lamp inspired by vernor panton moon lamp

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

This picture is an excuse to play with my digital camera and long exposure times. If you've seen these lamps before they are a fun way to add some light to a room.

The "shell" is composed of pieces of plastic that pivot on the frame, you can create a full moon, half moon, quarter moon or anything in between.

This is not an original, it's an inspired by original new. It doesn't have a feel of an old piece which is my only real complain't. I love the shadows it creates--though this picture is a dramatic example.

ikea wine rack

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

I know it's been a long time between posts, more a problem with (lack of) inspiration then anything else.

This is to talk about the "VURM" Wine Rack from Ikea, you can find it HERE.
It is only $9.99 and is made from stainless steel i think.

I'm actually writing this for a cross post, but here's a quick review of it.

I was drawn to this because of the my specific situation; tall and narrow. I also wanted something cheap and these are the cheapest wall hanging solution i could find.

So here's the good
--cheap but functional, just what you expect from Ikea.
--design is stable
--neutral color
--cheap for a vertical wine rack!

And here's the bad
--not uniform, so you can't mount them end to end. the openings also are not uniform (more below).
--will not fit larger bottom bottles, i've noticed these are usually French, so champagne, French wine & cognac.
--if you remove and insert bottles often, you can scratch up the labels (might be important to some)
--not the cheapest option, especially if you have more space.

You might notice that I have a larger French wine bottle in the top slot. But that is the only slot I could get it into, the openings are not uniform and it is a super tight fit. The label is scratched up from squeezing it in there.

I also inserted some other bottles to show what will fit. The belgian ale bottle is at the limit of what will fit, but IIRC a Chimay might not fit. The vodka bottle fits no problem. Normally I wouldn't store them like this but it's nice that I can in a pinch.

And here are some cheaper but less versatile solutions from Ikea HERE

Overally I'm very happy with them, I might repaint them but the function is good. It solved my specific problem which was to take advantage of dead space in a corner.

Larger pic one

Larger close up pic

retro jetson's clock

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

here's one more in place.

good ebay, bad ebay

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

if you look over my blogs you'll see that i'm a big ebay user. like everything, if you're careful with your spending you can make some good purchases. it's not different then if you're at a flea market or any old store--you have to have a good eye and know how much you want to spend.

But as well as i spend my money, sometimes i make not the best purchases. I would not categorize them as "bad" but they're in the good deal category. So i'm going to review some of my home furnishing purchases and critique them for you.

Here we have a retro-mod clock from Sterling Noble. The listing was careful not to state it was old but at the same time did call it vintage so it was a smart listing. I knew it was not new so i ended up paying ~$22 total for it.

If you take a step back and think of it as just a clock that's not too bad, an alarm clock at Target is around $15. And it would be difficult to find one of this design because this 50's retro, jetson's space age design is not popular anymore.

If you try to look at it as old or vintage then it's a failure because it is neither those things.

But don't look at it like that, it's a cool looking clock that's hard to find.

I rate this as an average buy, maybe a little better then average. It's a cute clock and looks good in place.

the globe!

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Originally uploaded by minhi.

late for halloween. i bought this lamp on ebay as an impulse and did not relize how big it really is, it give's off an goldish glow and when lit it looks pretty cool but i need to find a better place for it. click through to flickr for another picture. it was a pretty good buy price wise and it's definately vintage!

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.