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If you're a newspaper reader and you have a fireplace at home, you're gonna love this paper log briquette maker, which makes long-burning fuel bricks from old newspapers and other paper trash. Here's how it works: simply rip up waste paper, soak it in water overnight, then stuff the soggy pulp into the log maker and squeeze out any excess moisture. After letting the paper briquette dry out fully......read more
The work of Los Angeles-based interior designer Kristen Penfold is informed by eco-friendly principles, from the materials she uses through to the way she produces her furniture. Penfold's minimal Revelation Desk adds clean, modern lines to her sustainable design approach, with a raw wooden tabletop--made of reclaimed fir from an old whiskey warehouse--resting upon a stainless steel base that......read more
Today, Alice Waters is the queen bee of sustainable food movement. But it was flavor, not sustainability, that led the owner of Chez Panisse to local, organic food. Since founding the Berkeley eatery 40 years ago, Alice has helped inspire nothing short of a culinary revolution. These days, you won't find her in the restaurant's kitchen because she is too busy heading up the Chez Panisse......read more
On California artist Phillip K Smith III's five-acre property in Joshua Tree, there sits an old homesteader's cabin, a plain Jane structure with a history that dates back seventy years. For "Lucid Stead," a week-long project in October, Smith added a new chapter to the cabin's history, transforming the building's exterior into a large-scale light installation. By day, the shack’s......read more
In the new video for Belle and Sebastian's version of "Crash" by the Primitives, the bandmembers shape-shift into adorable animated versions of themselves, surrounded by a world of fast-moving big people. Director Stephen Tolfrey leaves no detail untouched -- who knew a Fred Perry shirt could look so good in miniature CGI? "Crash" is featured on the band's new LateNightTales compilation, and is......read more
For those of you that are interested in having a green wall but are intimidated by the prospects of actually doing it, designers Beau Oyler and Jared Aller have created the perfect solution in the form of Urbio, a modular plant system that makes vertical gardening easy. The system consists of a standardized wall plate and a variety of plastic vessels perfect for planting herbs, succulents, or......read more
For our final episode of Young Farmers, allow us to introduce you to Edgar, a young Angeleno who extended his passion for plants into a job that's as rewarding as any we've ever heard of: converting empty lots into community gardens. Edgar, we learn, is a man who was born to plant; when his mom was pregnant with him, she craved eating dirt. Yes, dirt. And so Edgar's fate was sealed. Now,......read more
Over the past twelve years, Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang have collected several tons of plastic debris on a small stretch of beach near their northern California home. The pieces of plastic are cleaned, categorized, and sorted, before the couple goes to work transforming the garbage into beautiful pieces of art. This short doc profiles the couple and their creative output and......read more
If you like wines from Washington state, get ready for some good news. According to a study led by Conservation International biologist Lee Hannah, rising temperatures associated with climate change will dramatically expand the vineyard-friendly space in the Pacific Northwest over the coming decades. (Unfortunately, that expansion will come at the expense of wildlife habitat.) Californian......read more
Finally, a useful way to store all of our back issues of Playb--I mean Dwell. The Magazine Stool ("Hockenheimer"), designed by Germany-based NJU Studio, turns old periodicals into a smart piece of sustainable furniture. The DIY kit features a wooden base, a pillow seat, and dual leather belts with cinches that let you make a a stool of varying heights depending on how......read more
