The Foundry Home Goods

Now, that Anna has officially opened her shop in the fabulous Commutator Foundry Company Building in the warehouse district, I want to officially introduce it here. It is dedicated to simple, beautiful, handmade items for the the home. With emphasis on purity of form and material. (at least this is what I see...)

Before you go further, here is the link: http://www.thefoundryhomegoods.com/-/GOODS.html

Anna Hillegass became a friend of mine in NY - two expatriates from Minneapolis - finding our way together at times in a world very different from the one we'd grown up in. We both grew up on a farm, around animals and vegetables. But we also each had some alter ego that required the life of the man-made world - architecture, art, fashion, food. Ideas that both scared us and beckoned us. She was a true companion to me during this time and we uncovered the city together - from ABC Carpet and Home to Tiny Buttons to John Derian to the Ukrainian Museum on the Lower East Side to the Gagosian exhibits to Ralph Pucci to Sabarsky's.

Somehow, we both came back to Minneapolis. I hear this happens. Very few stay in New York for a life time if they were raised here. I am still too close to New York to understand why that is, but some day I might. I can guess. it is gritty and tough and wrings you out like you are a wet towel. But then there are all the beautiful, grand, civilized things.....

Anna was called home like many, but didn't waste a minute finding her calling. In the sunny first floor corner of her father's old warehouse building, she has created a testament to her extraordinary taste and verve - a shop that has lived in her for years. I have seen it. Today she shared it with the public and close friends and family.

I foolishly did not have a camera. But I will share images from her website here. Though the items are exquisite, the aggregate is the prize. Her display, her sense of simple beauty, her gift for flowers and comfort and joy and welcome are abundant here.

You will go to buy a gift and stay for the peace and beauty. You will be unable to keep your hands to yourself. The seduction of the turned wooden bowls, the playful ceramic drinking glasses with painted interiors, the sheepskin throws will have you in a moment. All that is missing are shopping carts - you will want so much as these affordable prices, that you will need a cart to carry it all.

Alas, Anna will have no carts. She will tenderly tell you the story of the turned bowl, the hand formed glasses and possibly the name of the sheep. She will carefully carry the beloved items to the counter where she will patiently wrap them and put them into a brown paper shopping bag. She will thank you.

You will be hooked. By Anna, by her exquisite eye for beauty and by the shop that this city needed.

Congratulations, my friend. You did it.

Enjoy - and get yourselves down to The Foundry Home Goods! 125 NORTH 1ST STREET | MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55401