Mid Century Barn Find Has Surgery and Makes a Comeback

   When collecting windows for a greenhouse project to be completed next summer I found these cabinets neglected in a barn. They had 15+ years of dirt and dust on them and, unfortunately, their little legs and feet were beginning to melt into the mud and needed to be amputated.
   After a thorough cleaning and a little surgery, the two mid century style boxes were fitted with a shared prosthetic...

The Magnus

   A little something out of the shop. It comes from a design that a friend found, apparently it had already been purchased and he wanted it. So a replication was in order.
 The frame is made of solid steel 3/4 inch (19mm) square rod. The top is butcher block oak that has been fumed and then finished with an antique recipe that I have been dying to try for years. It came out amazing! The middle shelf is zinc coated sheet metal that has been given a nice black patina. All of the metal is waxed to seal it from any corrosion and protect the steel for many years.
  There are more detailed pictures (click on to magnify) after the jump:

I Am Not a Storyteller, I Am a Designer

  While at a recent conference or whatever you want to call it- a convention really- I was asking different people of the design industry what they saw as important for breaking into the design industry and getting a business moving, growing, breathing! Anything!!  Of all the BS remarks that I can't even remember there was one that really got under my skin. They said, "you need to tell a story...." Whhhaaaaatttt? So now that I design, manage, produce, sell, and finance my little world now I have to become a what? A storyteller? Like J.R. Tolkin? David Sedaris? Rudyard Kipling? What are storytellers known for designing that we are sitting on, talking/texting on, playing, or otherwise using today?
Nothing. That's what.

Rant over.

 Then I saw this video and realized I wasn't so alone in the world. I am so happy, I am going back to designing!

You are not a storyteller - Stefan Sagmeister @ FITC from FITC on Vimeo.

Design Hangover- Birch Beer Edition

Dear Blog,
  I never thought that I would be writing a letter to you; I suppose, though, that it has come to this. I just finished that last of the Birch Beer and after much thinking there are some conclusions that I have come to.

First- I am bored with design. Now this is a loaded statement. By "design" I mean the design world as a whole. Some new chair being released! so what....  There is a new app that will help you design your whole garden and even tells you where to put the plants! Amazing!!! big whoop...  Nearly every aspect of the design world is seems to come across as totally and completely hollow, fake, and over hyped.

Second- Reflecting on the FilliQuist portfolio I am not too impressed right now. I was forced to look at my work as the deadline for the Greenhouse application for the Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair approaches. Perusing things that I had thought were great once now seems a little blah. I have better and you will see them little Blog- I promise.

Third- Those better ideas that I have... I will make them a reality and you (Blog) and you (readers) will see them. These are not ideas that are mediocre, but ideas that I hope will truly inspire and show what I have hoped for FilliQuist to present all these years past and continue to show well into the future.

Finally- My dear little blog, I no longer will be sharing mostly FilliQuist information, products and achievements. The world will be allowed to make it's impression upon your pages and things that shape the FilliQuist world shall be exposed here upon you.

Ever your humble servant,
  Skip Filliquist