Indoor and Outdoor Alabaster Furnishings That Glow From Within.

Back in 2007, I introduced you to Albatros Design, a French company that created illuminated marble furniture and fireplace consoles. The luxurious pieces were available in multiple marble finishes and applications. Since then, the company has been renamed and now continues to design and customize illuminated pieces of furniture and installations, only made from alabaster.*




Atelier Alain Ellouz now offers more luxurious illuminated items for private homes, restaurants, retail stores and hotels. The pieces combine a traditional material with a modern effect. Coffee tables, dining tables, bases, console tables, bathroom sinks, pedestals, vessels and basins are wonderful additions to any interior.









For the bath:








Seating and end tables make excellent poolside and outdoor accents:





Alabaster illuminated walls, sliding doors and panels, hotel interiors, restaurant tables, bars, reception desks, fireplaces, retail counters and more are available for commercial applications:














*alabaster is a translucent, white or tinted fine-grained gypsum. A variety of hard calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.

To learn more, visit Atelier Alain Ellouz

Star Wars Carved Crayons; Darth, Chewbacca, C3PO and StormTrooper

above: photo by Mark Merlot.

Although these carved crayons were not made by Diem Chau, whose many crayola sculptures I've shared with you in the past, the Star Wars Crayolas were made by Steve Thompson and have been featured on many a geek and sci-fi blog. If you haven't seen them, here's a good look:






But where's the green Yoda??

Clever and Creative C-Notes. Redesign the $100 Bill at Make Your Franklin.

above: the 100$ bill redesigned by Sean Fermoyle

Make Your Franklin is an online community art project devised by French designers Vincent Desdoigts, Martin Joubert and Etienne Lecorre, that allows anyone to design their own version of the United States 100$ bill. They are asking for you to recreate the money with a symbol of modern society.

All you have to do is download the template (a gigantic jpeg of the C-note) and start designing. Then you can upload your finished Benjamin to their online gallery. They simply ask that it be no larger than 7300 x 3000 pixels and no smaller than 1000 x 411 pixels.



above: bills with popular iconography like Paul Stanley's KISS make-up and Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa, by Molle William and Loic Bel respectively, were amongst the designs submitted

Some people have gone all out and created viable and beautiful alternatives to the paper currency, while others (myself included) just had some fun defacing ol' Mr. Franklin with icons and imagery reflective of trendy and popular culture (e.g Disney, Mona Lisa, KISS, etc).

Here's a few of the bill redesigns from their online gallery, selected at the time this post was written. I'm sure many more terrific designs have since been submitted.

First, some seriously beautiful redesigns of the $100 bill:

Alexandre Manet Pikartzo:

Christelle Mozzati:

Julien Benayt:

Hugo Lecrux:

Arinin Evgeny:


And some funny money:

Two versions of Mickey Money by Didier Gerardin:


Paul Schuler gave it a complete Khadafi overhaul:
A Pink Floyd reference from Thomas Fontaine:

An homage to Darth Vader by Sylvain Weiss:

Agathe Teubner brings the American Eagle to life:

Some colorful currency from Martin Joubert:

Cedric Bariou asks Why So Serious? with his joker version:
Dekker Dryer's Monopoly Money:

Superhero C-note from Arlam:

Wasted Rita's take on a song we all know:

Vivien Cormier's illustrated version:

Fabio Maiorana cleverly gave Ben some time off:

and Cabanes' toxic money:

Bouton Bleue punks it up:

and a lovely minimal take on it from Burkhardthauke:

My own lame contribution to the project:


Give it a try or just view the gallery of submitted designs at Make your Franklin.

Vintage Furniture Re-upholstered That Speaks To You From Voici!

Voici! is the new-born child of Los Angeles gallery voila! A highly individual line of limited edition handcrafted upholstery pieces from LA-based Belgian native madame voila! (alias Katrien Van der Schueren) and UK-based madame voici! (alias Jo Laurie).



Using vintage fabrics gathered during travels around the globe, they re-upholster and re-finish vintage furniture, so that they are born again with a new persona. If they can’t find the appropriate pieces or don’t have the right fabric to play with, they create their own toys.

Of their many unusual pieces, the Wordy collection of furnishings with silk-screened quotes from the likes of Oscar Wilde and Albert Einstein printed in a cream, silver or white typewritten font on soft cotton denim is one of my favorites.

The Wordy Double Seater I:




A voici! limited edition piece. They took a low, vintage two-seater sofa and gave it the voici! touch. The soft denim cotton fabric has hand-silk screened designs on the cushions of inspirational quotes by famous leaders and innovators. Ask about getting these quotes put on a fabric of your choice.
Length : 35
Height : 29
Width : 55
$3400, buy it here

The Wordy Double Seater II:


A voici! limited edition piece. They took a low, vintage two-seater sofa and gave it the voici! touch. The soft denim cotton fabric has hand-silkscreened designs on the cushions of inspirational quotes by famous leaders and innovators. Ask about getting these quotes put on a fabric of your choice.
Length : 35
Height : 29
Width : 55
$3400, buy it here

The Wordy Armchair:



This single-seater version of their very popular "Wordy double seater" only seats one and boasts not only a comfortable place to sit, but a recycled vintage chair frame given new life in our studio. The soft denim cotton fabric has hand-silk screened designs on the cushions of inspirational quotes by famous leaders and innovators. This chair is available only in a limited edition. Ask about getting these quotes put on a fabric of your choice.
Length : 28
Height : 29
Width : 30
$1,940, buy it here

Wordy Pillows:


The pillows are also available in pink type on brown fabric.

Like the rest of the collection, you can inquire about other fabrics for the pillows .
$190 each, buy them here.