Finished Pieces

[Lynn]

I just started this in January with a class at my local community center.  So-here is what I have done so far.

This piece was my very first piece-it was done on the first day of class.  It is kind of ugly-but I can see the upside (in keeping people interested) in getting something tangible done that very first day.


Then came my first big piece.  He has some real 'character marks' (aka flaws), but it was a lot of fun and I sure learned a lot from doing it.


I still haven't gotten a patina put on this one-but I do like the colors.  We won't discuss the fact that I had to cut one of the little triangles three times.  Or the giant canyons between some of the peices.  Or the moderately irregular soldering.  But it is still getting better.


I made this one in a class at a local shop.  I love the glass, so I am ignoring the rather obvious problems for now.  :>


This is the first piece that looked, once done, like I expected it to look.  There are still problems, but I can see that some things are improving with practice.


I made this one based on a quilt block that I made years and years ago.  I don’t remember where the quilt block came from.  My straight lines are still only straight-ish, but I do like the piece.  I think the colors are nice (and it looks better in glass than it ever did in fabric).


This one was made for my husband.  He teaches High School Science, including Astronomy.  I downloaded a photo of Jupiter from NASA and worked from that.  I really like the way it came out, despite the character marks.   His colleagues also like it-and the art teachers say it is pretty darn good for a beginner (which is really a pretty nice compliment).  Besides, he really likes it!  And he is more patient with hauling home free glass if there he sees a result he likes.  :>


And, finally, this is my most recent completed piece.  I have a friend walking in the Avon 3-day walk for breast cancer, and she is having a sale to raise money.  I will be giving her this to include in the sale.  It is still clearly done by a newbie, but I still like it.  And she loves it.



I have a piece on the workbench now.  I will try to get it up once it is done as well.  I do like that, seeing all the pieces, I can see the improvement from piece one through to the most recent, even though the character marks (I refuse to call them flaws) are still very much in evidence. 

[ct4mom]

  Lynn those are all great. You have done a great job so far. I love the quilt block and jupiter. Also How did you get your pics posted like that....It really tells a story that way.

[Anne]

Lynn, these are really nice. The more you do the easier it'll get.  And good for you by starting into the original patterns right away. I really like the 'quilt piece' and I bet lots of people will.  That's a great pattern you can make in a choice of colors that will appeal to a lot of people, many quilters included - I've sold a lot of things like that to quilters, they love them!!

[Lynn]

Lynn those are all great. You have done a great job so far. I love the quilt block and jupiter. Also How did you get your pics posted like that....It really tells a story that way.

Thank you!

I have my photos hosted on an outside site.  One of my motorcycle forums says you have to have your photos on an outside site rather than hosting them (I use ImageShack.com...but others use SmugMug and some other options).  They provide me the link to insert them into a forum.  So I just upload them, then put in the images as images.  I rather like the way they look the way that most folks post them here-with a smaller thumbnail that expands, but I couldn't figure out how to do that so I just went with what I know how to do.  :>

[Lauren]

Wow, wonderful trip through your SG journey!!  Isn't it wonderful to see how you improved from that first day!!  AWESOME!!  I love the Cancer piece, it's stunning!!  

[meaco]

Great job!     I've only been doing sg for a few years now and I absolutely love it.  My very first piece was a tulip similar to the one you have and then I did some small quilt squares. 

[Bleedy Pokes]

Wow, great job! And how neat to see your progress in such a short period of time!

[Kev]

I agree...you doing great! Even after doing this for several years, I can still see my "Character Marks" all the time. I have yet to make what I consider to be a perfect piece...after all, we are our worse critics.

[Audrey]

Wow, you have come a long way quickly. I often recut pieces several times,  as they either break in the wrong place or all the pieces move around a bit on the pattern and I can't get them back to their original place, so I recut and compensate. But I have only been at this 15 months.

[JoanFrances]

I like that term "character marks", think I'll start using it.  It is fun to look back at pieces we do.  I remember  my first fan lamp, I was sooooo proud of it when I did it, now I hide the thing from anyone who knows anything about glass.  My darned teacher put it in a show too, imagine.  I like many of your glass choices in your pieces.  It looks like you took to soldering a whole lot faster than I did.  I used to cry about my soldering.  I never thought I would catch on.  And even to this day there are times that the air gets pretty thick in the studio when I am soldering.  My honey can hear me at times talking to myself saying so pretty unfriendly things LOL 

[Becki]

I agree with the others!  You're really doing well.  We all have "character marks"...you just have to make them think you did it on purpose!

[Alan]

We all have "character marks"...you just have to make them think you did it on purpose!

What - we did not do them on PURPOSE? Silly me 

[Lynn]

I like that term "character marks", think I'll start using it.  It is fun to look back at pieces we do.  I remember  my first fan lamp, I was sooooo proud of it when I did it, now I hide the thing from anyone who knows anything about glass.  My darned teacher put it in a show too, imagine.  I like many of your glass choices in your pieces.  It looks like you took to soldering a whole lot faster than I did.  I used to cry about my soldering.  I never thought I would catch on.  And even to this day there are times that the air gets pretty thick in the studio when I am soldering.  My honey can hear me at times talking to myself saying so pretty unfriendly things LOL 

Maybe I should trademark the phrase and collect royalties on it!  I always used it back when I tried my hand at quilting (which I never was good at-my talent with that would have made a cat laugh).

As far as the language used when I am soldering....well that would get caught by mod filters for sure!

[nansea121]

I love seeing how you've progressed!
 Yep! It's easy to see that you're hooked now!!! More glass for this lady!!!
Great job Lynn! 

[Linde]

Lynn,you are doing a fine job and I like your character marks.

[Lynn]

What - we did not do them on PURPOSE? Silly me 

Of COURSE we did them on purpose.  Just like I cracked the piece in the very middle of the breast cancer piece when I was soldering.  Because I needed to learn to take a piece completely apart (breaking another piece in the process) and start over.  Not because I was a nitwit who soldered too long in one place.    

[Glassic]

Your story is great. You were so much more adventurous than I, my trademark was a heat crack, couldn't seem to make anything without a crack!

[PiscesGlass]

Lynn, As others have said we all have "Character marks", love that term btw, in our work from time to time and most particularly when starting out with this craft.  It's called learning..and even with that occasionally things happen.  I recently finished a piece and never noticed a thing wrong with it....until....I realized that one of the bevels was in completely backward..now there's some character for ya!  Ugh.

You have a motorcycle???  I should have known from your saying at the bottom of your signature line...I do too!
A Harley Sportster...although I haven't ridden it much in the last couple of years.

De

[Lynn]

Lynn, As others have said we all have "Character marks", love that term btw, in our work from time to time and most particularly when starting out with this craft.  It's called learning..and even with that occasionally things happen.  I recently finished a piece and never noticed a thing wrong with it....until....I realized that one of the bevels was in completely backward..now there's some character for ya!  Ugh.

You have a motorcycle???  I should have known from your saying at the bottom of your signature line...I do too!
A Harley Sportster...although I haven't ridden it much in the last couple of years.

De

I have no intention of admitting that I have to check glass 4 times, because I have learned that (no matter what I do) at least one piece will have the grain running the wrong way the first time I lay it out-even though I have clearly marked on the pattern which way I want it to run.  D'oh!


As far as riding-I do a lot of riding.  I actually put more miles on my bike than I do on my car.  I have a BMW R1100RT-though I have been drooling over the new Kawasaki Concours 14 (the sport-touring brother of the big Ninja 1400).  My husband also rides a BMW-a K1200 LT (bit touring bike).  I am also on the board for a poker run to raise money for a local animal shelter.  Last year, we raised $4,500+ during our one day event.  I have been busy pulling donations together for the silent auction part of that event-so haven't done much playing with glass in the last couple of weeks or so.  I will be glad once that is done, so I can go back to riding and playing in the workshop!

[PiscesGlass]

Awesome Lynn!  BMW's are also extremely nice bikes!  Glad that you can get in alot of riding!  I must admit to being a fair weather biker...but my son continues to bug me about getting mine out and ready to go.  I broke my wrist last year, so I didn't want to strain it constantly.  But I'll cave in soon I'm sure. 

Another very worthwhile cause raising money for the animal shelters...I have dogs also, 3 of my own, 1 that belongs to my son, although he might as well be mine he's here often.  And for those that have towels or blankets they don't know what to do with, please take them to your local animal shelter, they would love to have them.  Also bear in mind that there are dogs/cats out there that will have a very limited life span if they are not adopted.  I've read a number of very sad stories lately about shelters and the sorry reasons that people gave them up to the shelter...

Good luck with your fund raising!  De