Sandwiches

RECYCLING MAKES THE MATERIAL GO ROUND (PART 1)

We've made a little noise, heard by virtually no one, about our sustainability. But hell, as everyone says, we're green, you're green, we all scream about how we're green. Except in this case it's true: the steel we use to make our furniture comes from US-based electric arc furnace mills and the raw material for those mills is scrap steel, virtually all of it post-consumer. Sure, there's quite a bit of energy required to power the mills but we figure that's offset (at least in our minds) by the wicked durability of our furniture (the chairs will outlast you). Anyway, that scrap has to come from somewhere and today we took a trip to one of those somewheres and snapped these "unauthorized" photos—at least the aggressive dude who told us to quit said they were unauthorized. Crazy magnetic pickers and crushing and snipping jaws, the place would be a perfect setting for some Tillman machine-on-machine battling.

WOODY-WOODY TURTLE DINER

There are good things about making prototypes for sale, especially for sale to friends and especially especially for sale to friends with mad photography skills. Some of these good things are obvious, especially the mad photography skills bit. Less obvious, maybe, is that you get to sell the thing at a discount and everybody feels good about the transaction. Least obvious, probably, is that when you've been making furniture for going on ten years now you end up with a house full of prototypes and little room for anything else. Hoarding is one thing, hoarding furniture is quite another. Picture stacks of tables and chairs up to the ceiling and you get a sense of the potential hazard. Thankfully this one (in white oak, by request) is gone into the world. More will come since the all-wood Turtle is a big winner. We'll offer a version in walnut and forming plywood in that new catalog we've been pimping (think spring).

ROADRUNNER STOOLS

It seems like forever since we made a new piece, but really, it hasn't been that long. There was that fresh new wood-base Turtle diner we made for our friend Jamie in Boulder, and there were those pieces for that DAM auction, and those new outdoor tables for that huge company in San Francisco (at long last, we're done with that job). But really, when you're making something for someone else compromises are made, tastes are satisfied. But these prototypical Roadrunner stools? Just for us, just because we think they're completely rad. So much so that we're building a whole batch of them to add to our production catalog, in MDF and in solid walnut. With our dialed seat slope front to back and stainless footrests and stretchers. Oh my Christ, they rule the stool world. More newness and more hotness is coming, with that new catalog come spring.

YELLOW IN WINTER (ALMOST)

Just in time for the bleakness and the grayness of winter: Yellow. Big and bright and beautiful; the hot sun on your neck. We know what we know and Spring is coming eventually, we swear. But still, we're thinking of Spring in November? It's sad at worst and Pollyannaish at best: not yet Winter (officially, but don't tell Loveland) and we're already thinking Spring (a capital S no less!)? Yes, here we are, cups overflowing, two flights of shag-carpeted stairs. A proper pair of Aprils, a couple of idiots, babbling and strewing flowers. But fuck all of that: beauty is enough after all. Look for more of it in our new catalog, with new colors, come Spring. Come Spring!

TURTLE DESK IN SOLID WALNUT

At long last, the long-promised Turtle desk in solid walnut. Yes, solid walnut, tip-to-toe, except for the powder-coated aluminum drawer pulls. Our first attempt at translating the steel shapes of our classic Turtle diner into walnut. A screaming success, if we may make so bold. Nearly eight feet long and a mere twenty-four inches deep, he's long and lean and solid as a rock. We'll offer a version with the steel base, to be sure, but this fella's woodiness has us weak-kneed and short-of-breath. If you just can't wait until we get the Tillmans to make the changes to add him to the site, give us a ring and we'll get you one, right-quick.

ARMADILLO, ARMYDILLO

Yes, that is a solid copper Armadillo coffee table and that is a mirror polish on the inside and a proper camouflage patina on the outside. How? Why? We've asked ourselves those very questions. The short answers involve a fund-raising auction for the Denver Art Museum and a bit of DoubleButter magic. The long answers (when and where and how much) will follow in another post. For now, just try to contain yourself.

OUR WALL, AT THE END OF SUMMER

At last, at the tail end of summer, we managed to dig out from under long enough to build a gate for the front entrance to the shop compound. Gone is the warped and splitting piece of plywood we used to wedge between our shop and the neighbor's building. No more kicking your way in, sorry to say. But the new gate is made for climbing: all soft-edged tubing, easy even on a high-speed approach with the heat on your tail. With a very fresh stainless catch and a satisfyingly thunderous slam.

OOOOHH, SPARKS!

This excuse to show a fun and sparky animated gif is what it looks like when we grind off a bit of weld and otherwise soften the top back edge or our steel Roadrunner chairs as part of the clean-up process prior to finishing. Thankfully there's no sound since the rough whining rasp of the grinder gets annoying fast. But the sparks? They never get old.