Stick-on shadows and droopy galaxies

Smart people are cool. But smart, creative people with a sense of humour? Hello!

I hadn't heard about Dutch artist Wieki Somers until recently reading about her in ... I think it was Elle magazine. She's a sort of industrial artist-slash-designer who creates these amazing, clever, beautiful, funny everyday products like fox-skull teapots and boat bathtubs and flower lamps and feather-stoppered perfume bottles. But unlike the mass-produced utilitarian crap we tend to stuff into our lives (I'm as guilty as/more guilty than the next person), her objects are designed with deep speculation and humour and all kinds of other good arty stuff.

Her design sense is really organic and very much about nature. This lamp is a great example. The "Bellflower" is made of a single piece of woven metal and inside the flower's droopy head, there's a sort of galaxy of starlights--but it's bright enough to read by.













This "Blossoms" vase is designed to look like it's sprouting its own flowers.

















Behold the "Bathboat"-- a fully functional bathtub shaped like a little boat. It stays still on dry land while you drift away on the bubbles...










What's wrong with this picture? That's right: the shadows of the stools...They're stick-on decals. It's great to find new ways to mess with people's minds. To paraphrase with wild abandon: the transformational potential of shadows is underrated, so she created stick-on shadows that you can put on your walls, windows, and floors to show how fun and important shadows really are.

My only criticism is of the site itself. It's one of those mind-numbing Flash sites where the cursor is a butterfly, there is no nav bar, etc. I. Hate. Flash. Sites.

But if you're feeling patient and have a few minutes to explore, I highly recommend it.