Weird and Wacky Design: Hats off – A riot of Springtime Promises

Even as  these trying times are upon us, everything in the garden is blooming lovely. Seasons don’t fear the reaper and will come and go as they please regardless. Continuity of life , maybe not quite  as we once knew it, but there will a continuity nontheless. So if you are finding it hard to

Legacies; Goodbye Helen Frankenhaler

On 27th December 2011, the death of New York Abstract Expressionist Helen Frankenhaler was announced.  The artist was 83 years old (b 1928 Manhattan USA) died at her home in Darien Conn. Frankenhaler, influenced by Pollock poured thinned oil paint which was diluted with turpentine directly onto canvas to achieve lyrical use of colour (her ‘soak

Happy Christmas and New Year!

In my usual tradition, here is the round up of featured posts for 2011.  It’s been a pretty tubulent year personally for me and I haven’t blogged as much as I usually do – but my New Year resolution is to do so, so get ready for more eclectic mixes of art, design and quirkyness! 

Weird and Wacky ‘Make it Snappy!’

We read so much about Spyware and CCTV cameras being installed as deterrents against crime.  Then there are numerous stories of stalking and identity theft, as well as court cases involving newspapers violating privacy laws.  Most people really value their privacy, but there is also a bit of voyeurism in us all that makes us just want to take a peek at

Weird and Wacky – Clock this!

  It’s ages since I wrote a weird and wacky post.  As far as I know I’ve never written a post featuring clocks.  I just couldn’t ignore these unusual ones!  For people with time to kill how about this ‘Killing Time’ piece.  I’m not too sure about the fake blood – and I wouldn’t fancy being underneath it

The Canvas Pavement

Everyone has seen pavement artists at work from time to time in their city .  Usuall, they will painstakingly chalk a famous and instantly recognisable painting onto the pavement for passers by to admire and donate money to.  But in recent times there has been a spate of breathtaking ‘3D’ optical chalk drawings that are refeshingly new

Weird and Wacky Umbrellas

A while ago I did a post on umbrellas and parasols which appeared as props in famous paintings (here).  According to Wiki, umbrella comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning a shade or shadow, which in its own turn originally derived from Greek.  Umbrellas and parasols are to be found all over the world and throughout history

Take these chains from these shoes and set me free

  Did you know that there are actually shoe competitions?  I didn’t.   The Shoemania Design winner of 2009 was Tove Jansson and Per Emanuelsson for their Chain shoe design.  They make a man’s version of this shoe with the chains wrapped around loafers. The Swedish design students came up with the opposing concepts of floating and of