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Nicole Craine started by ripping apart her old pillows. The first-year photography student at Savannah College of Art and Design took the funky foamy insides and molded them to fit a laundry basket; the top of the basket overflowing with foam rubber. Then she covered the basket with masking tape. The whole was painted, then given some finishing touches.

The end result? A giant blueberry muffin, a la Willy Wonka. About 2 feet by 2 feet, it looks real enough to eat. Food — large, 3-D food — is the subject of a foundation studies class at the famed art school, taught by professor L. Amanda Dumas-Hernandez.

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"Everybody loves food," Dumas-Hernandez said. "They relate to it."

Which is why, after researching nature and creating three-dimensional cubes with feathery ferns and pop outs that look like enoki mushrooms, then creating from cardboard a life-sized bust of their heads, the students in this 3-D design class end up making pancakes — complete with melting butter and syrup — the size of a playpen.

And if this candy carnival doesn't tempt taste buds, it certainly tempts interest — junior Al Moses, a graphic design major who hopes to end up in the movie industry, found that his larger-than-life Peeps were just too appetizing for a fellow classmate. After just a few days on display outside the "hub," a cafe where students gather to eat and blow off steam, the giant, bright yellow chicks made from Styrofoam and yellow sand were pilfered. Absconded with, so to speak. Dum Dums the size of a fifth-grader were taken, too. Somebody at SCAD has a very large sweet tooth.

The two groups of around 10 students each decided universally on a sweet theme, focusing on candies. The one rule? The students weren't allowed to use any real food for the project, which is part of a foundations course that serves as prep for all majors.

"I love pizza," said Ewern Chaney, a second-year fashion design major. That might explain his devotion to making a futon-sized replica of a Pizza Hut box filled with cheese pizza. He went so far as to take a pizza to Home Depot to see if they could match the colors in the paint department. (After Chaney provided a blow-up picture of the pizza, the home-help store matched the cheese and red sauce to a darned good likeness.)

But if the purple Ring Pop goes missing, don't come looking for me. It's not like this weekend is my daughter's birthday or anything. Does anyone have a truck I could borrow?

Spice Market falls short of expectations

A first visit to Spice Market, the Jean-Georges Vongerichten concept transplanted from New York to the W Hotel in Midtown, left me ponderous. Granted, I was expecting a lot from this restaurant, a popular concept that focuses on Asian street food. Tod mun pla, a type of Thai fish cake, was flavorfully overpowered with salt, but I could have eaten the cool-yet-combustible cucumber and peanut sauce as a soup — layers of hot and cold mixed with sweet and sour made it a must-have. Ditto the chili-rubbed beef skewers dipped in a creamy basil sauce. Still, many dishes, like the Thai chicken wings, were a flop — oversized and overheated, they seemed coated with something out of a Shake 'N Bake box. The space is sweeping, with black lacquered woven wooden cages dripping with oversized ropes that look like pull chains; satiny pillows line the banquettes that overlook other tables. The place was packed by the witching hour, and the bar was overflowing with pretty people everywhere. And the bar makes a mean Singapore sling. Spice Market, inside the W Atlanta Midtown, 188 14th St. N.E., 404-549-5450, www.spicemarketatlanta.com.

Get into the conversation: Log on to my blog at www.ajc.com/tabletalk. If your restaurant is new, closing or undergoing changes, or you have a food-related event, we want to hear from you. Send the information — including your name, phone number, e-mail and Web site if you have one — to Meridith Ford at mford@ajc.com.