The Shisha, A High End Hookah From Porsche Design Is Smokin'.

This high-end hookah or luxury bong (depending upon what one plans to smoke out of it) has been designed and created by the Porsche Design Studio. A modern version of the popular Middle Eastern hookah pipes, the Shisha combines aluminum, stainless steel and glass with the timeless and unique design approach of the luxury brand.

Already under criticism from health organizations in the UK, the Shisha was designed as part of the Porsche Design World Collection which will be available at Porsche Design stores worldwide at the end of July and exclusively at the newly opened Porsche Design shop-in-shop at the world famous Harrods department store in London, Knightsbridge.

Porsche today said that the Porsche Design Shisha was an object of 'cultural value.'

'Our brand has very strong roots in the Middle Eastern market,' said a spokesman.

'Our brand is very much international and in doing our World Collection (which also includes tea cups and chopsticks) we decided need to include cultural goods from and for the Middle Eastern market as well.

The firm said it was part of their plan for 'global thinking and unifying cultural backgrounds.'

Harrods, where the Porsche pipes are sold, was acquired last year by the Qatari royal family, who also own 10 per cent of Porsche.

Made in Germany, the Shisha stands 55 centimeters tall and shows discreet branding on the aluminium (aluminum) top.


The long flexible tube is made out of TecFlex material, which is also used for the classic Porsche Design TecFlex writing tools:


The Porsche Design Shisha retails for 1.350,00€ and can be bought in their online Porsche design store.

This is not the first smoking paraphernalia that Porsche studio has designed. Their P' 3613, a tobacco pipe made from forty-year-old Bruyère wood has cooling ribs cut into the material along the lines of the famous air-cooled Porsche boxer engines create a thermal effect that cools the pipe bowl to a pleasant temperature:


They have designed other versions of pipes, lighters, cigar cutters and holders which you can see here.

The Porsche Design World Collection is dedicated to a united global community and consists of a number of exclusively designed products. Besides the Shisha the assortment contains chopsticks, a tea and soup set as well as a few fashion items such as a jacket, polo shirt and a silk scarf.

The lately opened 55 square-metre shop-in-shop at the world-famous department store Harrods in London offers the full range of Porsche Design products. It is situated in the opulent surroundings of the Knightsbridge store’s vision and sound department at the 3rd Floor’s Millionaires Gallery.

Porsche Design Store at
Harrods Ltd.
87-135 Brompton Road
Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7XL
Great Britain

About Porsche Design:

Porsche Design is a luxury brand with a particular focus on technically inspired products. The Porsche Design brand was established in 1972 by Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The products stand for functional, timeless and purist design, characterised by their technical innovation. The product portfolio includes watches, sunglasses, luggage, electronic products, a men’s fragrance line as well as sports apparel and a fashion collection for men and women. All the products under the brand are designed at the Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See (Austria) and are available worldwide in the company’s own stores, franchise stores, shops-in-shops, high end department stores and exclusive specialist retailers.

Information courtesy of Porsche Design and The Daily Mail

A Sneak Peek At The Collector's Edition of Never Before Seen Star Wars Blueprints.

Die hard Star Wars fans will be thrilled to learn about this soon to be released limited collector's edition from Epic Ink. The oversized volume, Star Wars: The Blueprints, features tons of the never before seen meticulously designed blueprints, drawings and photographs from George Lucas' Star Wars series by J. W. Rinzler, executive editor at Lucasfilm Ltd.








Discover how an entire galaxy was designed in Star Wars: The Blueprints. Each of the 200 seminal images included in the book was selected by Rinzler in collaboration with an expert panel of Academy Award®-winning visual effects artists (each of whom is described at the end of the post).




the following text is taken directly from Epic Ink:
Star Wars: The Blueprints brings together, for the first time, the original blueprints created for the filming of the Star Wars Saga. Drawn from deep within the Lucasfilm Archives and combined with exhaustive and insightful commentary from best-selling author J. W. Rinzler, the collection maps in precise, vivid, and intricate detail the very genesis of the most enduring and beloved story ever to appear onscreen.




Star Wars: The Blueprints gives voice to the groundbreaking and brilliant engineers, designers, and artists that have, in film after film, created the most imaginative and iconic locales in the history of cinema. Melding science and art, these drawings giving birth to fantastic new worlds, ships, and creatures.




Most importantly, Blueprints shows how in bringing this extraordinary epic to life, the world of special effects as we know it was born. For the first time, here you will see the initial concepts behind such iconic Star Wars scenes as the Rebel blockade runner hallways, the bridge of General Grievous’s flagship, the interior of the fastest “hunk of junk” in the Galaxy, and Jabba the Hutt’s palace. Never before seen craftsmanship and artistry is evident whether floating on the Death Star, escaping on a speeder bike, or exploring the Tatooine Homestead.

Star Wars: The Blueprints is a limited edition. Only 5,000 hand-numbered English language copies will be available, 1000 of which will be signed.

Highlights from the collection include the following blueprints (which have been cropped here for better visibility) of:

R2D2 (Artoo)

Cantina

Power Trench
TIE Fighter

Battle of Hoth
Millennium Falcon

Yoda's House

Carbon Freezing Chamber
Jabba's Throne Room

Jabba's Barge
Speeder Bike

Ewok Village

Theed Plaza
Anakin's Podracer

Jedi Starfighter

Rehabilitation Chamber

When Lucasfilm author and executive editor Jonathan Rinzler explored the long-hidden cache of blueprints hidden in the dark archives it was like discovering a Jedi Holocron, an extraordinary key to cinematic history mislaid for decades. Unrolling each extraordinary document, one after another, it became clear that a central part of the very genesis of Star Wars lay in these technical drawings, 95 percent of which had never before been seen by the legions of devoted fans. The origins of the streets of Mos Eisley, the X-wing fighter, even the legendary Battle of Hoth, the cantina, the Carbon Freezing Chamber, and many other iconic sets were guided to the silver screen through these critical documents, and could have otherwise been lost to time.

The author:
J. W. Rinzler, executive editor at Lucasfilm Ltd., is the author of The New York Times best seller The Making of Star Wars, as well as the London Times best seller The Complete Making of Indiana Jones. His most recent book is The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Rinzler lives in Petaluma, California.

other contributors:
The weight of history was on author and Lucasfilm executive editor J.W. Rinzler’s shoulders throughout the making of Blueprints. As he culled from hundreds of blueprints those that would most accurately and thrillingly speak to fans and devotees worldwide, there were difficult decisions to make. To make the final cut for the publication of Star Wars: The Blueprints, each of the 200 seminal images included here was selected by Rinzler in collaboration with an expert panel of Academy Award®-winning visual effects artists.

The Panelists:

Dennis Muren
Industrial Light & Magic’s Dennis Muren is an eight-time Oscar-winning special effects artist who helped pioneer and propel visual effects technology through his work on the first five Star Wars films, in addition to other classic films with jaw-dropping special effects including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park and E.T. The visual effects supervisor for the original trilogy, Muren is a revolutionary, and the only special effects artist with his own Hollywood “star” on the Walk of Fame.

John Knoll
Award-winner John Knoll is a visual effects supervisor and author of Creating the Worlds of Star Wars: 365 Days. Knoll served as Visual Effects Supervisor on the Star Wars prequels and on the 1997 special editions of the original trilogy.

Lorne Peterson
Model-maker Lorne Peterson is an Industrial Light & Magic visual effects artist who worked on all six Star Wars films. In addition, he is the author of the 2006 book, Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop, in which he details his experience making classic ships and locations like the Star Destroyer, the T-65 X-wing starfighter, and the Jedi Temple come to life.

Star Wars: The Blueprints By J.W. Rinzler


samples of page layouts:

Includes Star Wars: The Blueprints book, custom-made cloth case, and certificate of authenticity.

Star Wars: The Blueprints
is limited to 5,000 hand-numbered English language copies, with the first 125 copies signed by the three surviving Academy-Award® winners for Best Art Direction (Star Wars, 1978): art director Norman Reynolds; art director Les Dilley; and set dresser Roger Christian. ISBN: 978-160380-1911

Pricing structure for each number range:
Level One: Signed and hand-numbered copies #1-125 @ $1,000
Level Two: Hand-numbered copies #126-5,000 @ $500



all images shown are courtesy of Epic Ink and may not appear exactly as they do in the book. Some have been cropped and/or enlarged in order to show detail.

$100,000 Iridium Razor with Sapphire Blades & Platinum Screws By Zafirro.

A $100,000 razor? Damn, that had better be one close shave.


above photo by Leah Verwey

The Zafirro Iridium razor is custom made from the strongest, purest, and most durable materials available anywhere. The handle centerpiece is crafted of Iridium, a rare metal - ten times rarer than platinum - and the most corrosion-resistant metal known. Iridium is frequently used in rocket components because it can withstand temperatures as high as 2000 degrees celsius and is one of the most durable substances found on earth.



The sapphire blades are hypoallergenic, oxidization and corrosion resistant and Zafirro claims that due to their sharpening process using ionized particles, are five thousand times thinner than a human hair.



The pure platinum screws, engraved serial numbers and the option for a personal monogram add to the exclusivity of the razor, of which only 99 will be produced.

The following text is from the manufacturer:

Introducing Zafirro Iridium


How do you inaugurate a new era of technology – not an incremental step forward, but a quantum leap: from vacuum tubes to transistors, CB radios to the iPhone? The introduction of the first razor with sapphire blades poses that challenge. The Zafirro Iridium is our answer. Utilizing expertise in fields as varied as rocket engine manufacturing, nanotechnology, and particle physics, the Zafirro Iridium combines some of the rarest, strongest, and most technically advanced materials in existence. The resulting combination of exotic materials pushes the boundaries of technology while creating an aesthetic that could be the centerpiece of a gallery collection.

Due to the rarity of the materials, and the expense associated with manufacturing, production of the Iridium line is extremely limited.


Pure Sapphire Blades


The result of years of R&D, utilizing experts from around the world, our solid white sapphire blades launch a new era of shaving. Hypoallergenic, impervious to oxidation and corrosion, and an order of magnitude more durable than any other shaving blade.

Atomically Sharp


Zafirro sapphire blades are sharpened using high-energy, ionized particles creating a blade edge less than 100 atoms across, or 5000 times thinner than a human hair.

10 Year Blade Life Guarantee

Zafirro provides complementary servicing and professional cleaning for Iridium customers, as well as resharpening if necessary, to make sure your razor remains one of the most advanced and finely tuned consumer products. Ten years of servicing is included.

Pure Iridium Centerpiece


The razor handle centerpiece is 99.95% pure iridium, the strongest and densest functional metal on the planet, mainly derived from meteorites, and 10 times more rare than platinum. One of the primary uses of iridium has been rocket engine components because of its extreme durability.

Pure Platinum Screws


The platinum hexagonal screws on the Zafirro Iridium are custom machined to extremely tight tolerances on CNC Swiss screw micromachines designed for advanced biotech applications. The screws are 99.95% pure platinum, a far higher purity than most expensive jewelry.

Due to the limited global supply of iridium and the expense associated with manufacturing, only 99 of the Iridium line will be made. Each razor is engraved with a serial number to ensure authenticity, and can be monogrammed to your specifications.

Limited Edition of 99, price $100,000.00 (£62,631)
To order you must contact them by e-mail

UPDATE: Zafirro Gold is now also available. The same razor only crafted of titanium and 18k gold in limited quantities. $18,000.00





Zafirro is a Bright Light Ventures company. The Bright Light team has dedicated the majority of the last three and a half years to the research and development required to bring this new technology to market. Expertise in fields as varied as rocket engine manufacturing, nanotechnology, and particle physics were required as well as manufacturing and technology expertise from around the world. Zafirro is now an independent company but will continue to draw on the Bright Light team’s expertise and resources as it grows and expands its product line.

all images courtesy of Zafirro