Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Although we were missing a few people this week we did turn up 2 new students and we all know what that means.

Judy and Barbara are our two newest guinea pigs and we always start of new subjects off by having them practice cutting glass and then move them on to a butterfly. The practice cutting went very well and then we moved on to picking colors for their suncatchers. Judy picked a green/teal color for her wings along with a bright red body while Barbara picked 2 shades of blue for her wings along with a lavender body. They both did very well and by the end of the night they had completed their first project.

Here’s Judy’s:

And here’s Barbara’s:

Next week we’ll see the patterns they pick for their window projects.

Grace came in and finished soldering her second Cross Suncatcher. This one is blue with a red background. I have to give her a lot of credit for cutting and grinding this all on her own. Everything lined up correctly and her finished oval is perfectly symetrical which a lot of people find very difficult to do. Have a look at this beautiful cross.

Janice wasn’t sitting around twiddling her thumbs while Grace was working on her cross. Janice had a soldering iron in her hand and was soldering the front side of her Fleur De Lis Window. By the end of the night she had the front finished and will hit the back side next week. Here are closeup shots of one of the four corners and of the center Fleur De Lis.
I have a funny feeling this window will be hanging soon.

Mary Lynn was originally going to take the week off due to her Flower Guild meeting occurring the same night as classes but we had mentioned to Janice and Grace that we had 2 new students starting the next night. When Janice saw Mary Lynn the next day she mentioned that we were having classes that night. Mary Lynn called to ask if she could come in as well and we said, “SURE!” (Mary Lynn should know that she doesn’t need to ask if she can show up for a class.) A few hours later she was at the door with the front of her window soldered and the back side about halfway finished. We added a border to it and Mary Lynn continued sodlering away. I think we’ll be seeing this window completed next week!

That about wraps things up. We should have most of our students back next week as well as 2 new students coming in on Tuesday Night. You know what that means– more butterflies!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

It was a productive by quiet class before a Holiday and we only had 4 people attend classes. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have something to show here.

Grace finished the cross that she started last week. She took it home to grind and wrap and she came in with the front of it soldered as well. When I gave her the okay to do the backside she finished that and started on a second one done in shades of Blue. Here’s the new one:

And here’s the one she completed this week:

Janice finished cutting the rest of her GlueChip border and got it all wrapped and tacked together. She’ll be soldering this window for the next 2 or 3 weeks and you can already see just how nice this is shaping up.

Gerald’s last project was a set of 3 windows that combined to make one large scene. This time he’s working on 4 windows that make a smaller series of images for his garage doors. It may be a bit hard to see what they are initially, but once you see the glass laying on top of the pattern the colors will make it instantly recognizable. If you need a hint at what these black and white images are just click on them for more information.

And lastly we have a look at what Jane S managed to do with her window this week. Since she had everything but her background cut out she’s ground everything and taken it home to wrap during the week (if she manages to find the time). Her Bird and Flower Window is really coming out nicely and we should have the background cut next week!

We should have 2 new students to report on in our next update so expect to see 2 new butterflies! Until then, HAPPY EASTER everyone!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

One of our students has a new name this week! I susepect it won’t really stick but that won’t stop me from naming the blog after her!

Jane P has finished her flower window during the week and it looks great. She even got the hooks on it all by herself (which is always tricky).

Jane also started working on a bird window while she was home and brought it with her to work on during class. She’s decided that she’ll redo the pieces she cut the birds nest out of because it blends in to closely to the color that she used for the branches. I believe the only she has left to cut are the actual birds themselves. Here’s the pattern she’s doing with some of the pieces that she has ground in place.

Gerald sent us a picture of his windows installed in his home.  It’s certainly impressive and you can see how all his time has paid off…

Mary Lynn made big progress while she was at home as well — She got her window ground, wrapped and tacked together. When she came in we cut out new background pattern pieces and then got all of her background cut and ground! Since she cut her background from her existing pieces the grinding was a simple case of skimming the edges and then the piece would fall into place. Look to see this one very near completion next week!

Janice filled in the holes in her large Fleur De Lis window and began cutting her border. She’s got about 20 pieces left to cut and she’ll be ready to solder this one.

Jane S got to work starting her first real window by tracing out her pattern and then cutting the paper pieces out. By the end of the class she had the bird and flowers all cut out and ready for grinding. Look for more progress next week!

Denise was yest another student who was as busy as could be while she was home last week. Here’s a look at her latest Angels:

While she was in class she ground the rest of her duck feathers and she’ll move onto wrapping them and tacking it all together before deciding on what the background will look like. I’m sure we’ll get an idea of what it will be looking like next week…

Grace (GeForce) decided to start working on a cross when she spotted the pattern hanging on the wall. She’s got it all cut out (including the background) and took it home with her to grind. I think she’ll get through this project really quickly.

Christine finished grinding her Deer Window and decided that she would wrap that while she was at home. So she spent the remainder of the class working on another Angel which is almost all ground now. Christine moves quickly nowdays so don’t blink or you might miss what she’s working on.

We were also surprised by a visit by Ellen this week. We haven’t actually seen her in a few weeks now but she is far from forgotten. It was great to see her again but I wish I had some time to talk to her while she was in!!

That about wraps it up this week. Come back again!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

As promised, here’s our latest special edition Blog Post. All of Grace’s efforts have finally come together to make this captivating window. You’ve seen it in bits and pieces over the past few weeks and there have been more than a few inquiries about using the pattern when Grace is finished with it. Well, the time has come and Grace is ready for her next window. But before we see what she has in mind for her next project let’s take a good look at the Indian/Wolf window that was finished this week. Great job, Grace!

Yep, you read it here first — The Garden Club will be arriving at her house for a pot party in about 2 weeks. So if you’re going to attend please be sure to bring your flower pots!

And speaking of Mary Lynn, guess who left before I got to take a picture of her progress? She’s got everything but her background cut out and wrapped now. She also re-cut the butterfly making it far more colorful than it was the first time around but you won’t get to see it until next week when she actually gets the background all cut out and ground.

We did have a finished Angel that Denise did while she was at home this past week so let’s take a look at that. She even took the picture for me!

While she was in class she continued working on her Duck window and got an awful lot accomplished. In fact, all the feathers are cut and ready to be ground. We’re going to concentrate on the background (and the exact size of the window) after the ducks are all together so there’s going to be more to see to this pattern.

Joey got all of his latest window tacked together and will be working on soldering it at home. Next week we’ll get to use our channel bender to make a round piece of brass channel to surround this and it may be finished!

We got to see Cheryl and Danielle as they both dropped in for a visit to see what was happening around the shop. It was nice seeing them again and they can drop by anytime as long as it’s a Tuesday night with a full moon during a leap year.

Janice cut her corner pieces into the four large background sections of her window and then wrapped them before tacking it all together. She then got her beveled inner border attached and got 2 pieces of the cut bevels in place. In the picture below the cut bevel is pointed out by the red arrow. Aside from 4 small fill in pieces there’s only really the border left to cut before Janice begins grinding this large window.

Jane P worked on her latest flower design while she was at home and left with it all ready to be soldered. Hopefully she’ll bring it back next week so we can put some hooks on it and take a picture so you can see the finished project. The pure white sections that you see in the picture are actually clear seedy glass. The white that you see is the pattern paper showing through the clear sections.

I don’t have a picture of Grace’s Indian/Wolf Window to show you…yet. She’s finished with it but I didn’t have enough time to look it over while she was in for class. Look for a special edition of the blog to showcase her latest window very soon. If you’re a member of our classes you’ll be getting an email to tell you that it’s been posted just like you got an email to tell you that this Blog post is now finished and Published!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

After months of work Gerald has finished his third in a set of three windows.

When he left 2 weeks ago he had only about an hours work left to go before finishing it so he was looking forward to coming in this past week to wrap it all up. But he had to miss class due to an unforeseen emergency and asked if it would be okay to come in Sunday to finish the window. Since we’ve been stuck in the shop until close to midnight almost every night this week we told him to come on in. Within an hour it was soldered and a half an hou later we got to see it cleaned and waxed.

Gerald will be taking a picture for us of the three of them hanging up next to each other but until then I’ve managed to put each separate picture I’ve taken of the windows and put them together in Photoshop. Joined together the windows span almost 6 feet.  Please remember that these 3 pictures were all taken months apart with completely different lighting so there may be some color variances (as well as a bit of burriness in the center panel due to the camera)  but you can still see what Gerald has achieved over the past few months.  Lane, this one’s for you: They look FABULOUS! Well done, Gerald. We can’t wait to see them installed…

There’s been a lot of work going on at home this past week which means that we have a lot of completed projects to show you as well as what was done in class.

Let’s start with the Amanda/Christine project. Amanda started her window last year but ended up dropping out of classes due to scheduling conflicts. When Christine resumed her classes in the afternoons she decided to finish Amanda’s window (which had only been cut out of glass and wasn’t completely ground yet). And now it’s finished! You may recall this design from early on in our Blog.

Christine also made another Airplane Kaleidoscope (known as an Aeroscope) while she was at home and it turned out just as great as the fish window did.

Then, just for good measure, she designed and made this snowman suncatcher as well. It seems to me like Christine has been VERY busy this past week. And let’s not forget all the work she’s done on her deer window that I forgot to get a picture of…

Jane P finished her Eagle windows while she was home but we don’t have any completed pictures to show you. We DO have a look at the latest Angel that Jane started making on class this week and since Denise and Christine both asked for the pattern I think we’ll be seeing a few more of these in the near future.

And speaking of Jane, the newest member of our afternoon stained glass family (Jane S) has completed her first project and we all know what that is– a Butterfly! Jane S did something a little different with hers and soldered a wire onto the bottom of the suncatcher so she could use it in a flowerpot rather than hang it in a window. It’s a new variation on an old theme, that’s for sure. Look for Jane S to start a Flower & Bird window next week.

And I believe we mentioned Denise already but we didn’t mention what she’s been doing. She started her Iris window in class last week and before the weekend was over she had completed it at home on her own. And it looks great to me! Denise is yet another student who refuses to sit at home waiting for her next stained glass class to get her fingers all ground up. lol

Grace came in with the front side of her Indian/Wolf window soldered and we added 2 borders to it which really set it off nicely. We added a final brass channel to it once all the border pieces were ground, wrapped and tacked onto the window and I suspect this will be finished next week. I think it’s going to be stunning when it is back-lit (it already does now)!

Julie sent us a picture of the window she made last week installed above her door so I just had to include the final picture of it. It really gives the door a nice traditional charm, doesn’t it?

Fran attached her border and then the channel to finish off her window’s edge and then began soldering the front of her fish window. We won’t be seeing Fran for the next two weeks as her daughter was in a car accident and Fran is going to spend some time with her to help out during this rough time. But that doesn’t mean Fran will be away from her glass work. She plans on finishing the back side of her fish, getting started on a number of Fleur De Lis windows and also start working on four 3D Stars while she’s away. We all wish Fran’s daughter our very best!

Now, I purposefully left a little space between Denise’s 2 projects so she could show people the Blog entry about her Iris if she wants to without seeing her other project which is a surprise for her husband. She’ll be working on this one in class but not at home so she can spring it on him and catch him unprepared. She’s working on a window showing 2 ducks, a male and a female, taking off about to fly. Here’s what she did this week. I think this is going to look very good because she’s doing her best to match actual duck colors for some added realism.

I purposefully saved the biggest for last this week. Janice not only has her fancy corners tacked together but her large Fleur De Lis as well so she began working on cutting the 4 large pieces of glass that join them all together. This window is huge but Janice is showing it no mercy as she whips it into shape. I suspect she’ll have the corners in place next week as well as an inner beveled border and then it will almost be done. I can’t wait to see this one hanging up!

Look for us again next week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks