I've said it before, and I'll say it again. One of the absolutely most rewarding things about starting this little blog has been the opportunities it has given me to meet some truly amazing people and do some truly amazing things. Point in case. I wrote an article in this months Dwell magazine about my good friend and amazing shop owner Ron Green of The Green Ant. Dwell magazine used to do a regular feature every month about a "Nice Modernist". If it wasn't for a whole bunch of nice modernists, I would never have gotten this great opportunity.

Looking back, it's interesting to see the chain of events that lead up to this opportunity. It started a year ago when Corian was nice enough to fly me back to Chicago to see a new collaboration that they were doing with DIRTT. I wrote about it here. 

Amanda Dameron image via Inhabitat

While I was in Chicago I had the opportunity to meet the now Editor in Chief of Dwell magazine Amanda Dameron. At the time I knew she worked for Dwell but had no idea she was next in line for the top editorial position. I met her after a few beers, and I'm pretty sure my first words to her were something along the lines of "You work for Dwell? I've got a bone to pick with you." Over the next few hours she was nice enough to let me rant about how I thought that Dwell was unfairly pushing prefab as an affordable modern housing solution, how Dwell has turned its back on the Fruit Bowl Manifesto, and how they screwed over their online community when they axed their original forums. The nice thing about stepping out from behind your computer and having real conversations with real people is that it makes it much easier to see both sides of the issue.

By the end of the night she had me convinced that Allison Arieff (former Editor in Chief of Dwell) pushing prefab was no different than John Entenza pushing case study houses, and that Dwell was just as focused on the little guy today as it ever was. One thing in particular that she said really stuck in my head. She referred to Dwell as "scrappy". It's easy to think of Dwell as a giant powerhouse and poke fun of it, but the reality is it really is made up of a small group of passionate employees. Sure they aren't perfect, but they try. 

Later that year when Dwell was in Salt Lake City for Sundance I had the opportunity of showing the lovely Aaron Brit and Alex Polier around town. I took them to some of my favorite local places like The Green Ant, Beckett and Robb, Eva's, the new Natural History Museum of Utah and even the wacky Gilgal sculpture garden (shown above). I assume that they were suitably impressed by The Green Ant that they contacted me in the spring of 2012 and asked me to do an interview with Ron. 

The rest is as they say, history. 

If you have been living under a rock, prepare yourself. I'm about to blow your mind. Salt Lake City now has a West Elm! It is kind of cool seeing Salt Lake City starting to act like a real city. It is sort of like being proud of your kid sister when she finally makes it into high school and doesn't act like a total dork. 

West Elm is not dorky at all, in fact it is pretty amazing. I had the chance to hang out with the kind folks from West Elm over the last couple of days and talk to them about what they are doing different, and I have to say I'm quite impressed. The number one thing is their focus on local. Something arguably hard for a nation wide chain to do. In SLC they have teamed up with Craft Lake City who has curated a group of four local Etsy shops that will have their products featured in the City Creek West Elm store. They have a solid lineup to start things off and will be featuring the following…

Stacey Foster (Fletcher & Fox)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FletcherandFox

Lisa Steadman Photography

http://www.etsy.com/shop/diemdesign

Say hello Shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sayhelloshop

Sycamore Press

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sycamorestreetpress

Here are a few shots I took from their open house party they had last night…

Smilebooth was amazing… 

The amazing Elizabeth of Fleur de Sel fame.

Looking for full sized photos? Check my Flickr page.

Lately I've been really enamored with facets and geometry. With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and declare that this Large Block Clock by Such + Such is amazing. Each clock is made from North American hard maple and is individually numbered. 

Large Block Clock by Such + Such $219

I am loving these "wild head" prints that Bongo Design did a while ago. Actually I love pretty much everything that Bongo has been doing lately. If you're not familiar with them, check them out.

Bongo Design

I've been eyeing these fantastic lamp shades from Mod Pieces for a few weeks now, and I'm officially ready to give them two thumbs up. Fiz & Foster have a fantastic collection of bright geometric shades that are just the thing to brighten up your room. Which is your favorite, Houndstooth, Navaho Print or Lattice?

Fiz & Foster shades $225

Tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM is SL Modern's fall tour. It will be held at Snowbird ski resort, and will include a tour of Utah's only modernist resorts with one of the original architect/planner Ray Kingston. For those of you in Salt Lake this is a once in a lifetime chance to get all the details about what went into this amazing resort. 

Not in Utah? No problem. Check out the docomomo website to find a modern tour near you. 

Buy tickets and get more information about the Snowbird event on SLModern.org

You can also get more great information about Snowbird's modern architecture here.

Photo's via SLModern.org

Best Made threw the whole internet into a tizzy when they first released their equally beautiful and functional axes. At least I assume they are functional. Chances are if you are going to take one into the woods to let your inner Paul Bunyan out, you might want to keep that pretty thing protected while in transit. Enter the new Best Made Canvas Axe Case. 

Coincidently, if you'r not looking to drop a bunch of money on a Best Made Axe, check out my friend Chris's tutorial on how to make your own DIY painted axes.

Best Made Canvas Axe Case $110

I know I'm getting lazy posting lately. I'm super busy working on some new things including some updates to the site, and getting licensed to sell (modern) homes in Utah. Hopefully my posting frequency will pick back up soon, in the meantime enjoy this video of Arne Jacobsen.

Just a quick shout out today for micklish. I posted about them a few months ago, and I'm totally stoked to see them on Fab today.  This is really the heart of indie manufacturing in the US today. One guy designing and making beautiful products. Support your local designer and go buy some stuff on Fab.

micklish on Fab

While you're at it, like them on FB too. 

It's been a little while since I posted about Toast's iPhone covers. Since then it seems like there has been plenty of competition in the area. Well it looks like they are stepping up the game once again, this time with the iPad. I really love this look. Huge props for the subtle relief on the sides so that they form to the case better. Part of me almost feels like this is the way the iPad should have come from Apple. Of course this is one of those things where real life experience can make it or break it, so if you get a chance to see one of these in the wild, let us know. Available in walnut or white washed ash. 

Toast iPad cover $45

I've always been a fan of quilts ever since I was a kid. For one Christmas I remember the only thing I wanted was to have my mom make me a nice heavy quilt. Lucky for me she delivered, unlucky for me I picked out a black and forest green flannel. Flash forward 20 years and my mom and I are still talking about quilts. Luckily our taste has evolved and there are some amazing modern quilts out there. If you haven't seen the work of Barbara Perrino you are seriously missing out. She was nice enough to recently send some pictures of her latest work my way.  Check them out below.

b/perrino quilts

I'm always interested to see what takes off on Kickstarter, and what doesn't. The Jack planter above seems like something that should be super successful. It's playing to the MCM vibe, filling a market that is relatively untapped (outdoor modern planters) and is reasonably priced. What's more, the campaign seems very transparent in that the majority of the money is going straight to the people actually building the things.  Last and not least, they only need $6,200 to be funded. That's not much for a kickstarter campaign.  Sadly so far it has only received $1,400 of funding and it only has 7 days left. 

Love it? Support it. 

If you don't think it should be funded, let us know why in the comments. 

Jack planter

Everyone loves Best Made. Sure at first it was all pretty axes, but now they have branched out quite a bit. Their latest release is this Duck Canvas Utility Tray. So what say you? Another home run?

Available in a small 6.5" (d) or large 10" (d).

Best Made Duck Canvas Utility Tray $26 - $32

There are a few constants in my life lately, namely I'm in love with brass, and I'm a sucker for bottle openers. Obviously I fell in love with this one.

Hand carved from wax, these brass bottle openers are left unfinished to allow a unique patina to develop over the facets and textures in each handle. The wide opening allows the head to land firmly on the top of any bottle. 

I own a few brass bottle openers (told you I'm a sucker) and one of my favorite things about them is the weight. I have a feeling this one wouldn't disappoint either. 

Bottle Opener from Fort Standard $73

A few weeks ago I went to the Park City Arts Festival. For some reason arts festivals always sound exciting and interesting but inevitably end up having the exact same things I saw the year before.  Really, how many different booths do we need for wooden cutting boards made out of different types of wood?

The one shinning star that did stand out was Robert Siegel's ceramics. Sure they weren't totally original, we've seen similar designs from Pigeon Toe ceramics and others, but amongst all the other booths it was a beautiful thing to see. Make sure you check out his Kauai collection shown above as well as his standard line. 

All of his prices are very reasonable for a hand made product.

Robert Siegel Ceramics

Here is a Kickstarter project that was destined for success from day one. First off it's designed by one of my favorite designers Eric Pfeiffer. Second, it holds wine, which everyone loves. Third, it looks great. The fantastic photos that accompany it don't hurt at all either. The STACT modular wine rack is made of aluminum and your choice of wood, and is a modular system that can grow and move with you. It puts your bottles on display, and equally important, close at hand. 

The Kickstarter project still has 28 days to go and has already doubled the funding it needs to get off the ground.  Mark my words folks, this is your chance to get it for a great deal. After this I bet it will still be produced but prices will go up.

STACT modular wine rack, starting at $95.

It's been over a years since I first wrote about the potential demolition of the Prudential Federal Savings and Loan building in Salt Lake City. Since then the issue has mostly been out of the public light, but thankfully in the last few weeks there has been some discussion around the issue. Today the Salt Lake Tribune ran an article discussing the potential loss of the this great piece of Mid Century Modern architecture. It's interesting to see that almost all of the comments are in favor of saving the building. 

If you would like to know more about the building, I'd urge you to read the short article about it on SaltLakeArchitecture.blogspot.com

Want to get involved. It's easy, start by sending Mayor Ralph Becker a message to let him know what you think.

*Top 3 images via saltlakearchitecture.blogspot.com

Photo by Julius Shulman from Art in Architecture - by Louis G. Redstone, FAIA

Artist: Tom Van Sant, "Birds in Flight," 100 birds with wingspread of 4 feet, attached to three bronze-encased stainless-steel rods, each 120 feet high (electrode posited - bronze process developed from the aircraft industry); theme symbolic of seagulls which saved Morman crops by eating locusts, 1964

I stumbled across these three affordable modern side tables on Overstock.com today and figured they were worth sharing. As is always the case, you get what you pay for, but at least your not paying much. The Dyer End Table (above) has a great simple wire base and a "engineered wood" top with a  basswood veneer. The consensus in the reviews seem to back up the fact that it's solid. If the top doesn't age well, hit up your local stone yard for a marble remnant. 

Dyer End Table $60

The Triplet Round Glass Top with Tripod Base end table (talk getting literal with the names) is also a looker. The chrome and glass give it a much more contemporary look than the Dyer above. Again the reviews are almost all positive with most of them making comments on how sturdy it was. Again at $60 the price is right.

TRGTWTB end table $60

Sometimes I like it a little rough. I suspect in fact that many of you do. The latest trend in modern furniture is using reclaimed and less polished materials in contrast to clean modern forms to create an interesting visual tension. Feeling the olympic spirit, UK based James Henry Austin designed a range of furniture built from salvaged sports hall flooring (that a gym floor in case you wondered). The lines are simple and often even traditional but the execution and presentation are just right to make it modern and interesting. 

James Henry Austin

I'm not sure whether it's better to describe Vanessa Gade's work as wearable sculpture or jewelry, but either way I'm in love. She combines simple materials and simple shapes to make breathtakingly beautiful pieces of art. This year at Dwell On Design she introduced her new FORME line which explores more organic geometric shapes. She draws inspiration from her surroundings, everything from flagstone pathways to the overlapping power lines of the MUNI train in San Francisco. 

A special thanks to Vanessa for sending me a beautiful necklace (above) for my girlfriend*. 

Vanessa Gade