Category: design (Page 2 of 3)

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

Ok so i’ve been wanting a nelson ball clock for quite a while. However i did not want to pay the ~$300 for one from Vitra that is a reproduction.

At the same time i did not want to buy a vintage one on ebay either, they’re still pretty expensive for a design that is knocked off a lot. So what to do? Well i was at a discount store (Marshall’s maybe?) and found a ball clock missing the hands, it was also in natural wood finish. I bought it for $5 with a plan of ‘remixing’ it.

It cost me about $15 in paint, spray lacquer and brushes to get it to this point. I used acrylic paint over the natural wood, hand sanded it to smooth out the brush marks and 3 coats of spray lacquer. I still need to finish the hands but you get the idea.

I picked colors similiar to the original pictures i found, but there are many versions of this clock. I also chose to use a glossy finish which is not true to the original.

I’ll post a follow up once the clock is complete. I’m not sure it will keep time because i made the new hands from flashing and they are much larger then the hands that came with the quartz movement. but it should look good.

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

a little closer pic of the first floor box, there is a garage level below this one, so it’s technically the second level but i think it’s the first living level.

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

a little closer up front, notice how sections are boxes stacked on top of each other, and how the top floor cants out from the rest of the house. for some reason people were curious why i was taking pictures. There’s too much glare but there were people inside working, i had to get out of there before they caught me!

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

I was walking around toronto (from chinatown towards cn tower) and on a side street–of not the best neighborhood was this house. As you can see it definately stands out from the other houses. The second floor is almost canti-levered above the first floor. It is very cool, and hard to see from the pictures but you can see all the way through.

ontario college of art and design
Originally uploaded by minhi.

the OCAD in Toronto, this is near chinatown, if you’re in the area ask where the park is and it towers over the park–just look up.

if you have money ylighting.com is having their often-times sale. They sell authentic designer lights, these are not IKEA lights, you would not throw these away when you moved, you’d hold onto them like heirlooms. Many of the lamps are pieces of art and would stand well as a centerpiece in a room! I’m eying the cortina or elise. I need a skinny tall lamp and i’m tired of the lamp shade route.

if you’re eyeing something at www.dwr.com (design within reach) they have a 10% of nearly everything sale. I’m not sure if it applies to their storefront or if it’s only website orders. does not apply to anything knoll or herman miller.

i’ve been looking at the sapien bookcase and the holdeverything version of the same bookcase. I know it’s not a very practical bookcase but i like the aesthetic qualities. I’m also thinking about the elise or cortina floor lamps but it’s a little tough to pay that much for a lamp. At least for me at this point in my life 🙂

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

I’ve been looking for these type of glasses for a few years. I remember using a shorter version in Germany a couple years ago and could never find them in the US. My sister brought these home for my parents from the UK, but they never used them so i borrowed them (don’t tell my sister!).

They’re a little impractical because they only hold about 6oz and they’re a pain to wash. But they feel really good in your hand because they’re heavy. All that space between the green and the bottom is solid glass.

Recently I’ve seen similiar glasses at Sur La Table, set of 4 for $20. But these feel a little heavier then those.

I like liquor from these because you tend to linger over those drinks so it’s more of an event to use them. If i want to impress i’ll use them for OJ too.

If it’s not obvious by now i have a wierd thing about drinking glasses and cups. more pictures at my flickr site, link on right.

bodum oj
Originally uploaded by minhi.

i love how cool these bodum pavina glasses look with liquid in them. this is orange juice and it’s like the yolk of an egg suspended in midair.

i’ve also discovered that ice cream will not melt as fast in these glasses. actually ice cream is very slow to melt in these glasses–more later.

ontario college of art and design
Originally uploaded by minhi.

i took these pictures on my visit to Toronto in june. goto my flickr site to see the rest. before my trip i remember seeing a picture of this in a design magazine, i think it was dwell (dwellmag.com, great modern design magazine), and i really wanted to find it. I didn’t remember the name, but the location was ‘near’ the CN Tower. This was my first mistake, I started by heading towards the CN Tower, wandering around a lot and never found it. I walked back to Chinatown where we were having dinner. There is a park a few blocks from Chinatown, as I sat down and looked up–there’s the building.

As i took these pictures i heard people say either: “Wow, that’s the coolest building!” or “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen!” It’s polar for sure. I love how they built on top of the existing building instead of tearing it down or another building nearby.

Oh and it was freaking hot in Toronto that weekend, close to 100F, in Canada of all places, it was cooler in Virginia at the time!