Friday, October 31, 2008

It's Dia de Los Muertos!


While we were recently visiting Houston spending quality time with family, we did a little shopping on the stretch of antique and boutique shops in the Heights (historical neighborhood near downtown). I always enjoy when we can make a quick pit stop there, as for one, my all-time favorite vietnamese food restaurant is now located here. The other reason is because like any of the old little towns (though Houston is large) I pass through, I love seeing the mix mash of storefronts. There was a shop dedicated to mexican culture with items like coconut masks, prayer dolls, candles, and more. I stumbled on a table that had a pile of various colored glazed tiles. On their faces, there were many different depictions of skeleton scenes—portraits, dancing, and horseback fighting. Being the horse lover, I opted for the latter. Here's a photo of the tile. 

Gosh, I wish I had some fresh pan dulce.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Stamp of the Day


Last night, we were organizing our ever-growing pile of stamps into archival books. I'm always so taken with these miniature masterpieces of design. Ranging in style from simple color forms to millions of tiny engraved lines, each small square area is created to convey one simple concept at one quick glance. The other great aspect I observed in the stamps we've collected is how the creator of each has also taken on another big task: designing each stamp to not only function alone, but also in a series that expands to multiple ideas (in color and form), all the while maintaining the same overall feel.

Here's a pair of two really lovely illustrated ones I found last night.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

More Muscle


This morning when I opened my email box, I found a few more notes from a happy customer. If only they also owned a de Tomaso Pantera.

Anyone, anyone?

Photo: Moolee Bunnag and Matt Kabel

Sunday, October 12, 2008

What's on my desk!


Today I'm going to start a new series on the Product Superior blog titled "What's on my desk". As the smarter amongst you will gather I will feature a single item, or related group of items that currently reside on- you guessed it- my desk. Hopefully this will prove much more interesting than my previous ideas, some of which included the novel but ultimately speculative "Who's sock is in my laundry" or the scintillating but rather crass "What's in my pants". Both of these ideas luckily fell prey to editorial revue.
So what is on my desk? Today it's a Frederick Post Tru-Point pencil pointer circa 1960, variable taper, Model D-3046 complete with original packaging. For those of you thinking "Nice orange thing dufus, what's it do?" the Tru-Point is a lead pointer, used for putting a point on a now relatively obsolete form of mechanical drafting pencil known as a leadholder. Leadholders, such as the two (one vintage, one new) in the foreground of my photo, acted as ratcheting holders for a stick of 2mm graphite and just like a wooden pencil, they required constant sharpening to stay pointed. The Tru-Point sharpened by scraping the graphite along the inside of an abrasive drum rather than with razor blades like the small sharpeners we all used to sharpen our No. 2 pencils as schoolkids. And wow does it sharpen. Despite the fact that the design is some forty odd years old it points better, breaks my lead less, and spills far fewer shavings than all of the newer designs I've tried.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Embroidery Book


We've been working on something for the upcoming season, which will utilize one of my favorite things: this amazing little embroidery pattern book I found some time ago. It is such an inspiration for me, therefore I am always looking for a perfect way to use it. Hopefully an upcoming item we'll have will prove just that...

In the meantime, here's some art I put together just for this post.