pieces next week. The flower is very complex and although you can’t see much detail now you certainly will when the pieces are wrapped and you can see where all the lead will be flowing throughout this window.
Mary Lynn, like Mark, spent the night at the grinder fitting all of the bottom pieces of her Spiritual Window together. as you can tell from the picture of the closeup, the shading and textures of the glass she’s chosen worked very well together. She took this home with her and hoped to get some ground before she comes back next week.
Janice and Grace’s window is officially soldered. I only have to touch up a few sections on it before you can see the finished picture of it on our next blog entry. It already looks great and it hasn’t even been washed yet. I can’t wait to see it with light behind it.
Cheryl wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to do when she came in and after some time looking through all the patterns she decided on making an Angel. After the pattern was drawn up to size for her she traced it, numbered it and then cut out all the pattern pieces. She hopes to get some of this worked on while she’s at home this week but I cleaned up the shop today (Monday the 24th) and found her Breaking Pliers on one of the tables. It’s been almost a week since the shop was last cleaned up– there have been too many things that needed to go out the door before I could worry about being neat! Here’s the Angel Pattern that Cheryl is making.
Lastly, all of the orders here that needed to be completed for Christmas got finished last night (the 23rd) at around midnight. Ellen gets a special nod of appreciation for bring in her Angel last week which gave me the idea of what to make this year for our yearly ornament. It was quick, easy and most importantly it was beautiful to look at when it’s finished. After making twenty 10 inch tall Lion heads it was nice to know that the last 15 items that I had to make were going to be relatively easy. Here’s a picture of both sets of suncatchers.
We’ll be having a class on the night of the 26th so expect a more timely Blog update soon!