New York based designer Brad Ascalon recently showed off his elegant Period Table, a new piece for Italian furniture company Sintesi, at the Salone Internationale de Mobile in Milan. Ascalon’s use of powder coated steel and tempered glass make for an interesting twist in this classically inspired table, and I’m sure there’s a list of other alluring details somewhere, but no amount of googling will give me more information on product or availability. Even the link I found to the Sintesi site sadly reported, “documento on trovato,” when I clicked through… sigh, another tragic ending in the pursuit of beauty. If any of you have better luck in your searches, let us know where to go.

The Sutra Chaise, from creative designer Brad Ascalon is made from two layers of birch bending ply, seductively layered one over another to form the seat and base of the chair– there are also rubber spacers allowing the chaise to give a little bit when in use. I love the form factor here although I’d be a little concerned about its comfort– no word on production yet, although if we bombard Brad with enough emails he might start making and selling them himself.

Last year I made a big mistake. I subscribed to no less than ten magazines thinking I’d have time to read (at least some of) them. Truth is, I’ve probably read 3 of some 130 issues I’ve received which is a shame since I actually am interested in most of the topics they covered. I was soon presented with a dilemma – what to do with all these magazines? I didn’t want to get rid of them since they weren’t free but I couldn’t just stack them up in a box shoved into a corner. Half the solution presented itself with my new coffee table where I laid out half the magazines on the bottom shelf. I think I found the other half with Brad Ascalon’s magazine rack. The Ricochet is made of a single piece of 3/16″ thick steel twisted and warped in a chaotic and surprisingly soothing fashion. The design allows you to choose how you want to position the magazines, often forcing you to gently bend or roll up the periodicals to fit in the odd crevices. The ends are capped with mahogany which adds not only protection but also a touch of luxury to the product.