Awesome Thing – Nature-Inspired Glassware

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I’ve got a bit of a tree theme going on this week, but I was too enamoured of artist and glass blower Brad Copping‘s fantastic glassware, I had to share it.

Copping makes these fantastic shot glasses, tumblers and pitchers by shaping molten glass around the end of a tree branch, dusting the outside with a coloured, salt-like powder that melts and fuses with the glass, and then shaping each item further so that the rim of each glass is slightly wavy, and no two are exactly the same.

I came home from the last week’s Craft Ontario show at Wychwood Barns with two of his glasses and I can’t wait to get a few more. Copping lives in Apsley ON, so the best place to buy his work in Toronto (or online) is through the Craft Ontario website.

For a better look at Copping’s work, check out this site, or this one to see the glass he designed for the G8 summit in 2010.

Awesome Thing – Scones from Baker & Scone

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I am so addicted to the scones at Baker & Scone (693 St. Clair Avenue West) that I have started to make up excuses to go to the Hillcrest neighbourhood. Thankfully there’s often something going on at Wychwood Barns, so it’s easy to make a stop on the corner of Christie and St. Clair West and come home with a box of Sandra Katsiou’s flaky, layered delights.

Arranged in the bright, pretty shop in tall apothecary jars, the fresh-baked delights come in 35 sweet flavours and 8 savoury, with around a dozen sweet and one or two savoury versions available at any time. So far, Toasted Coconut and Salted Caramel are my favourites, with the Old White Cheddar, Dill and Chive scones winning my favourite savoury flavour.

Why are they awesome? Katsiou’s got a great technique (folding and re-folding the dough like puff pastry) that creates high, layered scones, and her flavour combinations are fantastic. The scones are slightly cheaper by the dozen, which is just a great excuse to try one of every flavour in the shop. (Yes, I have done this. It was awesome.)