Vienna Design Week 2008: Carpetplots

by Ami Kealoha

Reinterpreting the carpet as canvas, Carpetplots is a series of six limited editions each by a different Austrian designer. The project is the work of Vienna-based design duo Danklhampel, who curated the group of designers, and the furniture retailer Prodomo, which hosted the show at their gallery space, Prodomo Windows.

What's unique about these carpets (compared to other similar collaborations) is a process, that's much like inkjet printing in that it forces the ink "through fine jets under high pressure, whereby the inks penetrate deep into the fibres." The technique (ege carpets is responsible) is what makes for such highly-detailed images, like the gorgeous mediocrity of my favorite from the exhibit, Destilat's "Dry Lake" (pictured below, detail at right).

The top image is by Soda, see more after the jump. The edition is limited to 10 of each design, contact Prodomo (info [at] prodomowien [dot] at) for more info.

Carpetplots
Through 31 October 2008
Prodomo Windows
Naglergasse 29
1010 Wien
Austria map
tel. +43 1 533 83 82

Mastodon Straight Razor by Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons

by Tim Yu

Before the dawn of plastic, Ivory was used in everything from billiard balls to piano keys. Taking it a step further, Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons created an old world-style straight razor fashioned with a 10,000-year-old fossilized Siberian Wooly Mammoth Ivory handle. Keeping with the theme and respect to the craft of years past, the razors used are restored vintage deadstock blades with sterling silver linings and rivets.

Each Mastodon Straight Razor is fully handcrafted in New York City and comes in an ebony and amber-stained wood case with a lock and key. As always, Black Sheep's attention to detail is sharp. Each Mammoth tusk handle features a 3mm quartz magnifying lens with a microscopic image of vintage erotica. Since everything is made to order they can swap out the image with one of your choosing.

The razors are available for purchase and are currently being used at the new F.S.C. Barbershop in New York. They will also be sold online at Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons starting at $2,200. For more info or to pre-order the Mastodon Straight Razor, contact Black Sheep at sales [at] blacksheepandprodigalsons [dot] com.

via the cut

Vice and Vanity Jewelry

by CH Contributor

by Ezra Natalia

Vice and Vanity is a jewelery design studio in Joo Chiat, Singapore where the feeling is that vice belongs "in your heart and soul." Former Club21 employee Vivi Masturah Lim and Fine Arts graduate Aaron Kao are the designers behind the collections that focus on necklaces, bracelets and brooches.

Each season, the Singaporean duo manages to push boundaries and come up with dazzling design that expresses their quirky and surreal ideas. Their collections represent anything from poetry to existentialism and beauty.

Says Aaron, "We always try to originate new ideas, never restricting ourselves to a certain style or look. Our style is a work in progress and may or may not surface so quickly over a few collections. It takes time to develop a style. For every collection we always ensure that the quality is there and we want people to pay for something that has a lot of thought and effort put into the creation."

The duo has already graced the runway with renowned fashion label Baylene and has also been scoring raves from Harper's Bazaar, Juice, Seventeen, Her World, Revolution and I-S Magazine with their original designs.

Here’s what they said about their latest collection, "We want to create collar pieces and they came from sketches of abstract shapes. It was a time when we wanted to move away from identifiable aesthetics. I realized we already had that tendency in the last collection titled 'One Two.' We also wanted to challenge ourselves to break away from the typical acrylic silhouette style adopted by many designers and to stretch a 2D raw material into an end product with more volume, dimension and layering."

Prices (in Singaporea dollars) range from $79 to $169 and necklaces come in elegant boxes, yet another aspect of Vice and Vanity's attention to detail. Designs are available from Vice and Vanity, Zainab, Talullah Tu and Mardeu. Care for the pieces requires common sense, “No crocodile attacks, nuclear fusion or genetic experiments.”

Pins & Threads at London Design Festival

by Leonora Oppenheim

One of the highlights of the London Design Festival wasn't a big name or flashy product, it was a low-key installation from a young design graduate placed in a corner of Tent London. Easy to miss perhaps, but once seen it had people transfixed by its graphic beauty. Debbie Smyth was selected as one of the most promising graduates of 2008 for the Dezeen Talent Zone.

Her installation Pins & Threads uses, as the title suggests, sewing pins and black thread to draw a series of electricity pylons across several canvas panels. The technique transforms ordinary structures — often thought of as ugly blots on the landscape — into beautifully minimal graphic drawings, which are at once 2D and 3D, anchored to their panels but also floating in space.

Debbie Smyth graduated from the West Wales School of Arts this year and describes herself as a constructed textile artist. Her work employs "an array of mechanisms, she folds, collapses, inflates and interlocks her materials to transform two-dimensional lines and planes into three-dimensional shapes and space."

In the Pins & Threads installation there is a clear narrative of ongoing construction, as visibly loose threads are gradually tightened around the pins to create the rigid pylon structures. When the threads are connected magically there seems to be electricity running through them.

Google Mail Goggles

by CH Contributor

by Ariston Anderson

The days of drunken dialing are long gone and, thanks to a new software called Google Mail Goggles, impulsive emails might be a thing of the past too. In an era when you're more likely to send a Facebook message or email on your iPhone than pick up the phone after a heavy night's drinking, the folks over at Google Labs understand your pain. They're no stranger to sending midnight pleas to exes and crushes or even "memos" to the entire staff, filling up their outbox with messages they'll regret in the morning.

It works by activating the service and customizing when you want the Goggles to stop you. For example, Friday and Saturday nights from 11pm-4am might be a good idea (unless you're a daytime drinker). When you're in that window, you have to answer a series of simple math problems that might not be so difficult sober but if you're having trouble answering them, you get a gentle reminder from Google that perhaps it's not the best idea to press send after all.

It's no longer one of the current offerings in Google Labs but check out developer Jon Perlow's Official Gmail blog post to learn more.

Horman's Best Pickles

by Evan Orensten

Though Nick Horman has been making pickles for five years, we only recently discovered him at the Eighth Annual NYC Pickle Day a few weeks ago, depriving us of what would have been a lot of delicious pickles we could have eaten during the last few years.

The New Dills were our favorite, though the nicely sweet Red Flannel chips proved to be one of the more interesting taste sensations of the day. We also loved the Hot Cherry peppers and the Sour pickles.

Horman's Best are currently available at several Long Island farmer's markets and directly from Nick.

Horman's Best Pickes
36 Garvies Point Road
Glen Cove, NY 11542
+1 516 676 0640
nick [at] hormansbestpickles [dot] com