9/5/04 LI w/Peter, Working on Stained Glass at Night; Making Vietnamese Coffee:

Peter shown above, using his sonic tooth brush, and loving it.

I went to Long Island to work on the continuing stained glass panels.

My new grinder is AWESOME!

The top panel is farther along than the bottom one. The top one has most of its pieces cut to the correct size. The bottom one simple has its pieces cut out of larger chunks of glass, and needs some refining.

Selecting where on the large sheet of glass to cut from can be an intimidating step, especially when the glass is "wispy" like this one.

I made my choice, based partly on the look of the wispiness, and partially on trying to stay near a corner, to keep the largest remaining chunk of blue glass I can for future projects. This sheet of glass is two square feet, at $5 per square foot.

The blue circle, roughly cut, sitting on its template.

About an hour later, here is the same template, with the glass ground down to fit properly.

Mommy, Peter and I had CHAPANESE food. That's my word for a place that serves both Chinese and Japanese. None of these places are usually very high-end. But they can be satisfying for a cheap take home dinner. Mmmm. Egg drop soup and SUSHI!

Mama in the kitchen.

Peter is learning a lot about vietnamese raw ingredients and groceries and cooking from David. For example, this frozen coconut juice.

I begin cutting the glass for panel "D." I start with orange because there is the most of it in the project.

Meanwhile, peter deals with his frozen coconut juice.

And then he makes vietnamese coffee.

This is how they do it, to this day, in vietnam, after having been introduced to coffee by western culture a century or two ago. The cup and saucer has a hole in the bottom that allows hot water to slowly drip through the grind. The saucer sits on top of the mug or glass you want to drink the coffee from.

Peter went overboard and got 5 pounds of vietnamese coffee.

The best part is the condensed milk that you put in the bottom of the cup before brewing.

Meanwhile, I'm faced with this challenging medley of cuts, thanks to Natalie's intricate minimalist design! 8D and 10D are blue. 9D is orange!

I use a white paint marker to mark the glass.

I have commandeered the patio table for my workshop.

It is dark and buggy outside. I see this charlotte in its web by the tool shack.

It's kind of peaceful (if not buggy) to be out here, mostly alone, in the back of the house, tapping and grinding away. It reminds me of when certain shops would open during the nighttime hours at camp. It always had a special feel to be breathing the night air while working on some craft or project. It's not for every night, but for the occasional evening, it can be very meditative and peaceful.

I set up the camera to sit on the homosote board facing me with a 10 second delay to see what it looks like as I make a score in the surface of the glass where I want the glass to break.

WHEW!

It's looking like it is coming together well!