The Weekly Newsletter
Menus and Stories for January 14 - 18, 2008
Fresh from school

Oh boy - what a week!

I just got back from a week at The Corning Museum of Glass Studio. This class was all about putting images on glass and then doing things to the glass or the image. Thought you might like to see some "snaps" (there pictures were all taken by their staff photographer in a real photo studio with a real fancy camera and seamless backdrops and frosted, light-transmitting paper. Makes quite a difference.

Horse

I made all the glass too, which is still a challenge for me, but I am getting more comfortable with the material, the tools, the heat, the way to do it. This horse mask is made photographically, applied, and then sandblasted.

(It's for my horse-loving sister, so don't tell. The barn swallow one is for the barn swallow-loving sister.).

Sailboat

Here's a nice vase with a sandblasted image on it that has been fire-polished, making the image shinier. There is a little mica dust in the image, right at the top of the clouds. This one is for Chris, because she loves sailing. 

Dinners to go

Dinners, as you know, come with a freshly-made green salad, salad dressing of the day, and made-right-here bread of the day. We take reservations until noon or so. Please order by phone (252-1500), by FAX (252-02002) or stop in to speak to one of us in person.

As a reminder, every time you order a dinner to go you are eligible to enter our drawing. Just drop a card in our drawing jar (a business card works or fill out one of the cards that we have right here) and, at the end of the month, we'll pull one card which will be good for two free dinners-to-go.

Maybe you'll win next month.

Order a lot? Enter a lot!
Good luck!!

Here is this week's menu:


Monday January 14 Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Wild Rice 9.95
Tuesday January 15 Eggplant Rollatini with Vodka Sauce 9.95
Wednesday January 16 Braised Sirloin Tips with Rosemary Potatoes 12.75
Thursday January 17 Chipotle Steak Fajita with Avocado Salsa 11.50
Friday January 18 Shrimp and Scallops Gremolata 14.95

Our website
Special casserole of the week

We make a special casserole each week, usually on Wednesday. Order before noon and we'll have yours ready to pick up between 4:30 and 6:00 that very afternoon. (Yes, you can order in advance too.) Order a full for 9 portions or, if your gang is smaller, opt for the half-sized one, which serves 4 or so.

Say, we'll happily make a salad and provide bread for you if you like, just let us know when you call and we'll get you all set up.



Wednesday, January 16
Polenta Lasagna with Spinach and Mushroom Ragout
Full: 28.50
Half:14.25

Nautilus

This one is for me. A squat tumbler with an image on a Chambered Nautilus on it, rubbed with black pigment and then fire-polished. I'm very fond of Chambered Nautili (Nautliuses?) and drinking cold water from this little fellow is a sweet experience.

20/20 but no Laurey

I have not yet watched the show but I'm told that Asheville got a mention as the "happiest place in America."  All the interviews that were done ended up in the insides of the editing machine, not in the final show. It amazes me to think of the time and effort that went into all those interviews (a full day of  them with folks from all over our town) with very little in the final cut.

Still, I continue to think about the book (The Geography of Bliss), that was the impetus for last week's show and continue to suggest that you take a gander at it. It's a good conversation starter.

The Geography of Bliss
First "Graal"

This labyrinth image is made of a sandblasting-resistant material, applied to a fist-sized oval shape (a "graal blank"), sandblasted, and then covered with clear glass and blown up. It's a multi-day process and I'm disappointed that this finished piece is wobbly, but, then again, if I look at my earliest wobbly pieces, I see that this one is a huge improvement. I got better at making the blanks, at applying the mask to the piece, at sandblasting, and at blowing the whole thing up. It's very hard to do and it's frighteningly easy to lose control.

The photographer, without batting an eye, corrected the first round of this picture, making the vase stand up straight, looking very symmetrical. But that, I pointed out, is not the truth, so she returned it to its original, actual wonky self. 

A Note From Laure

Swirl, twirl, whirl. I’m back home after an amazing week of glass. I have one small bag with a few pieces with me and a box of other things which will be sent sometime in the near future. It seems a small result to show for all my work, but my head and notebooks are filled with thoughts, sketches, techniques, and ideas and it will be fun to see where it all leads in the coming months.

One of the most stunning realizations came a bit beyond the middle of the week. This, as I told you, is my fourth class there. It is my second consecutive class with one of my teachers so he knew what I could do and where I needed work. He’d walk by as I was “at the bench” whispering suggestions to me, things he knew I should know, knew I could do, and could see I was missing.

“Work from the pipe out.”
“Cool the tip before blowing it out.”
“Chill. Marver. Cut in the jack line.”
And, occasionally, “Good!”

The thing about glass is that in order to move it, you have to make it really hot. Really hot is scary. Beginners make the mistake of working cold and getting nowhere. As I’ve gotten better, I’ve been working with hotter glass. It’s really easier, because hot glass moves. And so I’ve been pushing, being intentional about it, forcing myself out of my comfort zone into what is becoming a new comfort zone. And the amazing thing is that the new place, which seemed to intimidating, is now comfortable. And the hot glass cools down, sometimes too quickly for my liking, and takes you back to an even more comfortable place to rest and breathe before heating up and taking it to the next stage.

I get nervous about pushing into that new place. My chest tightens. My pulse quickens. Beads of sweat roll down my forehead, my nose, my neck. Frightened that I can’t do it I stall, worrying. But if glass chills too much it will crack and break and so the best thing to do is plunge in, sticking with it, trusting that I can handle it. (The teacher is always nearby to bail out a disaster, should that happen.) And day by day I got better, bearing the heat, the weight, the speed, and the malleability of the material with more and more comfort and, occasionally, grace.

Finishing a piece is like finishing a big race or a long hard workout or any extended physical task. The gaffer (the one who is crafting the piece) takes a deep breath of pleasure and relief that the piece made it all the way from idea to completion and is now safely ensconced in the cooling oven. The assistant offers a big “high five” slap and, if the piece is grand enough, everyone in the room applauds. It’s a big show and it’s a whole lot of fun. And it’s as scary as almost anything I’ve ever done.

So I think about stepping into that heat and into that fear and searching for the trust that I can actually get to the end of the piece. But just getting any old piece is not enough anymore. I want it to have symmetry, form, grace, technique. I’m nowhere near where I hope to be over time, but I’m thrilled to be able to immerse myself in this art, this challenge, this difficult and rewarding passion. And thrilled to, to be filled with the metaphor of it all.

I’ll be in touch next week.

My first successful "blast"

This plate of glass is colored on one side and clear on the other. You cut out a mask from a soft, sticky material and remove one petal at a time (or a series of petals) and sandblast each stage, resulting in this pretty stunning image. I carried this plate around hopping and skipping with delight. Imagine a whole wall of these?

Okay - show is over. Thanks for taking time to look.

And, if you still are having trouble seeing the pictures, one friend says to open the e-mail attachment (if you can figure out how to do that) and the pictures will appear. If you are just seeing words, try scrolling to the bottom of the whole newsletter and see if there is a "preview" option. If so, that might be your ticket. And if you continue to have trouble, come in to the office and I'll show you them on my screen.

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