'Made In China' Is A Soldier's Portrait Created With Over 5500 Plastic Toy Soldiers.

Artist Joe Black's Made In China was created using using more than 5,500 toy soldiers. The portrait is of a Chinese soldier boy taken by well-known photojournalist Robert Capa and appeared on the May, 1938 cover of LIFE magazine. The colored, molded plastic toy soldiers used in the project were manufactured in China, hence the title “Made in China”.



A closer look.
The portrait in full:

and as it appears when zooming in further and further:





Robert Capa's original photo:


And as it appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1938:


Made In China:


Joe Black

Motorsports Fans' Engines Will Revv Over These Wood Racetrack Wall Sculptures.

Passionate about motorsports? You know what Nurburgring is? Do lap times excite you more than lap dances? Then you should be familiar with Linear Edge. They offer wall art sculptures of all the race tracks from Formula One, MotoGP, World Superbike, American Le Mans and Nascar crafted from high quality baltic birch plywood and laminate.



above: only a small sampling of their many racetracks

The materials are laminated together before being precisely cut to ensure the highest quality and cleanest cut.



Great to mount on the wall in garages or livingrooms:



They supply 3M Command Velcro Mounting Strips with 
each order. These mounting strips allow you to mount 
the tracks without putting holes in the wall.

And that's not all. Coasters bearing the images of these world reknowned racetracks are also available in sets of four or six.



Their coasters are made from high quality HDPE and are also precisely cut and engraved like their racetrack sculptures.

Fixed set of six:

Fixed set of Four:


If you don't see the track you want - or have another shape in mind - you can email them and inquire at info@linearedge.com

all images courtesy of Linear Edge

Shop Linear Edge

Pinstagram, The Ultimate Mash-Up. Your Instagram Photos In Pinterest Format.

above composite of instagram and pinterest logos ©iihih

I was wondering how long it would take for the ever-growing Pinterest platform to combine with the incredibly popular Instagram app. Not long as you will see with Pinstagram, a new site by co-founders Brandon Leonardo and Pek Pongpaet.

Below is a reprint of the article "Pinstagram: How Instagram Should Look On the Web":


We have all seen those mythical hybrid animals, like the zeroed, a mix of zebra and equine, or perhaps the more commonly known beefalo, a mix of buffalo and cow. You may even be familiar with the leopon, the result of breeding a male leopard with a female lion. Hybrids are real. And there are others too, mind you. But it's not all fur and feathers; many such hybrids live on the Internet. Especially sites like Pinstagram, a "Pinterest for your Instagram images," as co-founder Pek Pongpaet describes it. In an increasingly visual Web, it's a wonder that this hybrid didn't come about sooner.

Like most things on the Internet, Pinstagram happened fast.

"We were joking one evening about how Instagram is worth $1 billion and how Pinterest's valuation might already be in the $500 million range," says co-founder Brandon Leonardo. "And we were thinking about the idea of a Twitter for Facebook, what that would be like. Then I could tell Pek started thinking about it. The gears started turning; he was visualizing a Pinterest for Instagram."



Not more than 24 hours later, Pongpaet had already coded and designed it. This sort of fast turnaround is pretty natural for Pongpaet and Leonardo, who come from a hackathon "get stuff out as fast as possible and ask questions later" type of background.


above: Pinstagram on the iPad

If this sort of idea had popped up within a larger company setting, for example, it would have "taken months," says Pongapaet.

Since Pinstagram's debut just a few weeks ago, the site has already seen about 6,400 Facebook likes of Instagram images, thousands of tweets and a few hundred pins.

Pinstagram: An Indicator of the Evolving Visual Web
Services like Pinterest and Instagram are integral to the future of the visual Web. No longer do people send photos to document memories; they are lifestreaming as it all happens, with pictures telling the story. It's no wonder that Facebook snatched up Instagram while it still had the chance.


above: my own pinstagram page

"The visual medium has always had international appeal," says Pongapaet. "Sending pictures is very common. If you stick to English, you'll alienate a lot of people. Visual mediums let you transcend all barriers. It takes seconds to process a photo."

What about Webstagram, the Instagram Web viewer? Isn't this a sufficient way to view Instragram images on the Internet? For some, it's perfect. But like many news Web sites, Webstagram is organized around "popular," "my photos," "liked," "hot," "photo of the day" and more. It feels more like a news website and less like a glossy, Pinterest-like magazine.



"The reason I built Pinstagram is because this is my world view of how Instagram should look on the Web," says Pongapaet. "Our core focus is to recreate the Instagram experience on the desktop and to be able to extend that to our users."

Not everyone wants to see their Instagrams in a Pinterest-like layout, however, and Pongapaet acknowledges that.

"There are always different interpretations," he says. "That's what great about art, about having different APIs - people all have different interpretations."

Pinstagram just integrated into Facebook Timeline. As the Instagram-Facebook integration continues to rollout, so will this nifty Pinterest-Instagram hybrid beast.- by Alicia Eler on May 11th, 2012 for ReadWriteWeb.

Below is a video interview with Pongpaet about Pinstagram:


Pinstagram

Qualy Shakes Things Up With Two New Awesome Seasoning and Spice Shaker Sets.

Two different sets of seasoning or spice shakers have just been introduced by Qualy of Thailand. Four Seasons and Animal Parade consist of four clear domes (with holes in the tops) in a white tray in which you can place herbs, spices and seasonings. With a look reminiscent of snow domes, the products are both fun and functional, like all of Qualy's products.

Four Seasons features trees indicative of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter and Animal Parade features creatures associated with each of the seasons: bunny, camel, elk and polar bear.

Four Seasons Seasoning Shaker Set:




Animal Parade Seasoning Shaker Set:



All of Qualy's products and packaging are made with recycled materials.




To find retailers for Qualy products, simply Google Qualy products or Qualy Design.

No Room For An Aquarium? Think Again. 20 Unusual Places In Your Home For Fish Tanks.

I've been obsessed with fish tanks and aquariums for quite awhile. I even record Tanked (which I highly recommend). But I never seem to have the space needed to put a saltwater or freshwater aquarium in my home. Then again, I hadn't considered all the following options.

What about turning the surround of your fireplace into a giant aquarium?



Or how about adding it to a wide doorway?

above: both fireplace and doorway aquariums by Seavisions

Build it into an existing shelving unit:


Or just putting a tank into that fireplace you never use?


That space under your stairs may just be the perfect spot:


Or replacing that wet bar with a bar/aquarium

above: Bespoke Aquarium Bar and Glass Staircase, both designed by Ali Musani

Here are a bunch of possibilities that may not have crossed your mind, in rooms you may have not considered.

The Kitchen

Building it into your backsplash is a great look:


Poggenpohl and Aquafront have teamed up to design a series of new kitchens which contain built in fish tanks or aquariums. In the backsplash or the cabinetry, the tanks can hold saltwater fish, freshwater fish or even jellyfish:




You can put an aquarium in a kitchen island, above a cooktop or into the built-in cabinetry:


above: custom kitchen island aquarium by Commercial Marine Displays



Or even punctuate a cooktop with a built -in aquarium like the one below by Phil Kean:


You could always turn your kitchen table into an aquarium like this custom one created for a Fridgidaire showroom:



The Bathroom
Adding an aquarium to your bathroom is an option in either the tub surround, the shower walls, or at the edge of the tub, like the one pictured in what used to be the home of Kanye West.


above: custom bathroom aquarium by City Aquarium


The Plano Acquario Shower offers a built in aquarium wall as an option:


The Hollywood Hills bathroom of Kanye West (no longer owned by him):


And of course, Moody makes both a sink and a bathtub with built in aquariums:


The Moody Acquario tub:



There's even a toilet that houses fish, if you must.
The Aquariass by Oliver Beckert or the Fish n' Flush from AquaOne:


The Bedroom
How about an aquarium headboard?

above: from the Furnitureland South bed display and below: for NFL star Chad Ochocinco.


or in a bedroom fireplace:


And lastly, the TV Tank from Picturehouse hides your screen within a fishtank:


Custom aquarium designs, builds and installations are available from the following companies:
Seavisions
Okeanos Group
Aquarium Design Group
Aqua Design Group
Aquatic Design Company
City Aquarium
Acrylic Tank Manufacturing
Just Add Water (Jaws Aquariums)

Looking for wall mounted, tabletop and other fish tanks? 
Check out my Pinterest board of hip Aquariums and fish tanks