Funky Find Of The Week: The Bruce Balcony Grill

Designed by Henrik Drecker, the Bruce Balcony Grill is such a cool simple idea and space saver. Very euro. Click on the pic to learn more or to purchase.

If Tattoos Were Made of Gold. The Jewelry Of Michael Spirito.

Tired of cutesy hearts for Valentine's day?
How about flaming hearts in 14k or a Heart wrapped in a 14k crown and thorns from Michael Spirito's fabulous collection, Exhibitionist NYC.
Cause that's about as 'sweet' as his jewelry gets.




Meet Michael Spirito of Exhibitionist, NYC. When Michael Spirito took the Accessories award for his fascinating jewelry at the 'Gen Art Design Vision Awards' in June 2002, the fashion community realized there was a revolutionary talent in NYC. The designer's reputation continued to grow with a 'finalist' placing at the 2003 'Rising Star' awards.

His Latest Collection, "Shockra" (a fun play on the spiritual word Chakra) is reminiscent of John Hardy on Acid:



His Memento Mori collection will make any psuedo punk or macabre maven giggle with glee.




His other collections like Royal Pearl, Strong Sterling, Crown Jewels, etc use what I like to refer to as "tattimagery", all the icons people love in tattoos; hearts, swords, thorns, skulls, wings, but all done in a tasteful way with wonderful craftsmanship and materials.

But, to be fair, in addition to his stable of trendy imagery from brains skewered by swords and hearts on fire, he has a line of one of a kind signature jewelry that is absolutely stunning in both the design and craftsmanship.

here's a taste of that:



Michael's line is now sold internationally - from NYC to Los Angeles, Tokyo and most recently Moscow. Exhibitionist continues to grow while retaining a decidedly independent philosophy. "We don't conform to trends, we'd rather stick to our own interests & develop a market" says Spirito.

Really Michael? Well, I think your stuff is completely trendy, but I love it!

When A Blank Page Inspires. Moleskine Notebook Art.

click above image to enlarge

Most of you are probably familiar with Moleskine notebooks.

A favorite amongst creatives, Moleskine makes not only wonderful notebooks, organizers and journals but has a great site and often hosts wonderful exhibits. The following images are just a sampling of some of the pieces from a London Exhibit called Detour. These include renderings by Mary Ellen Mark and Ross Lovegrove.

DETOUR
THE MOLESKINE
CITY NOTEBOOK
EXPERIENCE

70 Moleskines by international artists, designers, architects, illustrators, and writers

4 exhibitions inside 4 London venues: Conran, Waterstones, Stanfords, Artwords

The notebooks' authors kindly participated to the Detour exhibition supporting lettera 27.

lettera 27 is a nonprofit foundation encouraging the right to literacy, education, and access to knowledge and information.