Death Becomes You 24 Skull Items

Okay, so goth is back in a big way and skulls and crossbones are appearing on even the most unlikely items.
here are just a few on the market!

Just click on any of the images above to purchase or get more info.

See more of my Death Becomes You - cool things with skulls! list at ThisNext.

Don't Your Napkins Deserve Them?

I stumbled upon these wonderful porcelain napkin rings by Dinner-ware. They've got many fun mod designs, but what is really struck me are these 'monogrammed' porcelain napkin rings at 10$ a piece. Get your initials, spell out words, do 'hugs' and 'kisses'...whatever, all and every initial is a fun design-see below.






So what are you waiting for? buy them here.

They Look Good Enough To Eat..Wait, You Can Eat Them!

Monica Passin, president and chocolateuse of Painter Girl Chocolates spent over two years learning to work with chocolate as an art medium: desiging and painting molds, creating recipes, tasting and sharing, selecting the finest ingredients, and getting chocolate all over her guitars. Art-inspired chocolate. Chocolate- inspired art. A complete experience.

ANIMAL PRINT CHOCOLATES:
THE ZEBRA

mmm... 2.5oz of dark chocolate with notes of vanilla and spice. "stripes of white chocolate. reminds your taste buds of espresso with whipped cream. made from pure belgium chocolate.

ANIMAL PRINT CHOCOLATES:
THE SNOW LEOPARD
2.5 oz white chocolate with refreshing pure lemon and "spots" of dark chocolate. the lemon and dark "spots" balance the sweetness of white chocolate. made from pure belgium chocolate.

ANIMAL PRINT CHOCOLATES:
THE CHEETAH
2.5 oz blend of milk and white chocolate create a wildly delicious flavor. its creamy texture melts in your mouth, and you are left with "spots" of dark chocolate that melt more slowly. made from pure belgium chocolate.

ANIMAL PRINT CHOCOLATES:
THE WILD PONY
dedicated to those with a passion for horsed and the pleasures of a great milk chocolate bar. 2.5 oz with "spots" of white chocolate. made from pure belgium chocolate.

At $7.50 a bar, they make a nice gift- or dessert! Buy them here.

Product Pick Of The Week

I am in love with Viteo's outdoor furniture-as well as the interesting imagery on their website (the full launch, not the quick launch). The very cool product above was a Red Dot Design Winner. An outdoor shower that is activated by the weight of the individual who steps upon it.

Take a look at some of their fabulous imagery (someone at Viteo is a very hip designer)and their beautiful products from their site:

There's no shortage of fabulously designed outdoor products on their website, check them all out here!

6 Funky New Finds

Six Fun New Finds.
1. Juxtaposed: Religion by blank blank. A wooden shelf with the ifve most widely read books on religion (removable). Limited edition of 50.

2.The Jawbone, CNN highest rated bluetooth headset

3. Havaleena mood torch, a cordless light that comes with color filters and a wooden stand.

4. The stresseraser; a device that fits in your pocket and actually reduces stress!

5. From Defensive Devices comes this ring that actually sprays pepper spray up to 3 feet

6. The LOVE mirror, a nice tribute to Robert Indiana's famous icon.

Just click on any of the images above to purchase or get more information.

Ross Lovegrove is Making Some Noise for KEF

Above: Ross Lovegrove with his Muon Speakers for KEF

I've always been a fan of Ross Lovegrove's work and his newest creation for high end audio manufacturer, KEF, is no exception.
The text below is from the April issue of Wallpaper.

The hallowed walls of Milan’s Science and Technology Museum played host to the launch of a groundbreaking pair of speakers yesterday evening.

'Muon' is the product of a union between the historic British audio company KEF and visionary industrial designer Ross Lovegrove. Standing two metres tall, the speakers are made from super-formed aluminium, which, like vacuum forming, uses heated aluminium sheets to bend around seemingly impossible shapes. The end result appears more like art than technology.

But the technology is every bit as impressive as the visual design. A four-way speaker system with powerful bass drivers produces an exceptionally clean and open sound regardless of the room’s acoustics.

As part of the launch the international creative branding agency Moving Brands created an audio responsive visual installation to showcase the speakers in action. They created a platform in front of the speakers that reacted in real time to the music being played, creating a light display to add a 3-dimensional demonstration of the sound quality. In the vaulted Sala del Cenacolo, where the speakers were showcased with the installation, the effect was truly sensational.

Berlow is a video of the launch:

Only 100 pairs of speakers are to be made and don’t let the fact that Robbie Williams has put his name on the waiting list put you off.

Mellow Yelo -Power Naps For Urbanites

Yelo is an entirely new concept in wellness. It is a sanctuary designed to help urbanites deal with the pressures of modern life through a unique combination of sleep and reflexology therapies.

The YeloNap is our version of the “Power Nap”—our sleep therapy system of 20- to 40-minute naps. Naps of this duration have been medically proven to increase alertness and productivity as well as information retention.

Yelo is about time-efficient, results-oriented relaxation. It is not a spa. Yelo provides the deeper experience of giving you back your time and space when you need it most. It’s about you. It’s about time.

Sleep is a crucial part of a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Medical studies have proven a direct correlation between sleep and productivity, and recently it has been discovered that even a short nap can significantly improve performance. A YeloNap^SM will help you recharge and feel refreshed, relaxed and rejuvenated.

The YeloNap is our specially-designed sleep therapy system. It takes place in our unique, modern, private cabins: the YeloCabs^TM. When your nap begins, you will recline in our luxurious YeloChair^TM to elevate your legs above your heart. This will slow down your pulse and encourage deep relaxation.

YeloNaps are available in five-minute increments from 20-40 minutes in length, priced from $12-$24. You can choose the timing that suits you best within these limits. We set these limits because a nap of less than 20 minutes won’t provide you with enough rest, while a nap of more than 40 minutes will encourage a deep (REM) sleep, from which you might emerge feeling groggy.

The YeloNap may be experienced on its own for rest and rejuvenation or combined with Yelo Reflexology—treatments designed to heal and alleviate specific conditions or ailments and allow you to emerge feeling balanced and energized.

On their website they have a real time clock letting you know when the next available YeloCab is. Very cool. And very rejuvenating.

You can read more about this at their site, yelonyc.com

Gaultier Makes Fashion A Religious Experience

above: Early christian art depicting Madonna and Child; clearly Gaultier's inspiration


Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2007 haute couture collection at Paris couture week clearly borrows from art and religion. His newest collection has a fabulous Byzantine feel and the 'halos' around his models are remniscient of early depictions of christian art in stained glass windows and paintings.

Just take a look at some of the pieces from the show:







Above right : Gaultier Greeting The Audience

Maybe if I pray hard enough, I can afford one of his gowns....

Bombay Sapphire Glass Design Competition Entries

Most of you are familiar with the Bombay Sapphire ads that show a lovely martini glass along with a bottle of the product. Depending upon how observant -or astute you are, you may have noticed that they always attribute the glass design to its creator in the small text. That's because each year Bombay Sapphire has a design contest and the winning 'glass' shows up in their ads.

This year, the winning design named Palletini, was created by Michael Krtizker. (see below):


But what you don't get to see are the numerous beautifully conceived of entries that didn't win, so I wanted to share some of those with you.

The design parameters were as listed below:





Unfortunately I haven't the time to list each and every wonderful creator of the following designs, so please be sure to see the names of these artists in gallery of finalists by clicking here.

Below are some of the entries that deserve to be admired but will not be seen in any of the ads:









So raise your glass to these beautiful designs! Salut!

A Side of ipod please...

The latest offering at The Fat Duck, a UK restaurant, is a seafood creation served with an iPod so that diners can listen to the sounds of the ocean as they eat. "I did a series of tests with Charles Spence at Oxford University three years ago, which revealed that sound can really enhance the sense of taste," said Heston Blumenthal, the restaurant's owner and chef.

When it comes to weird dining experiences, customers at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck, in England probably thought that snail porridge was the last word in outlandish eating.

However, even his most extraordinary dishes will seem dull and ordinary compared with his latest -- creation seafood served with an iPod.

No, diners will not be expected to eat the music player, but instead to listen to the noise of crashing waves as they eat.

Seaside Ambiance

The dish, entitled "Sound of the Sea," will be part of the tasting menu at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, from next month, along with such innovations as a silver rose bush with edible petals and afterdinner whiskey gums.

Blumenthal will also resurrect a 250-year-old British beef dish and send 3-D glasses and the address of a sweetshop Web site to customers when they book a table.

The seafood dish is presented on a glass-topped wooden box containing sand and seashells and consists of what looks like sand but is in fact a mixture of tapioca, fried breadcrumbs, crushed fried baby eels, cod liver oil and langoustine oil topped with abalone, razor clams, shrimps and oysters and three kinds of edible seaweed.



'A Massive Umami'

The final touch the culmination of Blumenthal's experiments exploring the relationship between sound and the experience of eating will be the iPod so that diners can listen to the sound of the sea while they eat.

Blumenthal told Square Meal magazine: "I did a series of tests with Charles Spence at Oxford University three years ago, which revealed that sound can really enhance the sense of taste.

"We ate an oyster while listening to the sea and it tasted stronger and saltier than when we ate it while listening to barnyard noises, for example."

Explaining the dish, he said: "We have the juices from the shellfish made into a foam and placed along one side of the tapioca dish, so it looks like the sea.

Alongside the dish we'll serve a glass of seaweed extraction and mirin (sweet rice wine), which will give diners a massive umami (taste sensation) hit."

Diners might feel that listening to the iPod will kill the art of conversation.

A 17-Course Journey

However, a spokesperson for Blumenthal said: "When you are having the tasting menu you are maybe having 17 courses.

"It is a journey, a whole experience. It is not that you are sitting there with an iPod all night like a teenager. It is a tiny component in a huge event." The rose bush is brought to the table with the coffee. "We've been working with parfumiers to develop crystallized petals, overlaid with scents of apple, litchi, coriander, raspberry and so on," said Blumenthal.

The whiskey gums are brought to the table in a framed map of Scotland, each one showing where each malt is made, but contain no alcohol.

As for the sweetshop Web site, from August diners will be able to use the 3-D glasses to see everything from jars of flying saucer sweets to bursting sherbet fountains, as well as crabs holding ice cream cones and boxes of snail porridge.

Blumenthal said: "When I discover something new, I feel like a kid in a sweetshop, so that's the emotion I want to generate for diners."

Info for Reservations:

	CONTACT
	The Fat Duck High Street Bray Berkshire SL6 2AQ
	Reservations : +44 (0) 1628 580 333
	The Fat Duck can take reservations as far as two calendar months in advance.

Happy Earth Day!
Today's post will be up later than usual.

Goodbye Sweet Roxanne

A recent and sweet picture of Roxanne taken by Monika a few months ago

I've been very sensitive to animal lovers these days with my little Abbey being as sick as she is.
Yesterday, my dear friend Monika had the difficult task of having to put her pug, Roxanne, down due to the toll that years of arthritis was taking on her.
Rox lived a long and wonderful life with my sweet friend being a loving mother and wonderful owner to this little black pug with lots of character.
In remembrance of Roxanne, and with sympathy and condolences to Monika, here's a few pics.


Above: Monika with Roxanne and Ozwald (also now in the Great Dog Park in the Sky) several years ago

Not to fear, Monika, who opens her heart and home to foster dogs as well as giving love to some of her own, still has Woody (below) to comfort her.


And just so you can see what kind of loving dog owner she is, here are my favorite pics of Monika with my Abbey:

My heart goes out to you Monika.

The Hotdoll: For the Libidinous Canine

Wanna stop that dog from humping your leg?

Well, the HotDoll: The Sex Toy For Dogs, is just the thing.
A creation by Feel Addicted, it's both hilarious and shameful.


No, it's not actually available for purchase, but with the amount of buzz going on, I wouldn't be surprised if it soon is.

With openings and protuberances in the places libidinous canines are hoping they'll be, The Hotdoll makes you want to giggle and look away simultaneously. Even the comments this Hotdoll is spurring on blogs like Gizmondo are almost as funny as the product itself.



As one of the readers on Gizmondo commented..."where's the video?"......

Product Pick Of The Week: The Good Vs. Evil Foosball Table

I really never thought of Foosball as a high-end sport. My personal Foosball experience consists of seeing a Foosball table grace the main room of every fraternity house at UC Berkeley, the rec rooms of most families in Marin County (where I grew up) and got lots of recognition as a staple in Joey and Chandler's kitchen on the ever popular sitcom, Friends.



But Eleven Forty doesn't make ordinary Foosball tables. Uh uh. They have created The Opus.
Every detail is thought out. Each table is hand crafted with etched glass, stainless steel and assorted exotic woods. Utilizing computer technology, precision engineering and innovative construction, it has transformed a recreational game into a piece of functional art.

Here are a few pics of the hand crafted details:








Now, as if it weren't enough to create such a beautiful 'game', as an owner you are treated to amazing service from Forty Eleven.


And, if you thought all that was cool, check out their coup de grace,

The Good Vs. Evil Edition

This is a limited edition “opus football table” by Eleven Forty for the super exclusive 20LTD.
Only 20 were made. It retails for 14,500 pounds.




The Team of Evil XI consists of: Pot (as in Pol Pot), Lucifer (you know...Satan), Caligula, Ripper (as in Jack), Impaler (as in Vlad the), Hitler, Macbeth (as in Lady), Hyde (the darker side of Dr, Jekyll), Klebb (as in Rosa), Idi Amin, Catcher (as in the Child).

Playing for Good XI : Claus (as in Santa), More (as in Sir Thomas), Moore (as in Bobby), Gordon (as in Flash), Robin (as in Christopher), God, Assisi (the saint), Jekyll (The lighter side of Mr. Hyde), Mary Poppins, Mother Teresa, M.K. Gandhi.







I can't think of a more fun way to pit Ghandi against Hitler, can you?

Order your own Opus Table by clicking here.

Or get the Good vs. Evil edition by clicking here.

All Hands on Deck(s) Skateboard Deck Design Competition

The collective expo will take place in Bucharest/Romania and will feature works from numerous international artists along with Romania’s finest.It first started at Inoperable Gallery in Wien, now Bucharest is the next stop. For submissions, please send an e-mail to skateboardart@gmail.com including some personal works. The deck can be in any condition (old, new or broken) and can be customized using any technique; deadline - 10^th of may. We are sorry but we can not support deck and shipment charges. If not returned to the artists, the decks will afterwards move to the next venue; who knows where that might be.

Questions and answers via e-mail: contact skateboardart@gmail.com

A Moment of Respect & Prayer

I just wanted to say how sorry I am about the tragedy that befell Virginia Tech yeterday. It's a horrible and horrendous event and my thoughts and prayers go out to all and any affected.

Design You'll Just Eat Up!

Above: The Warhol Cake

Above: The Mod Cake

Kate Sullivan of Lovin Sullivan Cakes makes the most amazing cakes I have ever seen.I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat them! I simply had to share a few of her edible masterpieces with you, but you can see them all and learn more about Lovin Sullivan Cakes here.


Above: The ea Party Cake

Above: The Monsoon Cake

Above: The Silhouette Cake

Above: The Kaws Cake

Above: The Guggenheim Cake

I Heart Tim Gunn

The Headmaster of Fashion

By ERIC WILSON
NY Times, 4.12.2007

A deceptively sweet-looking Daniel Vosovic arched a dark brow beneath his willfully tousled curls, turned to the man seated to his right and cut straight to the bone.

Tim Gunn juggles two roles these days, as the chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne and as a judge of aspiring designers on TV.

“If you ever send an e-mail to me and sign it, ‘Best wishes,’ I’ll know you’re just trying to pacify me,” he said with a mocking tone that had the effect of a match dropped on kindling. Tim Gunn’s face turned as red as Laura Bennett’s hair.


Tim Gunn walks the line at open auditions for “Project Runway” in Times Square.
photo: Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

This happened on Saturday morning in a Midtown hotel during tryouts for “Project Runway,” the Bravo reality series about dueling designers on which the meticulously unflappable Mr. Gunn serves as mentor, moral guide and cautionary sounding board to a cast of generally flailing contestants, like the fecund Ms. Bennett from the third season.

Mr. Vosovic, a second-season runner-up who was helping assess the incoming class of the fourth season, teased Mr. Gunn between his candy-coated send-off of the 20th applicant, a huffy Russian named Vladimir, and his abrupt dismissal of Rebecca, a substitute teacher with unnaturally red hair who described her work as “a combination of Martha Stewart and Tim Burton.”

Rejection is an art best crafted by experience. Mr. Gunn is the Michelangelo of the form. Here, a sampling of his words to a series of washouts:

“I don’t think you have the depth of experience yet. In fact, I know it.”

“This really is not what we’re looking for.”

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do. Do I love it? No.”

“We’re going to pass. Best wishes.”

Viewers of “Project Runway,” not to mention alumni of Parsons the New School for Design, where he was long a faculty member, will have no difficulty summoning up the posh, lilting voice of Mr. Gunn, who has been parodied on late-night television for the softly scolding undertones of intellectual feyness in his delivery of the word “designers.”

Ashleigh Verrier, a 2004 Parsons graduate, said that Mr. Gunn’s mannerisms are so ingrained in her mind that “I can still hear him saying, whenever I drape a piece: ‘Well, can she walk in it? Can she hail a taxi?’ ” Former students speak of Mr. Gunn as if he were Miss Jean Brodie or Mark Thackeray in a more expensive suit.

“I believe from a historical standpoint, Tim is going to go down as someone who brought fashion to an academic level and culturally put it on the map,” Ms. Verrier said.

As an academic whose role was intended to lend an air of dignity to a show about making stars of untested designers, Mr. Gunn, 53, was an unlikely candidate for breakout celebrity on “Project Runway.” Yet he has struck a chord with young people who admire his buttoned-up demeanor and the way he treats designers: as if he were a principal. Mr. Gunn, who until last month was the chairman of the Parsons fashion department, is the foil for all their flamboyance and inexperience.

His success has surpassed that of any of the winners of the show. Bravo has announced plans for a spinoff called “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style,” which is pegged to an actual guide Mr. Gunn wrote with Kate Moloney, an assistant chairwoman of fashion design at Parsons, published by Abrams Image.


Above: His book presently available on Amazon.


And last month, Mr. Gunn was lured away from Parsons, where he began working as an admissions director in 1983, to become chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne Inc., one of the nation’s largest apparel companies. At the executive level, Mr. Gunn will serve as a voice for the roughly 350 designers employed by Claiborne’s 45 brands, a role the company has likened to a creative dean.

To read the Liz Claiborne press release, click here

And he will continue to appear on “Project Runway,” which will return late this year.


Above: Contestants’ creations at auditions for "Project Runway."
Virginia Sherwood/Bravo

With the show’s popularity, Mr. Gunn changed fashion in an abstract way, making it more appealing as a career to a generation of young people who see design as a ticket to celebrity, reflected in a flood of applications to design schools across the country.

Talking to Larry King in August, Mr. Gunn described the show’s appeal: “Fashion is so fully embedded in our culture today that there are mythologies about it. And if anything, this show demystifies much of that and really makes fashion very, very accessible to the public at large.”

Now, at Claiborne, Mr. Gunn is attempting a more concrete real-world makeover: to bring a sense of excitement about fashion to a corporate culture known for blandness and to effect a change in the perception of its brands, from outdated to fashionable.

Can Mr. Gunn, in his words, make it work?

Above: 2 T-shirts for sale bearing the phrases "Make It Work" and "Carry On", both made popular by Tim Gunn


IT’S a huge learning curve for me,” Mr. Gunn said last week at the company’s offices in the garment center, across Seventh Avenue from Parsons. “I’ve been living in a rarefied bubble, really, for a total of 29 years. Because we were dealing with theory, we could write our own scenarios, where nothing ever fails and nothing is ever lost in the shipping process. It’s a very different universe.”

His role at Liz Claiborne is a new one for the company, part of a mandate by Bill McComb, the chief executive, to foster an image of “irresistible product,” even if that requires raising some prices. The implication is that the company, which like many large, publicly traded apparel businesses, places a premium on financial performance, also recognizes the value of design.

Above: Backstage with Jeffrey Sebelia, the Season 3 winner.

And Liz Claiborne is in need of a face-lift. Profits at the $5 billion company dropped considerably last year, by about 20 percent. Mr. McComb, who joined Claiborne in October, said there was a feeling internally, among designers, that the company had become too numbers-oriented. He thought that Mr. Gunn would inspire them, as he does on the show, to take creative risks.

“If dollars and cents drive your design, you risk becoming a commodity line,” Mr. McComb said. “And that’s the death of a fashion business.”

Mr. Gunn, in a black pinstripe suit one day and a black turtleneck under a black leather blazer the next, may be well suited for the job. At Parsons, he revitalized a fashion curriculum that had not changed since 1952. He introduced students to critical thinking, fashion history and the realities of commercial business. He made the school’s annual runway show more competitive for seniors by presenting only the best collections, which had an unexpected result of making instant stars of its top graduates: Ms. Verrier, Chris Benz and Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler.



On the other hand, Mr. Gunn has faced criticism from some students about changes they perceive as encouraging those who fit an idealized, or commercialized, image of successful designers over independent, freewheeling thinkers.

Moreover, “Project Runway” has drawn complaints for trivializing the profession. Stan Herman, the designer, speaking on the industry last month at a panel organized by the Fashion Institute of Technology, said, “It needs to be taken with a grain of salt because there are many kids who don’t know anything else about fashion besides ‘Project Runway.’ ”

Mr. Herman later said that the show has had a positive effect on enrollment in design schools and credited Mr. Gunn with presenting a balanced picture of the business. But he was concerned, he said, about the show’s track record of producing more celebrities than successful designers.

“We are living in an era of instant gratification, and the show is built on that premise,” he said. “The fact is that fashion is an art form or a form of commercial art that takes years and years of development. I find when they just use personalities