Squishy Bowls in the Kitchen

Those who know me might describe me as frugal. I'm not a cheap skate, but I also don't really like to buy superfluous stuff. I also really appreciate it when one item can have multiple uses. My super light black Arc'teryx shell is great for backpacking trips, but is low profile enough that I can wear it to business meetings and dinners. I use my camping cooking pots for soup and couscous both at home and on the trail. This eliminates my need for a couple extra sauce pans. Of course, at home I also use large pots for pasta, and cast iron for frying things. I'd never take them on the trail.


Being frugal like this, and living on my own means that I do without a lot of the common items that most people have in their kitchen. For example, I have no pot holders. I've generally just used a dish towel to grab out what I need. It's not ideal, but it does the job. Recently though, I was in the middle of a load of laundry, and a load of pancakes. The cast iron skillet was too hot to handle, and all the dish towels were in the wash. Luckily, I'd just recently taken home a set of our Squishy Bowls. They're made of Silicone and are supposed to be heat resistant to about 400 degrees F. They ought to work great as a pot holder. Besides, I need to stand behind every product we make. If they're not as heat resistant as we claim, then I need to know about it! So, I decided I should put my Squishy Bowl to use. It's already in the kitchen doing duty as a bowl. Why not make it my pot holder too?


It worked great! I easily squished it to wrap around the handle of the skillet. The rubbery texture gave me a really solid grip on the heavy pan, and I couldn't feel the heat passing through the bowl at all, even though the skillet was otherwise much too hot for me to grab. And, as I was using it I discovered another nice little coincidence. When set upside down the depression in the bottom of the bowl actually worked perfectly to cradle my spatula and keep it from getting my stove top all gunky. So, now I've got my bowl doing triple duty in the kitchen, and that makes me happy.

Is anybody else out there letting their camping gear pull double duty like this? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Un-Beatable Bottles

At the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City we had a small booth displaying our various products. Outdoor retailer is basically like wandering around the world's largest REI for 4 days straight. It's crowded and hectic and every company you can imagine is there pushing their products. There are always a lot of meetings, behind the scenes wheelings and dealings to figure out distribution deals, wholesale orders, product development concepts etc etc. One of my favorite parts though is connecting with the people in the industry who actually use our stuff for themselves. The tradeshow is a huge place, but you always make time to visit the companies you love.

Ed Coombs of the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) stopped by to talk with us about AORE and show off his two year old standard stainless bottle. I was amazed at how good the thing looked considering the abuse it took. Ed's been using it to cook in. He takes the lid and lid tether off and places it directly in the fire to bring his water to a boil. This isn't something that I would necessarily recommend, but Ed seemed happy to use it in this capacity. We asked him how he kept it so shiny. His answer: "Just scrape off the black stuff with a butter knife every once in a while". The finish on the bottle looked great. There were a few little dents and scrapes in it, which Ed said came from using it as a hammer to pound tent stakes into the frozen ground, but overall it looked almost new. And of course, since it's stainless steel, there's been no flavor build up or funky odor in the bottle. It was great to have Ed stop by. At Guyot Designs we want to make products that will last and be useful for a lifetime. it's a great feeling to know that we've succeeded in at least one customers eyes.


How's your stainless bottle holding up for you?

Guyot Designs has a Blog?

Yep, Guyot Designs now has a blog. It's a great way for us to get the word out. We're a small little company, our products are simple, we don't have tech reps roaming the country putting on demos. We don't have the capital to fund sponsored athletes, or pay for lots of fancy magazine and television ads. But with a blog we can use pictures, and text to really describe what we're about, what's going on at Guyot Designs, and what makes us tick. The blog is also a great medium for conveying stories, pictures, and ideas informally. You won't find press releases on this blog, though we might link to and comment on them from time to time. This blog should give you a better understanding of our products, and who we are as a company.

One thing I should point out: This blog is written by Guyot Designs employees. We're very proud of the products we make and the company we run. None of us could work for a company we don't believe in. So, of course there is going to be a natural bias in the posts on this blog. At the same time, it would do us and all of our customers a great disservice to be dishonest. We'll do our best to publish legitimate and factual information about our products and company, and if you think we're out of line, or overly effusive about our products, please let us know! Leave comments on the blog or write in to our website. The more we hear from you, the better we'll be able to improve our products! We'll be honest with you and we hope you'll be honest with us.

Lastly, this blog should help break down the barriers that form between people as they fit themselves and each other into pre-defined roles. You're a buyer, I'm a seller. You're job is to give me money, my job is to give you a product. Simplifying our interactions into these stereotyped roles misses out on the larger truth. You no longer see the person, only the job they have to perform. The truth is we're all just people, living on the same planet, trying to enjoy our lives together. Hopefully this blog will help you understand the people behind Guyot Designs, our drives and goals, and hopefully you'll like what you see and continue to purchase our products.