Relic Hunter in repose: Minnesotan Ian Grant has traveled the world and brought its cultures and decor to his retail store, workshop and wholesaling operation. Starting this weekend, he'll bring his aesthetic to viewers as host of a new show for the Travel Channel.

Sep 29, 2009 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TVCH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Q Your buying trips keep you traveling about two months a year. How does it feel once you're home?

A I've lived here since 1992, in college, before we bought. I can walk in, and it has a familiar smell.

Q And that smell is ... ?

A Right now it's burnt pizza pan from last night! Typically it revolves around food and objects. We eat a lot of spicy food, so you smell a lot of spices in here, and you can smell wood.

Q But you love the traveling?

A I don't even mind, in a way, the draining endeavor of getting from here to northern Thailand. But I absolutely love coming home and getting off the plane. I'm always, always happy to see my bed, my washroom, all the amenities I don't bring with me on trips. I can't wait to get back out around Lake of the Isles; I run, three miles door to door -- the perfect sort of half-hour. And I'm glad to get back on the ice with hockey. And to start playing my violin again.

Q You actually practice your violin?

A That's famous family folklore. My mom gave me this ultimatum at the beginning of first grade, when I really wanted to begin playing hockey. She said the minute you stop playing the violin you have to stop playing hockey. I still play hockey once if not twice a week, but I play the violin three or four times a week. I try to play every morning when I get into work because there are great acoustics in the warehouse!

Q Did you remodel this duplex yourself?

A Some yes, some no. We gutted it. Put in skylights, bay windows, tore down walls, put in headers, redid the bathrooms. We re-redid a bathroom a couple of years ago. I designed that but I didn't do it.

Q What's your best home-improvement skill?

A I'm really good at the vision phase and conceptualizing. I'm good at the stages of any project, up until it's almost finished.

Q And the worst?

A The last 10 percent I'm useless at. I end up having all these projects that are 90 percent done.

Q An example?

A There's moulding around the corner in one of the rooms upstairs that I haven't done. It's just sitting there loose. For 14 years! It's hidden, but it's still there.

Q Well, you've got a 3-year-old. That takes time.

A I don't need to tell you, but your house suddenly gets taken over by kid stuff. It's everywhere. I mean, I have a balloon tied to my elephant [an artifact with semiprecious stones that Grant brought home from Agra, India, perched on a living-room end table]!

Q Most of your furnishings are from your trips abroad. Are any pieces particularly special?

A A few, actually. Upstairs there's a Burmese lacquer side table bought on one of my first buying trips, in Madras, in southwest India; I've never ever seen anything like it since.

Q Do you have a favorite place to lounge?

A Right here [the porch]. We eat our meals out here, we sit out here, we work out here, we spend the evenings out here, literally watch the neighborhood go by. Wintertime, in the living room. It gets so much light, it's comfortable.

Q Describe a best night at home.

A Eating a nice meal right out here, with family or some close friends. That's actually a great night, with 10, maybe 15 people. Just hanging out, good appetizers, some kids around, some good wine.

Q Are you much of a cook?

A It depends. I know what I can do well and what I can't. I don't follow directions!

Q So what turns out well?

A Thai and Indian food. There's a Vietnamese, pickled, flaming-hot kind of thing I make. It's great. The big trick is the fish sauce and the vinegar, and if you screw that up you're out of luck.

Q Do you have a guilty pleasure?

A I try not to let anyone on a plane see me reading Clive Cussler. Other than that, I try to thoroughly own and enjoy all of my pleasures.

Q As much as you travel, you must have some tips. How about for avoiding a garrulous seatmate?

A That's a critical thing if you're on a flight for 14 hours! You can't show signs of weakness. You can't make eye contact for too long. And you have to be very good at assessing whether that person is going to be chatty or not. You have to rely on your personal instincts. Chatty people don't all look alike! If you have to, make a quick look, like that. If you see they are looking at you, that's the first indication that they want to talk. You make the second glance, and if their head hasn't moved, you know they're chatty.

Q Are you happy with how "Relic Hunter" turned out?

A It came full circle, evolved back into my original concept: going around the world but not a happy shopping show but more using objects as a window into a culture and its history.

Q Is there still a shopping component?

A Most of the segments in each episode have me getting something, looking at something, haggling over something. There's always some ultimate object at the end of every episode, and then little things along the way.

Q Where haven't you been that you still want to go?

A There's a group of tribes on a couple of islands in the South Pacific, New Ireland and New Britain; no one goes there and each tribe makes some pretty amazing festival and ceremonial masks and objects. Ideally, I could find a group of people who, by me buying from them, will help sustain their culture, whether I'm buying a mask they have been making for thousands of years, new or old. In a way I'd prefer new; that implies that they can keep making their traditional masks, keep their culture alive and have an income.

Q And your next trip?

A The rain forest. All our lumber is FSC [Forest Stewardship Council]-certified or reclaimed. I'm going down there to pick out some deadfall monkeypod trees for some big dining-table slabs that I need to make for some clients. Either there, or northern Thailand or Laos.

THE 'RELIC HUNTER WITH IAN GRANT'

What: New Travel Channel series starring Minneapolis retailer Ian Grant as he roams the world, studying cultures and finding artifacts and furniture.

Premieres: 9 p.m. Saturday; first episode focuses on voodoo culture in Benin and Togo, West Africa, followed by an episode on mystical relics in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal at 9:30 p.m.

Runs through: Two episodes weekly through Oct. 24. Other destinations: Suriname, India, Morocco, Romania, Peru, Turkey.

Sneak peek: See highlights from the new series at startribune.com/homegarden. and at www.facebook.com/pages/The-Relic-Hunter-with-Ian-Grant-Travel-Channel/161152221396?ref=tsp

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