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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2018)
Wednesday, May 30, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 11 Local artist’s work to be featured at The Lodge in Sisters By Eileen Chambers Correspondent In the world of senior liv- ing, The Lodge in Sisters, cur- rently under construction on Carpenter Lane, promises to be a place of beauty for those who live, work and visit there. As a part of their commitment to support local businesses and artists, The Lodge recently commissioned 138 architec- tural accent light fixtures from artisan Susie Zeitner, owner of Z Glass Act located on Sun Ranch Drive. Zeitner’s handcrafted lumi- naries will be featured in The Lodge’s lobby, library, dining area, corridors, the “Grand Room” and at the entrance of each residential unit. Throughout her career, Susie has successfully married her creativity and commercial success. “Very early on,” she said, “I learned that, as an art- ist, you can have a reward- ing career if you are open to using your creativity and skill to solve a need for your cus- tomers. Whether it is a photo shoot for a clothing line or creating a light fixture for an assisted-living facility, the key I have found is to create something so attractive that others want to have it — and enjoy or experience it — for themselves.” After a fast-paced career in the fashion industry as a graphic designer/commercial photo director, one spanning almost three decades, Susie and her husband planned to retire to Sisters. During con- struction of their dream home outside of town, Susie came up with the idea of making the light fixtures for the home herself out of glass. “I was already dabbling in glass, but I had never tackled something as complex as a light fixture. As a problem- solver by nature, it was a cre- ative challenge that I loved,” she said. “Fortunate for me, there were plenty of read- ily available resources in the Pacific Northwest including a premiere glass factory in nearby Portland who manu- factured high-quality glass. “What I discovered is that working with glass is really a science. It’s all about tim- ing and temperature. Glass is amazingly beautiful and tac- tile. It transmits light, evokes emotion and is so organic. Yes, it is fragile. It breaks. But you can melt it down again and create something new. The process of making those first functional yet decorative art glass fixtures taught me a lot, and quite by accident, those fixtures, and the atten- tion they gathered, became the beginning of Z Glass Act. That was two decades ago. I couldn’t be more content, living here in Sisters with an incredible business that I love, one that started out as a hobby, surrounded by beauty and good friends.” After purchasing property along Sun Ranch Drive that is zoned live/work mixed use, Zeitner built her current home with attached studio in 2017. Since those first fixtures, she has created fixtures and cus- tom countertops for hotels, restaurants and custom homes throughout the United States. Standing in her neatly arranged, garage-sized stu- dio, surrounded by five kilns and shelves of rainbow col- ors of glass, one can see why People & Pet Friendly Lawn Maintenance Services Zeitner feels this was “all meant to be.” “ T h i s creative adventure with glass has not only helped to empower me during some years of significant struggle, it is some- thing that I truly enjoy PHOTO PROVIDED as an artist Suzie Zeitner, right, works on one of her unique pieces with assistance from Linda Peck. and which seems to be ever-expanding as of the team that will create In line with its vision to honor this uniquely beautiful ambi- and reflect the beauty of a business,” she said. In early 2018, those work- ance. It is something that we Sisters itself, The Lodge will ing with The Lodge discov- hope will be inspiring and have 14 themed gardens, open ered her website while search- visually pleasing to everyone to the public, each one filled ing online for artists in the who walks through the doors, with pollinator-attracting including residents, their fam- plants and works of art created Sisters region. “For The Lodge, the light- ilies, guests and staff, both by Oregon artists. Inside The Lodge, there will be rotating ing will complement and young and old.” D e s i g n e d b y M a y e s displays of art by regional art- enhance the color palettes that the interior design team Architecture and Planning ists, including students from has created,” Zeitner said. Inc. of Sisters, Oregon, The area schools. For more information “As a lover of interior design Lodge is slated to open in the myself, the fixtures I create for fall of 2018 with 62 resident about Susie Zeitner, visit The Lodge this summer will units available for occupancy. www.zglassact.com. come from pieces as fine as powdered sugar all the way up to chips that I create by shat- COME TRY OUR NEW MENU! tering larger pieces of glass Tasty THURSDAY myself. Our goal is to create May 31, 5-7 p.m. a beautiful living space that is simply captivating. Benton Lane Winery “I am really flattered,” LIVE MUSIC Susie concluded. “I have Sat., June 2, 7-9 p.m. found that those involved with Allan Byer Project The Lodge are very environ- 3911 W 39 W. C Cas Cascade a s cade d e A Ave. v e. | 541-549-2675 541 549 2675 mentally and aesthetically corkcellarswinebistro.com aware. 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