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She does have an eye for detail!

Spiffy........... Spiffy? Boy you are gettin' old! 

I like this one better than all the rest. Purty spiffy lookin', too. Hopefully, this will inspire others to post a rant or two here. 

One of the Irons that we kid of steer people into is a Hakko.  I like the ceramic element inside, it seems to hold the heat real nice.  Irons are almost a personal issue like cars, they all work just how well do you want it to work.

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It looks easy because they've done it more than once. The reality is that there is not "secret" way to hold the iron for great results. It's like asking a photographer how to hold a camera for perfect pictures - it doesn't matter if one doesn't know the basics of photographic composition. The real answer is learning good technique such as the simple difference between of cold solder and a proper one. Classes are a perfect opportunity to see good and bad techniques as well as learning optimal basics for great results. A $100 iron won't matter if you never learned what is and makes a good solder joint. Too many people waste money on expensive tools never learning the basics of how to use them. My thought is if you can't definatively explain why a certain tool is better, you don't need it... yet. My approach is to find the specific flaws with what I'm using before looking for a new tool. First practice, watch others then, practice some more with lessoned learned before looking for a quick or simple fix.

I guess that the real trick would be how to mount the bottle within the work. A silicon adheasive of somesort, maybe? I'd experiment with some scrap pieces first to determine a best method.

For me being a physicist working with optics, always wanted to put optical prisms in works. Not the stuff that is normally sold for stained glass but the stuff used in the industry. It is a much denser glass that yields much better refraction for color rainbows. I've even thought of a double layer glass approach where the first layer is prisms and colored glass with the second being more prisms and lenses to further amplify and spread the color effects. I haven't tried this yet but mention it to simply say that only the imagination is the limit, not the possibilities.

The copper you were looking at had to have some kind of sealant on the copper, maybe clear fingernail polish

My guess is that only if inside away from light. A urathane (sp?) sealant (paint) that that has a UV inhibitor is more likely since the polish would quickly deteriorate in sunlight.

Copper exposed to the elements will turn colors. The copper you were looking at had to have some kind of sealant on the copper, maybe clear fingernail polish

I've never done that; however, I have heard of it being done. Never seen it.  I have seen and done making a design of a bottle in a stained glass design and then adding a real label from a bottle.

I was thinking of adding a wine bottle to a window. Does anyone know if you can cut the bottle in half so I can mount it to a window. This way it will look like a real bottle (cause it is).