Inspirational Bookshelves

My brother sent me a link to Toxel.com, a blog dedicated to all things design.
Check out this collection of inspirational bookshelves.

Exotic Wood iPod Cases

iWood by Miniot
This is a luxury item that has been on my wish list for awhile. Made in Holland, from "Well Managed Forests", Miniot makes exotic wood carrying cases for ipods, iphones and the itouch. At the risk of being an uber dork, the Heritage Collection is pretty wow.

Vertical Gardens & Sky Farms

A friend just sent me a cool article about Vertical Garden & Sky Farms-Courtesy of Environmental Graffiti, a UK based blog.

Longfellow Poem

The Builders

All are architects of Fate.

Working in these walls of Time;

Some with massive deeds and great,

Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;

Each thing in its place is best;

And what seems but idle show

Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,

Time is with materials filled;

Our to-days and yesterdays

Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;

Leave no yawning gaps between;

Think not, because no man sees,

Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,

Builders wrought with greatest care

Each minute and unseen part;

For the Gods see everywhere.

-Longfellow

Wabi-Sabi

Wabi-Sabi
for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
by Leonard Koren

"Wabi -sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete"

"Wabi-Sabi" is the Japanese equivalent of "je ne sais qua". While this aesthetic principle refers most directly to the Japanese tea ceremony, it also represents the way objects are revered on their journey from creation to decay.
Author Leonard Koren proposes that Wabi Sabi could even be called the "zen of things"
In his book Koren provides a western explanation for a very eastern concept. He compares Wabi-Sabi with more rationalized aesthetic, Modernism. Koren's book gives us another way of viewing nature, art, design, life & death.

"Wabi-Sabi" is a great read. It informed & enriched the way I approach design and appreciate the world around me.