Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Last month on KERA Channel 13, American Masters showed the documentary Eames: The Architect and the Painter discussing the relationship between Charles and Ray Eames and the Eames Office.  You can now watch the entire documentary online here.   You can also read some posts here from the Eames family about the film.

Hat tip to the Herman Miller Lifework blog for the links to the film and commentary from the Eames family.

Ice Cube talks about Los Angeles and The Eameses

Things I knew about Ice Cube:

1. He's a rapper.
2. He was in the rap group NWA.

Things I didn't know about Ice Cube:

1. He studied architectural drafting before becoming a rapper.
2. He has a healthy appreciation of mid century architecture in and around Los Angeles.

This video is a nice homage to L.A. and The Eameses.  Best line in the video: "The Eames made structure and nature one. This is going green 1949 style, bitch. Believe that."

Eames Font from House Industries

House Industries, a typographic mecca, just released the Eames Century Font. This font was developed in collaboration with the Eames family and consists not only fonts but design objects. In addition to the typeface collection, House Industries also has silk screen prints and these Eames House blocks, which are hella cool. See the collection here.

LIFE Magazine now available on Google Books

Google now has the entire catalog of LIFE magazine available through Google Books.

Of course I had to go searching for MCM related articles. Here is what I found:

Charles and Ray Eames' home from the September 11, 1950 issue.

Back in June 1961 you could by an Eichler for $26,800!

MCM House Porn - House designs commissioned by LIFE.

Article about Julius Shulman's photos of Neutra's Kaufmann House.

Oh, and my own personal tie-in to LIFE magazine - in the March 10, 1952 issue, my grandfather was mentioned in an article about the longest murder trial in Texas history - at that time. He was the defense attorney. You can read the article here.

Herman Miller and DWR to reissue Eames chair with dowel legs

Starting September 1 DWR will be the exclusive retailer of the Herman Miller re-issue of the Eames molded arm chair (DAW - $499) and side chair (DSW - $399) with the wood dowel legs. You can pre-order your chairs starting in August. Grassroots Modern has got all the pretty pictures here.

H/T to Grassroots Modern.

The making of an Eames shell chair

Great video on the making of the iconic Eames shell chair.




Tip of the hat to Grassroots Modern where I first saw the video.

A new addition

Ever since we moved into our house, we have been looking for a new dining room table. Our living/dining area is essentially one large room and could accommodate a pretty large dining table. After months of searching we finally found a table last March that we both could agree on. We decided on a custom built table from Bruce Marsh Designs in Brooklyn, NY. In August while we were in NYC for a wedding, we met with Bruce and picked out the wood, style, and dimensions of the table. The result is below.

This is the crate the table came in. The crate was so large it would not fit through our front door.






Here's the top of the table.







Wait, this is suspiciously looking like an IKEA project...







The legs are joined to the top of the table with the bolts you see above. Very simple and easy construction.






Grain detail of the table top.







The finished product! The table is 10 feet long and can sit up to 4 people per side. It is made out of solid walnut with a tung oil finish. The chairs are vintage Eames fiberglass shell chairs that I purchased on Craigslist.

The Shade Store

The Shade Store now has Maharam, Chillewich, and Dwell Studio fabric shades.

A shade like this would look perfect in a MCM or modern home.

Find out info about The Shade Store here.