A pair of new laces

Necklace-like clothes hanger by Taiwanese designer Chen Hung-Min

More beautiful photos here

Shoelace-like wooden floor crochet by talented Estonian textile designer Monika Jarg

More beautiful photos here

Both designers will be exhibiting at Lodz Design 2009

Miso

Beautiful, inspiring work by the incredibly talented (21 years' old!) Melbourne street artist Miso.
Discovered via The Design Files' must-read interview with the artist. Love it!

Sillyboodilly

Good Morning! Today, I'd like to introduce you to some special classmates.

This is Wannetta (Old English for "Pale").

She's moody and misunderstood.
Prefers rainy days inside.
Delights in the work of Edward Gorey.
Wants to live in Paris and eat croissants everyday.

This is Alfred (Old English for "Wise Counsel").

He's articulate and responsible.

Worries about injustice.
Enjoys solving puzzles.
Wants to be a social worker.

This is Matilda (Old German for "Mighty Battlemaid").

She enjoys eating blueberries.
Daydreams while listening to Billie Holiday.
Wants to be a microbiologist.
Often can't sleep due to concerns over why honey bees are mysteriously dying.

These beautiful stitched ornaments have lots of other school photo friends here and here. They're all very pally with Fabian, a bit of an odd bod, but such a scream.

Fabian

His real name is Dwayne Yoder, but he won't admit this to anyone, except to his employer and the IRS.
Wishes he was English and often talks with a phony English accent.


My new-found chums are happy little souls. They come from a home where creativity and colour are spelt with a capital C and play amongst space spores, sunburst scenes and amoebae.

Thank you sillyboodilly for brightening up my day!

ADRI, cheeky cheeks with a conscience!

I realised the other day that I never got round to posting any photos of our fabulous holiday here. Another thing to add to my to-do list! Needless to say, we had a wonderful relaxing time, in amazing surroundings and fine company. One of the people I was lucky enough to meet during our stay in the Luberon was Emmane, founder of French company ADRI, along with her two other sisters Camille and Adrienne.

Emmane's youngest sister Adrienne loves drawing and when she got bored with doodling on paper decided to jazz up her panties instead. So much more fun, n'est-ce-pas! Although the drawings disappeared in the wash, Adri's idea prompted her two elders to experiment, put their ideas on paper, or pants as the case may be, and launch a range of children's undies in France.

You may not have heard of ADRI yet but my guess is that this fledgling company will take the French children's market by storm before sweeping through Europe and beyond. Why the enthusiasm? Take a look for yourself:

Pirate's pants

Cowboy's pants

Real princesses never show their panties

Anti-smack - didn't even hurt!

All of ADRI's children's underwear are 100% ecological (GOTS-certified organic cotton and non-toxic dyes), fun, colourful and presented in bright, eye-catching boxes. Their boys' and girls' ranges come in three sizes: 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 years, and single and double (girls only) packs.

What more can I say? Eco-fesses, c'est bien culotté! Fun, punchy and perfect packaging - a winner!

A list of national and international stockists is available here.

Tick-Tock, Clock-Clock

Giant station clock sticker complete with battery-operated hands from Brume

notonthehighstreet


Vintage wall clock with perpetual calendar
H is for Home


Huge classroom lab timer
Three Potato Four

The Clock Clock
Wall clock made up of 24 digital alarm clocks designed by Bastian Bischoff and Per Emanuelsson
Humans since 1983

A is for...

Amp-bear-sand


By Alex Eben Meyer.
Discovered via FFFFound.

François Royer

I'd like you to meet François Royer, a French graphic designer, musician, art teacher and founder of Stanker and Motxo Design. He also happens to be a magician.
A magician? You mean you don't believe in magic? Well, have a look at this


Close your eyes, count to ten, now open them. Ta-da!

Yello 2

Fat Bob

Fat Blu

See what I mean? Sheer magic! None of your hocus pocus, abracadabra kind of stuff though. It takes more than a quick wave of a wand to produce these beauties.

Louize Royal

Imagine the amount of time it takes to create one of these pieces. Imagine the physical work involved, the cleaning, stripping, cutting, assembling, painting, waxing and varnishing. These babes (they all have a name) certainly do not emerge from their hidden form overnight. And then there's the actual design. Just how many original, eye-catching and aesthetically pleasing pieces of furniture can you produce from a barrel? Click your mouse over here and here to see some of this magic with your own eyes. Amazing isn't it? A new, unusual and functional work of art, time after time. There's just no stopping his imagination!

François created his first Stanker back in 2003. He was working in Paris as an art teacher at the time and had been asked to clear out the school's garage full of scrap metal and a huge pile of rubbish. A firm believer in recycling, François couldn't bring himself to throw it away and the idea of inventing something new from the discarded and old took form. He made his first piece, "N° 0", from an oil barrel and the wheels of a supermarket trolley. Stanker was born.

François' creativity knows no bounds. Each reclaimed barrel is sanded and sculpted to produce a stylish masterpiece with its own personality.


Through his new design company Motxo (pronounced Mo-cho), François experiments with other reprocessed and recycled materials. One-of-a-kind pieces are produced in limited series or as prototypes.

Miss Laden

Z chair

Stanker designed 65 unique pieces of furniture for Kreyol Factory, (the first big exhibition of contemporary Creole art) in Paris this year, once again displaying an impressive imagination and certain je-ne-sais-pas-quoi that make his work so magical.

If you live in and around Montpellier, pop in to Art Maniac to see some of François' work. He will also be taking part in the Résonance exhibition at la Scierie in Montpellier from 1-10 October. Magic? Seeing is believing!

As a final note, I'd just like to say that François is an old neighbour, Dylan's former but favourite art teacher and a really nice guy. Can't wait to see what he pulls out of his black hat next!