The love.

Today is a big day because our beloved studio assistant Colin is getting hitched. By the time you read this, we'll be outside the courthouse. Congrats Colin + Cha !!!

Speaking of love, we had such a great time last Sunday meeting so many of you at our first ever 2nds sale. Thank you for coming out. It was bumping for the whole 5 hours. Really really appreciate.

Arguing.

Late last Thursday night, Che-Wei was on a train to Boston and he texted me "we should figure out how to argue better". I texted back "sure, but please first more context".

He then sent over one of the latest Freakonomics podcasts, How Does the Lost World of Vienna Still Shape Our Lives? In this episode Stephen Dubner chats with Richard Crockett about his recent book Vienna : How the city of ideas created the modern world. The part about arguing only comes at the very end. But it left me yearning to learn more about Vienna. Also, Dubner boasts that Crockett's book was one of those rare, lucky reads that happen only once or twice a year that you can't stop thinking about.

Early in the book, Crockett talks about the concept Bildung, an idea coined by Prussian philospher + education administrator Willhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) where people prioritize and value lifelong learning and curiosity, as opposed to class and money. In the late 1800s, Vienna was very much a city of immigrants, and the people who lived there formed very strong connections with these ideas. He then goes on to talk about how these values were cultivated and shaped society.

I'm not going to re-tell the whole book, but aside from establishing access to free standardized, multidisciplinary education for men and woman ages 6-14, being a hobbyist, tinkerer, having interest in the arts or philosophy was very much ingrained in everyday life. Part of this had to do with the cafe culture, but also the architecture of middle class homes. These were very well suited with spaces to not only host gatherings, but to have workshops, or even terrariums/animal/insect habitats. It was common for groups of friends to gather at homes and for fun attempt to replicate some of the latest experiments published in scientific journals, or for young kids to raise and study insects or animals.

We all know how the story ends (not good). And even though I haven't finished the book, I can't stop thinking about that world, its loss and wondering about what parts of it remain and can be cultivated.

We received some sample parts on Monday for a new thing. (it's a pencil)

Art.

Slow continuous drip into the tumbler. We're making a lot of 1P lights which we'll hopefully launch next week once we get all the parts.

Last night in our backyard we discovered 1P light is SLUG approved.

55 66 88.

We posted a big update this week for 55 66 88. This project has been rough, but we can just about see some light at the end of the tunnel. We were up late last night (slug photographing) and also shipping silver glass bead 55 66 88s. We ended up going with ones we had made as a backup in China. And we're very happy with this decisions. If you're curious to hear more... read our full update on Kickstarter.

With love and hugs,

Che-Wei + Taylor

Unresolved is homemade.