Engine Yard contacted us recently with an interesting project. They were looking to laser-etch a wall hanging for their conference room using hurling sticks (more on this later). They recently acquired Orchestra, so this hanging would represent the two companies coming together.

The hurling sticks that they gave us to use looked like they were actually played with. It took some finishing work to get it to look like a nice wall piece, but it was worth it! Here’s how the piece looked when it was done.

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One of the benefits of having a woodshop in your home at Christmas time is crafting handmade gifts. I beat the shopping crowd, produce something that’s unique, and save money all at the same time.
This year, I made a custom tray for my dad’s loose change, keys, receipts, and other tidbits that clutter the dresser top.

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We moved into an amazing work/live loft at the Cotton Mill Studios in Oakland a few months ago, and we just about love everything about this place. Except one thing. The ugly white internet box smack dab in the middle of our living space. With, of course, conduit going all the way up to the ceiling. We both thought it was a strange design decision, but we couldn’t do anything to move it.

It was such an eyesore that we started to brainstorm ways to hide it, while keeping the box and light switches accessible. Covering it with artwork just wasn’t functional, and not much could be done to hide the pipe going up to the ceiling. We finally decided on hanging a single large piece of fabric, but weren’t in love with the idea of a repetitive graphic print for our space.

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Happy Halloween from Tinkering Monkey!

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Meeho!, a software company based in Denmark, came to us for a freestanding, tabletop sign of their logo. We laser cut each of their letters out of wood, then hand painted them with a few coats of their fun, bright blue color. It turned out great!

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Fifty-five days ago, we bought a laser cutter. Those days have been long, but the wait was worth it. This behemoth arrived via freight truck today, and we couldn’t be happier. Actually, we could be happier–the machine is a lot larger than we anticipated, and we have a challenge ahead of us figuring out exactly where it will go.

But never fear, we will sleep on the kitchen floor and put this in the bedroom if we have to.

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A New York Times article titled, “Is Sitting A Lethal Activity?” came out several weeks ago that sparked a lot of conversation around our workplaces. Could it be true that all this sitting is slowly driving our bodies to an early grave? That familiar stiff feeling after a few hours of work seemed to validate the argument. We started thinking about the way we work and designed a custom standing desk to help solve the problem.

…on average, people who sit too much shave a few years off of their lives. (From Is Sitting A Lethal Activity? by the New York Times)

Update 7/11/2011: We just finished building our first table! Here’s how it looks.

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Mule design is filled with cool things. Sometimes things break in a series of unfortunate but hilarious events during a party, such as this Eero Aarnio Ball Chair.

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Everyone liked our Monkey See, Monkey Doodle notebooks so much that we started getting requests for custom branded notebooks. So of course, we had to add them to our store! We made our first book orders for Mule Design and Atelier this weekend, and they turned out great.

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I wanted to create an interesting product for the kitchen, something that was both simple and functional. While doing research, I came across a few expanding trivets, but all of them looked strange either in small or expanded mode. After some brainstorming, I came up with the Double Exposure Trivet, which is all about a very subtle, quiet form that automagically transforms to be nearly twice the original size.

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