Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With the holidays falling on class days we’ve had 2 very easy weeks with only a handful of students able to attend. I’m sure things will be back to normal next week though.

Mary Lynn made it in and surprised me by having her window ground wrapped and ready for tacking! There are only about 5 pieces that need to be re-cut to get it to fit together properly and she’ll be adding a border to this next week. She took it home and will be soldering the front side of it there. I can’t wait to see this with the borders on it…

Meanwhile Janice began working on a Ladybug window. The pattern is very light and colorful with some daisies thrown into the background to brighten it up. The name ‘Layla’ will be added to the bottom of the window but Janice will work on the two sections as if they were separate windows and then join them together at the end. She got all the top section cut in one night and has taken it home with her to grind during the week. She worried about cutting glass again since she’s been soldering for the past 5 weeks or so but she cut this out faster than anything else she’s done yet!

Lastly we have a look at the newest window that Julie is making. It’s a very traditional design of a repeated curve which makes a unique pattern when it’s finished. You’ve seen it in countless stained glass windows. It’s usually done in one of two ways: A) All in one color or B) in various textures of clear glass. Julie has opted for the later and got probably half of her window cut out in just this one class. The computer certainly came in handy (as it did with Janice’s window) for picking out the color/texture scheme. Although it will be hard to see what she’s accomplished since you can see through the pieces she’s cut you’ll just have to take my word for it when I say that it’s going to look great when it’s not laying on a table. I forgot to ask if she’ll be finishing the finished lead in black, silver or copper…

That’s it for this week. Look for full classes next week with a lot more pictures!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

We had our last class of the year on the 26th. It was a small little gathering with just 2 people– Cheryl and Joey. Instead of just having 2 pictures for this Blog entry we have 3. Janice and Grace had more or less finished their window the week before with washing and coloring being the only thing left to do to finish it. During the week I gave it a bath for them which brings us to our first picture this week. It’s Janice and Grace’s finished window. Doesn’t it look GREAT!

Joey finished off his Aeroscope this week. He came in and wrapped the last wheel and then soldered it together. The wirework that forms the struts is a little tricky and we ended up running a little late trying to get it finished by 9 o’clock (he finished at 9:08). The end result looks great though. I have to give Joey credit for making the most perfect set of wheels I’ve seen. He ground them perfectly and then soldered them into absolutely perfect circles. Here’s a look at his first Kaleidoscope.

Most people don’t realize that these planes are actually working kaleidoscopes.  There are 3 mirrors inside the body of the plane and when you look in the tail end of the plane and spin the wheels you see something like this:

Cheryl came in and got to work on the angel she piched last week. It’s got a lot of small pieces so cutting it took a bit of time but now that it’s all cut out the hardest part is complete She’ll start grinding it next week but you can see what it will look like even before it’s ground in the picture below.

So that about does it for 2007. We’ll have plenty of great things to see during the coming year though so be sure to come back and check out everyones progress.

Lastly, we have a modified class schedule for next week. We’ll be a day class and a night class on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008. Both classes will occur during their regular hours: Day class from 10 to 1 and Night class will be from 6 to 9. We hope to see you all soon!
Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Paul and Russ

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!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With Christmas also upon us we’re really rushing to get things out the door and hung up in windows. Here’s a quick rundown of what happened last week.

Cheryl finished her Rooster window and the last thing I heard is that it was delivered and VERY much appreciated. And when you look at it is there any wonder why it wouldn’t be? Cheryl also finished up Danielle’s LSU window and got that ready for wrapping paper, so to speak…

Meanwhile, Julie finished her 3 quilt block suncatchers, they really turned out wonderfully, just try to forgive the bad focusing in the one picture.

Janice surprised us all by walking in the door on Tuesday night. She’s doing wonderfully and so is her window! She and Grace finished soldering the second side and all we have left to do is touch up the soldering and then wash it all up.

Gerald got some glass cut and ground on his final window and it’s already looking great. Look for more detail to be added next week.

Fran made 3 more Beveled Stars during class and is about to get going on her Fleur De Les Window when we see her next.

Mark finished cutting his flower and leaves this week and moved over to the grinder to get everything to fit together. After the flower is all ground he’ll cut the background from his flower to insure a perfect fit.

And Mary Lynn was another student who managed to complete all the cutting on her Spiritual Window. She already started to grind some of the pieces before she left.

Lastly we have one of our busiest students of the week, Christine. While she was in class she finished the last 2 of her Aeroscopes. While she was at home she ground all of her sister’s unfinished project that was started last year. Then she wrapped it all. She brought it into class before she tacked it together just to make sure everything was ok before she covered it in lead. Everything about it was perfect so she it’s all tacked together. Look to see the fish window completed next week for sure. And if that wasn’t enough Christine also managed to figure out how to make not one but TWO Magic Wands while she was at home. She even made stands for them! Color me impressed!

That about covers this past week. Look for more in a few more days when classes resume on Tuesday and Wednesday!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

I have to apologize for the fact that this update is almost 1 week late but we’ve had a VERY busy week here with deadlines that have kept us working until midnight and beyond. Luckily, we’re almost caught up now. It’s hard to believe that there’s only 2 more classes before Christmas gets here.
Fran was in this week and made another of her 3D beveled Stars. I know she has at least 2 more of these to make and then she wants to work on her Fleur De Lis Windows. Here’s a look at her latest star.

Jane more or less finished her Birds and Flowers window that she worked on at home last week. There’s only the back side left to solder but you can’t tell that from this picture.

Cheryl would have finished her Rooster Window this week but had to leave class early (and unexpectedly). Nonetheless, her window, like Jane’s, only needs solder on the back side and then some hooks to hang it by. Look for the finished picture next week.

Ellen had made an Angel while she was at home and brought it in to show us. The irridized wings and the jewel used for the head really make it sparkle in the sunlight.

Both Ellen and Christine worked on making their first 3D Bi-Plane Kaleidoscopes this week. Both of them had the glass cut before they came into class so I was able to put one together while Ellen and Christine watched and followed my lead. We were very close to finishing but decided it was probably best to do that next week. Ellen’s is the one done in tan/brown while Christine’s are Green and a Blue Swirl glass.

Mary Lynn continued cutting out her Spiritual Scene Window and made a lot of progress. The colors she’s used have helped to give the window a sense of depth that can be hard to achieve. I’d say that she’ll be grinding this very soon.

Gerald spent the night cutting the pattern for the center panel of his window. I had forgotten to draw out the flower bed for him (it was just an outline with no definition) but Gerald was able to draw it out himself without any help from me at all. Look for some glass to add some color to this pattern next week.

Julie worked on 3 quilt pattern windows that measure 6 x 6 each. She not only got them all cut out but she also got the first one ground as well. She’s taken that one home with her to wrap and I’ll bet that they all get finished during this next class.

Now I feel the need to explain why this Blog was so late in getting posted. As our students know we had an order for 9 windows made up of 9 last names. Each window measured 22 x 9 and the letters for the names had been cut ground and tacked together the week before. They were going to be delivered on Saturday so we had plenty of time to get them together but then on Wednesday we got an addition to the order in the form of 1 more name in a fancier 2 foot by 3 foot size. Wednesday night I had the basic idea in my head as to what it would look like and Thursday morning just before noon the pattern was completed. Two 12+ hour sessions later the window was complete. Russ took off for Baton Rouge to deliver the 10 name windows while I put together the 15 candle holders that we need to have finished. Russ has soldered the front of all the sections and by the end of the day I had then all together. Sunday night they were complete save for the final waxing that they’ll get Monday morning.

Here are the 22 x 9 inch windows:

Here’s the 2 foot by 3 foot window that we finished in 24 hours:

And here are the 15 Beveled Candle Holders. It’s been a busy week for sure!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Ahh, the obscene sounds of a broken glass piece.  Sometimes I think I can even hear it coming from the students while they are working at home!
We have a number of finished projects this week starting with Gerald’s 2nd in his series of 3 windows. He just finished the right side last night and had previously finished the left side a few weeks ago. He’ll be working on the center panel next week and in terms of work it falls between the two finished sections both literally and figuratively. There are more pieces in the center panel then there are in the right panel, but not as much work as what’s in the left panel. Here are his last two windows standing next to each other. Remember that there’s a center panel that will tie everything together.

We all hope that Gerald’s wife Marie is feeling better after an extremely close call in a car accident. Everyone in all the classes were concerned and wanted to wish her their best.

Ellen also completed her window this week and I love the color scheme. The green in the glass isn’t very visible unless the window is back lit so it really has two different looks depending on the lighting. You’re seeing it here with light behind it and its true colors showing. Stunning, isn’t it?  Ellen will be making a kaleidoscope like Julies the next time we see her.

Julie finished 2 more kaleidoscopes this week. I have to fess up a bit and say that the one pictured here last week isn’t one that she made. We were keeping her actual project off the Blog so that the person it was being for wouldn’t see it. Now the cat is more or less out of the bag so I’m going to post pictures of all of them this week. These are called Aeroscopes and the center body of the Bi-plane hides a kaleidoscope.  When you look in the rear of the plane you get to see colored patterns fold and unfold as you turn the planes ‘propeller-wheels’.

Click on this one that Julie finished last week for a better closeup view.

It was a great night for Joey, Cheryl and Russ because Joey has finished the last of his 8 cabinet doors! This means that Cheryl’s kitchen is complete, Joey can work on something different and Russ won’t have to rout out anymore cabinet doors (for a while at least). After working on these doors for a few months now, I can only imagine that Joey is ready to move on to something new and different. His work was GREAT all the way through these and he never complained about the monotony of the job once.

Now that Christine has finished all of her hand mirrors she’s decided to make 3 Kaleidoscopes for Christmas gifts. After seeing the Aeroscopes that Julie had made, Christine’s mind was set– that’s what she’s making next! So this week we saw her cut the planes and the propeller wheels out of glass. She even got the actual plane sections ground and took them home to wrap. I don’t have a picture of her pieces– rest assured that they are done but at this point it only looks like a pile of glass on the table. Just wait until you see her work next week though!

Mary Lynn continued cutting away at her Spiritual scene and managed to cut out all the brown and the straw in the manger along with the flesh colored glass. Mary Lynn thinks it’s going slowly but that’s not the case at all. Once the blanket and the two animals are cut the rest should fly together quickly! She’s already getting a lot of compliments from the students in the day classes.

Janice and Grace worked on the second side of their window. Working on two opposite ends they both got a lot accomplished. The soldering is a slow tedious process but I think we’ll see this one finished in about 2 weeks. When they left at the end of the night there was only the center section left to solder and I suspect that Grace will be able to finish that next week. That means that it will be ready to be washed and colored the following week. Alas, Janice won’t be here for that because she’s out getting herself a new hip. We’re going to miss her while she’s gone but she won’t be forgotten at all. Best Wishes from all of us here, Janice!!

Cheryl cut all of the background of her Rooster window and then ground it all to fit. The only thing left to go on this is a border and some solder to hold it all together. It’s looking great and I’ve decided to name this one the Hahn Rooster.

And Cheryl was busy at home helping Danielle get a small LSU window ready as a Christmas gift. She brought it in so I could put a brass channel around it and then Danielle will finish soldering this at home sometime during the week. It may look familiar to anyone who regularly reads the blog but there’s a difference– this one is more than 50% smaller than the other ones you’ve seen on here in the past. And Cheryl said that you can cut it out in minutes! That’s something everyone likes to hear about a pattern they’re working on.

That wraps up things this week. The addition to the shop has taken a lot of time out of our past 3 weeks but we’re still plowing through work here ourselves. We have 10 name windows almost ready to go along with 15 candle holders and 9 large windows coming up.

See you next week.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

That’s a strange title for a blog entry, huh? Well, if you were here Tuesday night when “The Bertha Butt Boogie” came on and the volume was cranked up you’d understand. I think we were all singing and even dancing a bit while we were working on our projects
Well, our only completed piece this week was done by Julie. She’s got one Kaleidoscope finished and should have 2 others done for next week. Here’s a look at one of 3 Kaleidoscopes:

Gerald has his second panel all soldered and only needs to wash and color this window next week. There’s only one left to go after this one and it’s a bit more complex, but nothing like the first one he made. Look for the finished picture in our next Blog entry along with the picture of his first window in this series which I seem to have forgotten to have posted! Sorry about that, Gerald. 

Janice was in this week but Grace was stuck at home finishing a paper for school. Nonetheless, Janice managed to get a lot accomplished and has the first side of her window about finished. Here’s a closeup of the section you saw last week along with one of the birds. Next week we’ll see a lot of progress on the rear side of this window.

Joey ground, wrapped, tacked and soldered the front side of the last cabinet door this week. We put the brass channel on it before he left so we’ll have it install next week when Russ routes out the cabinet door it fits into. I forgot to get a picture of it before Joey left so I modified the one I took last week to show you what this last panel will look like. It’s a little longer than the others so the pattern has been modified slightly to accommodate the extra length.  Can you see the difference?

Mark cut out a lot of the flower in his window this week. He’s claims to be intimidated by the pieces in it but when I looked at what he’d accomplished on his own 2 hours later I’d have to say that the glass should be afraid of him! He’s having no problems getting through this project and it won’t be long before this one is completed.  I’m thinking that he’ll be grinding this next week.

Mary Lynn started cutting glass for her spiritual window. There are so many colors in it that it’s easy to get confused if you try to pick everything you want out at once so we settled on 4 colors for Mary and Joseph. Now that she has them cut out she can get a feel for what the window is looking like before she picks her next set of colors. It’s looking great already!

Christine has cut all the mirror for her last 5 mirrors.   I think she’s more than ready for a change of pace here so after she gets these soldered she’ll be working on completing a fish window that her sister had started. Look here for the finished picture of these mirrors next week.

And lastly we have Cheryl’s Rooster window. There will be a slight difference in this one from the one that Gerald made a while back along with an addition– this one will have a stained glass name under it when it’s finished. The only thing left to cut on this are the eye’s (I colored them in black in the picture so the poor thing wouldn’t look like it was blind) and the beak. Cheryl is moving quickly on this one. Look for a name under it next week.

Uh, for your information, Bertha had three sisters: Betty Butt, Bella Butt and Bathsheba Butt. (And we’ll leave at at that for this week!)

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

With everyone being productive we have three completed projects to start this weeks Blog post for us.

Jane finished her Iris window while she was at home this past week. She brought it in so we could color it and then take pictures. It looks great and her work, as always, is fantastic. The window is about 3 foot by 3 foot so don’t let the picture fool you into thinking that this was an average sized piece.   We hung it up outside and snapped a few pictures of it for you to see.  After that was finished Jane cut out a Christmas Tree Suncatcher and then decided do another one with the leftover glass at home.

Cheryl has wrapped up all her work on her Magic Wands!  It was a long process but trust me when I say that they only look simple to make.  There is a surprising amount of work in each of these and if you try to rush it you end up with a very rough looking wand rather than the elegant pieces that Cheryl created.  She was worried for a while that they might not get done before the new year but it turns out that she had nothing to worry about. She made 9 wands and this past Tuesday she made the 9 stands to display the and then she washed them and waxed them all so I could take this picture.  There are three missing in the picture below only because the heat of the solder unglued the glass Crystals from 3 of the mountings and we had to epoxy them back into place. I checked on them them yesterday and they’re as solid as can be now.

Joey finished grinding the last cabinet door in his set of 8. It’s the same length as the 5 large doors that he made but it’s only as wide as the 2 small doors that he made.  It looks like he’ll be finished with the last one sometime next week and he can finally move on to something else. All that repetitive work was worth it though, as you can see in this picture of Joey and Cheryl’s kitchen.

Mark Cut up all the pieces of his paper pattern for his next window and then traced out all the green leaves onto the glass. By the end of thenight he’d managed to get all of the leaves cut out and placed on his pattern. He’s a little worried about the size of some of the pieces in the flowers, but there are only a few tricky small pieces so I think he’s going to do just fine. He’s picked a nice dark Maroon color for the flowers that you may just see here next week.

Janice and Grace were going to be working on soldering their window but Grace was saddled with homework which means that Janice was the one who did 95% of the soldering this week. Rather than show you a window covered in chemicals I took a closeup of one of the flowers so you can see how some of the lines have a nice bead on them while others are just tack soldered and therefore flat. Janice did a great job and got really far considering she was working alone this week!

Mary Lynn got to see the pattern for her new window and she must like it because she took the time to trace it out and then cut it up. Here’s a picture of the pattern she’s working on. Expect to see some glass on it next week. I can’t wait to see this one finished. In all my years of working in Stained Glass I’ve yet to see someone do a Spiritual window like this one.

Gerald finished everything but the border on his window this week. It’s tacked and ready for border pieces now so we should see it completely assembled next week. The flowers near the lower left came out looking great if you ask me. I was a little concerned since they were too small to try to give any detail to. Obviously I was worried about nothing. The next panel Gerald does will be more complex than this one but not nearly as complex as the 1st panel in this series.

And that about wraps it up for this week. Come back and visit again to see what happens with our next round of classes.

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks

Three finished windows and the return of a familiar friendly face gets this posting of our weekly blog started. Brace yourself because here we go!
Mark has reached the end of the road with his Magnolia window. He came in, washed it, colored it and then waxed it so I could take this finished picture of it outside in the sunlight. I said it would look great and I guess I must know my stuff because it certainly does. Moving along down the line Mark has decided to do another flower, but this time it will be a Camelia. We won’t be showing you that one this week because all there is to see is a pattern. Enjoy Mark’s finished Magnolia Window instead!

Fran was hard pressed between doing a 3D Star or starting on one of her Fleur-de-lis Windows. In the end she decided to wrap the bevel of the Fleur-de-lis window at home and to work on the star during class. The fact that she could leave with a finished project in just one class didn’t hurt in her decision either. The stars are easy enough to make once you know the secret. And as you can see, Fran now knows the secret.

Our last finished project this week was done by Joey. I think it’s the 6th cabinet door in his set of 8. Or is it his 7th in a set of 9? I’m actually unsure, but I do know it turned out just as spectacularly as all the others. He also got the soldering on the front of his last small door finished before he left so you’ll see another similar picture next week. After that he has just one medium sized door to go before he moves onto something new (which I think will please him!)

Ellen sneaked out on me this week before I could remember to take a picture of her progress. She’s making the blue-ish Traditional Window and to be perfectly honest, I’m not 100% sure if the last glue chip border was cut or not. Ellen gets an awful lot accomplished on her own so I’m not sure what it looked like when it went out the door! I’m fairly sure she has to wrap the last Glue chip border and then solder this all together. Here’s my interpretation of what she did during class and I’m fairly sure we’ll be seeing this finished real soon now.

Jane got a lot accomplished while at home this week. When she came in and set her window down on the table I thought she had to wrap and tack pieces together, but was I ever surprised when everything was already wrapped and tacked. She cut out the border and threw in a few 2×2 bevels to help spice it up a bit. She got a Zinc channel attached to it and took it home to solder. We’ll hang this up next week and take a finished picture of it then.

Janice and Grace worked on getting their borders cut and attached. Before the end of the night we even got the channel on it. We put eyes in the empty eye sockets of the Cranes which means that they’ve cut and wrapped their last pieces of glass for this window. We’ll see them soldering it over the next 2 weeks or so. Even without solder on it this window looks fantastic already. I like it so much that I may modify the pattern a bit to square it off (and make it easier to transport) and then make it myself.

Gerald got further with his second window. We were unsure of what to do with the flower bed that lies near the bottom left of the window but after looking at a number of paintings we both decided that splotches of color would get the point across. It was easier to experiment on this window because the flower bed is small in it. If it didn’t look good it would bother us too much to through out the pieces and try again with something new. In the center window the flower bed is very large and it lies prominantly in the center of the window. With only the tree and some sky left to cut I think we’ll see this one ready close to completion in 2 weeks.

We had a pleasant surprise this week when a familiar face rejoined us. Julie is back to do a few projects and although she was a bit concerned because she hasn’t cut glass in a while she had nothing to worry about. She cut and ground all the glass for 3 Kaleidoscopes on her first day back. Since this is her first day back  there’s really nothing to look at save for some foiled pieces lying on the table. Rest assured that this will change soon when the wheels are completed. Until then you can look at a previously made kaleidoscope and get the feel for what Julie is making with us.

Lastly, even though Cheryl wasn’t in this week I did some minor touch ups on 3 of her wands and then washed them off. Here’s a look at the three latest in a series of 9! Next week Cheryl will start working on the stands for them.

And that about wraps it up for this week!

Paul
Bayou Salé GlassWorks