Hot Cold Mug

Charles & Marie are having a pre-sale of their Hot Cold Mug. The mug is made with a heat sensitive pigment that causes it to turn from black to white as it heats up. So, it starts by reading "COLD", and after you fill it up with a hot liquid, the text turn into "HOT". Clever, eh? The Hot Cold Mug is a spin off of Charles & Marie's On Off Mug.

Available for pre-sale here.

Tonfisk Design

Brian of Tonfisk Design sent over their latest iterations from the WARM tea & coffee range and the WARP Bud vase and tall flower vase. Previously only available in white, they've recently launched black versions of the products and the result is pretty hot (as is the Odes Serving Tray. So gorgeous!). Keep your eyes open for these new designs, which will be hitting stores in the spring (ie. soon! I cant wait for winter to be over!)

ZooCreative

Check out this very sexy fruit tray from ZooCreative. I love the different profiles and angles that emerge from the folded plywoood as you move the tray around. The tray is available at Do.

Atelier Doodle

Atelier Doodle sent us their latest project, the Portafrutta, which is a fruit platter made out of a series of 35 wood strips. The form (or terrain, almost) created by the strips starts to suggest where fruit might be placed. Atelier Doodle's desire is to eliminate the bruising that occurs when you pile fruit up on top of each other by creating separations that give each piece of fruit its own space.

Ross McBride

These Anamorphic Cups by Ross McBride offer a fun alternative to the stuffy teacup. Each cup is made of polished stainless steel in order to correctly reflect the distorted text or image on the porcelain saucer.

Triangle Bamboo Trivet by Tatsuoki Nakashima

The Triangle Bamboo Trivet achieves the function of the trivet with very little material and joints. Tatsuoki Nakashima designed the trivet. And it is available at MOMA.

Kathleen Hills

Kathleen Hills sent us a link to her website, and unbeknownst to me until now, she is the designer of one of my favorite Christmas presents - the Milkii. The Milkii is a double spouted milk jug, but I actually use it as a bud vase and it's great! Kathleen has lots of lovely products, but my favorites are the Egg cube, which includes a place for your spoon, and a rolling pin with raised lettering marking everything that you bake as "made in England".

Prepara

I love the Herb-Savor by Prepara. It prolongs the life of fresh herbs up three weeks and looks hot to boot.

Helena Schepens

Helena Schepens is a silversmith by education, but has created a series of very interesting, wooden fruit bowls. Each bowl seems to be sized somewhat particularly to a certain kind of fruit, so I don't know that they will work with fruit across the board, but I love the sculptural quality of the bowls, as well as the dynamic kinetic nature of each.



Via Bientôt Demain.

Notcot Gift Guide

Sean and I put together today's gift guide over at Notcot. It's filled with (mostly) affordable picks from our favorite designers. We hope you will check it out, along with the rest of the gift guide that Jean has worked so hard to put together...

Left to right: Decanter N°2 by Etienne Meneau, Full Contact Spice Grinder by Mint, and Bubble necklace by Brevity (yes, me!).

Happy holidays!

plusminuszero

plusminuszero is a Japanese company headed by designer Naoto Fukasawa. The website description of the company really sums up the work:

It means neither plus nor minus;
it is necessity and sufficiency;
it is something you have never seen but somehow feel at home with;
it is a shape that is very normal yet fascinating;
It is the moment you realize, for the first time, that this is exactly what you have wanted.

The objects above are from plusminuszero's new collection: Coffee and Tea Maker, Toaster, Sliced Bread Dish, and Humidifier Ver.3.

ECAL - University of Art and Design Lausanne

I came across ECAL (the University of Art and Design Lausanne) when searching around for fly swatters for our ideas column. I was especially impressed by the Industrial Design department, who have a great collection of work up online. Here are a few selections from the Souvenirs of America collection (cynical students! but what design student isn't, I guess?):

Clockwise from left: Fabien Cappello, LaChanh Nguyen, Gaële Girault and Valerian Gagnaire

LOTS

Swedish design group LOTS created the conceptual Elektra line of domestic appliances. The image to the left is a toaster (coolest toaster I've ever seen)! The use of black glass provides a nice contrast to the translucent glass.

Serge Atallah - Spaghetti Dozer

Normann Copenhagen recently released Serge Atallah's Spaghetti Dozer. The tool features three different sizes for different portions of pasta, a la The Three Little Bears. I have always sized my pasta portions from the old standby - the 35mm film canister.

Floyd

How's this for multi-tasking - a cup that doubles as a ring while in use. By Floyd.

Via MocoLoco.

Lorena Barrezueta

Renegade Craft Fair was an exhausting but very fun experience...It was great to see some of the people whose work I've long admired. One such person is Lorena Barrezueta, who has taken the form of traditional, disposable food containers and turned them into fine, porcelain tableware. I had seen Lorena's work online before but in person it is even nicer!

ICFF - Thout

Thout's work is full of clever surprises and solutions for compact living. The HoleySTUMP is a reclaimed cedar stump with holes bored into it, conveniently sized so as to store a beer or a soda can, if desired. Thout has also developed a series of UtiliTILES, a modular wall tile system that is programmed for specific functions - to hold a piece of fruit, a cup, a fork, etc.

BKLYN DESIGNS - Desu Design

Love this spice rack from Desu Design. The wall connection is hidden from view, making the shelf float on the wall. I love how the olive oil bottle sits snug in the shelf. The spice rack comes with 15 spice bottles, but unfortunately doesn't come with the olive oil bottle. Being that it is built to spec, it would make sense to me to include a bottle with the rack which you can refill when empty.

The other object in Desu Design's display that I really liked was the Symbol Coat Rack, which you've probably seen before. It's as lovely in person as it is in photo.

Aimee Less

I love the Juki Flatfold Chair by Aimee Less. It comes flat packed and you lace it together to create the final form, with lots of fun colors to choose from. Also interesting is the Pinch refillable spice pouch, which allows you to eliminate waste (both the grocer's bulk-bin plastic bag, and the spice jar at home).

Via design*sponge.

A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks via NYTimes

Mark Bittman at the New York Times put a really nice little piece in the paper yesterday titled "A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks". It basically outlines how to setup a kitchen that can handle pretty much anything for about $300. The catch is that you won't be cooking in style. I am all for the Bowery and commercial kitchen equipment places. But when it comes down to it, your personal kitchen equipment has a life and story of its own. I agree with Bittman that you can easily setup a kitchen with commercial grade stuff and it will work. But who wants to use a $10 chef's knife? I would liken it to taking a driving tour through Tuscany: you could do it in a Ford Taurus, but wouldn't it be nicer in a Maserati?

Socrates Corkscrew by Jasper Morrison for Alessi

Opening a bottle of wine is often either a chore or a challenge, requiring far more cunning than braun. But when you have a corkscrew as articulated as the Jasper Morrison's Socrates Corkscrew by Alessi, you might as well be using a 50' crane. I love the straight industrial lines and joints as a contrast to the more popular curved ergonomic shapes of today's corkscrews and kitchen gadgets.

Marmot Tea-Zer and Pilsner Mug

The Tea-zer and Pilsner Insulated Mug, both by Marmot, are great travel companions. Brewing tea and keeping it on the go is always a big problem. And warm beer is probably the most disappointing thing known to man.

Shannon Garson

Pretty porcelain bowls from Shannon Garson. I like how the bowls are weighted by the illustration.

Via Housemartin.

Marinade Injector

The Signature Series Cajun Injector, available at Target, solves all the problems of waiting for marinades to season the meat you're waiting around to cook. Simply fill up this commercial grade syringe with the marinade of choice and zap the meat. Simple.

Tea Infuser

This nice little Tea Infuser from Bed Bath and Beyond is nice because you never have to fish it out of your cup or mug like the egg-shaped metal ones that dangle on a chain. The stand is also a nice thing to have for when you want to re-brew the tea leaves.

Barware at Moma

The Soft Machine Wine Opener (left) is a really beautiful corkscrew that works similar to a waiter's corkscrew except the pull is geared instead of pivoting. I like it's slender beak-like arm and the little eye where you can see the meshed gears. The Marli Bottle Opener (right) is a double-sided bottle opener so you never have to fiddle around with the tool. The beer is open when you want it, can't complain about that. Now if they could only invent one that doesn't get lost in the kitchen drawers.

Both are available at the Moma Online Store

UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker

The UCO Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker is one of those odd inventions you might see on tv late at night. The ball is a very curious combination of science, fun and cheap labor (your kids). By playing with the ball and circulating the ice/salt mixture, you freeze the milk in the interior container to make ice cream. If you have ever tried to use one of those hand-cranked ice cream makers, you know what a pain it is. Why not kick a ball around the backyard during the summertime and wind up with some ice cream. As strange as it is, it's pretty cool.

Sternform

You've probably seen this ceramic set by Sternform on a few other blogs (thanks Core77!), but I thought it was worth mentioning here...I like that it's modular and that it creates a nice pattern on your dinner table.

I also love these Tango lamps by Sternform. The Tango lights are flexible and can be reconfigured to cast light whichever way you want.

Bodo Sperlein

I came across Tart in my registry search...Tart sells ridiculously expensive products, but I love these tableware sets by Bodo Sperlein. They are so pretty and romantic! But alas, I cannot in good conscience put these on our registry. $225 for one five piece place setting is just too much!

Lola Goldstein Salt and Pepper Shakers

The Lola Goldstein Salt and Pepper Shakers available at Moma Online Store are an interesting counterpart to the usual salt and pepper shakers. But which is happy and which is sad? I guess it depends which seasoning you prefer.

Pryor & Williams

Two interesting items from Pryor & Williams: the Sandwich Board which is a prep surface and serving tray all in one, and the BIB Tray, which is a multipurpose bed tray/laptop table/coffee table. I like that it is collapsible and easily stored.

Ichendorf

After buying the Bodum Assam glasses, I'm totally into double walled vessels these days. I love the illusion that the liquid is suspended inside the vessel - it's so pretty! These carafes and glasses from Ichendorf are lovely. I'm curious as to how comfortable drinking out of the glasses would be. Available at Unica Home .

Anna Gram

Check out this sexy glass from Anna Gram (a design collaboration between Florian Dussopt, Julie Girard, and Jérémie Reneau). It is at its most functional when drinking a beverage that requires mixing. Swivel the glass and the ceramic ball will dissolve the sugar! I dig.

Vincent Van Duysen

Love these (expensive!) bowls by architect Vincent Van Duysen. The contrasting materials - earthenware containers with a wooden lid - are really gorgeous. These were designed originally for When Objects Work, but are now available through Moss.

Via Designklub.

Orikaso Fold Flat Products

Orikaso makes camping products that pack as a flat sheet and fold up in crazy ways into bowls, dishes and cups. I played with some at EMS the other day and the cup or mug is the most interesting piece. At less than $5USD per piece, they are a good buy and never take up any space in a pack.

Be Open Bottle Opener

The Be Open Bottle Opener is something I first saw Kevin and Alex use on Diggnation. You put it on the top of the bottle, push down and the bottle cap pops off and is held to the opener by the magnetic ring on the bottom. It's seriously a great way to open a bottle. Watch any of this year's video episodes of diggnation and you will see how it works. The stainless steel version is $25.00. I'm waiting for one with the Digg logo.

Laura Bethan Wood

Another cup that makes the most of stains. These are from British designer Laura Bethan Wood. Designed in anticipation of the damage caused by use, a graphic emerges as the cups slowly stain over time. This is one cup that looks better with age.

Via Cool Hunting.

Flexicado

The kitchen is the realm of fringe gadgetry like melon ballers, olive pitters and garlic presses. The Flexicado by David Holcomb for Chef'N is no exception. The tool is run through the halved avocado, and the green fruit is peeled from the skin and sliced into wedges in one motion, ready to eat.