Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

Of all the swallowtail butterflies that call the state of Tennessee home, this one has eluded me for the past 10 years that I've taken an active interest in the natural world. That is until a few days ago.
I was lucky enough to capture these images while the butterfly was feasting on clover. It didn't seem to mind that I followed it as it moved from flower to flower, amazed at how beautiful it is up close (look at the stripes on its little body!). All the while I was hoping that the batteries in my camera would hold up just a little bit longer...then suddenly it flew off into the woods. A totally magical few minutes of my life! Thank you my stripped little flying friend. I'll remember you forever.

Sometimes timing is everything

Yesterday afternoon, I took a break from working in the shop to enjoy a few minutes on the front porch. Something small caught my eye making its way across the road. So, I had to go investigate. I grabbed the camera and looky what I found! A young box turtle! I've been waiting all year to see these guys.
He crossed the road successfully and stopped to take a rest in gutter of the road. Even though we don't get much traffic through here, I knew it wasn't a safe place for him to be. The road is narrow and when two cars come upon each other, each one has to make way for the other--by veering into the gutter of the road. I picked him up to check him out....



































...then moved him a few more feet away into my backyard
where he can be safe and sound. Just a minute later, two cars came through at the same time...wouldn't you know it, one car rode in the gutter to get around the other. Whew!! Mr. Turtle had a lucky day for sure!

















Here are two more finds from the yard yesterday. Snail are everywhere this year, I've never seen so many!

















Loads of toads, too. Big ones, small ones. I dig toads!

Let's make us some kitties-step 7-paint it

Well, we're at the last step and almost done! Just one thing and that's to paint in the eyes. I use a gloss black enamel paint for the eyes. They can be a bit tricky. First, I'm not a painter by trade. Second, painting on a curved glass surface feels a bit odd. Third, I've got to try and get both eyes to look somewhat similar.



















And here it is ready for photographs and a new place in my Etsy store.

Let's make us some kitties-step 6-patina it

In order to darken the lines of this cat, I'm using black patina. Patina is a chemical mixture that reacts with certain metals and gives them a superficial coating.














Here it is being applied with a cotton swap to the lead came. Care is taken not to slop it all over the place. The lead came along with all the solder lines are treated front and back.














Here is what the black kitty looks like with patina applied.














And and orange and white tabby that I've been working on at the same time.

Let's make us some kitties-step 5-wrap it

Whew, only a couple of more steps to go! The next thing we are going to do with this black kitty is to wrap it up with lead came. Lead came is available in various widths and channel depths and styles. For this project we are using "U" channel lead. Its actually shaped like the letter U. It is flexible but strong and adds quite a bit of stability to this piece.
First, I fit a piece for the area between the ears.














You can see in this picture a cross section of the lead came.














Next, I'll roll the cat face in a section of lead came. This helps to seat the glass in the channel groove.














Where the two sections of lead meet at the points of the ears...














...I solder this joint together.














Finally, I solder a jump ring to the back of the cat face. We're almost done. Next step, patina it.

Let's make us some kitties-step 4-solder it

We're ready to solder the black kitty together. Here we have everything we need for this step. Clockwise from the top-liquid flux, temperature controller-or rheostat (this regulates the soldering iron), solder iron in holder, flux brush, solder-I use 60/40 solder and a wet sponge for cleaning the solder tip.














I start by applying the liquid flux with the brush to small spots at first so that I can tack solder the pieces together. Sorry, there is no one here to help with pictures so there are no action shots!














Next, I apply the flux to all the copper foil joints and solder all the pieces together. There is a chemical reaction that takes place between the copper foil, the flux and hot melting solder. The melting solder forms a bead that cools quite quickly and creates a bond between the pieces of glass.














We allow the front side to cool, flip it over and solder the backside. Once this step is complete we can move to the next step-wrap it.

Let's make us some kitties-step 3-foil it

In the copper foil, or Tiffany method of working in stained glass, every glass piece is wrapped with self adhesive copper foil. Copper foil is available in various widths and thicknesses along with different color backings. For this project I'm using both 7/32" and 3/16" copper backed foils depending on the thickness of the glass pieces. For the glass glob eyes I use 1/4" thick black backed foil.














Copper foil shown with a burnishing tool.














The trick is to apply the foil evenly over the edge of the glass so that an equal amount remains to be folded over for both the front and the back of the piece since both sides will be soldered. This will assure that the solder lines look even.














Once the foil is applied, a burnishing tool is used to smooth the foil and to eliminate wrinkles and bubbles.














Here is just one of the pieces, the kitty nose. The pieces that are in the center of the project are wrapped completely around with foil. The pieces that are on the outside are wrapped only where they butt up to the neighboring piece as shown in the very first picture. Next, we can move to the next step--solder it.