I love these chocolate pencils by Japanese design company Nendo. Different flavors and colors from milk to the darkest chocolate, with a ceramic plate and a built-in pencil sharpener to add chocolate shavings to any dessert. And I would bet you can use the pencils to write chocolate messages on a warm plate.

Chocolate-pencils is a collaboration with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu, the mastermind behind popular dessert shops like Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H. Tsujiguchi created a new dessert based on his impression of nendo after conversations with us, and we designed new tableware for them. We wanted our plates to show off the beauty of meals and desserts like a painting on a canvas. Based on this idea, our "chocolate pencils" come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special "pencil sharpener" that comes with our plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert. Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil, but in this case, they're the star!

Of course, if you are like me and like to chew the ends of your pencils, these chocolate pencils might not stay sharp very long.

[via Creative Adoration]

There was a full page ad in this month's issue of Giant Robot magazine about Gary Taxali's Oh-Oh and Oh-No, and I couldn't help giggling as I was showing the strange little figures to Natasha.

Here is a sneak peak at my two new figures coming out this April. I present to you OH NO and OH OH. Yes, the legs articulate and you can make these little guys sit, stand, stare at the cosmos, kick each other… it’s limitless. Standing at 6-1/2″ high, they’re a wonderful representation of my art courtesy of Bigshot Toyworks (production development by Klim Kozinevich at Big Shot Toyworks with a brilliant sculpt by Scott Wetterschneider, developed for Chump Toys). The launch will be at Magic Pony in April, maybe early May. I’ll be selling them for $60 each ($80 signed). … (For our European pals, signings are already planned for Barcelona and Rome in early, mid June.)

The 6" tall limited edition vinyl toys are sold online by Chump Toys, and Gary will be in Toronto this weekend signing some of the pieces at Magic Pony.

I just came back from a window shopping stroll down Abbot Kinney blvd, with a few new-comers and updates on some of the regulars.

The New Tortoise

Tortoise, my favorite Japanese curio and design store, just opened a second store on Friday at 1342 1/2, which will specialize more in the one-of-a-kind and larger furniture items, while the first store at 1208 Abbot Kinney Blvd keeps the smaller production objects and is now dubbed the Tortoise General Store (I love that name).

We open the second Tortoise on the same street on May 2nd. 08. The website is coming soon but at the new store you can see more one-of-a-kind Japanese things such as vintage products, artists' pieces and furniture compare to the first one which we will carry general but high quality production pieces for daily use and small gifts. So you may call the first one Tortoise General Store (TGS)!

Waraku Headwear

It's hard for me to walk down Abbot Kinney and not stop at Waraku, purveyor of  Japanese streetwear imports. I'm not really into the whole sneaker scene, but if you are, Waraku has a huge selection of Japanese exclusives that the owner selects on frequent trips tp Tokyo.

Shopping at WARAKU is like entering a den of t the sneaker fetish influenced with today’s TOKYO culture, and digging up a hidden treasure. There are some unique - one of a kind- sneakers and many limited editions from NIKE, ASICS-ONITSUKA, PUMA, ADIDAS etc. along with Japanese brands like PATRICK and NAMITATSU which hard to hit in the United States. Also be sure to check out the clothing/accessory selection from kitsch lovers’ knick-knacks to asymmetrical reversible jackets by Japanese creative young designers exclusively imported from Japan.

Today, I couldn't resist their selection of hats, and came away with, not one, but two hats. Ostensibly, one is mine (pictured left), and the other is for Natasha, although I know she's going to steal mine if I don't wear it diligently.

Ride eco-friendly surfshop

Another newcomer to the Abbot Kinney scene is Ride, which calls itself an eco-friendly surfshop. I smell little bit of greenwashing there, because I'm not sure what an eco-unfriendly surfshop would be like, but whatever. The store just opened a few weeks ago and carries beautiful boards for surf and skateboarding. Regardless, they have an awesome collection of unique wooden boards, and also carry the E-Glide electric skateboards.

So I find myself on the sidewalk, standing on their demo model and holding the power-controlller in my hand. A controller which looks a lot like one of those gun-shaped racing car game remote controls, minus the little steering wheel (since you steer like a regular skateboard) and with a very sensitive trigger. Wow! after almost flying off the thing as it accelerated away, I really enjoyed the ride.

This would probably be a fun way to get to work during the summer, as long as I don't kill myself riding it from Santa Monica to Venice, or worse fall off, and send the 20-pound powered missile towards some unsuspecting shins.

A+R Design Store

My monthly pilgrimage on Abbot Kinney wouldn't be complete without a stop at A+R. First because I'll admit to a slight design obsession, and because owners Andy Griffith and Rose Apocada are both super-nice and always proud to talk about their latest findings. New stuff in the store includes the ceramic park planters that appeared in the design blog consciousness a few months ago, and Stephanie Simek's gold quail egg jewellry, and Tristan Zimmermann's Phonofone amongst other things.

Natasha had also seen a gorgeous polished rock crystal ring, which we might have grabbed on the way back from our little stroll down the boulevard, had we not already come back with hats in our shopping bags.

Natasha's cousin was in town this weekend courtesy of the current Alicia Keys tour, and one of the first things he told me was "Are you planning to get the new R2D2 DVD Projector?". And in fact there is such a thing as a R2-D2 DVD Projector, made by Nikko for the STAR WARS geek with large amounts of disposable income.

This is the only home theater system available that is modeled after the famous droid from the Star Wars® films. R2®'s head houses a DLP projection system with superior 1,500:1 contrast, and can project movies, TV shows, images, and video games from his radar eye at 1024 x 768 resolution onto walls up to 16 1/2' away, equivalent to an 80" screen; he can also rotate the viewing angle up to 65° to project images onto your ceiling. One of his mechanical arm housings in the front of his body has a DVD/CD player that can play DVDs, audio CDs, and more. R2's anterior louvered vents rotate to reveal a docking station that fits most iPods (including video iPods), so you can play music or videos through his two 20-watt buil t-in speakers, and an access panel adjacent to the docking station conceals slots for memory cards and a USB port, allowing you to project digital pictures anywhere in your house. His rear logic display has an LED message center that alternates between R2®s current function and random light patterns, and R2's sensors keep him from falling off tables or down stairs while he moves forward, backward, left, right, and pivots; a mounted model of the Millennium Falcon® conceals a remote that provides complete control of all R2's functions.

Apparently Artoo-Deetoo's has been released for a little while, but this is the first time I'd heard of it. I'm definitely going to pass on it, either as a robot or a projector, but the video intro on the Nikko website was fun to watch.

Melody Gardot's Worrisome Heart was last week's iTunes free single of the week, but I only noticed when I came back home with my newly purchased CD from Starbuck's Hear Music store (yes, I still archaically purchase music encoded on little plastic discs) ready for ripping.

Melody Gardot didn't start her musical career out of a grand artistic vision. While riding her bicycle, she was hit by the driver of a Jeep making an illegal turn. Hospitalized for months, Gardot used music for recovery therapy, at doctors' suggestion. In the ensuing months, Gardot took up the guitar — it was hard for her to sit at the piano — and recorded what would become the Some Lessons EP. Determined to make more music, she independently recorded and released Worrisome Heart, a jazzy singer-songwriter affair that brings to mind Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, and Eva Cassidy.

The quote above is from an article on NPR, and while I don't own any Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, or Eva Cassidy, I'm sure Melody Gardot will do fine next to Norah Jones and Katie Melua in my collection. Personally, I was hooked from the first bars of the title song, which is strangely similar to George Gershwin's Summertime, but then launches into Melody's search for "a man that could love a worrisome troubling baggage free modern day dame".

Melody Gardot - Worrisome Heart

Benjamin Zhang Bin aka BENJAMIN is a Manhua (Chinese Comic Book) artist, and in fact might be one of the most interesting member of the new generation of Chinese comic book artists and Illustrators.

I don't think any of his work is published in English, but you can find French traduction of his publications at XIAO PAN (thank you google) an new comic book publisher that seems to specialize in Manhua imports.

Benjamin's bibliography after the break.

Based on a original character drawing from Olivier Vatine, Full Metal Pépette is a limited edition life-sized scale bust sculpted by Etienne Aillaud. I love the sense of proportions, which is both physically accurate in the form, yet totally stylized in its proportions, and I couldn't really imagine how big the 32in tall (80cm) sculpture was until I saw the making of pictures on the Attakus forum.

Full Metal Pepette is obviously inspired by Stanley Kubrick's seminal movie, but somehow the strong character design and the slightly squared off hands reminds me of a future female character for Valve's Team Fortress 2 game.

We're about to design a female character for one of my projects, and I think that we should definitely go in that direction and to try to strike that balance between style and reality.

1333 Minna combines fashion and art in an inspiring collection of hats and bags which I'm almost cool anough to wear. I love the combination of bespoke fabrics and street art illustration, making each piece a unique mixed-media fashion statement.

1333 Minna is an evolving alliance of artists and designers. Started in 2005, located in the heart of the Mission District of San Francisco. 1333 Minna is a large art studio and work space in which Goorin artists pursue contemporary urban style and aesthetic, with old world craftsmanship and precision. All Minna hats and accessories are created with innovative fabric combinations, fine embroidery and custom screen printing techniques. Each item created at 1333 Minna tells a story of color, form and texture and is built with the finest quality fabrics available. 

The Spring 2008 collection was designed in collaboration with members of the Seventh Letter Crew like Reyes, Steel, Retna and The Mac, along with Belsky, Dylan Maddux, Who Cares and Gooswa.

The collection is fabricated and sold by Goorin Brothers, hat makers since 1895 and which seems to have re-invented themselves into purveyor of fine headgear for urban hipsters. These would be perfect for strolling around Abbott-Kinney boulevard in Venice, but should I get Lolita by Reyes and El Mac or Far To Go by Steel?

After the the craziness of being on set for half the week, I was happy to relax and do as little as possible this wekend, but still found time to draw a little. I'm taking a break from the last series of Inked Girls and trying to draw a something else. This is Khaled who is from the banlieu of Paris and loves to listen to french rap on his iPod. His favorites would include IAM and Mc Solaar.

I wanted to add some kind of pattern in the background to represent the music, but I wasn't inspired, so it's blank for now.

Pictures after the break.

This week's pick from NOTCOT:

#9861. I'm a big fan of Processing, so I was amazed to find Robert Hodgin's video creation based on a song by Goldfrapp.

#9897. For The Wanderer project, Zach Johnsen decided to integrate his characters in nature, by placing them on boards and taking them outside to be photograph.

#10009. 'skine art is dedicated to moleskine lovers and their art. Inspirational work from the notebook of a number of artists.

#10044. I was inspired by the sketchbooks of Laure Volume, specially how she starts from a picture detail, and then keeps going from there.

[via notcot.org/oO]

I've been looking for a good source of Matcha tea for a while, so I was happy to find MUZI Teas at Surfas in Culver City. Not only does MUZI make green tea matcha, which is that bright green tea powder that you whisk into a frothy green beverage, but they also apply the same technique to create powdered black and white teas as well.

Powdered tea was the way tea was consumed back in 11th century china during the song dynasty. We are taking the first step in north america to re-introduce this innovative way of drinking tea. We use a granite grinding wheel to grind the fujian white tea down slowly into an ultra soft powder which holds 10 to 15 times the nutrients of a steeped white tea. taste is smooth and grassy.

I was hoping that white tea powder would actually be closer to a silvery pale color, but in fact, just like the leaves it comes from, white tea is not actually white, but a muted green color. Regardless, the tea tastes great, and I love the clean product design.

Thanks to Natasha, who forwarded me the link along with a number of other suggestions ("I'm a fountain of blogginess today" she said), I've learned about the Moonlight Balls. Available in full or half globes, for both indoor or outdoor, these lights give everything around them the soft magical glow of a full moon (hence their clever name!) and ranging in size from 13 to 30 inches in diameters.

To make things even better, some moonlight models also contain speakers with a 360 degree diffusion pattern. I can only wish that they had a disco mode, where the light would pulsate in time with the music, at which point I would absolutely need to get a pair...

Original German company: Moonlight
American distributor: Moonlight USA

[via Fortune Small Business]