Manual

Come find Manual at the Chicago Saturday and Sunday 12-5 along with a bunch of other great makers and a room full of MWM* furniture. 👋

*Midwest Modern

THIS WEEKEND! The Chicago Makers Market at on Sat and Sun 12-5

Menu of what I’ll bring, all 20% off:
- All timepieces (likely only 1-2 of each)
- Utility plates
- Tea Makers
- Bottle openers
- Calendar Posters
- Book of Bookmarks
- Turntable Stand (get it for 50% off in the final hour, DM me to reserve)

* if you want anything else (ie bongs and moccamaster brackets, order ahead online and let me know)

Ask me about the “tortilla oat milk” cortado at .coffee — better yet, get down to Chicago’s La Villita (aka Little Village) and experience it yourself.

Snail Mail Club Q2 is shipping in a few weeks. Are you subscribed?

My ongoing experiment in anti-social media: for a subscription cost of a few dollars per quarter, you’ll receive postal mailings of printed ephemera related to the ethics and aesthetics of and — as well as marketing related to my product line. It’s equal parts mail art and low key marketing, and it’s a lot more interesting than infinite scrolling.

Example content: postcards, Risograph prints, zines, catalogs, posters, activist pamphlets, manifestoes, user manuals, stickers, decals, ideas, thoughts, stories, dreams.

Link in bio, mail in mailbox.

A few weeks ago I took a whirlwind trip to Guangzhou China (via Hong Kong) to help advise and assist a friend and collaborator on his latest project—but as it turns out I was really there to host a cook-out for the 16th century Chinese village we were staying in. Read more in the journal—link in bio.

Hack ur Moccamaster update: I’ve been brewing with a Hario size 03 glass dripper with a modified cork ring on the “Semi-Manual” bracket, and I’m a believer. This mod allows you to brew a full pot, rotate the dripper for better coverage, put the stock dripper lid on during the brew and the cork makes it easy to lift a hot dripper out to dispose of the filter. I’ll likely be moving forward on the cork mod this week. The bracket is of course available now—and selling pretty regularly. Seems like a lot of folks are interested in ditching the plastic dripper!

The 1.25 liter glass pitcher is also moving forward: I got a quote from my glass manufacturing partner, and samples are coming soon. This pitcher will also be a member of the Slow System family: it will fit our dripper and strainer from the past collection, plus a new accessory I will announce in the coming months.

Drop comments if you have questions.

The Original Straw Cup: on sale for 4/20.

An experimental design transforming Manual mugs into bricolage bubblers.

’Bricolage’ is a term derived from the French verb bricoler (meaning “to putter about”) and related to bricoleur, the French name for a jack-of-all-trades. Essentially it means “making do” with what’s “at hand”—cobbling together ideas from available materials.

The Straw Cup started with a surplus of Manual mugs in the studio—slightly imperfect vessels—but containing potential for a second life. With the addition of an existing cork, a custom straw, and standard smokeware parts we were able to create a whole new object through bricolage.

For the uninitiated, a bubbler is a handheld pipe that uses water to filter smoke, resulting in a smoother experience and plenty of bubbles. By using a mug as the central vessel, our bubbler is easier to fill with water, convenient to hold, more stable on a table and very easy to clean. Overall it’s a ‘normal’ looking design, eschewing the psychedelic aesthetics of typical smokeware.

This special 4/20 edition of the Manual bubbler is a series of one-off Straw Cups that feature vintage vessels, from mugs to goblets. Available for 2 weeks only—until May 4th.

Link in bio

Sneak peek at our 4/20 drop—Straw Cup “Vintage Vessel Version.” Shop the look.

⏳

In 2025 I started “Timeless/Endless” — an experimental project with the goal of releasing 12 timepiece designs in limited edition batches of twelve.

The starting clock archetype for the series was a design that used custom bent aluminum brackets to “float” off the wall. I was able to create 6 different designs that used laser cut materials to explore various visual and interactive themes from perforations to textures to dry erase marker board and mirrors.

After 12 months, I was able to make 8 separate small-batch production runs (doing second runs of Nº1 and Nº2 for an exhibition in which they were featured). Although this fell short of the initial (somewhat aggressive) goal of 12 designs in 12 months, it felt like phase 1 of the project was complete, and it was time to pause and reflect on where I wanted to move next.

Timepiece Nº7 will be launching soon—all in good time.