The Ciseal Blog

We were super excited to see our Ray iPad stand used in a scene on Queen of the South on the USA Network.  Queen of the South is a dark, gritty drama that tells the powerful story of Teresa Mendoza, a woman who is forced to run and seek refuge in America after her drug-dealing boyfriend is unexpectedly murdered in Mexico.  If you're a fan of the show, you probably spotted the Ray in season 2, episode 8, in the scene at 8:52 into the episode.  We love seeing our stuff out in the wild!  Feel free to let us know if your eagle eye sees our products in a show you love.

Here at Ciseal, we are constantly inspired by Mid Century design.  Each product we design and make has a Midcentury bent to it because we’re huge fans of the clean lines, natural materials, and useful elegance of so many of the classic Midcentury designs.  The best part is when we hear from customers that they’re going to pair one of our products with one of their cherished mid century pieces.  Here are some combos our customers have created that perfectly pair Ciseal products with classic Mid Mod pieces.

Ray iPad Stand & Nelson Swag Leg Desk 

Nelson Swag Leg Desk Photo by DWR

From the elegant swag legs up to the colorful dividers, the Nelson Swag Leg Desk is the perfect pair for the elegantly functional Ray iPad Stand.  We don’t blame you if your Ray takes up permanent residence on this classic mid century desk.  Learn more about the Ray iPad Stand in our shop.

Aspen Magazine Rack & Noguchi Table

Noguchi Table Photo by DWR

It’s so iconic that it’s almost too popular for it’s own good, but we can’t help but be in awe of the simple elegance of the Noguchi Table.  Add the Aspen Magazine rack to keep that glass surface free from clutter and you’ve got yourself a perfect pairing.  Learn more about the Aspen Magazine Rack in our shop.

Mission Firewood Holder & Wegner Shell Chair

Wagner Shell Chair Photo by DWR

The Wegner Shell Chair is sometimes called the “smile chair” for good reason - it certainly brings a smile to our bent ply obsessed faces whenever we see one.  Our perfect pairing to this iconic chair is the Mission Firewood Holder which echoes the chair’s lightness, grace, and elegance.  Learn more about the Mission Firewood Holder in our shop.

Traverse Table Lamp & Finn Juhl Credenza

Finn Juhl Credenza Photo by DWR

What Midcentury fan doesn’t love a pop of color?  The Finn Juhl Credenza is one of our favorites precisely because it embraces all of the basic principles of mid century design: Clean lines, form follows function, natural materials, and just enough color to bring a smile to your face.  Pair it with our Traverse Table Lamp for a perfect pairing of functional beauty.  Learn more about the Traverse Table Lamp in our shop.

Michigan Left Table Lamp & Womb Chair

Womb Chair Photo by DWR

The Womb Chair’s enveloping form makes it one of the most perfect chairs to curl up in to peacefully read a book.  Pair it with our Michigan Left Table Lamp to provide a warm light to those pages and you have yourself a relaxing Sunday afternoon.  Learn more about the Michigan Left Table Lamp in our shop.

Tahquamenon Stool & Mid Century Desk Wall Unit

Wall Unit Photo by Old Brand New

Mid Century wall units are famed for their efficient use of space and endless configuration possibilities.  The warm woods and clean lines bring a timeless elegance to what’s otherwise a fairly utilitarian purpose.  Our Tahquamenon Stool is the perfect unobtrusive seat for when you need to sit down and go through the mail.  Learn more about the Tahquamenon Stool in our shop.

Interlochen Stool & Eames Lounge Chair

Eames Lounge Chair Photo by CCI Renovations

Who doesn’t love themselves an Eames Lounge Chair?  It’s iconic, gorgeous, and comfortable - a combo that’s not easy to achieve.  The lovely curves of the Interlochen stool perfectly play off of the leather and molded plywood combo of the Eames lounge chair.  Locate it near the entry for a useful seat to take off your shoes.  Learn more about the Interlochen Stool in our shop.

Alden Table & The Jens Chair

Jens Chair Photo by DWR

The Jens Chair is a classic design that’s become a staple in many mid century and danish modern homes.  It’s warm and inviting lines pair perfectly with the intersecting angles of our Alden Table.  Learn more about the Alden Table in our shop.

Pontiac Table & Nelson Cigar Table Lamp

Table Lamp Photo by Modernica

George Nelson had a thing for clean and simple lamps that would go on to become icons.  His lamps are elegant, yet durable enough for everyday use, and they perfectly pair with our clean and classic Pontiac Table.  Learn more about the Pontiac Table in our shop.

We're so excited to welcome the Pontiac Table to our collection!  We've been designing and prototyping and working out the kinks for months, and it's finally ready for it's big reveal.  This brand new design has captured our hearts with it’s timeless lines, and we’re sure it’s going to be a favorite for years to come.

Photo: Metromode

The Pontiac Table is named after the city of Pontiac, Michigan.  This city just north of Detroit started as a mill town and then found itself at the center of automotive manufacturing.  Now it’s reinventing itself once again with an emerging art, food and craft beer scene to complement new small businesses that are moving into the beautiful downtown area.  From it’s downtown with it's big city feel to the parks, trails, and lakes on it’s outskirts, Pontiac has a lot to love.

It seemed fitting to name our new table after this versatile city.  The Pontiac Table is based off of tried and true mid century design elements, and we reinvented the classic look with a bent plywood flair.  The top is hand layered and pressed to shape in-house.  From there, the pieces are carefully trimmed and then joined together with impeccable craftsmanship.  And we couldn’t go wrong with the hand-turned, solid wood, classic mid century tapered legs.  The Pontiac Table fits right at home beside the bed, next to the couch, or between a couple of lounge chairs.  Learn more about the Pontiac Table in our shop and be sure to get one of your own!

I often get asked about how a Ciseal product comes to be - what inspires the designs, what the process involves, how the products are made, etc.  Each Ciseal product has a different story behind it and a different inspiration.  Some products were created to solve a problem or to fill a need.  Others were inspired by a shape or place or thing and I set out to reinterpret that inspiration as a bent plywood object.  With such different inspirations, each one of Ciseal's products is unique in and of itself, so the process of making them varies a bit as well.  That variation is what’s so magical to me, and it's why I find so much joy in making each one.  To kick off this behind the scenes series, lets start with Ciseal’s first product - the Ray iPad Stand.

Photo: Cablik Enterprises

In setting out to design and make the Ray, I gave myself a design brief: Create a Mid Century modern inspired tablet stand.  Mid Century was important to me because I love the style's combination of simple, modern lines with natural elements such as wood.  Also, I’m a bit obsessed with bent plywood (if you haven’t noticed by now), and Mid Century design is where bent plywood first found it’s form.  And it was to be a tablet stand because I wanted to create a product that would be useful as well as beautiful, and the tablet stands I had seen up until then just didn’t cut it from an aesthetic perspective.  Sure, they functioned well by holding a tablet upright, but most of them were anything but beautiful.  

Photo: Hive Modern

The design process began with a focused sketching session of just getting as many different ideas onto paper as possible.  I printed out a few mid century inspired interior photos for inspiration and went to work on a fury of thumbnail sketches with pen and paper.  Ultimately, the one tiny sketch I felt most drawn to was one inspired by the Eames LCW chair that was sitting in the corner of one of the living room photos I used for inspiration.  That perfectly molded piece that connects the seat to the back had just the right combination of beauty and usefulness that I was looking for in my iPad stand design.  

Having chosen a design direction, I had to refine it into a shape that would work perfectly for the purpose of holding an iPad while at the same time retaining the clean, modern shape of it’s inspiration.  This is where my engineering side gets to wield it’s numbers and calculations while the design side babysits and advocates for something that’s really, really good looking.  The more versatile the design the better, so I wanted it to be able to hold as many different sizes of tablets, books, photos, etc. as possible.  I won’t bore you with the details, but the final design you see is the result of many, many sketches, mock ups, and calculations.  I played with so many angles and depths and widths to find the perfect viewing angle and the most versatile dimensions.

With the design finalized, it was time to make the real thing!  I made a two part mold for this one to ensure there would be even pressure across the entire surface.  

Once the glue has dried, I take it out of the mold.  The edges are then cut off to even out the layers and trim the stand to size.

And then the edges get sanded and sanded and sanded to polish up the lovely layers.  Seriously, sanding takes soooooo much time, but it’s absolutely worth it in the end!

Then we hand wipe the polyurethane finish onto the stand in multiple coats with even more sanding in between each one to create a super durable finish.  Then cork feet are added to keep it from sliding around and our stamp of approval is added once everything is perfect.  

With the stand complete, it came time to decide on a name for it.  Being influenced by Charles & Ray Eames' LCW chair, I thought that naming it after Ray Eames would be more than appropriate.  Ray's influence as a woman designer in the Mad Men era is such an inspiration to me, so the name has a double significance.  The Ray iPad Stand is available in our three standard woods: Birch, Oak, and Walnut along with a Ray exclusive wood, Sapele.  Check them out in our shop and get one for your iPad!

A huge thank you to Sarah Jane Stone, the editor at Atomic Ranch magazine, for reaching out to me about including two Ciseal products in their recent issues.

First, the Michigan Left Lamp was featured in the 2016 Design Issue as one of their lighting picks:

Then, the Aspen Magazine Rack was included in the Winter 2016/2017 issue's Cool Stuff section highlighting Retro Done Right:

I could not be more excited!  Thank you, Atomic Ranch!

With all of the information and entertainment it provides, the iPad (and it's non-Apple counterparts) is just about a constant in our lives.  Here at Ciseal, we find ourselves using our tablets all over the house and office, and the Ray tablet stand is always a close companion.  We even find ourselves using the Ray with iPhones, books, and even art.  So, how can you get the most out of your Ray tablet stand?  Let us count the ways:

1. Trying new recipes at home is the best, and all of the cooking apps out there make it so easy to find a mouth watering new one and cook away.  The Ray makes it so easy to keep that recipe close at hand while you create deliciousness in the kitchen.

2. We all have those recipes in cookbooks that we keep coming back to and cooking again and again.  Thankfully, the Ray perfectly holds old fashioned books too.

3. Speaking of books, why not display a cherished childhood story that you constantly revisit?  Or, display a photo or piece of art that you love.  We love setting up a photo album on an iPad to cycle through precious photos when the family gets together.

4. The Ray is a multi-tasker at bedtime - use it as a double charging station for both your iPad and iPhone.  Better yet, the Ray is designed to amplify sound from those teeny tiny speakers so you can be immersed in your favorite soothing bedtime tunes.

5. We're all multi-taskers to a certain extent - how can you not be with your web browser, notes, apps, docs, sheets, photos, etc.  The Ray perfectly holds your iPad as a second display for your computer, so you don't ever have to minimize a thing.

6. Don't have your computer with you?  Use your Ray to pull up your favorite inspiration photos to get the ideas flowing.

7. Many days, the best part is when you can put everything aside and just relax.  We love to sit back and let our minds wander inside a movie, and all we need is an iPad, a Ray, and some popcorn!