Psychedelic dishware.
Add some bold color to your everyday with artist Jackie Shapiro's Delight series of heat resistant and dish washer safe melamine housewares. "French Bull reinterprets melamine, a nostalgic material popular in the 1960's, with a fresh look for a modern lifestyle, bringing back this familiar and functional, accessibly priced material in graphic and modern patterns otherwise not available.". Actually surprisingly affordable, the colors won't fade, and the wares wear well over time.

+ frenchbull.com

Modular rug.
Grace from Designsponge writes; "The Bouroullec's have done it again- bringing their signature minimalist style to flooring this time, the Parisian design duo has designed an 'expandable' rug for Vitra comprised of zippered felt panels. By creating a rug that allows the user to decide length, color and pattern, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have transferred the creative control from the designer to the individual customer. Made of high quality, dense wool felt with grey undertones, Zip Rug is will be available (Spring 2005) in green, orange, light brown and dark brown and is resiliant enough for a multitude of uses."

+ bouroullec.com
+ vitra.com
+ designsponge.blogspot.com

Manta shaped outdoor umbrella.
Yup, like the fish. It's a large sail that's strung between two poles and some guide lines. Infinitely more interesting than the classic outdoor umbrella and such a simple idea. On top of that, it's actually made by an Italian company, Unopiu, that makes traditional outdoor furniture, not modern.

+ unopiu.it

Bathtubs might not at first be parts of your home that you care that much about, but in Japan they are almost at the center of every household, as taking or soaking in a bath is much more frequent than taking a shower. The new Furopia bathtub from Toto, part of the Mahoubin-Yokusou series, is quite a big deal then. It's main feature is that it purports to keep water at the same temperature, for up to 6 hours. With families sharing the same bath water, this means that the last one in will no longer need to suffer cold water. JS

+ Toto.co.jp
+ MoCo Tokyo

Quartz-like light cube.
Edge is "a light cube that emerges surprisingly from the wall". The light source is located in the truncated corner of the cube. The cube is available in white and a tri-colored version (red, orange, purple). The Edge joins several new lights from manufacturer Artemide including Ora Ito's sinuous One Line clamped desk lamp and spacey Enterprise, Pierluigi Nicolin's cylindrical Absalom ambient light, Paolo De Lucchi's solid glass Frost, and the Klaus Begasse Comma and luminous Reeds for the outdoors.

Designers: Alessandro Mendini, Ora Ito, Pierluigi Nicolin, Paolo De Lucchi, Klaus Begasse
+ artemide.it

MoCo Loco mobile.
An increasing number of you are getting your MoCo from DoCoMo (couldn't help it).
I mean via your phone or wireless PDA. This week MoCo Tokyo editor Jean Snow introduced us to WINKsite, home for many "mobile communities" / bloggers. WINKed sites are optimized, they're light and load fast. And now MoCo Loco (winksite.com/MoCoLoco/mobile) and MoCo Montreal (winksite.com/MoCoLoco/montreal) are available via WINKsite. We hope to WINK all the directories shortly and add some useful features while we're at it. Let us know what you think, send us a word or two here.

+ winksite.com