Full Sized Legos For Grown Ups: LunaBlocks by Lunatic Construction

Designed and created by Thierry Nahon & Philippe Landecker, LunaBlocks are based on an original concept, the transformation and enlargement of bricks used in building games for children. (Gee, do you think they are referring to Legos®? Duh.)

Easily stacked together, functional and totally versatile, LunaBlocks are designed for the world of decoration and for the home.

Whether in the form of design objects, structures, contemporary furnishings or lighting, LunaBlocks may be used for any decorative idea. They may be adapted to any combination of materials and used in all sorts of architectural contexts.







Available in sets of one, two, four or eight pegs, LunaBlocks are made of innovative and timeless materials, including acrylic glass, Arpro®, metal and concrete.

Light and compact, opaque, transparent or luminous, the LunaBlocks series includes

LunaGlass:



Made of PMMA (Altuglas®), ABS or polycarbonate, LunaGlass can either be shiny, transparent, mat-finished or have an opal-colored reflection. Every season, new ranges of colors and new materials are used to reflect recent trends.


LunaSoft (for the kids):




LunaSoft is made of expanded polypropylene (Arpro®), an innovative material which provides great shock resistance. It is completely safe and is able to be used by children. Ultra-resistant and ultra-light, LunaSoft is a playful design object that can be easily stacked together. It is aesthetic, functional and resolutely avant garde.

Produced in versions having two, four and eight pegs, LunaSoft is primarily designed for interior decoration and for children’s use.The primary advantage of LunaSoft is that it is resistant and light.:



LunaLight (Luna pillow)
Made from natural rubber, the LunaPillow allow to use the other blocks as seats, banks, chairs. It can be stacked atop the other luna blocks to create comfortable seating .:



LunaShine (coming soon):
LunaShine is made of the same material as LunaSoft. Surprising and seductive, LunaShine combines brilliant, icy aesthetics and extreme lightness.

The crystallisation of its surfaces by a new and exclusive process gives it an incomparable “Chinese lacquer” appearance.

Known as the luxurious version of LunaSoft, produced with Two, Four and Eight pegs, ultra-light and easily put together, LunaShine is the most modern, the most surprising and the glossiest of all LunaBlocks®.




LunaMetal (cast in steel):









Lunatic Construction:
Inventors and builders of things ephemeral, Thierry Nahon & Philippe Landecker created LUNATIC CONSTRUCTION SAS in July 2007 so as to give the original concept of « Lunablocks® » every chance for success.

A creative idea thus became an innovative international marketing initiative. Thanks to technological innovation, a significant research program and a brave and independent entrepreneurial approach, the necessary corporate structures (Creative Design, Technical Studies, Printing, Production, Communications, Sales and Marketing) have been put into place to ensure future development.

Sponsored by OSEO Financement and OSEO Innovation Ile de France, LUNATIC CONSTRUCTION SAS is an innovative, young company that has qualified for funding from mutual funds specializing in innovation.

Buy them here at Artydandy


Or buy them here at Homology

Lunatic Construction SAS
12, impasse Deligny 75017 Paris France
tel +33 (0)1 44 40 01 44
fax +33 (0)1 44 40 02 44
info@lunaticconstruction.com

Commercial
République Innovation
18, rue du Faubourg du Temple 75011 Paris
tel +33 (0)1 55 28 17 77
fax +33 (0)1 47 00 15 14
contact@lunaticconstruction.com

Product Pick Of The Week: Thomas Pedersen's Stingray Rocking Chair

The Stingray rocking chair in wood veneer by young Danish designer Thomas Pedersen was conceived as an innovative reworking of his earlier Stingray in plastic (shown further down in this post).


Above: Thomas Pedersen

Pedersen’s rising prominence in the international design world can partly be explained by his remarkable ability to challenge familiar assumptions and his unwavering persistence to extend the previous boundaries of design. Stingray introduces a new meaning to the traditional rocking chair.

The shape of the rocking chair was partially inspired by a shell. This gives it a beautiful organic design which is raw on the outside but smooth and refined on the inside. A piece of furniture that provides a unique experience of inner tranquility. The steel frame has been constructed without any transverse lines thus accentuating the floating appearance of the chair.





Winner of the "Interior Innovation Award Cologne 2008".

Oak:

Walnut:

African Macassar


Available in oak, walnut and the African wood macassar.
Dimensions w120 x h80 x d100 cm
buy the wood veneer one here.

The Stingray can also be ordered in an upholstered version with your choice of color and fabric from several options:



Buy the upholstered version here.

The chair is also available in white or black plastic as shown below:





Buy the white or black plastic one here.

Price:
$2,244.74 to $8,705.73 depending on options

Dimensions:
W.120 D.100 H.80

Ten New Products To Add To That Wish List Of Yours

Clockwise from top left:
1. Patricia Urquiola's new Landscape Dinnerware for Rosenthal.
2. Authentics unusual Bravit candles with wicks that wind their way through the wax and split off into two wicks while burning.
3. The Mythic Lip watch in black or white.
4. Glowing Owl Touch Sensor Floor lamp
5. Stunning exotic wood veneer desk, The Waterfall Writing Desk
6. Whimsical Dust Furniture collection by Vincent Lehman
7. New Zealand Tufted Wool Dog Rug
8. Pine slab shelving unit with glass shelves
9. Gloss ceramic antler lamp
10. Richard Meier's latest pen for Acme

Just click on the image above for more detail and place of purchase.

Cartier's New Watches Unveiled at SIHH: Including the 3D Santos Triple 100 and Le Cirque Animalia

At the 2008 SIHH, Cartier unveiled a slew of new watches. Although many blogs are talking about their new Le Cirque Animalier Collection, those are my least favorite of the new watches. There are several others worth gawking at as well and they are all shown below. The coolest watch they debuted was definitely the Triple faced Santos.

Santos Triple 100: The 3-D watch by Cartier




This extra-large Santos Triple 100 model combines a rotating-dial mechanism with a skeleton movement for the very first time; with a simple turn of the winding crown, a spectacular display of hidden faces unfurls. A work of art entirely set with precious stones, this numbered edition limited to 20 timepieces brings time to life in images, furnishing it with a magical and hypnotic hue.

The R&D unit of the Cartier Manufacture developed this mechanism, which is in the process of being patented, after many months of research. Manufacturing secret: Mobile prisms in 18 carat white gold, activated simultaneously by means of the crown, are driven by a system of miniature gear trains that causes the prisms to swivel gradually in one direction or the other, revealing three different dial faces.

The three different dial faces appear in succession: from a classic face featuring 12 Roman numerals:

to a face completely paved with round diamonds and black sapphires in a marvelous jeweler’s chessboard:


followed finally by a face engraved with a tiger’s head, which required over 40 hours’ work and meticulous attention to detail:



The mechanism of this extraordinary version of the Santos Triple 100 is combined with a Manufacture-crafted, mechanical, skeleton movement with manual winding, which has been decorated by hand and assembled at the Cartier Manufacture. The watch also boasts a double-barrel movement equipped with a 72-hour power reserve, which can be observed through its transparent case-back. Case in 18 carat white gold set with round diamonds, size XL. Hours and minutes functions.

Mechanism offering three modulating dials in 18 carat white gold: one face set with round diamonds and black sapphires, one face engraved with a tiger motif and one varnished face. Black alligator-skin strap with an adjustable, triple folding clasp with safety catch in 18 carat white gold. Contemporary, 9610MC -calibre, hand-wound, mechanical skeleton movement crafted by the Cartier Manufacture with a diameter of 11 1/2’’’140 PARTS and 21 jewels. Approximately 7.6 carats.

The Le Cirque Animalier De Cartier Collection (the much blogged about) is comprised of three watches. Just unveiled at the 2008 Salon International de la Haute Horologie (SIHH), this will be an ongoing collection and according to Serge Rabassa, Cartier's director of watch creation, it's like a travelling circus going around the world, with the first stop being Asia.

"The collection is inspired and based on the history of Cartier. We've always liked animals so we arrived at the concept that it should represent all the continents of the world. Asia was our first stop because of tradition ... this continent is very important because a number of our old pieces used Asian symbols so we decided to start here,'' says Rabassa.

These three original creations, in a limited edition series of 50 individually-numbered timepieces, call upon all areas of watch making expertise from stone-setting to enamelling, from engine turning to diamond paving and from sculpting to engraving. Cartier exhibits the full extent of its jewelry making and technical virtuosity in each of these creations, all mounted on brushed canvas straps.

Panda:

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds Panda in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds, black sapphires and emeralds (eyes), with some details outlined in black enamel. Dial in black and white enamel, Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds, Quartz movement, Approximately 8 carats

Elephant:

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, pink gold set with round diamonds. Elephant in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds and an emerald. Dial in 18 carat, pink gold set with round diamonds and partially decorated with guilloche. Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, pink gold set with round diamonds. Quartz movement. Approximately 7.2 carats

Tiger:

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, yellow gold set with round diamonds and sapphire crystal. Tiger in 18 carat, yellow gold set with yellow diamonds and 2 emeralds, with some details outlined in black enamel. Guilloché dial in 18-carat, yellow gold. Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, yellow gold set with round diamonds. Quartz movement. Approximately 7 carats.

The New Carter Roadster XL:


This watch can be transformed thanks to its interchangeable bracelets: choose from a metal bracelet with central links in burr walnut, or a dark-brown, semi-matt, alligator-skin strap. Available in two versions, the options for this Roadster watch continue to multiply: in pink gold - numbered edition limited to 250 pieces - or white gold – numbered edition limited to 150 pieces - the choice is yours.

Specifications: Case and bezel in 18 carat, white gold, size XL. Hours, minutes, seconds and date functions. Dial in burr walnut (burr-walnut plating is applied to a metal plate and finished with a glossy polish). Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. Bracelet in 18 carat, white gold with central links in burr walnut. An interchangeable bracelet system, exclusive to the Roadster Collection, offers the possibility of alternating between the metal bracelet and the dark-brown, semi-matte, alligator-skin strap, both of which come with the watch (triple, folding clasp in 18 carat, white gold). Mechanical movement with automatic winding, Cartier calibre 3110 (28,800 alternations/hour, 42-hour power reserve). Water resistant to 100 metres(10 bar)

The New Black Rubber & Rose Gold Santos:

A screw bezel for a dynamic “cockpit” with presence, the gold is pink and the rubber black and matt. Massive, powerful, a watch without limits. A giant dial, boundless space and one hundred percent time. A block of brushed pink gold draws a contrast with black. On the strap and dial, matt rubber dominates and is sealed with screws for enduring hallmarks of strength and light.

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, brushed, pink gold, large model. Hours, minutes and seconds functions. Bezel in 18 carat, pink gold, with cast-moulded black rubber. Matte, black dial. Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. Black rubber strap with screws in 18 carat, pink gold and ardillon buckle in 18 carat, pink gold. Mechanical movement with automatic winding and Cartier calibre 049 (28,800 alternations/ hour, 42-hour power reserve). Water resistant to 100 metres (10 bar).

The New Pasha Seatimer:


Framed block, fettered cabochon, solid gold and black rubber, an impressive chronograph watch in a king-sized model for maximum effect. Crafted from yellow gold interspersed with black rubber and diamonds. A watch with unlimited sparkle, ready to take on any sporting or jewelry-based challenge. Extra-large volumes and one dimension for this precious, 42.5-mm chronograph that boasts a bezel set entirely with diamonds. The contrasting alliance of black and gold embellishes this Pasha Seatimer watch. Its chronograph push-pieces and crown cover are adorned with black ceramic decoration in the ‘clou de Paris’ style, as is the bezel ring. The bracelet features the same striking combination, as black rubber links are encircled by yellow gold links set with sparkling diamonds.



Specifications: Chronograph watch Pasha Seatimer paved with brilliant-cut diamonds. 42.5-mm case in 18 carat, yellow gold. Fixed bezel in 18 carat, yellow gold set with round diamonds. bezel ring with black ceramic ‘clou de Paris’ decor, chronograph push-pieces and crown cover decorated with black ceramic ‘clou de Paris’ motif. Hours, minutes, seconds, chronograph and date functions. Matte black dial. Scratch-resistant sapphire crystal. Bracelet composed of links made from 18 carat, yellow gold set with diamonds and central links in matte black rubber. Mechanical movement with automatic winding, Cartier calibre 8630 (28,800 alternations/hour, 42-hour power reserve). Approximately 11.4 carats.

Three new models in their Libre Collection:
Perles watch:

One watch, four circles. Circles within circles. Gleaming mother-of-pearl dials surrounded by diamonds and set with pearls. Giant black numerals, with a graceful graphical style, to count the hours.

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds and two freshwater pearls. White mother-of-pearl dial featuring a flinqué pattern. Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds. Quartz movement. Approximately 2.9 carats.

Noeud watch:

This flat knot, in the style of a Japanese obi tied around the waist, is a sash of light mounted on a dark-grey strap of brushed canvas. Soft folds of small and large brilliant-cut diamonds, in a setting that adds rhythm and allure to any look, define this sleek watch that displays time horizontally on the wrist, across the radiant span of a precision dial stamped with two Roman numerals at 3 and 9 o’clock.

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds. Silver, lacquered dial featuring a sunray effect. Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds. Quartz movement. Approximately 3.4 carats.

Froissée watch:

Pleats and folds lend movement and give rhythm to the alluring, Couture design of this diamond-encrusted watch. Its beauty fans out like pleats of diamond sunrays on white gold, opening like bejewelled curtains to reveal a miniature triangular dial, an angled glimmer of time, on which only the ’3’ is displayed in Roman numerals.

Specifications: Case in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds. Silver, lacquered dial featuring a sunray effect. Dark-grey, brushed, canvas strap with an ardillon buckle in 18 carat, rhodium-plated, white gold set with round diamonds. Quartz movement. Approximately 3.7 carats

And finally, some new versions of last year's introduction, the Ballon Bleu watch (which, by the way, had a very hip launch as I blogged about here).

The 9452 MC calibre, an exceptional tourbillon:


A manufacture-crafted mechanical movement with manual winding, the 9452 MC calibre is comprised of 142 parts and 19 jewels. Measuring 4.5 mm in depth, it is driven by a flying tourbillon with its C-shaped index indicating the seconds. With a diameter of 10 and ¾ lines, it beats at the rate of 21,600 vibrations per hour and has a power reserve of 50 hours. Instead of placing the tourbillon carriage in its traditional position, protected between the bridges and the main plate of the movement, the tourbillon on the Ballon bleu de Cartier watch has been designed in order to maximize its aesthetic appeal. The tourbillon carriage seems to ‘fly’ over the bridges and appears to float freely above the dial. This choice, more aesthetic in its appeal but technically also more risky, led our master watchmakers to pay particular attention to the design of the tourbillon carriage to provide it with the same level of shock resistance as a traditional tourbillon.

Technical specifications: Case in 18 carat pink gold., Diameter: 46 mm., Circular-grained crown in 18 carat pink gold set with a sapphire cabochon. Sapphire crystal. Transparent case-back with sapphire crystal. Galvanic, slate-coloured guilloché dial, sun-ray open-worked grid with Roman numerals. Sword-shaped, blued-steel hands. Brown alligator-skin strap with dual adjustment folding clasp in 18 carat pink gold. Manufacture-crafted mechanical movement with manual winding, 9452 MC calibre, bearing the Geneva Seal. Flying Tourbillon with its C-shaped index indicating the seconds. Diameter: 10 and ¾ lines. Depth: 4.5 mm. Number of jewels: 19. Balance: 21,600 vibrations per hour. Movement comprising 142 parts. Power reserve of approximately 50 hours.

The Ballon Blue has now been infused with spring colors:


Above: An orange, purple or pink alligator-skin strap, in pastel or elegant shades has been added to the 2007 Ballon Bleu.

If you didn't see the way Cartier launched the Ballon Bleu, you should. See it here.

source: http://www.hautehorlogerie.org

Ego Lifestyle Signature Luxury Notebooks Get Even Hipper With Several New Styles

I've already written more than one blog post on Ego's Lifestyle Signature line of notebooks/laptops. The ultimate in luxe for the laptop toting crowd, they've added a few more extremely cool products to their already stunning collection. Clearly I'm not the only one who thinks so. Ego was the recipient of the Microsoft Fashion PC Award.

The Microsoft Fashion PC award 2008 shows the movement of the merely technical PC industry, towards one in which higher influences of fashion, premium quality materials and user desires are a crucial element. The jury recognized Ego as the embodiment of this movement.

For Ego the fashion PC award not only marks a technical validation for their leading role played in design, development and production of high end luxury consumer electronics, but also a recognition for their role in the forefront of developing the traditional computer market to one that takes users' desires as a starting point.

They presently have four collections, the Ego editions, The Personal editions, the Diamond editions and the Limited editions.

My favorite new one is the latest in their Limited editions designer collection by Dani Bles and Ego for the Jackie Summer Fair resulting in gold, silver and bronze leather covers debossed with three witty sayings: "She's pretty, but not perfect", "She's sexy, but in control." and "She's International and on the run.".

Danie Bles is fashion director of Jackie Magazine, stylist of Dutch celebs and each year Danie Bles Styling organizes two fashion shows: a summer tour and a winter tour.

The Jackie Magazine collection:



Above: Three from the Jackie Collection; gold, silver and bronze debossed leather with witty sayings.

Above: Jackie's Bronze computer interior

and above is the Jackie signature on the space bar.

And they even come with a shoulder strap to match!


In addition to the new Jackie Magazine collection, Andy Davis has added "fuerte" to the line:

Above: Fuerte by Andy Davis

And in keeping with their unusual materials like fur, patent leather, embossed leathers, high gloss and more, are these new additions since my last post:


Above: Goldfields

above: Goldstripe

Above: Vision

above: Dark Secret

Above: baroque

Above: bluish

Above: Moulin Rouge

Added to their exotic skins collections are bright and beautiful shades of ostrich, shark, eel and ray skins.


Above: Goddess

Above: Blue lagoon

And added to their Diamond collection is this deep purple suede one:


Above: the Dibino Diamond, 18 Carat white gold ornaments, set with 6.9 carat diamonds.

See and learn more about their notebooks and view more pictures here.

or visit their website here.

Montegiro Luxury Turn Tables: A Reason To Keep All That Vinyl

Luxury Turntables by Montegiro.

Just because you like your music 'Old School' doesn't mean the equipment has to harken back to the seventies and eighties. With the four technologically advanced, aesthetically pleasing modern designed turntables from montegiro, you can listen to music from decades ago without sacrificing a modern sense of style.

The Legno:




A new generation of turntables for the new generation of vinyl lovers. Organic shapes, rounded edges, natural materials: the legno model exudes a harmonious look that reflects its full, sonorous yet delicate sound. The legno skilfully combines wood and high-grade steel to produce an ideal sound. Available in white or bamboo:




The chassis takes advantage of wood’s stabilising qualities combined with its resonance damping properties. The four adjustable high-grade steel feet are decoupled by embedded o-rings (innovative rubber composite), as is the extremely precise, specially treated synchronous motor, which is driven by an outboard high-end motor controller designed for highest demands.



The integral 10,5’’ tonearm (modified for montegiro) and the Benz cartridge provide – even at the entry level – the typical montegiro sound. The legno builds its power upon the fundamental musicality common to all montegiro turntables. The tight bass provides the perfect foundation for the development of a smooth mid-range and stratospheric highs.

The Vivo:




The cubistic, tinted acrylic chassis is available in several colors. The armboard for the 10,5’’ tonearm (specially optimized by montegiro) is also made from acrylic as is the platter mat atop the high-quality steel platter. Design integrity plus perfect finish in the manufacturer’s best tradition provide for a tremendously aesthetic ensemble.



As with all four montegiro models, the vivo is equipped with a special high-end, decoupled synchronous motor. An external high-end motor generator provides for the correct drive of all models and meets the highest playback demands.

The Mondo:


The rectangular chassis is milled from a single piece of special steel. Powerful bass with ideal weight provides a perfect foundation for the mid-range and well articulated heights.



The armboard, made from acrylic, is embedded into the chassis and integrates itself perfectly. The steel and acrylic topped platter produces an extremely low resonance combination. The steel feet rest upon precious special steel plates embedded with acrylic which are additionally optimized by a montegiro innovation.



The specially treated, freestanding synchronous motor, decoupled within the chassis, is controlled by an external high-end motor generator. It provides the correct drive for all models and helps produce superior dynamics and timing. In addition to a Graham Engineering Phantom B-44 tonearm, the basic configuration includes the montegiro MG1 – a state of the art titanium bodied pickup system.

The Lusso:



The lusso is built upon alternate layers of aluminum and black acrylic, including the upside -down cone for the aluminum platter fitted with an acrylic platter. The lusso is driven by a newly developed, extremely precise high-end synchronous motor suspended within one of the cones. The cones, connected to each other, embrace height-adjustable feet that serve for perfect set-up. Even the carbon tonearm, mounted on a cone, demonstrates attention to detail and style.




Sonically, the lusso carries you into a perfect world of sound:
Between precise, crystalline highs, and weighty bass is a generous, softly melting midrange that helps produce an ideal, musically balanced turntable. Both the base version of the lusso with three cones and the top-of-the-line model with four cones and two tonearms provide the perfect symbiosis of technique and design. The basic configuration consists of a 10’’ carbon arm from Da Vinci (model Nobile), and the MG1 from the montegiro family, a state-of-the-art pickup-system from titanium. The top-of-the-line model with four cones includes a 9" SME, model 5009 tonearm. Other armboards are available upon request.

Montegiro
Contact info:
Dattenberg GmbH
Zum Ludwigstal 10-12 · 45527 Hattingen | Germany
Tel.: 0 23 24/ 93 32-0 · Fax: 0 23 24/ 93 32-33

Fun & Functional Letter Furniture From Set 26

SET 26 LETTER FURNITURE
The 26 letters of the alphabet, along with the plus sign and the dot are designed as aesthetically pleasing and functional furnishings. Individual letters (available in your choice of 6 colors) become storage objects/furniture in any room. Trays and drawers keep things tidy and give the owner an at-a-glance overview. SET 26 letter furniture won the red dot design award 2004 "best of the best" for best-of-breed design quality.
Great for residential or commercial uses.








Visit the site here.
In the US, click here for more information.

So Much More Than Just A Fashion Label That People Mispronounce: agnés b.

Living in the US where only 5 ultra chic agnes b. boutique locations (there are 3 in NY) exist, I had no idea of the breadth of interests and variety of products which fall under the brand name of notoriously reclusive French fashion designer Agnés B. Originally named Agnés Trouble, she later become Agnés Bourgois when she married the now deceased publisher Christian Bourgois.


Above: the rarely photographed french designer herself

With a bit more knowledge of her, the surname Trouble seems the ultimate in irony. The woman appears to be anything but. Okay, there was the lawsuit she brought against The Wet Seal in 2001 for copyright infringement, which she won. But hey... nobody's perfect.


above photo source: artwebtelly.com

I knew little of her. Simply as the designer and name behind the socially responsible, uber hip, expensive clothing line with the tasty lowercase label, "agnes b." By the way, for you non-fashionistas, that's pronounced 'on-yay bay', not 'aggness bee'.


It wasn't until I did a little research that I realized how vast and varied her company and success are. Her enormous support of the arts, and her equally large disdain for advertising, both came as a surprise. The woman is talented, charitable and undoubtedly very, very busy.



Describing herself as a product of the May 1968 student and worker's revolts in France, she said: "I still believe in that May '68 slogan 'Advertising is stupid and it makes you stupid'".

But, she does publicize her efforts to better the planet. See below:


She opened her first store in the early seventies in Paris. She was reportedly a young rebellious and socially-aware campaigner who brought that very spirit to her fashion brand. The company does NO traditional paid advertising. And yet she has 198 boutiques world-wide and 1 Paris atelier.



She is the sole designer for her collections for women, men, children, sport b., and Voyage (travel bags and purses). She has a full line of shoes, accessories, sunglasses, logo t-shirts, suits, sweaters and more for men, women, children and infants.








as well as a cosmetics line:




As if that weren't impressive enough, she's a movie producer and has produced several films and documentaries under her production company, Lovestreams Productions,




A huge supporter of the arts, film and music, she's also a photographer. The photos below of graffiti artist Craig Costello (aka KR) Krink ink work were taken by Agnés and used in her store displays and featured in their Lookbook.




She also publishes a modern art magazine named Point D'ironie:


Around 6 times per year, agnès b.and Hans-Ulrich Obrist give carte blanche to an artist to appropriate the space of the paper. An 8-page tabloid format, identical for each artist. 100,000 to 300,000 copies are available free of charge around the world (in bookshops, museums, galleries, schools, cafés, etc.), as well as in all of the agnès b. locations (France, Europe, USA, Asia). Learn more here.

She's an art gallery and bookshop owner:

see the Galerie Du Jour here.

Creates and sells fancy chocolates and truffles:




see the chocolates here.

Has a floral and florist company that designs breathtaking flower arrangements as well as floral decor for weddings:





Visit the floral site here.

She operates a chain of restaurant and cafés named Le Pain Grille to share her love of french food, with three locations in the UK alone and several other in her stores worldwide:



They also do private banquets and even sell branded tableware on their site and in their cafes, some of which is shown below:


Buy the tableware here.



above photo courtesy of PARIS (AFP)
In addition to belonging to several humanitarian organizations, sponsoring musicians and artists, she is also a major partner and sponsor for Tara Expeditions. An organization of scientists and sailors who travel via sailboat (named the "tara") to study the effects of global warming on pack ice, more specifically climate variations and impact in Arctic waters, ice and environment.
Learn more about Tara Expeditions and their latest documentary here.


The above beautiful silver gelatin print of elusive agnés b., taken in 2006 by photographer Steve Pyke, is available for purchase from the Flowers east gallery in London here.

Read a 2006 interview with the designer from the UK's Observer here.

agnés b. remains a family-owned company that has continued to grow and employs over 1,450 people world-wide.

Now, how is it possible I just thought it was a fancy clothing label?

ilumisys To Launch Designer Series LED Lighting

ilumisys, Inc. is unveiling a new line of five elegantly designed, contemporary LED lighting fixtures that exploit the unique characteristics of solid state lighting. Four of the Designer Series luminaire creations are pendant fixtures; the other is a table lamp.



"Green" lighting:
With light outputs ranging from 600-1000 lumens (roughly equivalent to 60-100 watt tungsten filament bulbs), the luminaires consume only 10 to 18 watts of electricity. They are powered by LEDs from Nichia Corporation, have color temperatures of 4200°K (neutral white) and CRI indexes above 90, while consuming only 10-18 watts of electricity.

The ilumisys Designer Series meets the public at LIGHTFAIR International in Las Vegas (booth #2967).To view the ilumisys Designer Series products or to schedule an interview at LIGHTFAIR International, please contact Bill Wolfson at 614-851-6748.

About ilumisys
ilumisys, Inc. is a Troy, Michigan-based company focused on next-generation solid-state lighting technology. The company was formed in 2007 as a spinoff venture and wholly owned subsidiary of Altair Engineering, Inc. Initial products will be derived from Altair's intellectual property as they relate to the direct replacement of fluorescent light tubes with light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and direct replacement of incandescent lamps.

ilumisys is a wholly owned subsidiary of Altair Engineering, Inc.

All The Leibovitz Disney Dream Portraits Including The Latest, Julianne Moore & Michael Phelps; The Little Mermaid

Continuing the “Disney Dream Portrait Series” that has put stars in all kinds of Disney fantasies, Leibovitz trained her famous lens this time on the undersea world of Ariel, heroine of “The Little Mermaid.” To get there, she dressed actress Julianne Moore and American swimming icon Michael Phelps in tails and scales.

“Yes, Julianne has a big mermaid tail; it’s interesting,” Leibovitz recalled from the shoot. “Michael, too. His movements were so graceful and beautiful you just felt like you were watching a real merman.”

The latest Leibovitz photography is part of her acclaimed series as Disney Parks continue, through 2008, the “Year of a Million Dreams” celebration on both coasts.

In the finished image captioned “Where another world is just a wish away,” shafts of light pierce the blue depths as Ariel (Moore) sits in her undersea world amid wavy coral and darting sea life. In the foreground of the frame, Phelps slips past, flipping his fins.

Planned for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine – continues the renowned Leibovitz series of putting celebrities inside their Disney fantasies. Released in separate flights since January 2007, these have included:

Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella:

Beyonce as Alice in Wonderland with Lyle Lovett and Oliver Platt:

and David Beckham as the gallant Prince Phillip from "Sleeping Beauty.":

Rachel Weisz as Snow White:

Roger Federer as King Arthur from "The Sword in the Stone":

Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" with Abigail Breslin as Fira from "Disney Fairies.":

Jennifer Lopez as Jasmine and Marc Anthony as Aladdin:

and Whoopi Goldberg playing the Genie:

Giselle Bundchen as Wendy Darling, Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan:

and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell:


and Jessica Biel as Pocahontas:


Below is a video of the Moore/Phelps Mermaid shoot:


And here are a bunch of 'behind the scenes' pictures from the shoots:

If Shepard Fairey Joined PETA: Obey The Pure Breed Posters & Merchandise

Take a love of animals, a clever sense of humor, a predilection toward puns and a shepard fairey art style and what have you got?



Obey The Pure Breed, is the brainchild of Kevin McCormick, a humorous take off on Shepard Fairey's propoganda posters, only with cats and dogs. They sell beautifully designed posters for just about every dog breed imaginable, some of the most popular kitties and have t-shirts, mugs, notebooks and more.



Here are some of the breeds available:






Here are some of the posters in full:






All of the designs are available on mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, notebooks, ceramic tiles and more through their cafepress stores for each of the breeds.

In addition to the large selection of posters, they sell a series of limited edition prints, two examples below:



And some even done in the style of Woodstock psychedelic rock posters!
Below are two Pugstock examples:

ABOUT KEVIN MCCORMICK
Inspired by a militant Weimaraner named "Cody," Kevin McCormick started combining propaganda art with heroic portraits of dogs. The designs which make tongue in cheek social and political commentary, represent the passion and loyalty that many dog "owners" have for their breeds.

The artist has (or serves, as he puts it) 2 Vizslas and a 1 year old baby.
A Rutgers College grad Kevin is now a web designer and computer illustrator.

Tons of downloadable wallpaper options for your computer can be found here.
They also design and stock political propaganda posters, and many more.Check them all out.


Visit the site here.


And, by the way, And if you're not a 'pet parent', but an actual human parent, they have Obey The Baby stuff and other funny versions of popular culture.

The aA Design Museum in Seoul: Combo Museum, Furniture Store And Café

The aA Design Museum in Seoul


If you know me, you know I have a thing for chairs. having written previous posts on chair paintings , not once but twice, it's no surprise that the new aA Design Museum is something I simply had to write about.

Walking into the aA Design Museum is like being invited to a cool downtown loft party, with tons of amazing places to sit on designer chairs and sofas by everyone from Marcel Breuer to Tom Dixon, a cute place to eat, and unusual exhibits and info- even a showroom with furniture for purchase.



Above: The launch party on dec. 31st, 2007.


Above: the invitation to the launch which featured an appearance by designer Tom Dixon.

Korea's aA Design Museum was a dream of a lifetime for restaurant owner Mr. Kim. A combination design museum, cafe and furniture store, it's a loft type structure in the heart of the modern nightlife district of Mapu-Gu, Seoul.



Above: their appearance at the Seoul Design Festival

Begun three years ago and just opened this year to the public, it's housed in a very unusual environment. Although it has the eclectic appearance of a midcentury modern chair lover in a downtown loft, the tiles, balustrades and windows, some of which go right back to the turn of the century, were all flown in specially from Italy.

Combining vintage architectural elements, fabulous furniture and a bit of whimsy, make the aA design museum a place worth visiting. If you don't plan on hopping a plane to Seoul anytime soon, here are tons of images for you!


The Showroom:






The Museum:











The cafe:





No, not everything is "chairs".
An example of one of their exhibits:





Visit the museum online (however it is not in english).

Laura Zindel's Ceramics Will Bug You In The Best Possible Way

I especially love her platters, just a few of which are shown below:

prices can be seen here.
Laura Zindel Ceramics are designed by Laura Zindel-Lauterbach and her husband Thorsten Zindel Lauterbach. The two live in Southern Vermont in a very old farmhouse. Laura has a BFA in Ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Massachusetts.

The Technique:
Hand built and slip cast with low fire white earthenware and glazed with non-toxic low fire glazes. The images are original pencil drawings drawn by the artist. The images are then printed with enamel and become a ceramic transfer. The images are then individually collaged to each piece and fired permanently to the surface. This technique is a modern version of what was once called transferware, first introduced in the 1700s.
*Each piece is individually made and variations may occur during the kiln firing.
Glaze colors tend to vary slightly and size is approximate due to shrinkage.

Care information:
All work is food sage. Please advise careful non-abrasive washing with warm soapy water, for brilliant, long-lasting life of the glazed surfaces. It is not advised to place pieces in the oven, and should be used as serving dishes only. Dinnerware can be lightly microwaved and put in the dishwasher. All other pieces should be hand washed.
See all her work here.

studio location:
339 Coolidge Highway
Guilford, Vermont 05301
802-254-8930
You can purchase her items at The Artful Home as well.

Lacroix's New Furniture & Homewares For La Redoute (With a fun microsite to match)

Seems that fashion designers are all getting into the housewares game and Christian Lacroix's latest collection for the department store La Redoute is another wonderful example.

His line of whimsical rugs, cushions, outdoor furniture, gardening tools, towels and more has all the whimsy of his fashion designs. The UK store carries the following products, but for some reason the US site does not, although they carry Lacroix's clothes and towels.











Buy the collection here.
or visit: http://www.christianlacroixpourlaredoute.com/

They have designed a microsite to browse the collection that is a fun way to walk through and see the entire line:





Visit the microsite here that has a fun game and extras like cool wallpapers.

Fashion & Art Collide: The Gap Artist Shirts For The Whitney

And here are the shirts:

Kerry James Marshall:


Barbara Kruger:



Glenn Ligon:


Marilyn Minter:


Cai Guo-Qiang:


Ashley Bickerton:

Sarah Sze:



Rirkrit Tiravanija:

Hanna Liden:


Chuck Close:

Jeff Koons:

Kenny Scharf:

Kiki Smith:




Where can you buy them? A few select GAP stores, online at GAP.com, a few art museums in the US, and Colette in Paris for between $28 and $32.

As you might expect, many are already sold out (hint: look on ebay for those)!

the t-shirts at the Gap.

the whitney.

Funky Find Of The Week: The Tuliptoaster Lamp

Created by Studio Hergebruik in Rotterdam, the tuliptoaster is a functioning lamp that functions when you press down the taoster button, illuminating the lightblbs withint the faux tulips placed inside the toaster. Available in various colors as seen below.



Studio Hergebruik, Rotterdam

Around 1990 several young Dutch designers started work suddenly with waste materials. Most known became Piet Hein Eek and Tejo Remy who formed, under the influence of the punk movement, their resisted against the wasting society and operating with a anti-design mentality. Except for aesthetic reasons also ecological ideals (re-use) played an important role. This development uses ideas from historical movements as the Pop Art and the Art Povera.

At that time Eek and Remy were imitated a lot and nowadays there is again a new generation that is using waste materials in their designs. For them above all ideological goals are important.

For more information or to order the tuliptoaster, go here.

Neutra Kaufmann Home Sells For Less Than Expected

Can Houses Be Sold Like Art?

$15 Million Sale at Christie's Is a Milepost, But Some Experts Are Cautious
By Christina S. N. Lewis, with photos and links provided by yours truly

In a closely watched test of the concept of selling a house as art, a restored modernist home in Palm Springs, Calif., fetched $15 million this week at Christie's prestigious evening sales -- a record for a home sold at an art-house auction.



Given the cloudy economic forecast and sluggish real-estate market, the sale price of the Richard Neutra-designed house thrilled Christie's officials. Real-estate brokers had put the value of the two-acre property and house, completed in 1947 for Pittsburgh department-store magnate Edgar J. Kaufmann, at roughly $9 million. (Overall, the evening sale was considered a success, with a Lucien Freud painting fetching $33.6 million, the highest price ever for a work by a living artist.)


Above: The Neutra-designed Kaufmann home in Palm Springs that sold at auction for $15 million (to see more pics, go here)


Above: Benefits Supervisor Sleeping by Lucian Freud sold for $33,641,000 and Establishes auction record for a living artist

But some devotees of midcentury architecture, a style characterized by horizontal lines, open floor plans and minimal embellishments, were dismayed. The sale price ($16.8 million with the buyer's premium) was at the bottom of Christie's estimate of $15 million to $25 million, and the auction didn't generate the level of competing bids some expected. "It was kind of disappointing," said Bridget Restivo, a real-estate broker who is involved in historic preservation. "I thought there would be more interest, cachet, excitement." Michael LaFetra, a Los Angeles-based preservationist who has restored and sold a number of significant midcentury houses, says the low number of bids could indicate the modernist market is peaking.


above: Actor, producer and home preserver Michael LaFetra stands in the hall of a Rudolf Schindler home in Sherman Oaks. LaFetra hangs on to architecturally significant houses until he can register them as landmarks.

The buyer, who wished to remain anonymous, is a foreigner with homes in Europe and the U.S. who has an interest in 20th-century architecture, design and art, according to Joshua Holdeman, Christie's head of 20th-century art and design, who oversaw the sale. The buyer also agreed to purchase an adjacent orchard on a third of an acre, bringing his total outlay to $19 million.



Above: Todd Eberle/Wright Auction House The Louis Kahn-designed Esherick House in Philadelphia, set to be auctioned Sunday


Above: Located in Chestnut Hill, the one-bedroom house has a custom "sculpted" kitchen by woodworker Wharton Esherick and is in virtually original condition.

Only a handful of "collectible" houses have gone to auction since 2000, yet the gambit will get another test Sunday when Chicago auction house Wright offers up a Louis Kahn-designed home in Philadelphia for an estimated $2 million to $3 million. Located in Chestnut Hill, an upscale neighborhood, the one-bedroom house has an undulating, "sculpted" kitchen by woodworker Wharton Esherick and is in virtually original condition.

And next month, Sotheby's will auction the Artek Pavilion (shown below), a 130-foot-long, 16-foot-wide exhibition structure designed in 2007 by contemporary Japanese-born architect Shigeru Ban, at an estimated $800,000 to $1.2 million. The auction house believes the structure, which takes a construction crew a week to assemble, could serve as a good private-museum space.



Above Artek Pavilion Photos by Paul Petrunia, more in their Gallery

Some homes sold as architectural masterpieces have exceeded their estimates. In 2003, the National Trust for Historic Preservation paid $7.5 million, including the buyer's premium, for a Mies van der Rohe-designed glass box-style house near Chicago, over its $6 million estimate.



Above: In 2000, an Asian-influenced 1950 Manhattan townhouse designed by Philip Johnson for Blanchette Rockefeller sold for $11.1 million with the premium -- more than twice its $5 million estimate -- at Christie's. In 1989, the home had sold at a Sotheby's auction for $3.5 million with the premium, well over its $2 million estimate.

A few years ago, some preservationists worried that auctions would allow individuals to buy modernist masterworks and then alter the houses by moving them or creating inappropriate additions. Instead, design enthusiasts say, auctions have proved a boon by raising broader awareness of the style.

ON THE BLOCK

A sampling of houses designed by modernist architects and sold at auction (prices include buyer's premium)

Kaufmann House by Richard Neutra
Palm Springs, Calif. $16.8 million on May 13

Maison Tropicale by Jean Prouvé
Modular $5 million in 2007

Case Study House No. 21 by Pierre Koenig
Los Angeles $3.1 million in 2006

Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe
Plano, Ill. $7.5 million in 2003

"I am a big supporter," said Christy MacLear, co-leader of the modernism initiative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "It creates this unbelievable awareness about modernism and enhances its value." But the practice may work only for landmark properties designed by an architect of national significance, auction officials say.

In October, the Wolfson Trailer House in Dutchess County, N.Y., designed by modernist pioneer Marcel Breuer, sold at auction in a single bid for $1 million (hammer price), its low estimate, according to Richard Wright, the owner of the Chicago auction company. However, the buyer never visited the unusual two-bedroom house, which uses an attached aluminum 1948 Spartan trailer as its kitchen, and the sale subsequently fell apart. The house still is owned by the original sellers. Mr. Wright, citing legal issues, declined to elaborate.


Above: The Wolfson Trailer House

"The price was modest and the property was modest," said Mr. Wright. "In the future, I will only do historically important properties." The house's co-owner, David Diao, says: "I'm just as happy it didn't go through. I think he got it at too low a bid." The property now is on the market for $1.5 million.

The high prices being paid for some modernist houses viewed as art seem a continuation of the booming contemporary-furniture market. Prices for limited-edition contemporary furniture have zoomed to hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece. And the art world increasingly is recognizing the house as an art form. In July, New York's Museum of Modern Art will open an exhibit of prefabricated homes.

To pitch a house as a masterpiece, auction houses often create unusual catalogs. Christie's Kaufmann house brochure was delivered in a clear Lucite box with a cork bottom referencing the home's cork floors in the bathrooms and kitchen. It was sent to 500 key clients enclosed in a cashmere bag.

Wright's hyper-stylized catalog for the Kahn house in Philadelphia features quotes by some of contemporary architecture's biggest names, including Zaha Hadid, Richard Meier and Annabelle Selldorf. The Sotheby's catalogue for the Farnsworth house was bound in metal with a clear plastic cover, a reference to the home's glass box style. The catalog quotes a 1951 letter Philip Johnson wrote to Mr. Rohe after visiting the house: "There is no way I can tell you how much I admire the architecture."

A Woman With A Way With Paper: Meet Artist Helen Musselwhite

Give Helen Musselwhite a pair of scissors and some colored paper and watch out.
The Uk artist and illustrator creates highly unique and intricate paper sculptures with themes from dogs, birds and woodland creatures to love, hearts and fantasy. She is inspired by nature and daily life to immortalize that around her in intricate paper art that would make great gifts for either children or adults.


Above: Daphne In The Woods

Above: Monkey Magic

Above: Romany Caravan

Above: Ginger Bird

Above: Green Dell , framed in white.

Above: Red Love, framed in white

Above: In the Winter Wood, framed in white


Her website showcases several galleries of this impressive art, in slightly different styles.
She also does custom work and most pieces are available framed in either white or black.







She also has an all white series I just love:




Helen works from her studio on the edge of Manchester as a freelance artist and illustrator and exhibits her work across the UK. Prices vary depending upon size and intricacy.

Shop for them here.

Or from her own online store, here.

Like cut paper art? the you'll love Peter Callesen's work, see that here

Showpony: Original, Organic and Very Clever Products

Emma Henderson launched Showpony in 2006 with the aim of producing fun and engaging printed products for the home and accessories market.

Self described as being "passionate about creating new products but remaining committed to sustainable design, all of Showpony's products are made using organic cotton which is hand spun and woven by a fair-trade cooperative."

Emma's designs are clever and unique. Inspired by honesty in nature and poking fun at real life she creates products that are functional and beautiful.

Kippen, her beautiful dog, takes a more passive role.


Now, the products:
Vintage Shoppers



These totes are simple bags made of fair trade organic cotton, but printed upon them are images of Victorian and antique handbags and purses that give the product both a fun illusion and unique style:






"Hiding Place" pillows and purses contain a secret of their own.





What appear to be seemingly sweet floral pillow and purses, these "Hiding Place" products by Showpony have a fun little twist. The fabric between the pleats reveals a darker side:


Above: between the pleats lurk spiders and ants

Hot Dogs:



The Adorable Hot Dog Water Bottles feature a bulldog named Daisy and an airedale named Jack. Filled with heat and lavendar, these puppies are microwavable and will hold their cozy heat for up to two hours.




Kitchen Commandments




Another product that makes you look twice are her fair trade organic cotton kitchen towels.
Upon close inspection, one can see that the text on 'Keep it Clean' and 'Do The Dishes' are made up of crawling ants and dirty dishes, respectively.




So, where can you buy these cute, clever and politically correct products?


In the US, you can purchase them at her Etsy store here.
In the UK, you can by them from All Things Original here.

Lovegrove & Repucci Now Do London Delft!

If you're a hipster, chances are you are familiar with Lovegrove & Repucci, the creative duo about which I've blogged before. Their latest "must have" is their new dinnerware, London Delft, a follow up to their very hot New York Delft Dinnerware.

The classic tradition of Dutch Delft craftsmanship now has a London calling. The ‘London Delft’ Porcelain dinnerware collection, new from Nicholas (Nick) Lovegrove and Demien Repucci. Each place setting is made of fine porcelain and has five pieces; a dinner plate, side plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer.

$100 for each five piece place setting.

above: the 10.5" dinnerplate from their latest London Delft Dinnerware

Above: dinner plate detail

Above: the 7.5" side plate

Above: side plate detail

Above: the 8" soup bowl

Above: the cup and saucer

And for those of you who have not seen the original New York Delft Dinnerware, here are some images from that collection:


above: New York Delft Dinnerware set


Above: Dinnerplate from the New York Delft Dinnerware


Above: lovegrove & repucci (aka Nick and Demien)

Buy either fabulous set of Delft Dinnerware here.

Noon Solar Fashion: Bags That Take Charge

Noon Solar creates bags for people who are equally conscious of style and sustainability. Their bags combine durable solar power charging capability with sustainable design and American based, socially responsible manufacturing.

Their previous collection (which is sold out):



.... and a sneak peek at some of the new, soon to hit the market, styles (courtesy of Goldarths):




Noon carefully chooses materials for their sustainability, longevity, and beauty, to design and create the next generation of totes and satchels. Using natural pigments, we hand-dye our hemp and cotton fabrics in house and feature only chrome-free leathers which have also been naturally dyed and tanned. Because natural dyes can vary from dye bath to dye bath, each bag is one-of-a-kind.

Their Noon Solar line integrates a flexible solar panel into the body of each bag, allowing it to charge your cell phone or iPod. By integrating solar panels into our bags, we offer not only the convenience of portable power, but also a means to incorporate renewable energy into your daily life.

As stated above, the following styles are all sold out, however, their new 2008 Spring Collection is supposedly available any day now and you can sign up to be alerted as to when, by signing up on their website.

The Cortland:
available in black (shown below) or chocolate



The Willow:
available in steel (shown below) and chocolate



The Logan:
available in chocolate (shown below) or black and chocolate



Solar power:
On the outside of your bag, there is a paper thin, flexible solar panel. This solar panel charges a battery pack located inside the bag to supply power for your cell phone or iPod, day or night. Simply place the solar panel in the bag towards the sun to collect usable energy.



Put it in your window at work, home, car, or on the train; face it towards the sun at a café; or walk/bike around town with the panel exposed. Even on cloudy or rainy days, energy is collected through the UV light of the sun.

On a bright, sunny day the battery should be fully charged in 6-8 hours. On a cloudy day the battery will require a bit more time. The battery pack will hold the sun’s energy for several days.



Included with each Noon Solar bag is a user manual explaining the specifics of solar energy and how to access and use it.

Specs:


Power Bank
* Selectable output voltage of DC 5.2V, 6.2V, 7.2V. Max output current is 1.8A, working current is 1.1A.
* Internal battery is 3.6V, 3600mAH.
* The battery box will change to power saver mode to conserve the battery while the output cable is NOT plugged in. If the output cable is plugged in, the battery box will change to work mode and will drain the battery even if your device is not plugged in.
* The Power Bank has overload and short circuit protection.
* FCC certified and CE approved.

Solar Panel
* Output is 7.2v, 300mA.
* The solar panel is completely water and weather proofed, and will continue to work even if it wears with age.
* You will not be harmed if the solar panel gets wet.

Precautions
* Do not damage the battery box or solar panel
* Do not burn or expose the battery box or solar panel to fire
* Please recycle the battery box, dispose of it properly, or mail it to us for recycling
* Do not open or dismantle the box

In addition to the solar bags, they plan on launching a collection simply called "Noon" this coming fall that offers the bags without the solar panels. Find out all about Noon Solar here.

Funky Find Of The Week: Randy Wood's Rubber Pillows & Erotic Homewares

The 12" square pillows made by Randy Wood are three dimensional and cast from a single mold. Available in red or black, you can choose from nose, face or... a dick.



Made with rubber, canvas and filler, they cost $65.00 a piece at the Randy Wood site. Bizarre but beautiful in their own weird way.


Above: The face pillow

Above: The nose pillow

Above: The dick pillow

He actually has some G-rated ones like wings and hearts (shown in the first picture in this post) which I found over at urban peel. Those sell for $75.00 a piece, but the site is presently under construction.



Want to see the Randy Wood website? Check it out, but be forewarned, you should probably be 18+ because he clearly has a fixation with the male anatomy. The site sells erotic homewares (knobs, wall hooks, trays, candleholders, leather notebooks... even carving knives) all with the cast head of a penis as the design element:





The site proclaims that Porno vases and table Lamps are coming soon!

Buy the pillows and the above erotic items here at Randy Wood's site.

The Last Supper. And the one after that. And after that. And then, even more.

Above: The Sopranos Last Supper for Vanity Fair magazine


Whenever I see popular blog posts and online articles about something in pop culture that references something historical, I always wonder if the ... ahem, younger generations know the origin of the original and how many other interpretations had been created prior to the one they tweeted, tagged, posted on 'digg' or shared on facebook.

Such is the case with a link someone sent me of fun parodies based on Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper. I'd seen the Soprano's Last Supper photo in Vanity Fair and was familiar with the Legos one, since it had been e-mailed to me a ways back. Along with those, the link included just about every pop culture version you could think of -from the Simpsons to Star Wars.


Above: The Last Supper made of Legos

This got me wondering if the people viewing it were aware that The Last Supper was a subject for many well known artists from the 14th-20th centuries, not just da Vinci. From Albrecht Durer to Rembrandt, Tintoretto to Blake, the subject was interpreted by almost every painter who painted for money for centuries. Common sense would tell you that, given that biblical scenes and stories dominated the art world long before any other subjects. But I wondered how many people e-mailing that very link also know that the piece has since been interpreted by the likes of such artists as Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and even photographer David LaChapelle, to name a few.

Well, if they didn't, you can e-mail them this post.

I'm not going to show you the scads of photoshopped and parody versions out there in cyberspace because so many other bloggers have done that already*. Instead of parodies, I wanted to show you other fine art and photographer's interpretations of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting. Don't groan... you may just learn something.

You are probably used to seeing the original like the one below:

But that is very enhanced for reproductions like posters, etc. To be more accurate, see the next two images (and click on them to enlarge)


Let's start with the original:

Above: before cleaning

Above: after cleaning

Facts:
The subject: The Last Supper
Painted by: Leonardo da Vinci
Where: Milan, refectory of the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent
When: From 1494 to 1498
Size: 460 x 880 cm (181 x 346 in)
Technique: Tempera with oils on white lead and calcium carbonate


A site where you can see the Leonardo DaVinci's Last Supper in amazing detail, down to a pixel.

Wanna see it in person? Please note that starting from April 28th it is possible to book until 30/09/2008. entrance booking info here.

And now some wonderful fine art interpretations of the Last Supper, in chronological order:


Above: Marisol Escobar's Last Supper (1930) installation


Above: Salvador Dali's The Sacrament Of The Last Supper, 1955


Above: Mary Beth Edelson's feminist interpretation, 1971


Above: Hermann Nitsch's Last Supper (1976-9)


Above: Andy Warhol's Last Supper (pink), 1986


Above: Andy Warhol's Last Supper (Dove), 1986


Above: Damien Hirst's "Last Supper", 1999


Above: two of the 13 screenprints from Damien Hirst's "The Last Supper" collection, 1999




Above: Devorah Sperber's unusual installation, After The Last Supper, 2005




Above: Francine LeClercq's impressive Last Supper Untitled (installation), 2007

Now, some photographic interpretations of the The Last Supper for both advertising campaigns and personal collections:

above: Underwater Last Supper by photographer Howard Schatz, 2008


Above: by photographer Marcos López, 2001


Above: by photographer Cui Xiuwen, 2003


Above: by Russian film director, Mamedov


Above: by photographer David LaChapelle


Above: unknown photographer, an ad for the Folsom Street Fair


Above: Fashion shot by Frank Herholdt


Above: unknown photographer, ad for Francois Girbaud


Above: shot by Annie Liebovitz for Vanity Fair & HBO

Okay, now I know you're dying to see all the parodies (like the one below), so here are the links to those:

above: Clowns Last Supper by artist known as Dark Vomit

*An enormous collection of pop culture and television interpretations of the Last Supper from the Slog, posted by Dan Savage

And yet another collection, Suddenly Last Supper, of photoshopped, staged and fun pop culture versions from The Sopranos to Legos of The Last Supper can be found here.

For real art history buffs, here are links to just a few of the other historical religious paintings of the last supper:

Last Supper, Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, 1150-1200. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
Lord's Supper, German Gothic Sculptor, c 1250. Web Gallery of Art.
Last Supper/Communion of the Apostles, Liturgical Veil, 13th/14th century. Benaki Museum, Athens.
Last Supper, Wissington, Suffolk, 13th century. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
The Last Supper and the Agony in the Garden, Spolto, c 1300. Worcester Art Museum.
Last Supper, Fairstead, Essex, 13??. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
Scenes from the Life of Christ: 13. Last Supper, Giotto di Bondone, 1304-1306.
The Last Supper, Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308-1311. CGFA.
The Last Supper, Friskney, Lincs, c 1320. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
The Last Supper, Pietro Lorenzetti, 1320-1330. Olga's Gallery.
The Last Supper, Jaume Serra, 1370-1400. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Little Tey, Essex, 14??. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
The Last Supper, Jaume Huguet, 1450. CGFA.
Communion of the Apostles, Fra Angelico, 1451-53. CGFA.
The Last Supper, Jacopo Bassano, 1542. Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The Last Supper, Dieric Bouts, 1464-67. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Taddeo Crivelli, 1469. Getty Museum.
The Last Supper, Jaime Huguet, 1470. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1476. Web Gallery of Art
The Last Supper, Domenico Ghirlandaio, 1480. Web Gallery of Art
The Last Supper, Domenico Ghirlandaio, c 1486. Web Gallery of Art
The Last Supper, Pietro Perugino, 1493-96. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Leonardo daVinci, 1498.
The Last Supper, Bernaert van Orley, 1500's. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Last Supper, Little Easton, Essex, 15??. Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church.
Christ Instructing Peter and John to Prepare for the Passover, Vincenzo Civerchio, 1504. National
Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Albrecht Dürer, 1510.
The Last Supper, Franciabigio, 1514. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Albrecht Dürer, 1523.
The Last Supper, Andrea del Sarto, 1520-25. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Albrecht Durer, c 1520. Lutheran Brotherhood's Collection of Religious Art
The Last Supper, Bernart van Orley, 1520-1530. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Last Supper, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1524-25. CGFA.
Triptypch with the Last Supper, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Plaque with the Last Supper, Jean Penicaud I, c 1530. National Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Jacopo Bassano, 1542. Borghese Barberini Corsini Spada Gallery, Milan.
The Last Supper, Juan deJuanes, 1560's. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Tintoretto, 1592-94. Web Gallery of Art
The Last Supper, Daniele Crespi, 1624-25. Web Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Peter Paul Rubens, 1630. Olga's Gallery.
Glorification of the Eucharist, Rubens, 1630. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Last Supper, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634-35. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Last Supper, Philippe de Champaigne, 1600's. CGFA.
The Last Supper, Nicolas Poussin, 1640's. Olga's Gallery.
The Last Supper, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, 1664. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
The Last Supper, Simon Ushakov, 1685. History of Russian Painting.
The Last Supper, Sebastiano Ricci, 1713/1714. National Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, William Blake, 1799. National Gallery of Art.
The Last Supper, Nikolay Gay, 1863. Olga's Gallery.
The Last Supper, Carl Bloch, 1875, Hope Gallery.

Of course I've left out hundreds, probably more like thousands, of worthy interpretations so forgive me. But now, when you see photo shopped versions of The Last Supper (and believe me, there are hundreds more to come), you'll know that the aforementioned artists did it first.

Collaboration of 2 Dutch Designers Yeilds 2D Furniture

The 2D furniture collection by Wouter Nieuwendijk and Suzanne van Oirschot is a fun collaboration between these two designers from the Netherlands.


The collection was designed for an exhibit in Das Wella Warenhaus at the Keizersgracht 300 in Amsterdam, but it is worth printing here for you to see if you haven't already. Photographic images printed upon white laminated particle board furniture make a statement about storage and items that is in direct conflict with the minimalist look of much of today's modern furniture.







Unfortunately, the pieces are not available for purchase (at least not in the US). But hey, head on over to Ikea, buy some pieces and put your own photos on them!

Want A Timeline Of Your Interests, Blog Posts, You Tube Videos & More? Then Dipity Do!

With a profile and a group on facebook, a blog on blogger, a twitter account, a Digg account, public Picasa web albums, my cyber life is very public. Granted, this is not my personal life but all related to the blog which you are presently reading.

As if there aren't already enough ways to be privy to what people are doing online, here's yet another, and it's very cool.



Dipity allows you to create and share interactive time lines of posts, your blog, events and more. You can even create a "time tube", a time line of your favorite you tube videos. With several ways to view the time line (as a visual time line, a flip book, as a list or a google powered map) and options to embed or share, there are endless possibilities.



Below are three ways to view time lines of If It's Hip, It's Here. Each format includes all my blog posts, photos from my public Picasa web photo albums, posted videos from my you tube account, my tweets, my Diggs and my Pandora music choices:

Timeline :


The timeline offers you the option to view it in several formats from the past 100 years to the past day!

Flipbook:



List:




What feeds can be added to Dipity?



Profile feeds such as RSS feeds, twitter, yelp, pandora, last fm, you tube as well as blog feeds from blogger and wordpress allow you to create rich and engaging time lines of all your interests.



Dipity began in April of 2007 when three long time friends realized they'd all been imagining the same product. They quit their day jobs and in April of 2007 formed Underlying Inc. and started making Dipity.

Dipity launched in march of this year and is made of up Benjamin Garrett, BJ Heinley, BK Gupta, Derek Dukes, Devin Curry, Eric Douglas, Madelaine Puster, Ryan Romanchuk and Zack Steinkamp

So you're thinking, I don't want to make a time line of my stuff, it's not all that interesting. Well, then go browse the time lines on there...there are over 20,000 and you can search by category or interest. You can view the most recent, the hottest or the most popular. You can embed and share or make your own timeline public or private.

Big 50 Cent fan? check out a timeline all about him:



Prefer The Beatles?


What are you waiting for? Make one of your own or check them out.
Dipity Do!

Or See The if It's Hip, It's Here timeline.

A Bevvy of Buckets: Modern Champagne Coolers & Ice Buckets

With so much buzz about the Globalight, Karim Rashid and Veuve Clicquot's collaboration that produced a glowing pink champagne holder that doubles as a cooling tote and keeps bottles at the ideal temperature for up to two hours, I thought I might share some lovely modern champagne bucket alternatives from Veuve Clicquot as well as from two other companies.


Above: Only 500 Globalights have been created worldwide. In the United States, they are available for purchase here and cost $4,500.

Don't want to spend $4,500 on a champagne bucket? Here are some much less expensive alternatives from Veuve Clicquot:


Buy the above buckets here.

And for other fabulous options, here are two other companies.

On the pricey side, l'Orfèvrerie d'Anjou, a French company, is a world leader of shiny pewter in the luxury industry. They are goldsmiths who have literally been plying their trade for almost three centuries and they are a respected company, whose products start at around $350.00. Here are a few of their more unsual and modern buckets:





Buy them all here.

Another company who makes pretty modern champagne buckets for a lower price than the aformentioned, with some designed by Karim Rashid for the Kohinoor collection, is Magpie of India:


Buy Magpie's buckets here.

You can also find the Magpie buckets along with other modern champagne buckets by Blomus and Alessi at Unica Home.

Cheers!

Brionvega's Alpha TV takes Its Cues From Gray, Corbusier & van der Rohe

You probably don't think of televisions as having timeless design or believe that they would ever become modern classics. But Brionvega's Alpha TV could change that. With design cues clearly inspired by several classic pieces of modern furniture from the late 1920s, the latest generation tv from Brionvega, the Alpha, may end with a permanent place in design books.



Above right : Eileen Gray's Bibendium Chair, 1925

The Alpha is an LCD TV set with built-in DVD player, characterized by design remniscient of the immortal furniture masterpieces by Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Mies van der Rohe and Eileen Gray.



Above: Mies van der Rohe - Cantilever Armchair (1927)

Brionvega's Alpha is composed of two slender elements joined by a frame of chrome tubing within which the special wirings are pulsing. A choice which is in direct contrast to most LCD tvs and which focuses on a new layout with the capability of containing the space required by electronics and DVD player.



Above: Le Corbusier's Grand Confort Armchair, 1929

Even the remote control has been designed to impress with materials often associated with well-made furniture. In lieu of plastic, the material used is die-cast aluminum, not metallized plastic.



With a 19" screen, it has a display with 1280 x 1024 resolution, 160-degree viewing angles and a contrast ratio of 1200:1. This futuristic piece also comes with a DVD-player built into its unconventional base, a refreshing change from the usual supporting pedestal.



Above right: Eileen Gray's Adjustable Table E 1027, 1927


Above: Brionvega designer Valerio Cometti

Unfortunately, the set does not include a digital tuner and is not yet HD-ready.

Prices run €1950,00 for the 19" without DVD player and €2150,00 for the 19" with dvd player. You can pre-order them now.
Brionvega

If you'd like to know where you can buy the wonderful classic modern furniture by Eileen Gray, Meis van der Rohe, Corbusier and more shown here, check out the stores listed under classic modern furniture in my side bar.

Honoring Mom With A Beaver, A Bird & A Bee (and a downloadable card!)

In celebration of Mother's Day, Zune Arts, the program that aims to bring the best creative minds together to collaborate on inspiring works of art, has released a new video "Mother Like No Other." The new work is a short film created by French animator, Yves Geleyn, set to the delicate music of The Bird And The Bee's track "Come As You Were". Available now at Zune-Arts.net, the film "Mother Like No Other" also comes with a unique downloadable Mother's Day card that fans can print out to give to their moms for Mother's Day.



This heart-warming tale follows a young beaver and his cardinal friend on a collaborative journey to create a beautiful bouquet for the beaver's mother. With a twist ending, this unique 2D animation film demonstrates just how far some will go to show appreciation for mom. Fans can see a previously released behind-the-scenes video that follows animator Yves through his New York studio during film production here.

Zune Arts recently announced the availability of Zune Arts content through a new podcast series, which showcases a broad selection of today's cutting edge cultural artists expressing themselves through film, music, design and illustration. In addition to showing these works, the podcast series will feature artist interviews, exclusive content, behind-the-scenes videos and more.

For more information about Zune Arts podcast subscription, visit here
For more on Yves Geleyn and Hornet Inc., visit here
For more on The Bird and the Bee, visit the Zune Social here

Kimberly Applegate: Calling Her A 'Painter' Doesn't Do Her Justice.

Above: two of Kimberly's more recent works


Artist Kimberly Applegate has finally found her niche. A painter I discovered on DailyPainters.com, she has cultivated a style and subject that are selling like hotcakes... or like knoll furniture in a clearance sale.

Admittedly I wasn't a huge fan of her daily painting work initially. I didn't include her in my post about chair painters because I felt her work was a little naive, and inconsistent. But over the past few months, she has begun pairing modern chairs with contemporary artwork and has found an audience that can't get enough of it. In doing so, her work is more consistent and mature, her compositions have improved and her technical skill is clearly better than one year ago.


Above: Daily painting "Saarinen's Tulip Chair with Hockney's Tulips"

While some are obviously superior paintings to others, they are all so likable and inviting that the bidding wars over each 6" square painting on ebay are increasing weekly.

Incredibly prolific (she churns one out every day) she has yet to repeat herself and the paintings just seem to be getting better and better.

Capitalizing on two trends of the moment, modern art and modern furniture, she pairs chairs from the likes of every respected designer from Saarinen to Wegner, Bertoia to Eames- even Philippe Starck, with artwork that compliments the chair by the likes of Rothko, Hockney, Indiana, Franz Kline, Warhol and so many others.


Above: Daily painting "The Butterfly effect"

Some are clever pairings, like the Butterfly chair with Donald Sultan's Butterfly silkscreen, and others have design elements that echo one another like that of the Matisse painting of Dancing Muses with their arms linked creating a circle and the Cherner Chair whose arms arc in a similar fashion.


Above: Daily painting "May I Have This Dance? (matisse and cherner chair)"

For you non gallery goers and newbie art buyers, the red dots mean they are already sold. If you want one you have to be quick and willing to pay at least $300.00+ . Believe me, I know, I wanted the Barbara Barry Chair painting (below) and lost out on ebay.


Above: Daily painting "Infinity (Barbara Barry Chair and Richard Serra etchings)"


Take a look at more of these great little daily paintings:
























And that's only one small facet of this woman's creativity. Her own bio on her bird painting blog (yep, she paints birds too) is very cute:

I earned my BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 1999 and participated in the New York Studio Program through Parsons. I've schlepped a backpacker's easel across Europe trying to connect to my "painter ancestors"--they weren't kidding about the light in south of France. And if I ever win an Oscar for painting I will thank Vermeer, Kahlo, Hopper, Richter and Barney, to name just a few.

She's incredibly multi-talented, with numerous websites of her own. A painting website (on which you can really see a difference between her recent work and not so recent work), and an ebay store, 2 blogs and two online stores.



Live A Plush Life, whose site design is both inviting and inspiring and features notecards of hers as well as other pretty handmade items and a print shop of her chair paintings.






See all her daily paintings here on the Daily Painters site.
Or her blog, Joie de Vivre, here.

I have a feeling this woman is just beginning. Buy her work now, before you can't afford it.

Also, be sure to see my post" Artists Take A Seat: Beautiful paintings of Chairs"

Funky Find Of The Week: Fun Furniture From Feek

Some sweet seating: The Chunk Bar and Chunk One are hard coated foam seating modeled after chocolate bars. These are actual available products for purchase, despite the CGI renderings. Whether you like white or dark chocolate, a sofa or a single stool, they are delicious looking:






The Rocker C, coming this summer, is a foam rocker of modern clean proportions, available in various colors.:




more products from Feek:



.... to see them all, go here.

Five Cool Clock Screensavers To Hip Up Any Idle Computer

With the following five screensavers your computer screen will look very hip, whether you are or not.

Below are five downloadable clock/date screensavers that are both well-designed and function beautifully. Some are free, (but a donation to them via paypal would be nice), others are free to try but cost to purchase.

1) The Word Clock


Designed by Simon Heys, Word Clock is a typographic screensaver for Mac OS X. It displays a fixed list of all numbers and words sufficient to express any possible date and time as a sentence. Word Clock displays time by highlighting appropriate words as each second passes. (also available in a few other languages)
Download it here.

2) The Pong Clock


Pong ® Clock by Buro Vormkrijgers of the Netherlands is both a functional wall clock you can purchase and a free downloadable screensaver for Mac or PC. While this game of Pong ® randomly plays, the so called players score the time. The left player scores the hours, and the right player scores the minutes, creating an unusual timepiece.
Download it here.

3) The Drop Clock



Heavy helvetica numbers drop into water in super slow motion. Available in white on black or black on white. Mac and Windows.
Download it here.


4) The FLIQLO flip clock



Nice, clean and simple. Designed by Yuji Adachi for Mac and Windows.
Download it here.

5) The Polar Clock


Hypnotic to watch. The moving colored arcs represent hours, minutes, seconds as well as month day and date. By Pixelbreaker. Now available as a screen saver for Mac and Windows, and also as a dashboard widget for OSX Tiger.
Download it here.

Other clock screensavers:

Clockness is a site that sells only clock screensavers, most are digital artwork, but they have some cool ones like a binary clock and the very simple clock.

The AJ screensaver lets you choose from 14 different clocks that feature the time and date including the handwritten clock by Yuga Nakamura and a nice looking timeline clock.

Fun & Funky Fabulous Felt Fodder From Four Manufacturers

From the Queen of Felt, Illu Sration:










and much more, see the site here.







See all the felt Weapons from Mp Industries of Berlin


fun cut out felt rugs:







See all the felt rugs from John Pour Home

Parkhaus makes wonderful wool felt accessories, here are just a few:









Parkhaus of Berlin website

If Dr. Seuss Were Your Decorator: Introducing Cartoon Furniture

When it comes to unusual furniture, my post about Judson Beaumont's cartoon styled furniture for kids always gets a lot of attention. But he's not the only one making whimsical furniture for children's rooms.

Introducing a company actually named "Cartoon Furniture" whose fun products will make you feel as though you are living in an animated world. The brainchild of Randall and Sharon Porter, they combined their experiences as an architectural lighting designer and make-up artist to form Cartoon Furniture®.


above: Randall and Sharon Porter of Cartoon Furniture

The line includes dressers, bookcases, headboards, wall mirrors, side tables and even bulletin boards and a clock. They use only the finest woods and materials to manufacture their whimsical line. All the pieces are painted over and over until the finish is perfect using only the best non-toxic, lead-free and child-safety paint and finishes. Top, bottom, back and sides are all painted, there is no exposed wood. Their drawers slide on Swiss Stainless Steel Slides with ball-bearings and each drawer includes a safety stop to prevent the drawer from falling out completely.

Their furniture is so animated in its design, I half expect them to get up and dance away! Take a look at some of their pieces.

Dressers:




Bookcases:



Headboards and footboards for beds:



Side tables:




Wall mirrors:



Other accessories:



They also have custom ordering options, so you can choose from several color combinations if you so desire:


All Cartoon Furniture® pieces are proudly manufactured in the USA under the strictest guidelines and specifications for years of enjoyment.

Put a smile on your child's face and shop there now.

Click here to see Judson Beaumont's Straightline designs, cartoon styled furniture.

Victoire de Castellane for Dior: Rings To Write Home About

The Coffret de Victoire Collection for Dior has some of the most unusual and original rings crafted from the finest gems, ores and materials. Created by designer Victoire de Castellane, the collection includes rings with skulls, cameo rings, floral rings and even a food dog on a pillow as well as an angler fish.











These aren't just pieces of jewelry, they are pieces of art. To see the entire collection of Dior's fine and couture jewelry, visit here.

More Swine Art by Wim Delvoye :Tattooed Pigs & Pigskins

Above: Artist Wim Delvoye tattooing a live pig


Above: Arielle, a stuffed tattooed pig from the exhibit at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin


My last post on artist Wim Delvoye, his pig farm and his tattooed pigs has received so much interest - as well as controversy- that I'm sure to stir up the pot by showing you where you can see more of his actual tattooed pigs (in this case, stuffed as opposed to live) as well as his framed tattooed pigskins.




Animal lovers have made some comments about how cruel it is to ink live pigs, but from what information I have been able to find, it seems that pigs nerve endings are far less sensitive in their skin than our own and tattooing them does not cause pain as it does on human skin.

Critics should also know that artist Wim Delvoye is a vegetarian and owns his own pig farm.

The pieces below are at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris.








Tattooing pigs, live on his art farm, or stuffed and on exhibit are just a small part of this Belgian artists' unusual repetoire. See his site here.

See the skins and stuffed pigs at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin by clicking here.


See the original post with many pics of tattooed swine as well as an interview with the artist here.


Now you can get your own Wim Delvoye Action Figure! Check this out!

Funky Find Of The Week: Coffin Couches

Yep, that's right. These are sofa's made from actual recycled 18 gauge steel coffins.
One will run you $3500.00 USD and you can choose from several options, even a Dodger Blue one (for you baseball fans).





Freaked out by the idea of sitting on a "recycled"modified coffin? No need for the heebie jeebies..... It is a health and safety law that funeral homes cannot resell used coffins to the general public. So, Coffin Couches approached funeral directors with the attitude of recycling. The coffins they use for couches are not used for burial due to slight cosmetic inconsistencies. They are reconfigured and modified resulting in a finished product.






Okay, how hard was it to refrain from titling this post "Sofas To Die For" ?

Find out more or buy one here.

Cute, Casual SoCal Accomodations: The New Custom Hotel

Custom Hotel's LA Boutique hotel offers a contemporary design aesthetic at affordable rates for the international business traveler staying for one night as well as the leisure guest escaping for an extended weekend retreat.




The LA boutique hotel was originally built by mid-century architect Welton Beckett, designer of the world-famous Capitol Records building, and the Custom Hotel tower has been transformed with the California lifestyle in mind.





Custom Hotel is a place where design is accessible and playfully refreshing, and a warm sense of hospitality and community prevails in this LA boutique hotel.





Custom Hotel is conveniently located close to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the residential neighborhood of Westchester, a short drive from the beach cities of Marina del Rey, Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu and Manhattan Beach. Easily accessible via the 10, 405 and 105 freeways, the hotel is 20-30 minutes from Beverly Hills, Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. For travelers flying into Los Angeles on their way to destinations within Southern California-whether a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, Universal Studios in Hollywood, or a road excursion to Santa Barbara or San Diego along the world-famous Pacific Coast Highway-Custom Hotel is an ideal stopover.

8639 Lincoln Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90045
T 310 645 0400
F 310 645 0700
Reservations: 877 287 8601

Get Ready, Set...Glow! Illuminated items and furniture

There are so many things on the market that are molded of polyethylene (as well as other materials) that either glow from low voltage internal illumination, led lights, or being plugged in.

From glowing bathroom sinks and tubs to illuminated marble fireplaces and beds, the above items are only a few available on the market. Click on the pic to go to the place of purchase or to learn more about the item. Keep an eye on my Ready, Set...Glow! Illuminated items and furniture list at ThisNext as I continually add to it!

So, get ready.....set....glow!

ps. If you're looking for hip lamps and lighting , see over 80 examples on my "Lighten Up: The Best Lighting Out There" list!