1961 Playboy photo featuring left to right - George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom
Unfettered by dogma, the creators of contemporary American furniture have a flair for combining functionalism with aesthetic enjoyment.
Exuberance, finesse, and high imagination characterize U.S. furniture design today. For the crusading era of modern is over. In the early years of Twentieth Century design, a chair – to its creator, at least – was very much more than something pleasant to look at. An early modern chair was a resoundingly significant expression of the age, a concrete rendition of abstract structural principles, an almost belligerent assemblage of mechanical parts in which every bolt was paraded with all the bravado of Erich von Stroheim’s monocle. Early modern thrived on dogma “Form Follows Function!” “Less is More!” “Structure is Beauty!” that rivaled Milton in Puritan passion; it paid deepest obeisance to the machine and let the softer human sensibilities accommodate themselves as best they could; and it dwelt, along with pre-Bach and post-Bartok, strictly among the intelligentsia.
Continue reading article at Lushpad.
I have 2 sets of these chairs and I decided to part with one. I got them both reupholstered after waiting for someone to sell this fabric on ebay for a long time. It retails for $125 a yard!
Ebay listing.
People who know me, know I love to spend time at Joann Fabrics.
Well actually I just went there for the first time, but what the hell, sewing is kind of fun. I had a bunch of fabric left-over from various upholstery projects and decided to make some pillows. I decided to hire someone to teach me how to sew. We couldn’t work out a time and I thought maybe I could figure it out on my own. 15 minutes later I said to myself, “Holy shit using a sewing machine to make a pillow is ridiculously easy.”
I don’t know how to do the closing hidden stitch, luckily Brenna knows how. Now everyone gets a late Xmas present and I can say I was planning on giving them one all along!
My attempt at a gingerbread Farnsworth house using a gingerbread kit during our company Christmas party. It took about 30 minutes using whatever we could find in our photo room. Sadly, no one really got it, although the best comment I heard was, “that’s a really cool double-wide.” Maybe they did get it after all.
Birthday time again, I don’t really care except for the cake. Brenna keeps resetting the bar and this year was another classic. Last year’s Obama cake was pretty amazing but a Cylon cake with real lights on it’s head. INSANE!!! So I fell in love with Battlestar a couple of years late. But watching it straight through on BluRay, makes me so happy.
Check out previous birthday cakes here.
I’m speechless. Brenna’s Grandmother knitted Jett 5 sweaters and they are crazy good. She is so talented. We only have photos of him wearing one, but I thought I needed to take photos of the rest to share with you. Unfortunately, she’s in the hospital recovering from heart surgery, please send this amazing lady some love.
When I proposed to Brenna, in lieu of an engagement ring, I gave her this sweet ’58 Vespa VBA 150. Oddly enough, she accepted my proposal. She didn’t seem to mind the engine was seized and basically the whole thing was hammered. I bought it off my friend Joe, who found it in someone’s garage in Salt Lake CIty.
Part of the deal was I’d have it running before we got married. Well, we got married over 2 years ago, and I’m finally starting the project. I did the body work and had some help re-welding the leg shields. I did a pretty crappy job, but fortunately the painter was able to finish.
Brenna just got a new Scion XB and I thought it’d be fun to have the Vespa painted the same color, Stingray. I’ve kind of run out of time, so I’ve handed the project over to my friend Josh at Beehive Scooters. He’s doing the final build.
He enjoys modern furniture, pancakes, dim sum and clean diapers.
Ikea just launched new wall unit system Besta. I’ve always loved MDF Italia wall units, which are crazy expensive. I liked them so much I’ve been trying to learn cabinet making just so I could knock them off. Then along came Ikea. The configuration I got took about six hours to set-up and cost $550. Luckily my friends Joe and Jessica came over to help. After putting their Ikea kitchen together, they’ve become Ikea assembly experts.
