Today was a real treat. The Central Methodist Church here in East Aurora has a wonderful collection of Tiffany windows. The church was first built in 1830 or so, and looked pretty much like a craftsman foursquare house. Then in about 1890s they had grown enough that they built a cute little semi-gothic style church. By the late 1920s they had outgrown that church, but now there was division among the parishoners – the young ones wanted a more multi-purpose church, with other rooms besides the chapel., while the old guard said things were just fine as they were.
Eventually one benefactor came forward and donated so much money that the whippersnappers got their way. They took the old church, turned it sideways on the lot and moved it back and added the new chapel as an L addition to the church. And then they put in 32 Tiffany windows. So this church is all Tiffany through and through. By this time, though Tiffany was going out of fashion and had given up the foundry where he made the glass, so the records aren’t there for the Tiffany society, or whoever gives you a higher seat in heaven, to authenticate these windows – EVEN THOUGH HE SIGNED THEM!!
Following that, we went out to a place called the Old Schoolhouse where three Roycroft artisans operate two different shops. Two of the guys gave told us about their shop, where they strive to make everything out of solid wood, the other one, Thomas Pafk, does veneering which is really quite extraordinary and makes one-of-a-kind pieces. His website shows a lot of what he’s done.
.Tom Harris, the first person who talked to us, explained the intricacies of various types of woods and what made something quarter sawn, and passed around various pieces of wood. Curly maple and some other kind of maple is caused by the trees growing where they get a lot of wind and sway back and forth a lot when they are young. This changes the thickness of the rings and when it's sawn at an opposite angle, you get that curly look. The second person to talk to us is another woodworker who is also an actor and who came as if he were Herb Buffums, a supervisor in the woodshop during the heyday years at Roycroft. He was pretty entertaining, but he could have shortened his speech by about half, I think. 
Our afternoon was supposed to have a tour of the furniture shop and leatherworking, but the person who was supposed to do it had to take his father to the hospital, so we had another guy forced to do it had no clue. It was hot in the room and the guy giving the example had no clue what to tell us, and clearly didn’t want to do it. The presentation was so bad it was ridiculous.
This room had some really nice graphics and stuff, though. This visit was followed by yet another wine and cheese reception in the apartment on the top floor of the building.
Well, from the outside, this building looks like it’s falling down, but the top floor is gorgeous. It’s an absolutely fabulous mix of antiques, comfortable furniture, and things the owner likes.
So tonight we have dinner, a show and tell – I haven’t decided whether to take my computer and show the A&C pix of our house or not. We have some free time and getting ready to go to dinner right now.
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