Keep on Finger Snippin

Cut! It! Out! You’ve got to be kidding me, girl! These scissors get three snaps in a circle, that’s my word. I suppose they’ll cause carpal tunnel, but what doesn’t, these days? Not much, I’ll tell you that. So will designer Efrat Gommeh.

And don’t forget the bonus concept!

This little thing fits over your fingers so that when you make the “snip snip” scissors motion, you actually are using a scissors. Very elegant. Then, as a bonus design, Gommeh presents this “Folding Scissors” which turns from a 2-D item into a 3-D: origami for the destroyers of paper.

Designer: Efrat Gommeh

手推车自古的发展

公元前1世纪，中国人发明了独轮手推车；而西方到公元11世纪才使用独轮车，比中国晚了一千二百年。我国独轮车的构造，由于用途不同有多种型式。常见的有两类：一类车身上面是平的；另一类是中间装有立架，两边载物。还有车身较低且前端向上翘起的独轮车。成都杨子山二号汉墓出土的“骈车画像砖”上，有表现一人推着一辆载有两个长方形箱箧的独轮车的图像四川渠县浦家湾东汉时期的无铭阙浮雕上也有独轮车的图像。反映了早期独轮车的构造形式。因轮轴安装在车身的最前端，推车人要负担一半多的重量，负重较大，使用时是相当费力的。

Coffee Addict Writes About Tea

The good thing about YD is that you get to cover stuff that you may not really enjoy, but heck if it’s a great design, why not share it with others. For instance many of you readers must be addicted to your java to get charged, but will that stop you from appreciating Enso Tea Percolator? Keeping with the traditional sensibilities of brewing the perfect cuppa, this three-piece tea percolator works pretty much like the moka espresso pot.

Designer: Jeffrey S. Engelhardt

Here’s how to make your fix:
Water in the bottom cup boils over a stove and rises up to the mid-section. This section also acts like a filter and is the place you keep the tealeaves. After you’re done with the brewing, just pour the drink straight up from Enso.

You won’t scorch your hands dears, cause the whole this is wrapped with a classy piece of wood.
Glass and wood is a neat combo, but it doesn’t guarantee a tasty cuppa tea!
Wicked! Try some espresso then!

Greening up

There’s this whole movement about bringing back nature into the concrete jungles we’ve built in the past 100 years but this is probably the most direct yet indirect way of doing it. Those painted line dividers we see everywhere serve a huge purpose but in an attempt to humanize and naturalize them, designer Ji-Hye Koo covers them with Nature On A Tape - essentially a pre-potted strip of grass that’ll grow with no effort. It’s sculptural and 3-dimensional but who’s gonna trim it tho?

Designer: Ji-Hye Koo

A Tea pot for making tea

…Short and stout, This is my handle and This is my spout.
When the tea is ready the thermochromic technology comes into play.
Watch me blush and change my colors all the way!
A badass attempt at poetry, but anyways the point is, the Creativi*tea Kettle is an effort to hype up the mundane chore of making tea and adding color to the kettle by including the temperature-sensitive aspect to it.
Cold = darker shade of red; Hot = increasingly luminescent red.

Designer: Sarina Fiero

Aqua, Hydra or Simply Water; It Needs To Be Clean

I don’t think I need to highlight the importance of clean drinking water to you elite crowd, but it is a major issue in many developing countries and war-torn zones. When designer Martin Bolton conducted a survey of the potable water that most rural houses in South Africa used, he was appalled at the quality and decided to do something about it. He devised an ingenious Potpaz Ceramic Filter system that is aimed at being a low cost water treatment device optimally suited to South African rural conditions.

Trying to keep the authenticity of the explanation of its working, here is what Martin has to say about the filter’s working:

Operation of the filter unit

The ceramic filter element is filled with water to be filtered, the water then saturates the ceramic filter element and slowly filters through the pores at a rate of between 1.5 to 2.5 liters per hour, provided the filter is kept full (as stated on the leaflet received from the existing filter element manufacturers). The filter needs the weight of the unfiltered water in the element to create sufficient pressure to push the water through the pores. The water filtering through the filter element drips into the receptacle where it is stored, ready for consumption. Users’ tap water from the plastic spigot attached through the receptacle wall. The covering lid prevents insects and dust from getting into contact with the filter element.

It has been shown that the filter element is able to improve the health related microbial quality of the water by means of the action of filtration. Effectiveness of the filter element, with regards to disinfection, can be increased with the application of colloidal silver to the filter element.
Colloidal silver is an effective antibacterial water treating agent in the form of tiny silver particles suspended in liquid. It is a disinfectant that prevents bacterial growth in the ceramic filter and assists in inactivating the bacteria in the filter. It is applied to the Potpaz filter in the form of a painted-on solution, or by dipping (after the firing process) thereby allowing the solution to soak into the porous ceramic filter where it remains. A study indicates that after 15 years in operation, the colloidal silver is still effective in the ceramic filter. The only routine maintenance of the filter components is as follows: The filter element needs to be scrubbed and rinsed once the flow-rate decreases considerably (possible once a month), and the inside of the receptacle needs to be cleaned with soap and water once a month.

Designer: Martin Bolton

Hope it does help to Team 7!

3D glasses

3D TV glasses make the movie or television show you’re watching look exponentially more real - with objects flying off the screen and careening in your direction, and creepy characters reaching out to grab you. Wearing 3-D glasses makes you feel like you’re a part of the action – Good times

Advances in 3D cinema and TV have advanced dramatically in recent months, but the technology is still over decade away from ditching those dodgy glasses that reduce us to looking like time lords from the 80’s. That’s a whole ten years of not looking very cool. Bad times.

Designer Chris Nobles solves this by creating something chic and retro. These wireless sunglasses have infared sensors in the logo area which communicate to the TV its location. The left and right lens are configured to give two opposing images generating the 3D effect.

Designer: Chris Nobles for HJC Design

Pain in the back

Thanks to my husband’s persistent back problems, I have become a second hand expert when it comes to the various methods to alleviate back pain. To make the back muscles strong, regular exercise, stretching, maintaining correct posture and Yoga helps a lot. For the moment when a spasm occurs, doctors usually advice muscle relaxing creams, compresses or painkillers. However sometimes indulgent contraptions like this VertaBrate massager may offer temporary relief.

The VertaBrate focuses on areas where the spinal nerves begin to permeate through the back and aims at diminishing the amount of discomfort that spawns at the beginning of these spinal nerves. It bends over the shoulders and clings to the body using sticky pads. The sticky arms embed four vibrating nodes that facilitate deep massage. Like I mentioned before, that sometimes doctors advice compresses to alleviate the pain, so depending upon what you have been advised, the VerteBrate can be popped into the freezer or microwave for temperature therapy.

From my experience in tackling back-related problems, the only mantra one should really follow is regular exercise and moderation in activities.

Designer: Jacob Ballard