Planning is part of the fun...

More to come, but here's a preview of what I've got nailed to the bench right now. I hope to start cutting the glass in a day or two!

...and my favorite little buddy hangs out with me down here and watches movies. Life is pretty good!

New Suncatcher Posted!

More details on the project page, click on the picture if you're interested in the story of how she came to be.

The Birth of a Butterfly

Today I made a butterfly suncatcher for Katriel, posted here. It was fun! It taught me that I need a lot of practice soldering. I guess I'm just going to have to keep cranking out projects until I get better.

Beyond My Ability - (Make it Work, v.2)

After trying to cut the same piece 4 times tonight and having it break every time, I've taken a long look at this cartoon and decided it's beyond my ability. I've labeled the pieces that I just don't think I can break successfully. If there was only one or two I'd press on, but there's a bunch.

It's kind of a shame I got so far with the brown glass before realizing this, but all is not lost. The bird and the leaves can be re-used in another design (I'm thinking a cute little mobile) and I've learned to look more critically at my patterns.

Katriel has asked me to make something for her - I found a nice 3-D butterfly online that doesn't look too difficult. Make it work.

Calling Tim Gunn - "Make it Work!"

When I was pregnant, I spent a month on strict bed rest. I found a lot of reality TV shows I wouldn't have otherwise taken the time to watch! One of my favorites was Project Runway. I loved seeing the designers frantically pulling off a design - and especially when something would go wrong. I liked seeing how different contestants handled the stress of thinking their work was ruined, and how they continued on.

All that Project Runway during pregnancy and late nights with my newborn taught me something. Some of these people were completely losing their marbles over a mistake, design tragedy, etc. and Tim Gunn - the fabulous extraordinaire he is - would give a terse (but supportive) "Make it work!" and move on. Since then, almost every time a work project is coming down to the wire, when my food is cooking faster than I'm reading the recipe, or when I just don't think I have the right resources to do something, I hear him in my head. Make it Work. I really channelled him last night.

I noticed as I was walking by my table that the corner piece seemed to be lifting up ever-so-slightly higher than the rest of the piece. I very, very, gently pressed on it and SNAP! It broke right on the weak spot. I couldn't believe it - this was the piece that took me two tries to cut the night before, and it broke right on the spot it broke the last time! So do you think I was going to cut that piece out a third time??? Heck no!!

I just foiled that crack and kept right on going. Make it Work.

The next piece of background went much better. It's getting a little easier to look at the glass and figure out where the break is going to run (where I don't want it to.) Once I figured out firsthand why I can't cut outside curves before inside ones, it seemed to go smoother.

This morning, I was happy to see the sun coming through the window onto my bench. The location we chose in the basement really seems to be the best. 

Here's the glass that's going to become the tree branches. The color is called "Root Beer"  - appropriate, no? Here's also the blue that I'm going to use for the bird.

I like the streaks in both the glasses - it's fun to decide which way the stencil should go on the glass because it reminds me a lot of the similar decisions to make when sewing a patterned fabric. 

If I get my housework finished and off my mind today, I'm going to head back down there to get in trouble some more. Hopefully if I get in another bind I'll Make it Work again.

Small Victories

It's amazing to me how much I can be immersed in this work and time slips out from under my feet. This evening, it took me 45 minutes to cut and grind the first background piece: one, because I broke the first one on a curved cut, and second, the concave cut around the leaf. Seems I had forgotten about how difficult those are inside curves are when I chose this pattern! I took a long, hard look at the remainder of the cartoon and I've decided to press on anyway. I love this design, it's the reason I chose it, so I'm going to suck it up and just take my time. I'm going to be breaking a lot of pieces in the process, but I'm a smart girl and have more clear background on the way! Surprisingly it's not as difficult to cut as I feared since the non-textured side is relatively smooth. It scores and breaks surprisingly easy.

Wait until I show you the brown glass for the tree branches - whooo boy! Stay tuned, it's an amazing sheet of glass!

And so it begins...

After an evening of setting up my supplies and figuring out the best placement for everything, I've started cutting! You can go ahead and call me impatient because I really should have waited for the background glass to get here, which doesn't come until Thursday. I'm sure I can draw templates around the leaves I've finished so far.

I added a sweet little bird to the drawing since I first planned it. I think he's begging to be bright blue, so blue he shall be. Thank you, Oh Mighty Internet, for free scrapbooking templates because I think he's perfect.

It's hard to really see the color of the leaves because the glass is so dark green, so here's a little more accurate representation of the color:

Spectrum Dark Green

Not all the leaves are going to be this dark. I also have Spectrum Medium Green (not a whole lot different though, really) and I have some "unknown" greens coming in a glass pack on Thursday.

This is a close-up of the bottom-left leaf. I don't think it's too bad considering I've been away from doing any glass since November. Later on in the process the solder will stick to the copper foil to produce the seams.

Close-up of bottom leaf

There's a bit of a learning curve right now, mostly getting used to my equipment. My grinder has been "chewing off" the top and bottom edges of the glass, but fortunately the foil seems to cover it enough that you can't tell. I've been searching all over the internet and so far have boiled it down to having a new bit that's a little tough on the glass until it's broken in. I don't have the bit down too far, there's plenty of water, I'm grinding in the direction of the spin, I'm gentle... and I'm frustrated. Just in case my bit is too rough, I've ordered a finer grit bit.

At some point in the very near future my family will notice the dishes aren't done as often. They can thank the glass. :)

The Bench - Finished!

Well, I finally have a little corner of the house that's completely MINE - what a feeling! Saul and his friend Randy worked their butts off to finish this for me. I have a lot of supplies coming from Delphi Glass tomorrow so I wanted to be prepared. If I can find another suitable piece of glass for the background of my next panel I should be cutting this week. I'm completely stoked!

Planning... (we're getting closer)

Funny how some people can start whacking away at planning something and just... start. These are people I envy, for they're not pulling up Excel AGAIN to compare something, or digging the house apart a half hour to find a CAD mat to draw a layout. (Not that *I* did that, of course.)

Today I took more measurements of my area of the basement and drew my plans. Mostly, I was drawing and cutting out scale shapes of the table and shelf to see if they'd play well in the space. Most normal people probably would spend their afternoon actually BUILDING the table rather than cutting  paper shapes, but normal is overrated, right? Honestly, we really are just talking about a table and shelf. I'm trying to find a secret hidey-hole for scrap glass storage, but I recognize I have a long time to figure that out. I just plan some things until they beg for mercy.

So tomorrow is the day our friend Randy is coming over and will help Saul put the tabletop on my cabinets, and I'll start "moving in." I'm REALLY excited and will post the progress once there's something to see.

Is this drawing overkill? Maybe, but I wanted to show Saul what I
had in mind. I also wanted to see if I would be happy with less
than 8' in length since I don't have a separate grinding area. As
you can see, 8' won since it will fit.

A Panel for the Guest Room (someday)

I found this awesome graphic today that I think would translate great (although painfully) to glass. It's going in my idea bin for sure.

contrasting colors?

This one (The portion of the graphic that is "knit side") also has a lot of potential - particularly since I can use a lot of clear glass for the stitches and a bright color for the heart. 

Both of these could be contenders for someday doing a panel for my guest room, which is where my yarn dresser is. (Yes, I have a dresser for my yarn; when yarn becomes an investment, treat it at least as respectfully as your hand knit treasures!) 

Opinions and comments are welcome! I think a sheep would be equally as fitting, although there is something so consistent about the shape of knit stitches that intrigues me.

Oh, Blogs. I love them. I hate them.

I love blogs. I love reading about other's experiences, opinions, recipes, projects, families - I could go on and on. I subscribe to more than I can keep up to read, but I think they're wonderful.

Why do I hate them? I suck at keeping them. I've tried this before, guys. For a while, I had a knitting blog but I wasn't knitting enough to keep it interesting and I canned it. I had a Tumblr for a while, but stopped updating it. I just don't think my life is all that entertaining to consider writing about it. Enter new hobby: stained glass.

I'd like to have a place to document how a stained glass piece evolves, because quite honestly - it's really cool. One difference from this hobby than my others (which are (brace yourselves): reading, knitting, photography, cooking, spinning wool, and sewing) is that it's a more active hobby. Now I'm not kidding myself, it's obviously not as active as a sport (which quite honestly, would be a good idea right about now) but it's a "fiddly" activity. There's such satisfaction in each cut of glass when it behaves the way you want, and with most other hobbies the satisfaction is pretty much limited to the end product.

I ordered some glass today, so in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start my first project at home. Saul is busy cleaning out a corner of our unfinished basement to set up a 3'x8' work table. I think I should have plenty of room for grinding, cutting, and laying out my projects. My very thoughtful father-in-law gave me a fantastic grinder, soldering iron, and other supplies for the holidays, and I've been having fun picking out my other supplies. Since I have everything I need to get started (or have at least ordered it), I'm getting a little impatient!

I hope you find something interesting when you visit the page, and I hope I can post enough to keep you entertained.