JHG + AWD stool

Object: Revolution Furniture’s JHG + AWD stool

Location: Jesse Gerard’s apartment

Background: I wrote about Jesse Gerard for “Making It” in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Gerard now makes custom, limited edition speakers under the label Carrot Grant. (He and his speakers were one of two Pennsylvania makers featured … Read more

1950s delivery truck door

Object: Door from the delivery truck of restaurateur/chef Marcie Turney‘s grandfather’s restaurant

Location: In the basement of one of Turney’s 13th Street restaurants

Background: Turney has this and an original sign from The Spot, opened in the 1950s in Ripon, Wisconsin, in storage. One day she wants … Read more

freshly printed floral

Object: freshly printed floral

Location: Printfresh Studio, Paper Box Studios in Old Kensington

Background: Amy and Leo Voloshin  founded Printfresh Studio in 2006. Amy and her team of designers create about 80 textile designs per week to sell to clients ranging from mass-market (Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target) to higher-end apparel … Read more

Utz cheddar cheese snacks

Object: barrels of Utz cheddar cheese snacks

Location: SuperFresh, Society Hill (glowing orange in the early spring sunshine)

Background: I didn’t realize Utz and Snyder’s — two of America’s major snacking enablers — were in Hanover, Pennsylvania until I drove there to report on Emeco, manufacturer … Read more

folding bistro chair (hidden city philadelphia)

Object: folding bistro chair

Location: “The Porch” at 30th St. Station

Background: This chair, first described in the “Simplex” patent registered in 1889, is made by Fermob, the same French company that makes “the Luxembourg chair“—the green metal, tubular steel stackable chairs scattered around Paris’s Jardin du … Read more

bespoke chef’s table

Object: bespoke kitchen/dining room table

Location: the Philadelphia home of Chef Jonathan Adams (executive chef, Pub & Kitchen; co-owner, Rival Bros. Coffee)

Background:  ”Back in 2006, Snackbar (formerly at 253 South 20^th Street) was starting to come together and a millworker who was driving … Read more

hair chair (art break)

Object: trompe l’oeil chair (look closely, it’s there)

Location: Fishtown home of independent curator, Eileen Tognini

Background: The chair is by Brenna K. Murphy, whose medium is hair.

Here’s her artist statement from InLiquid: “Working primarily with my own hair, I create works on paper … Read more

heart screen

Object: screen used to print Sara Selepouchin’s ”anatomical heart diagram”

Location: Girls Can Tell‘s studio/boutique off of East Passyunk Ave., South Philly

Background: Six years ago, Selepouchin started making diagram-style illustrations for friends. She was inspired by the instruction manuals that came with her grandmother’s sewing machine and … Read more

octo chandelier

Object: octopus chandelier by Adam Wallacavage

Location: ceiling of the Jules Verne room in the designer’s South Philly home

Background: Wallacavage went to University of the Arts for photography and is a founder of Space 1026. He found his calling — making fantastically trippy and ornate … Read more