Free-Form Furniture: Artisan lets his 'imagination run wild'
It began with African mahogany. While working as an assistant technical director at the Shakespeare Theatre’s scenery shop in 1998, Art Drauglis came across a piece of the wood left over in storage. “It was basically abandoned property,” he recalls. “Nobody had any idea where it came from so I said, ‘I’m gonna make a table out of this.’”
While the table didn’t fare too well — it warped on the D.C. resident’s porch — it was the predecessor of many creations Drauglis would make in coming years. In 2001, he decided to pursue his furniture-making hobby full-time and launched a Web site to sell his creations online. Soon after, he found himself drifting away from the traditional styles he had started with toward “the arty pieces and messing around with giant slabs of wood, letting my imagination run wild on things,” says Drauglis, now 43. Today his creations, made mostly of salvaged wood, are anything but traditional. “What I like about this is the art in it,” he says. “They’re fun to make and see what some of the wood does.”
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Dec. 1, 2013)
While the table didn’t fare too well — it warped on the D.C. resident’s porch — it was the predecessor of many creations Drauglis would make in coming years. In 2001, he decided to pursue his furniture-making hobby full-time and launched a Web site to sell his creations online. Soon after, he found himself drifting away from the traditional styles he had started with toward “the arty pieces and messing around with giant slabs of wood, letting my imagination run wild on things,” says Drauglis, now 43. Today his creations, made mostly of salvaged wood, are anything but traditional. “What I like about this is the art in it,” he says. “They’re fun to make and see what some of the wood does.”
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Dec. 1, 2013)
Sip on this: How Capital Kombucha brews its teas
Arriving at George Washington University’s business school one day two years ago, Andreas Schneider was carrying more than his textbooks. He was doling out samples of an amber-colored fermented tea he had brewed in his U Street apartment. “I had no idea what kombucha was,” recalls John Lee, Schneider’s former MBA classmate. “So when I first tried it, it was, ‘Is this what it's supposed to taste like?’ ” The drink was bitter and, well, Schneider admits, “unpleasant.”
But those sour times are a distant memory. In spring 2012, Schneider, Lee and fellow recent GWU graduate Dan Lieberman incorporated Capital Kombucha, the District’s first kombucha brewery. Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Nov. 24, 2013)
But those sour times are a distant memory. In spring 2012, Schneider, Lee and fellow recent GWU graduate Dan Lieberman incorporated Capital Kombucha, the District’s first kombucha brewery. Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Nov. 24, 2013)
Horse and rider: Behind the scenes of cavalia's "Odysseo"
To be dazzled is one thing, but to do said dazzling is another entirely.
“When you watch it, it feels very simple and natural, but there’s a lot of technology and engineering behind what we do,” explains James Richardson, technical director of Cavalia’s “Odysseo," the equestrian performance troupe’s latest show (through Oct. 27, $49.50-$249.50, Cavalia.net) arrives at National Harbor. A brainchild of Cavalia creator and artistic director Normand Latourelle , a former Cirque du Soleil founder, “Odysseo” features feats by dozens of horses and high-flying performers against a backdrop of dramatic landscape. However, creating such scenes is an odyssey all its own.
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Oct. 14, 2013)
“When you watch it, it feels very simple and natural, but there’s a lot of technology and engineering behind what we do,” explains James Richardson, technical director of Cavalia’s “Odysseo," the equestrian performance troupe’s latest show (through Oct. 27, $49.50-$249.50, Cavalia.net) arrives at National Harbor. A brainchild of Cavalia creator and artistic director Normand Latourelle , a former Cirque du Soleil founder, “Odysseo” features feats by dozens of horses and high-flying performers against a backdrop of dramatic landscape. However, creating such scenes is an odyssey all its own.
Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Oct. 14, 2013)
down Cold: Next time you have a cocktail, notice the ice cubes
Joseph Ambrose stands in a room loaded with heavy-duty-looking equipment and gestures to a 300-pound block of ice sitting on a nearby table. “You cut them down into plates, then you cut them down into rods; rods are cut into cubes,” says the 35-year-old. “Then they go back into the freezer, then they go into little coolers and are shipped off to bars for old-fashioneds and other fancy-schmancy cocktails.”
It’s a summary of the lengthy, hours-long process that is the foundation for Favourite Ice Company, a Germantown operation Ambrose launched with Owen Thomson in December. Currently a side project for both -- Ambrose bartends at the W Hotel’s P.O.V. Lounge and Thomson is the beverage director at Range — the pair saw an opportunity to sell artisan cubes to the ever increasing craft cocktail scene. Read more (Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 8, 2013) They don't just Wing It: Inside smithsonian's butterfly pavilion
They're on the same floor of the National Museum of Natural History as the Hope Diamond and the Dom Pedro aquamarine, but unlike those precious stones and minerals, these living gems flit and flutter in the 1,200-square-foot glass Butterfly Pavilion. For a small fee ($5-$6, free Tuesdays, butterflies.si.edu), visitors can observe more than 300 butterflies in action.
"We have a lot of people coming through who are here to see them because they're pretty," says Dan Babbitt, the museum's Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion manager. But the exhibit aims to show guests there's much more to the winged insects than their vibrant hues and brilliant patterns. Read more (Washington Post Magazine, June 30, 2013) |
From the Ground up: A homegrown garden company
In spring 2010, Meredith Sheperd wanted to grow her own garden. There was just one issue: “My yard had no sunlight,” says Sheperd, who lives in Eckington in Northeast Washington. “Walking around noticing everyone’s yards with beautiful sunlight, I was jealous and thought, ‘Well maybe I could grow my garden in my neighbor’s yard. Maybe he wouldn’t mind?’ Then I thought, ‘Maybe he’d pay me for it.’”
Soon after, that seedling of an idea grew into Sheperd’s company, Love & Carrots. Instead of asking neighbors for lawn space, Sheperd, now 29, printed fliers and emailed community list-servs about her start-up, which builds organic vegetable gardens for D.C. area customers. “People have no idea anymore how to start a garden, whereas most people’s grandmothers had a garden,” says Sheperd. “There’s a gap there and I’m trying to fill it in.” Read more (Washington Post Magazine, July 7, 2013) Murder in the village: With no witnesses & little evidence, the mystery of carl diener's death seemed impossible to solve
Tammy Bagnato was about to break the law. It was 5:40 in the morning, just a few days after Christmas 2009, and she was standing outside a ground-level apartment unit at the Fort Strong Properties complex, trying to find a way inside. She had already tried the windows and the sliding-glass door, to no avail.
She called 9-1-1 to warn the Arlington County Police dispatcher that she was ready to break the door down. Read more (Arlington Magazine, July/August 2013) |
