White Island Works rings - art becomes wearable

Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos and Artemis Lydl are a creative couple that I have come to known for a few years now and happy to call friends. They are extraordinary people, smart and artistic, always ready to engage into thoughtful conversation. Constantinos is an accomplished artist that not only paints but also illustrates (has been published numerous times in Greek newspapers and magazines) and draws comics. They both create books , apps, videogames and art. Their most recent venture (apart from making their family bigger) is their extraordinary biomorphic black rings.

The design of the rings derives from Konstantinos' artwork, namely the White Island Works series. They translated fragments of it into small pieces, set as precious gems on rings, ready to be worn by everyone.

They come in various shapes and sizes and new designs are added to the mix. I love the graphic feel of the artwork and the layered edges.

The detail of design and quality of construction is amazing. Even the box they come in looks very fetching. 

You can buy them (and other stuff from the series as well) from their Etsy shop. The prices are amazing. So what are you waiting for?

Sea Life

Gülnur özdağlar is an architect working for MAVI PROJE in Ankara, Turkey. Formerly known as Gülnur Guvenc, or as Gulguvenc and as letterG. Working with used PET bottles, the architect transforms them by drilling tiny holes in intricate patterns or cutting them into various shapes, making them come to life looking like exotic sea creatures. You can see more at tertium no data: lamps, jewellery, bowls, buttons...



via Design*Sponge

Vinyl Records become jewellery...

Having grown up in the vinyl age of records, I always have had a fetishistic relationship with them. The whole ritual of getting the record out of the sleeve after having read every minutiae of information on it, from titles and producer to art director and photographer plus all the credits, putting it on the turntable and listening to music filling the room was very special for me. The smell, feel and look of the vinyl made it precious to me - not to mention the music recorded on it.

Photo of rare Live in Chicago Dead Can Dance LP - surely not to be recycled into jewellery!

Imagine my surprise when, through The Fabulist, I discovered the website of a company making jewellery out of vinyl records. Making stuff out of old vinyl records is nothing new, I have seen even bowls made out of them (yuk!). But the jewellery of Vling! is something quite unique.

My favourite is the cassette necklace - sentimental reasons of course!

Other music related designs - which seem more appropriate to me and best designed (the rest of the stuff looks uninspiring) are a guitar, musical note, the word Rock and a gramophone that looks like a Grammy award:



The company is based in the U.S. They have also a page on MySpace. They even take custom orders, like names written in vinyl. They do ship worldwide and you can e-mail them here for questions. I can think of many records that I would never give up to be recycled but also of many I would gladly see turned into better looking stuff!