Trying out a new craft...

This winter, during that spell of bad weather and extreme cold, I was missing my weekly golf outing and I just happened to see and advertisement for a stained glass class at Opportunity House in Hendersonville.  I have passed by Opportunity House many times on my travels to and from Hendersonville, always a bit curious about what they had to offer for "seniors," and so the timing of this class gave me a chance to dabble in a new craft and find out more about OH.

As it turned out, I joined a class already in progress... the website clearly stated that the class was starting in January, but it had actually started prior to the holidays and so I was able to pay a pro-rated fee and leap in!  I had 5 sessions, which I thought might be enough, but I guess I was being too optimistic about what I could accomplish in that length of time.  One thing that I have learned so far is that working with glass is very labor-intensive and time consuming.

The instructor, Cheryl, patiently guided me through the process of making the first two projects.  Through these exercises, I learned some basics of glass cutting (and the use of special pliers and scorers), shaping to fit a pattern, grinding, foiling, tinning and soldering, attaching hangers, and lastly polishing and applying patina.  So, they don't look like much, but they represent most of how I spent the first four classes.

Here's my apple, the first project:

I've just hung it up against the shade in my sun room for the purpose of this picture.  It's not real impressive because I was given a clear piece of glass for the apple and it actually took me three tries to finally cut out the rather circular shape of the apple.  So it's a good exercise to use a cheap, clear piece of glass for.  Curves are tricky.  We have a "scrap bin" of colored glass we can use and I was able to find a nice piece of amber for the stem and a dark green for the leaf.  As I was soldering, I realized that I actually attached my stem upside down, but it really doesn't matter.  Again, another learning experience!

The second project was this hummingbird:

I rummaged through the scrap bin to find appropriate colors and during the construction of this little fellow, I spend much of my time at the grinder, trying to fit these curved shapes together as accurately as possible.  That seemed to take forever!

Having mastered... well, not really "mastered"... I probably should say, after "completing" these two little sun catchers, I was able to start work on a project of my choice.

I decided that I wanted to make a traditional quilt block pattern, a variation of the Carolina lily.  I thought the nice straight lines would make this project a snap.  Actually, I was wrong again, and I might have been better off choosing something with a few more forgiving curves.

Here is my Carolina lily in progress:

It's pinned to my pattern on top of my cork work board.  The squiggly lines you see are actually on the pattern underneath the "leaves."  And the rest of the glass is covering up my pattern.  You can see some of the pieces have been copper-foiled.  The solder will adhere to the foil.  The other black marks are on the glass, put there to indicate placement or direction, but they will wash off.  You might also notice that my stem is two-toned.  That is not the glass, but due to the fact that I had altered the shape of my leaves, so the bottom part of my pattern is on white paper, while the remaining part of the pattern is actually a piece of light blue paper.  I believe that this block measures about 11 inches square.  I may add a border to it... or I may not... we'll see how it comes together.

So, in order to complete this project, I needed to sign up for the next series of eight classes.  Hopefully within the next couple of months you will see this completed project and perhaps the start of the next!