The Coolest Swimming Pool Slide Ever. The Carbon Fiber Silver Leafed Shoot Slide.

SplinterWorks, formed in 2009 by Miles Hartwell and Matt Withington, is a custom furniture company whose designs are more like functional art than traditional pieces of furniture. Their self described mission is to create functional sculpture that unites conceptual, visual and practical fundamentals to create engaging and inspiring pieces.

One of their pieces that stands out is Shoot, a slide for an indoor or outdoor swimming pool that puts all those hideous fiberglass ones to shame.




Starting as a thin burst and shooting up vertically from the ground, the large shining arc emulates the trajectory of water itself.



Made of carbon fiber coated with silver leaf, the sculptural piece curves inwards at the edges forming handrails and the steps are like artful pedestals that form the footholds for climbing to the top.



While it's beautiful to look at and undoubtedly fun to experience, I do not know how the slide keeps from getting too hot. Although I know that Carbon Fibre (or Carbon Fiber for us Americans) has a very high heat tolerance.

The piece, measuring 1800 mm high by 3800 mm long by 900 mm wide was created in an edition of three.

Based thirty minutes south of London in Guildford, SplinterWorks portfolio consists of pieces crafted from exceptional materials such as marble, concrete, jesomite, mirror polished stainless steel, laquers and exotic woods.

See more of SplinterWorks beautiful pieces here.

GE Recreates Van Gogh Painting with Plants for London's National Gallery

above digital composite by Laura Sweet

GE (General Electric) and London’s National Gallery just unveiled an ecomaginative collaboration – an installation of Van Gogh’s famous A Wheatfield with Cypresses, made from over 8,000 living plants and on display on the western side of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.


above: 'A Wheatfield, with Cypresses' was painted in September 1889, while Van Gogh was a patient at the St-Rémy mental asylum.

above: More than 25 varieties of plant have been used to mimic the strong bands of color in the original picture.

The living painting has been constructed by specialist horticulture and design company ANS using over 8,000 plants of more than 26 different varieties. To create the artwork, each plant was selected for its unique colour to match the tones of the original painting.


image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

image courtesy of GE

The living painting is a creative manifestation of GE’s commitment to the environment through its ‘ecomagination’ business strategy, which is concerned with meeting customers’ demands for more energy-efficient products.

The green doesn’t stop there: GE also contributed environmentally-friendly Jenbacher cogeneration heat and power engines that will help reduce the Gallery’s carbon footprint.

People can see the living wall in Trafalgar Square until the end of October.

Thanks to GE Reports and London's National Gallery for the info

For The Giant Chess Fan. Or The Fan Of Giant Chess.

Some people put a tennis court in their backyard. Others, a pool. But for those who like to engage in a game of Chess, there's another option; Nomi Klein's oversized fiberglass chess pieces and boards.



For use indoors or outdoors, the large pieces are crafted of fiberglass and then hand painted by Nomi in various finishes. High gloss, matte or custom colors to work with special designs or environments are available.



Some of the finishes:


The pieces range in size from 43" tall for the King to 33" tall for the Pawn and each weighs approximately 12 lbs. The board guidelines for the chess sets measure 16' by 16'.

Gallery:







The Chess sets have even been highlighted in the Robb Report...



...and several exist in commercial spaces like hotels, spas, shopping malls and even MTV Real Life houses.

These do not come cheap. A full set of 32 chess pieces (not including the board) will cost you $11,250.00 USD. You also have the option to buy individual pieces for $500.00 each. Prices do not include shipping and handling.

Ah, the games rich people play. Literally.


Visit NomiKlein Design for more information

Diesel's Art Competition: A Wall Is Your Canvas

Diesel Wall is an international art contest that aims to bring intriguing/ inspiring/ insightful/ inciting contemporary ideas to giant urban canvases in city centres around the world.

A competition dedicated to young artists and designers, Diesel Wall offers them the opportunity to showcase their work on an extraordinary scale: monumental, freestanding vertical walls in the centres of world’s most important cities. The ultimate goal being to salvage what prominent precious public space is left.

This year the Diesel Wall art contest continues its tour around the world and reaches 4 new corners of the planet: Manchester (UK), Barcelona (Spain), Zurich (Switzerland) and NY (US).




See the flikr gallery photos of the walls here.

Diesel Wall will take your art, your power of dissuasion, your ability to disrupt, incite and intrigue, mystify and comment. Artworks - conceived for a specific Wall or for all four Walls - can use painting, photography, video, and performance, light, sound, text, experimental concepts including 3D, performance and show elements are also welcome.

From mid-April to June 2008 local juries will get together in order to select the Diesel Wall winners for each city and the winner will be announced June 10th, 2008.

The jury members for this year will include among others Bigas Luna, Peter Saville, Terry Jones, and Wilbert Das, Diesel's Creative Director, joining each judging panel in all four different countries. From May to July 2008, depending on each city's Diesel Wall timeline, winners will be announced both through the website and local events to then proceed with the setting-up of the winning installations on each Wall.


Any creative, inspired person from any country in the world can submit their designs for the chance to feature in this new edition of the project…and conquer a Wall! The artists will have total freedom in sending concepts: art is above all a means of unconstrained self-expression.

Learn more about it, see past winners and submit your art here.