Weekly Wrap UP 1/29/21-- Stain glass projects

 We took two weeks off at Christmas so I was able to do some work in my glass studio, I enjoy spending time down there.  I recently got a new soldering iron which makes things easier.  

Last year, a little bird flew into our house (I did a post on it) and it was trapped in our upstairs school room.  I propped open a window and it flew out, unfortunately that was the window where I was leaning one of my stain glass windows.  I didn't realized I hadn't securely shut the window and a gust of wind blow the window open and knocked my piece on the floor.  This is why you should always secure your stain glass pieces and not propped them up against a window.  

A corner piece shattered, luckily it was the only one but still a pain in the neck and a reminder to me that leaning a piece against a window is really stupid.  

Luckily I had one piece of this glass left and it was just the right size!

After talking with some people in my stain glass group I tackled the job of fixing it.  It took about an hour and I learned a lot as repairing is not my strong skill set.  

I found a set of grape corner panels that I had started working on years ago but never finished, not sure why.  Anyway I set about getting them finished and my husband installed them for me 

We hung them in the corner of our dining room which has a wine theme.  

Kind of hard to see but they're one on both sides.  I did discover that one of our walls is a bit lop-sided so it does not fit perfectly but I don't think you notice it too much.  

Next I have been working on a 16" Dogwood Tiffany style lamp for about a year (they always take me a long time to finish). I finished foiling it over Thanksgiving and then realized I didn't have enough solder so had to order some.  Over the Christmas break I finally got it completely soldered and for the first time got some light through it.  

I had to put the glass into the oven in order to remove it from the fiberglass mold

the heat melts the wax that is on the mold which holds the glass in place :)

first look with light shining through it.  

                                                                             Side 1 

side 2

side 3

This will be my new bedside light.  I plan on making another one but with white flowers which will be my husband bedside light.  He doesn't want any more pinks lamp shades lol. It isn't quite done as I still need a few brass components but they are on back order.

My husband had an old guitar he decided he no longer wanted and gave it to me to turn into a lamp!  I made one before a few years ago and always wanted to do another one.  

It is an old classical guitar and we didn't look up the value of the guitar until after we started cutting it up.  Oops, found out the guitar was worth about $200.  

My husband removed the top of the guitar and got it ready

I worked on a pattern.  

All done and our first look with some light coming through it.  

I used this type of LED lighting last time for my guitar lamp but I decide to try strip lighting this time around to make it even brighter

I am trying strip LED lighting

Not sure about it as I can see the lights too much.  Looking at ways to adjust it and make the lights less noticeable.

I have it hanging on the wall now and like the readjustments of the lights. 

I have already picked out my next two projects, one is my second commission piece and I am making my daughter a piece for her birthday, it won't be done in time but she knows what it is:). Also I am excited to have recently found a free drum set and will be attempting to make a drum light very soon.  Just need to find the right pattern for it:)

Weekly Wrap UP 1/22/21- Happy 19th Birthday!

 Firedrake turns 19 years old today.  She is at college so we had to make do with just a phone call.  College is saying no outside visits in order to keep the virus at bay on campus.  This is the first time we have not all been together on her Birthday.   We did send her a  gift to her at school. 

Before leaving for college we had a birthday dinner - she requested lasagna and red velvet cake:)

I bought a store cake and left it out on the counter and when I took it out of the box that evening  the icing on one side started to slide off, so if the cake looks a bit funny in the picture it is because I attempted to fix it:)

When my husband dropped her off at college he stopped by the college pizza place and bought her a gift card and told her on her actual birthday she can have a pizza party with her college room mates on us:)!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIREDRAKE!!  We love you so very much.  We are immensely proud of you and the person you are becoming.  

Weekly Wrap Up 1/15/20 -- Mid Term assessment

 Usually around this time of year I try to do a summary of how we are managing in all our subjects and see if we are falling behind in any areas.  This is really just a way for me to keep track of things and assess if any changes needs to be made to our schooling!  Right now everything seems to be running smoothly.  There are only change being made which is adding a US government class as the Economic class ended December.  The Government class will be held online with the same teacher we had for the Economic class through Outschool.    I was very pleased with the layout and organization of this teachers class. 

Literature and Composition -- Continuing to work on British Literature, also working on grammar (easy grammar) and vocabulary programs (worldly wise)  

Just before Christmas break we finished reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  We both really enjoyed this book.  I can't believe I had never read it, so I read along with MarioFan:)

In January we started reading the Silas Marner by George Elliot 

Having looked at my reading list of books, plays and poems I hope to have read by the end of the year we are doing pretty well but I have a feeling we will be going into the summer unless I wish to cull some of the reading materials.  There are just so many great books out there!  In addition to reading We work on writing essays, poetry and analysis of writings.  iffy-- if we plan to go into the summer or I cut back on some of the readings

Algebra II -- Working with Teaching textbooks and currently on lesson 64. I fully expect we will have this program finished by May or June at the latest.  On target

42 electronics -- Almost done with the fourth book series and building the roving robot!  I have hoped to have this done before Christmas but we only have one or two lesson to go in January.  Next up learning how to solder electrical components and we have several soldering projects to build.  Slightly behind

Right before Christmas break MarioFan made a track and his robot was able to follow the black line

Luna was very wary of this strange contraption:) Also I think the robot gave off a high pitch sound that she found very disturbing:(

Spanish 3 -- Continuing with our online tutoring and it is going well and I am noticing MarioFan is increasing his confidence in speaking Spanish which was my our goal.  On target 

Economics -- online class completed -- Completed grade given A

US Government -- on line class which just started last week on Outschool. On target

Chemistry -- online class, completed part 1 (grade A) and is now taking part 2.  On target

Sociology -- we are halfway through the book having just completed ch 9 before Christmas, I had originally thought this would be a 1/2 credit class and we could finished it by Christmas.  But we are really delving in to these topics and do additional activities so it means this will be a year long class so I may change it to a full credit class as we are already at the 60 hours and only half way through the book.   On target 

Piano -- continues with his piano tutor was suppose to participate in a sontina festival and a Christmas concert, both of which have been cancelled due to the covid.  On target 

NEW -- Driving simulator-- completed five lessons at the site and now he will begin studying for the drivers permit test which he hopes to take this spring! On target

Extra Curricular activities

Dungeons and Dragon club -- MarioFan is participating monthly with a club held online though our local library.

DREAM Big-- monthly club that introduces different job to students.  In December they met an architect and built a natures playground and learned about the all about architects.  I will do a post on it a bit later. 

This week Firedrake headed back to college, I was very surprised they went back to in school classes but here we are.  Firedrake is taking precautions seriously so she wanted to head back.  She will be taking five classes this semester at college: Japanese II, Creative Writing, Film/Animation analyses, Public speaking and Pre Calculus.  The only class she is worried about is the Pre Calculus class as Math is not her favorite subject!   We are strongly encouraging her to use the Math lab daily to help her not get behind in this subject. As for her first semester in College she earned 2 A's and 2 B's and 1 Pass.  She was very happy with her grades as were we as doing college classes online or hybrid is not easy.

So that is were we are with high school and college!  I don't feel too bad with where we are.  So we are just plugging along and since we still can't leave the house we have no distractions!  Firedrake's college intends to take a spring break so she will return home for a week sometime in March, the college is still deciding if they will have the students return to the school or complete the year virtually like they did for winter break.  Now that there is a vaccine maybe we can get this pandemic behind us and go back to normal living by summer!

Weekly Wrap UP 1/8/21-- I had my first commissioned stain glass piece!

 I have been sitting on this news for several months because the item I made was a Christmas gift.  I am often asked to make piece for people but then when I tell how much it will cost most people back out because they can buy it cheaper on WISH or in a store that gets most of its things from CHINA.  While that is true they don't realized the item they are buying is of poor quality (sometimes not even real glass),  is not reinforced and will likely fall apart in a few years.  It can be very frustrating!  People often tell me to sell my work but it is for these reason I won't.  I hear horror stories of glass artist trying to sell things on esty or at craft fairs and getting rude comments about the cost of their work or people trying to renege on the agreed upon price once the piece is made. 

I recently spoke to a friend who complained after going to a craft fair that the price of a hand woven basket that she felt was ridiculous pricey.  I  kindly but firmly told her that her reaction was the reason I have never tried to sell my work, which she often suggests I do.   The lack of appreciation of the cost of the materials and then the time it took the artist to make the basket was not being taken into her consideration.  Her other comment of "I could have made that myself" also irritated me because realistically she probably couldn't.  Sometimes if an acquaintance asks I will teach them to make their own stain glass, but that too has proven to be troubling!  I take them to the glass store and they purchase all the supplies (most are quite shock at the cost of supplies) and then come to my home studio where I will instruct them, allow them to borrow all my tools, and give hints on how to construct their window.  Most people finish the project but aren't happy with it as it is not perfect (that is where experience comes in) or they get frustrated and quit and I end up with unfinished pieces in my glass room.  Currently I have had one project sitting for over a year in my glass studio still waiting for the person to finish it up.  She has sort of hinted that she wouldn't mind if I finished it for her, but I won't do that as it is not my project.  This might sound a little mean but I often feel like people take advantage and not once has anyone offered to reimburse me for my time.  I willingly give up my time to teach, at no charge, but I am not doing the work for them.  It is a very fine line to walk.  I often have to remind people that if I hadn't taught them they would have had to pay for a class which can range over $100 and still have the cost of supplies, depending on the project they want to do.

I thought I would show you the process and break down the price of what it cost to make a stain glass piece:). These prices won't include the hours I spent working on the piece just the supply cost!

I was contacted by a friend to make a stain glass window for her partner.  She wanted it to be a picture of their dog, Toby, who is about 14 years old.  I asked her to send me several pictures of their dog so I could find someone to do a pattern (this is not my strongest area). 

Next I contacted a person in one of my stain glass groups and had her come up with a pattern.  Working from the pictures above she put together two different patterns to submit to the client.  I paid her for the patterns she came up with.

After reviewing the two patterns, the client selected the bottom pattern as the one that she thought captured their dog the best.  

Pattern cost $15 plus an additional $1 to go to a store to enlarge the pattern and get two copies of it so that I could begin.

Next we needed to go to the local glass shop to find glass colors that I thought  (consulting with the client) would work the best for the colors.  I sent several different photos of glass to the client to see what she like. 

 This is often the hardest part of designing a window as glass colors do not always come in the colors you want to match exactly the coloring of what ever you are aiming for.  The hardest part was finding the right color for the brown and gray of the dog.  Once all the glass were selected, I also needed to purchase copper foil, solder and zinc framing.

Total cost $ 100 approx for all supplies. Later I had to order hanging hooks at $ 5 a set

Next comes the best part putting it all together.  Every glass artist does it differently but this is my way.

I always color in my pattern before starting and tweaked the design of the pattern 

began cutting out all the pieces -- I decided I didn't like one part I colored in so changed it.  I do this this a lot which is why coloring the pattern for me is important.

Soldering  the piece 

cleaning the piece and checking to make sure everything was correct before framing -- also checking for any glass cracks which can happen occasionally.

added patina to darken the silver lines 

added the zinc frame and painted the eyes and added the T to the collar tag

All told I spent about 10 hours working on this project.  This is the tricky part what is my time worth.  Artist are rarely ever paid for their time properly.  If you think about it people have to pay plumbers, electrician over $20 an hour but if I were to charge that people bulk at the price.  Charging minimum wage at $7.50 is saying that an artist doesn't have a skill and is an entry level worker, which is usually never the case, as artist spend many years perfecting their art and the tools we need to make the art are usually extremely expensive!  So there is a real dilemma for artists and most simply never get the $ they should and under price their work.  It is why most artists are never very rich!  Since this was a family friend I did not charge for my time on this piece, so maybe I can't really say I sold any art yet?

But this is not where the costs stop.  I needed to ship this item to another state.  I have heard of horror stories from other artist about their pieces being broken in the shipping process.  I consulted lots of people and figured out the best and safest way to ship a glass panel.  

I had brown paper and bubble wrap at home so I wrapped the piece well first 

Then my husband assisted me in making a hard wooden case to put the glass panel in.  Again deciding on the thickness of the wood was an issue as some artist have used thinner wood in order to try to keep the cost down and then after shipping found the piece arrived broken.  Because of this we used 1/2 thick wood.  The spacers were 2 inches thick

Completed casing

Once the glass was installed my husband screwed all the wood down so it was secure and no movement was detected and then because I was extra nervous I wrapped it all in tape

Cost of wood $20 approx.

The final process was to ship the item.  After again asking for the best shipping company used by other artists, I went to the local UPS store and had them box the wooden case in two separate boxes.  A smaller box to hold just the wooden case and then it was added to a larger box with packing supplies.  This is to make sure that if the outside box is somehow damage the inside box is still secure.  

Cost of shipping the item with insurance approximately $65

So all told for this 15X15 glass panels the total cost was approximately $205 and that is not including the time and skill that I put into it.  Since this was for a very dear family friend I made the piece for the cost of supplies only and I was pleased to do so because I knew they would appreciate it!

The piece arrived safely and without a scratch and given to her partner as a Christmas gift.  They loved it! It is nice to know it was appreciated. :)

I often make special pieces for people I love without charge but I usually pick the design and use the glass I have in my shop and give as gifts.  But mostly I make glass for myself because I enjoy it!