nakashima-like art pieces in place

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

and here's a picture of them in place. i bounced the flash off the rear wall (which is red) and that explains the slint tint. they look fine on the wall and they contrast to the nelson-like clock on the same wall.

nakashima-like art piece

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

i bought a pair of these nakashima like art pieces on ebay for less then $20 for the pair. This is the nicer of the two, the other one is sun faded.

These had a nice story, came from a home of a famous executive, lots of mid century modern furniture pieces from eames, springer etc so these very well could be nakashima but i'm not aware of him making small pieces like this. And nakashima-like pieces are pretty easy to forge since he used natural organic forms it was hard for him to maintain a theme that you can identify.

They're still nice art pieces for less then $20, better then generic stuff you buy at pottery barn.

one more remixed nelson ball clock

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

and in this picture you can see one of the reasons this clock is so popular. notice how the light creates shadows with the balls.

All in all i spent around $25 total in materials, and that's not considering that i spent $15 on paint but only used about $3 worth.

finished remixed ball clock

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

And here it is finished. The hands are made from roofing flashing from Home Depot. It's basically thin squares of aluminium that i cut into the approximate shape of the original ones.

The hands are more rustic then i would like, but i'm too lazy to make new ones right now. Surprisingly the $5 quartz movement is strong enough to move the minute hand--which is much heavier then the orignal one. This actually keeps pretty accurate time--well as accurate as you can get with a ball clock. The lack of minute markers means you're always guessing at the time anyway.

my take on nelson ball clock

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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.

and a closeup

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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.

toronto house

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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!

mod-design meets traditional

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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.

the claw!

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

spooky dog

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

ontario college of art and design

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.

ylighting sale

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.

dwr 10% of (almost) everything sale

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 :)

intro

this blog i maintain for home related things, like mod furniture, decorating things like that...