Tatebanko Paper Diorama
July 3rd, 2008
Here’s another recent favorite of ours, Tatebanko. Never heard of it? Don’t fret, we hadn’t either and assumed it was a new eatery in our favorite city, so don’t feel bad. But to enlighten you a bit, Tatebanko is the forgotten Japanese art of creating amazing dioramas and scenic perspectives from paper. Tatebanko was popular and widely admired from the 17th century (Edo period) to the early 20th century. Then it all but disappeared.
“It’s a Beautiful Day” – Tatebanko - was now revived and reinterpreted this simple and elegant Japanese art with this paper craft kit. The kit features the works of famed Edo artist – Hokusai – The Great Wave. Beautifully designed and printed in Japan with elegant metallic accents, the kits are beautifully packaged A4 size and make a diorama that is 7 1/2″ W x 3 1/2″ D x 4 7/8″ H (19 x 9 x 13 cm). Each kit has a playful secret and interesting details that make assembly fun.
With these kits, even we can create a Tatebanko and it is hopefully enjoying a well-deserved renaissance.
Price: $10 / 8€
One of our favorite products, and it is finally in stock again! If you are looking to add a dash of uniqueness to your table decoration, you might want to invite Gorgeous Helen over… Don’t get us wrong, Gorgeous Helen is not the latest interior decorator from Sweden, but a brilliant product by Anke and Katrin from Dekoop in Hamburg. Made out of fragile parchment, each set contains 3 different shades with cute and whimsical designs that are printed in a faint white. All you need to do is take them out of the package, roll them up, drop a candle into a wine glass and add the lampshade. That’s it. Instantly the white pattern is transformed to a darker shade (as if it were a shadow) and a wine glass is turned into a sweet miniature lamp. Have an enchanted evening…
Ok, so yesterday we brought you the new version of the interactive jewelry, but we received so many requests that we simply had to bring you the original series as well, so here you go. Designed by Miami Hotshot Designer Louis Pons, we were introduced to this absolutely stunning piece of jewelry through our dear friends over at Citizen:Citizen. What is it? It’s a bracelet/necklace made out of hundreds of tiny connected nickel beads. But it has no closure. It is closed with a small super strong magnet – depending on the color, the shape of the magnet changes, so have a look at that before you make your selection – and because Nickel is a very magnetic material you can now start playing. Wrap it around your arm or neck, wrap it once or twice or as many times as it fits. Get two colors and start playing with contrast. Get 4 chains and start to really play with colors and different lengths. The beauty of this is the sheer never-ending array of possible combinations. Like it bold and bright? Go for pink and gold, like it traditional and elegant? Combine white, black and silver. Do we need to say more? We think not. Colors: Gold, Navy Blue w/ gold ring Silver, Black, Green, Aqua Blue, Red w/ silver ball Bronze, Orange, Yellow w/ silver ring White w/ gold star Lime w/ siver cube Baby Blue w/ silver star Pink w/ silver heart Purple w/ gold heart