Best of the Twin Cities
Shops, products, designs, and bargains we love
(page 2 of 4)
10. BEST HOSTESS GIFT
Stylized “Bees” candles by Black & Light Company of Traverse City, Michigan, are a perfect gift for a sweet hostess. When lit, the candle glows from wick to base (light even emanates from the bottom). Plus, the sale of each “Bees” candle supports the Harry Laidlaw Honeybee Research Facility at UC Davis, where researchers are searching for solutions to the decline in honeybees. Candles, which arrive in chic, 100-percent recycled gift boxes designed specifically for re-gifting, run $28 each. Choose from black, gold, butternut, or aqua; Max’s, 3831 Grand Way, St. Louis Park, 952-922-8364, stylebymax.com.
11. BEST ECO-LEASE
Solar power is great for the environment, but it’s pricey: a single photovoltaic system can run $47,700, even after incentives and rebates. That’s why freEner-g is such a brilliant idea. For $200 a month, the company will install solar panels on your home and service them for you. If your panels create more electricity than you use, Xcel Energy will buy your excess kilowatts. FreEner-G, 2740 31st Ave. S., Minneapolis, 612-605-5228, freener-g.com.
12. BSET "GREEN" COUNTERTOPS
In the basement of a time-worn Northeast Minneapolis brownstone, four friends mix, cast, and hand-polish some of the most environmentally sensitive countertops in the country. Element Surfaces blend low-VOC epoxy resin with recycled glass, mostly from a curbside recycling program in Fargo. Each pattern in the 14-style collection is named for Minnesota cities and landmarks: “Itasca” is a sleek mix of recycled auto and clear plate glass in a light gray matrix; “Crow Wing” blends black post-industrial glass in an off-white setting; and the recently introduced “Goodhue” includes recycled clear-plate glass mixed into a resin matched to the paint color of your choice. Element Surfaces, $112 to $140 per square foot (installed); order through Natural Built Home, 4020 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, 612-605-7999, naturalbuilthome.com.
13. BEST CUSTOM DOORS
Since the 1960s, Russ Underdahl, Sr., has been traveling the world snapping photos of gorgeous doors. When he returns to Minneapolis, he and his team at Pinecrest interpret, stylize, and otherwise reproduce those pics into some of the most elaborate doors available anywhere. Hand-carved of solid hardwoods and inset with custom beveled glasswork, Pinecrest doors have been installed in such star-studded locales as the Saudi Arabian royal palace and Britney Spears’s mansion. If you want a replica of the door to Marie Antoinette’s boudoir at Versailles or the entry doors to the Swedish Parliament, Pinecrest is the place to get them. But they won’t come cheap: Prices start at $800 and go up (way up) from there. Pinecrest, 2118 Blaisdell Ave., Minneapolis, 612-871-2490, pinecrestinc.com.
14. BEST NEW IDEA
For Cinda Baxter, a Minneapolis retail consultant and former owner of Calhoun Village stationery shop Details, Ink, it all comes down to one statistic: If just 50 percent of the employed population spent $50 total among three locally owned, independent businesses each month, those shops would get an annual revenue boon of roughly $42.6 billion. That’s why Baxter launched the 3/50 Project, a simple way to encourage shoppers to consider the unique boutique, the mom-and-pop shop, and the local café when doling out those disposable-income dollars. Considering how many gift and furniture shops have closed in the past several months in the Twin Cities metro alone (see page 22 for a sobering roll call), we wholeheartedly endorse the idea. Find out more at the350project.net.
Photo provided
by raivo art
15. BEST UTILITARIAN INDULGENCE
Photo provided
by raivo art
For nearly 24 years, local artisans Keith and Valerie Raivo have been making Americana objets d’art: handmade baskets, laundry hampers, and woven chests. They hand-select their elm, red oak, walnut, and maple boards; soak and steam the wood into pliability; tightly weave the wood species together; and finish their creations with square-shanked copper rivets, leather hinges, and a protective coat of Danish oil. Chests and hampers start at $800; order through the artisans at 320-679-4667, raivoart.com.
16. BEST INDUSTRIAL EDGE
A secret resource for architects across the metro, Custom Stainless Steel is a six-man metalworking shop in an unassuming St. Paul strip mall. They specialize in items such as this coolly modern stainless steel sliding screen, created for a loft designed by Altus Architecture + Design of Minneapolis. They also make stainless counters and cabinets, copper-wrapped range hoods, iron staircase handrails, aluminum fireplace surrounds, and custom outdoor kitchens and doors. Custom Stainless Steel, 3775 Lexington Ave., St. Paul, 651-765-9004, customstainlesssteelinc.com.
Photo provided
by schumacher
17. BEST NEW UPHOLSTERY COLLECTION
Photo provided
by schumacher
Designer Trina Turk and the renowned Schumacher fabric company teamed up this year to introduce an indoor-outdoor fabric collection we find quite stunning. Channeling California architecture in breezy blues, citrus hues, and bold graphic prints, the new collection adds a punch of West Coast style without overwhelming the eye. $76 to $96 per yard. Available through Schumacher, 275 Market St., Suite 407, Minneapolis, 612-338-6434, fschumacher.com.
18. BEST TWO-FER WEEKEND
Drive the North Shore this fall to absorb the best colors and scenery in Minnesota. Or double your pleasure by making the trip between September 25 and October 4 to catch the thirteenth annual Crossing Borders Studio Tour & Sale. Eight artists’ studios along Highway 61 from Duluth to Thunder Bay are open for the tour, with 20 artists showing work for sale. See Michael Tonder’s haunting glass ice sculptures, Lee Ross’s iron-ore and pure-blue palettes, and the work of many others in the singular environment that inspires them. Visit crossingbordersstudiotour.com for more info.
19. BEST USE OF DIGITAL IMAGES
German chemists discovered a way to fuse digital images to glass or ceramic using a technology that made the images UV light, dust, and scratch resistant.Amy Baur and Brian Boldon, a Minneapolis husband-and-wife team who adapted this technology to art, now make dreamy photographic collage tiles, custom conceptualized for each buyer. Yes, you could just ask them put a picture of your sailboat on your shower wall, but then you’d miss out on the evocative possibilities they could create for you. In Plain Sight Art (Amy Baur and Brian Boldon); prices start at $72 per 8-inch tile, 612-788-9301, inplainsightart.com.
Photo provided by Josh Blanc
20. BEST INTER-STELLAR ART BUY
Photo provided by Josh Blanc
Like the chaotic cosmos, charged with colliding particles, incendiary gas giants, and vacuous dark matter, Josh Blanc’s “Cosmic’’ clay wall tiles are a study in violent chemical reaction and messy, drippy, fabulous imperfection. The Minneapolis artist lets raw, green clay air-dry to leather-like hardness. Then he chooses among his favorite glazes—aurora borealis, deepest darkest blue, cocoa moon, black hematite, and 26 other stargazer-inspired hues—and pours, swirls, and generally plays around with them until they are ready to go into the kiln. The finished tiles can be grouped into inspired wall-art installations or used in backsplashes or fireplace surrounds. Like the stars themselves, no two are alike. Clay Squared to Infinity (Josh Blanc), 34 13th Ave. NE, Minneapolis, 612-781-6409, claysquared.com.
6 ISSUES (1 YEAR)
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It’s a medium you probably didn’t know existed. But fire art—made by heat, spark, or flame, yielding everything from sculpture to jewelry to fire-breathing—now has its own home, in the newest and funkiest arts center in Minneapolis. The Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center just opened in a former movie theater, where artists weld and wield blowtorches and pound on anvils—a blacksmith shop without all the horses. http://www.wildlifeworld360.com