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Skillets in the shapes of each of the continental states of the USA

Cory Doctorow at 3:10 pm Sun, May 6, 2012

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FeLion Studios, an ironmonger with style, has made a set of 48 interlocking "Made in America" skillets, in the shape of each of the continental states. Buy them one at a time or get the whole set (which, admittedly, would probably be a little impractical to store in most kitchens -- it's 500lbs including a maple mounting block).

Exclusively from the den of FeLion Studios, comes the 48 cast iron skillets of the “Made In America” original state-pan art piece. Now available for individual pre-sale, every skillet from the “Made In America” series fits together with the surrounding states, making these items fun to collect and build your own geographic regions of functional skillets !

Enjoy being the life of a party by hamming up your favorite baked and fried delights with state-shaped proportion! FeLion Studio’s cast iron art is a functional example of design concept meeting utility with a fun and social emphasis.

Buy “Made in America” Skillets

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • Paul Renault

    This is a good idea: it’ll help Americans develop a sense of pride in their country…

    /I keed!

    Seriously, though, did you price out all the States’ skillets?  It’d cost what, $20,000 to $25,000 for the whole set, plus $35 x 48, if you want them seasoned.

    • Wingnut

      I suspect that snooty coastal people would just buy their state pans and ignore all the fry-over states.

  • coelacanth

    They have failed to use the built-in panhandles in Florida and Oklahoma. For shame!  

    • awjt

      That is absolutlelelyey STUPID with a capital STU.  Who in their right mind designing state shaped skillets would overlook natural PAN HANDLES?!?!!? dumb asses.  Maker Memberships REVOKED!!!

  • nealpolitan

    Say one thing for my home state of North Dakota, it makes a useful skillet.  

    • http://twitter.com/trempls tré

       As a Minnesotan-raised individual who was born in Fargo, ND was my first thought when I saw this headline.

  • jayson

    Those Maryland and Rhode Island skillets aren’t going to be too practical.

    http://felionstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Maryland.Face_.ID_.jpg

    Come to think of it, I’m not too sure how you’re going to get that 24″ long California skillet on a burner, either.

    • blueelm

      Actually the little ones are kind of cute. You could make state pancakes in them. 

      Now Texas, that’s a big skillet. However the hilarity of frying eggs two fisted over a massive flame in a 21×22 in Texas shaped skillet is just about as perfect a comment on Texas as ever needs to be made.

    • http://tokyofarm.com Spencer Cross

      True enough, though someone seems to have managed it! 

      http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6917568013_08eccdacca.jpg

      –Edited to say that, actually, I take that back. Whatever’s in that pan actually looks like it was probably baked.

      • dragonfrog

         Cornbread, I’d guess.  Need a lot of bacon fat to make that cornbread right.  Or maybe some hippy vegan thingo like coconut oil, given the skilled in question…

  • http://twitter.com/shay_guy Shay Guy

    So this is what, 1/2,000,000 scale?

  • http://toblender.com/ cyberscythe

     Shame that the states which have panhandles don’t actually use those as handles for the pans. =

  • http://profiles.google.com/scottknitter Scott Knitter

    Is that a Colorado-shaped turbo-pancake or a Wyoming-shaped one? I have to know, or I can’t eat any of it.

  • Ipo

    South Carolina of all places looks useful, while it isn’t surprising that Texas is  even more impractical than California. 
    You can’t see it on the photo, but the Kansas skillet is badly damaged in its upper right corner.  Topeka. 
    Why is the Alaska waste bin not included in the offer? 
    Hawaiʻi would make a neat set for pu-pus. 

    But seriously, they’re pretty cool for a mass-produced(?) art piece. 
    They’d look good on my kitchen wall.

    • http://twitter.com/Shmuel510 Shmuel

      The site claims that they’re individually made to order, which presumably accounts for the 6-8 weeks for delivery.

  • Urban Garlic

    No District of Columbia pan, I see, but DC’s geography might be included in the Maryland pan. 

    Trying to get retrocession in the back door, are they?

  • equilibrist

    An awesome thing that I would love to own, mais, très cher

  • http://www.noflux.net John

    Its our bad that the image is quite small. Need a wall-size one in every home so that the next generations habitually learn about the geographic locations of every states. Good idea.

  • http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

    Word on the street is he got this idea from Sen. Franken.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

      I just love watching him do that trick.

      It’s also Interesting that I now live in a panhandle region of Texas, since one of the handles sticks out of Galveston bay. And amazing detail there on Maryland, though all that coastline will be hell to clean if you burn something. 

  • Eark_the_Bunny

    Okay since this is the CONTINENTAL United States, where is the ALASKA skillet?   Alaska in part of the “continental” US since it is on the same continent, that being North America.  Hawaii on the other hand is out of luck.

    • voiceinthedistance

      “Hawaii on the other hand is out of luck.”

      We hear that often here.

      • Ian Anthony

        I appreciate your username so much in the context of that comment.

      • DoctorDoak

        But you see, Alaska comes with the added bonus of a built-in panhandle, just like Florida.

    • http://twitter.com/Shmuel510 Shmuel

      “Continental” is in Cory’s headline, not on the website. These are actually the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.

      That said, the website does use the term “lower 48″ on the “Geographic Compositions” page, and while the intended meaning of that is clear, it’s not entirely accurate, considering that Hawaii is even lower. Ah well.

      (Practically, Alaska would be enormous, and Hawaii would be hard to manage as a single skillet, so I suppose I can see why they’re left out…)

      • Ipo

         Lower numbers.  Don’t confuse southern with low. 
        Alaska and then Hawaii got statehood last. 

  • pjcamp

    Well Texas just looks obscene.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

       I was thinking more scatalogical. Pee from the bay and poop from Big Bend.

  • http://twitter.com/ethanwc ethanwc

    Beautiful.

  • xkot

    Michigan should have come as an oven mitt to pick the rest of them up with.

  • Robert Cruickshank

    Kansas would be right at home on a range. 

    • Nash Rambler

      Base punnery.  You should be ashamed.  I know I am for laughing at it.

      • Robert Cruickshank

         I’m used to the critics panning my humour.

  • jimbuck

    I thought the GA one might make a perfect gift for my hard-to-buy-for parents …. then when I saw the price I thought I’ll just buy them a small island instead.

  • Halloween_Jack

    Rhode Island Skillet

    Length: 2.125 in.

    Width: 2 in.

    Weight: 10 oz.

    That’s not cookware, that’s a rather heavy brooch.

  • Toby

    Love this.  ~$450 per pan is out of my price range, but I love it.

  • thaum

    I’d like a Hawaii so I can cook each egg in its individual island. No?

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Or Swedish pancakes.

  • Kayjayoh

    I remember the “midwest” version of this, back before she started the rest of the 48, hanging on the wall at the late Underground Kitchen on the Capitol Square in Madison. Unsurprisingly, it was one of the things that survived the fire that closed the business. (Though I think most of the actual fire damage was on the upper floors.)

  • Mark in CA

    For the prices they’re charging, you’d think they’d at least finish them better.  As it looks from their web site, the cast iron is completely “raw,” with lots of imperfections and no machining of the surfaces.  They just pour the molten metal into the molds, and it’s “done.”  If I want that level of “craftsmanship,” I can get it from Lodge for about $25.

  • Tim Drage

    ‘Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.’ - William S. Burroughs

  • huskerdont

     Yeah, why put an extra handle on “America’s wang”?

  • Lobster

    The Great Lakes make great latkes!

  • twianto

    Pretty useful. There should be a restaurant that offers you a RI omelet as a side dish or a TX omelet if you’re really hungry.