ARTechnic's Stunning Shell House: Exterior And Interior

Japanese architecture firm ARTechnic has designed and completed this unusual- but beautiful and minimalist- concrete ovoid home in Karuizawa, Japan. Built in two sections, around a fir tree, it is nestled in a forest and is as amazing inside as it is on the outside.





You can see how the two ovals are constructed around the fir tree:






And now, the interior, complete with curved banquets, wood built-ins and round skylights:











above photos provided by Nacasa & Partners Inc

If you wish to learn more, Rose Etherington has gone into great detail about the home on Dezeen, including floorplans, how the initial plans changed over time and building details here.

ARTechnic
TEL: 03-5768-8718
FAX 03-5768-8738
e-mail:info@artechnic.jp
www.artechnic.jp

Nasty Teacups & Erotic Homewares From Outlandish Creations

Outlandish Creations of the UK create ceramic and porcelain pieces for the home that are a tongue in cheek twist on tradition and eroticism. All the pieces are original and hand crafted. Some can be found at various boutiques and others can be commissioned directly from the artist.

Here are some of her more popular pieces:

The 'Salt & Pepper Cockshakers' are a tongue in cheek poke at the discerning entertainer. Beautifully made in slip cast stoneware these pieces are practical as well as being beautiful to the touch.




Buy the cockshakers here.

Tea Cups:


The 'Tea Cup & Saucer' is an antithesis to the typical 'tea set'. The cups and saucers have been slip cast, and the pictures or rude lettering has been added on in decal transfer after the second firing.

Cock n' Balls tea cup:

Whore and Wanker cups:

Bitch and Wanker tea cup set:


Buy the 'bitch' and 'wanker' tea cup set here.

Porcelain Riding Crops:


Riding crops signify dominance and submission, a secretive glance at a masochistic world, which intrigues as much as it entices. Katie is bringing to the foreground an unabashedly flirty, delicate and entirely coquettish object. In its fragility, being made in porcelain, it is impractical to use. One strike will break the crop.






Katie of Outlandish Creations is a designer and maker of high quality porcelain and stoneware ceramic slip cast items including lighting and ‘kitchenalia’. Katie's work has been created from conception to production and are unique one-off pieces. Her work is produced in Troubadour Studios, Falmouth under the ‘Outlandish Creations’ registered brand name and can be found at such erotic homewares shops as Impure Art and Coco de Mer

Please contact Katie if you wish to discuss a commission. All items can be made to order specifically to your technical requirements.

Erotic homewares turn you on?



Then you probably want to check out Randy Woods erotic pillows and homewares here.

Product Pick Of The Week: The Sema Table by Nurus

The Sema Table by Nurus:





The Sema small table series was designed by Alper Boler & Omer Unal for Nurus of Turkey.


above: Designers ömer ünal, 35 and alper böler, 33 of ünal & böler Studio (now operating as separate studios)




"sema" is the name given to the dance of the whirling dervishes which symbolizes the harmony and balance. Sema is a coffee table with a turning top and rotating bars below it which can be utilized in storing books, magazines and newspapers. It comes in various heights and sizes.







Awards:

The SEMA was a recipient of IF Design Award 2009, where 2,808 products from 39 countries competed. This is the 4th IF award for Nurus, the most ever won by a brand from Turkey.

Nurus website
Price is available upon request from the manufacturer.

If Old MacDonald Had An iPod: The iPig & iPanda

If Old MacDonald had an iPod, he'd probably listen to it on the iPig or the new iPanda docking stations. Cute, but powerful, these spherical docking stations pump out 25 watts of power, are compatible with various mp3 and mp4 players, music devices, gaming consoles and all iPods. They have wireless remotes and are made of green grade "A" eco friendly materials.

Made by Speakal, the iPig received great acclaim and reviews at the 2007 at the consumer electronics show and now, iPanda has joined his swine friend.

The iPig:




The Features of both the iPig and iPanda:

• Highly Compatible: The iPig is compatible with most iPod’s, MP3, MP4, Portable Game consoles (PSP, Nintendo DS), Gaming Consoles (PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox, Xbox360), Portable and non portable CD and DVD players, Televisions, Personal Computers (Desktop and Laptops), Mobile Phones with Audio playing capabilities.

• Humanized Touch Volume Control:

Gently touch the right ear of the iPig to raise the volume and touch the Left one to lower the volume. This patented technology will only react to the human touch and will not be affected by temprature or humidity.

• High Quality Sound:

The iPig has a total of 5 speakers including a 4 in. subwoofer, with a total output of over 25 Watts of Raw, Undistorted, Clear Music. It also has a super Hi-Fi Amplifier, an interior dynamic airflow optimizer, and an interior dynamic cooling exchange system with high sound stabilization to produce a clear and powerful sound.

• iPOD Docking Station: Compatible with most of iPods. Dock your iPod, charge it and listen to your music without interruption.

• RF Remote Control:

One remote control to browse through the different iPOD features and to control the speakers’ Volume, treble and bass.

• Smiley Lit Mouth:

The mouth tells you right away by its light if the iPig is on or off. It also tells you whenever it receives a command from the remote control.

• Adjustable Bass Control:

Control the level of Base output from the knob control in the back of the iPig

• Bass Reflex Technology: Don’t just listen to the music but FEEL it with the Bass Reflex Technology Feel the amplification and output

• 360 Degrees Sound Spreading: The shape and the placement of the speaker of the iPig allows a 360 degree sound spreading, you will get the same quality of sound from each corner of the room

• Standard Mini Jack: A 3.5 mm stereo audio-in connection to connect with other audio and gaming devices

• GREEN and RoHS Compliant: The iPig is made of the top grade and environment friendly manufacturing materials. It has no hazardous materials.

• Colors: Professional formula of High-Gloss fashionable and shiny three colors: White, Yellow and Pink

• Multi Cradles: Fit your iPod with the correct cradle.

• Small Footprint: Complement your room. The iPig blends in as a decorative item that will sneak up on you with its wonderful sound quality

• Warranty: 1 year manufacture warranty. Warranty terms and conditions apply.



You can buy the iPig or the iPanda here for $129.99 and includes a 90 full days manufacturer’s warranty.

About Speakal Company.
Speakal Company specializes in high performance audio solutions. As the sole distributor of Amethyst products in North America, Speakal will continue to provide innovative audio products for years to come. Founded in 2006, Speakal Company is a privately held company based in Culver City, CA. For more information, please visit www.speakal.com.

Stephen Magsig's Postcards From Detroit & The Urban Alphabet Paintings, Now Available As Books

Above: 25 of stephen's individual letter paintings

I was happy to see that one of my favorite painters, Michigan artist Stephen Magsig, has compiled two book of his daily paintings; Postcards from Detroit and The Urban Alphabet.


Above: Stephen Magsig, Palace Detail, 2006, oil on canvas, 60" x 42"

Stephen, known for his photo-realism work of exteriors in oils, joined Daily Painters a little over a year ago and has had two beautiful series of works he's been creating simultaneously on a daily basis in small format works. One is "Postcards from Detroit", a collection of images, some urban, some suburban, and some rural, many seemingly abandoned and dilapidated -- all beautiful, if not a little eerie and lonely.

He sells these small paintings through Daily Painters and ebay and if you're not fast enough, or don't bid high enough, you won't get one of his 5" x 7", 7" x 5" or sometimes 5" x 5" renderings in oil on thick board. But if you do (and I'm lucky enough to have acquired three of them), you won't be disappointed.

His second series, is that of individual letters (some of which are shown at the beginning of this post), found on various signage - be it neon, painted or plastic- that he has painted in faithful reproductions with his beautiful painterly style (looser than his larger works). As a fan of these Letters from his Urban Alphabet series, I actually have purchased three of them; the A, The O and the K.

Now, much to my delight, Stephen has translated his daily painters work into book form, both the Postcards from Detroit series as well as his Urban Alphabet collection. Available on Blurb, you can choose from soft cover, hardcover with dust jacket or image wrap. A wonderful option for those of us who cannot afford his stunning large canvases available at either of the galleries that represent him.

Postcards from Detroit, Volume #1
Contains 80 pages of paintings posted from Aug 2007 -Dec 2007


Buy it here.


In the artist's own words:

Postcards from Detroit is a daily diary in small paintings by American artist Stephen Magsig. The inspiration came from Duane Keiser's innovative A Painting a Day blog, and Julian Merrow-Smith's Postcard from Provence. I am not new to daily painting. I started doing daily artwork, drawings, sketches, collage, polaroid images and paintings in 1987, and continue to work daily. Most of the work on this site will be Detroit based paintings. A visual diary of Detroit in paintings. I started to do paintings of Detroit more than 20 years ago, and continue to find inspiration in the place I call home. I will frequently post images of larger paintings that are available at the David Klein Gallery and the George Billis Gallery. Please contact them if you are interested in the larger paintings.

The Urban Alphabet, paintings by Stephen Magsig


Buy it here.

Below are a few examples of Stephen's large format oils, from the David Klein Gallery and the George Billis Gallery in New York, which I wish I could afford, but cannot:








About the artist:


Born in 1946, Steve studied at Ferris State College and the College for Creative Studies. As a painter he is really self taught, and has been painting for over 30 years. He's had more than 20 solo shows and numerous group shows. He currently shows with the George Billis Gallery in NY and LA and with with the David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, MI. His work is in over twenty corporate and museum collections and in hundreds of private collections. He lives and works with his artist wife, Janet Hamrick and their two studio cats, Artie and Bella, in Ferndale, Michigan. They also sublet a painting loft in New York City.

See his Daily Painters gallery here.
David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, MI
George Billis Gallery in NY
Magsig's Postcards From Detroit blog
Stephen Magsig on artnet

Louis Vuitton, Deitch & Rizzoli Continue To Love Stephen Sprouse

Artist and design pioneer Stephen Sprouse may no longer be with us physically, but you'll see more of his work in January, 2009 than you may have ever before thanks to a retrospective show at the Deitch gallery, a new limited edition Book by Rizzoli and a new tribute collection from Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton.