I just discovered Dutch designer Chris Kabel. I love how the image is incorporated into the functionality of the Coral Vase. The vase is made of glazed porcelain, and was hand painted by artist Jose den Hartog.

The Shady Lace umbrella is also super cool. I would love to have this in my back yard (if I had one)…

While this may sound like a pretty ridiculous idea, The Triton Logging Company is a company that specializes in harvesting underwater lumber. The underwater forests are created by flooding due to new hydro-electric dams built throughout the world. There are an estimated 300 million trees that are now underwater and waiting to be harvested around the globe, worth some $500 Million USD.

Their primary tool is The Sawfish, a proprietary hybrid of an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle a logging machine. It is real and is actively harvesting underwater forests in British Columbia, Canada.

Bravo for unconventional ideas.

The Alligator Lopper, by Black & Decker, is the sickest looking yard tool I have ever seen. It’s a mini-chainsaw(!) with a jaw to grip and chop large branches or small logs.

This is so cool! Pimp out your bike with electronic images…It comes with software that allows you to upload bitmaps, or to create your own. It’s too bad it’s such a battery sucker – it goes through 3 AA batteries in 10 hours. Maybe someone can come up with a way to use kinetic energy to charge the batteries or something. I’m not smart enough but I’m sure someone else is!

Via Core77.

One of the companies I was introduced to yesterday at the Biz meetup: Hable Construction is a sister-run business (Katharine & Susan). They make just about everything that uses fabric…I especially like the apron line. Very clean, graphic designs. Besides at their online store, you can check out their work in person at their new york store in the west village.

For all of your garden-challenged friends, I present the Eggling. Ceramic eggs that look and feel like the real thing – just crack one open and add water and voila! Garden! The eggling is available with seeds for basil, italian parsley, mint, thyme, chrysanthemum, lobelia, phlox, and petunia.

Available at Elsewares for $8.95.

Vases derived from paper bags, and cast concrete stepping stones with graphic perforations for moss and grass to grow through. Stella is a collaboration between Johnathan Hopp + Sarah Auslander.

Stelton is a Danish design studio founded in 1960. They produce very clean and modern housewares such as the Ship Lamp (left) and the Table Lamp (right). All of the Stelton objects are striking in their simplicity and thoughtfulness of form. The trait linking the entire Stelton line is the use of stainless steel in nearly all of their products, from moneyclips to coffee pots.

evasolo is a danish cooking-serving-lifestyle object design house. They make a very wide range of products including these two bird feeders. The Feeder Ball (left) and the Bird Table (right) are two of the products that exude the lightness of glass and the joy of birdwatching.

Fishing will always be one of my favorite things to do. I’ve been spin casting since I was a little kid with my Dad and brother. And last year I got to learn how to fly cast out west. I have to say that fly fishing is a lot more fun. It’s like driving a stick shift vs. an auto transmission (I actually can’t drive stick, but I think that’s what it would be like. If you can do all four of these things, let me know if I’m right).

Field and Stream Magazine put together a list of the Top 50 Fishing Lures of All Time. The fishing lure is another example of form following function, but with flair. The flair comes with good reason: fish like to eat flashy things. The Hula Hopper (left) and the Terminator T-1 Spinnerbait (right) are both really beautiful objects, suitable to be shown in a shadowbox on your wall.