This object might baffle Westerners visiting Japan:

To give you some context, you'd find it in a traditional noodle shop.

It's an old-school spice vessel, invented prior to blowmolding. They often hold shichimi (a spice blend) and are easily made with local materials. The body is simply a bamboo stalk. The cork is a piece of wood that's been tapered, and the plug is a smaller piece of bamboo.

Modern versions are machine-made and jointed like woodwork, but still made of bamboo.

These newer versions obviously require a lot more manufacturing steps, and don't make sense versus the older version—until you consider that Japan's economy traditionally prioritized keeping people employed over profit.

The traditional ones are about 4 bucks, the newer ones, $7.

At first glance, wearable speakers are a strange bit of kit. When Bose released their Soundwear Companion in 2017, I couldn't see the use case. But as I age it becomes more obvious. I frequently use captions while watching shows or movies, as I have a difficult time making out the dialogue, particularly if it's sci-fi with technical language. There are also times when I'm doing multi-room tasks, would like to listen to a podcast, but cannot wear headphones as I need to keep an ear out for animal care reasons. With full hands, carrying a Bluetooth speaker becomes inconvenient.

There must not have been enough old people paying attention; Bose quickly bailed out of the wearable speaker market, quietly axing the Soundwear Companion in 2020. No reason was provided, so we can assume poor sales/weak demand. Competitor Sony, however, who released a Japanese-market wearable speaker in 2017 and brought it to the U.S. a couple years later, has remained in the space. (On its U.S. debut, Engadget called the speaker's form factor "baffling.")

Sony's original SRS-WS1, shown above, evolved into the slimmed-down SRS-NB10, shown below:

The trend in tech is for things to get smaller and lighter. However, Sony's seen a gap in the market—essentially, the use case I described in the first paragraph—and has now scaled the wearable speaker up, with their forthcoming Bravia Theater U Wearable TV Speaker.

"Never again struggle to hear dialogue," they write. "Our X-Balanced Speaker Unit enhances movies and dramas with cinema-quality audio so every word spoken by the actors is clear and precise. [The speaker] increases sound pressure and reduces distortion for clear dialogue."

Whereas the slim SRS-NB10 weighs 113g (3.9 oz), the Bravia model is plumper and weighs 268g (9.45oz). That's because they've added surround sound tech, claiming the device offers "personalized home theater sound."

There's a flexible component connecting the two speakers. The company claims the design is comfortable to wear for long stretches, that "they'll stay in place, even when you lean back and relax" and that the battery's good for 12 hours on normal volume.

It can be paired with multiple devices, so you could hit pause while watching a show and switch to taking a phone call.

What I'm most curious about is how the sphere of sound it supposedly creates sounds to others nearby; the company says you can "Play movies at high volume without having to worry about disturbing sleeping partners or kids." We'll have to wait for reviews to see.

At press time Sony hadn't named a release date, just a price: $300.

These stunning furniture pieces are by Australian furniture designer/builder Brodie Neill (who did that ReCoil table we looked at earlier). First off, this Bonsai shelving unit was commissioned by a client. It's made of bronze and hollow:

The Atmos desk is "formed from a single surface of infinitely recyclable stainless steel," and was produced in a batch of eight units:

The E-Turn bench is also made of stainless steel:

As for more humble materials, Neill's Latitude bench is made of pine dowels:

If you're wondering about the sharp materials departure for the last piece, it was a challenge put to Neill by a client. "When asked to re-envisage pine dowels into a new design," Neill explains, "my first instinct was to completely shift the perception of these linear elements by building volume through repetition.?"?

"Reminiscent of traditional Japanese bamboo constructions where linear elements are bound together to create seemingly simple scaffolding-like structures, my Latitude bench sought to lay bare its structural integrity of 422 interlaced pine dowels, in a practical yet innovative craft-led response.?"

Neill's posted a mini-build-video of the Latitude:

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Muddycap is the handle of an anonymous artist/designer whose bio reads "I make chairs and shits." His Instagram is a deep portfolio of insane chair designs. (Most appear to be renderings, though he can be seen making models in some shots and occasionally shows IRL full-size builds.)

The sheer amount of work is impressive, with multiple new designs being posted each week. Come for the Postmodern rocker, stay for the crying Spongebob's cousin chair.

Tons more to see here.

Korean artist/designer Oneseo Choi must have a steady supply of castoff aluminum extrusions. His "Pattern of Industry" series uses them to make furniture:

Because Choi is branded both an artist and designer, it's a little trickier to evaluate the work. If it's art, it's essentially beyond reproach from this blog. If it's design, from a cost perspective the material choice doesn't make sense, unless the extrusions are surplus (or unless it targets the luxury market, where nothing is meant to make sense).

In any case, the series has proved to be wildly popular. As seen below, Choi has won over a half-dozen commissions to populate coffee shops, department stores, offices, corporate lobbies, model houses for real estate developers, and even Adidas' flagship store in Seoul with pieces from the series.

London-based Scott Richler's design background is atypical: He's worked as both an architect and a jewelry designer. Both disciplines have clearly informed his Harlow Chandelier:

The shades are mold-blown glass, available in white or smoked grey. The structures are available in finishes of brass, nickel, copper, bronze or black steel.

The Harlow Chandeliers are made to order in Montreal by Gabriel Scott, the furniture and lighting brand Richler founded.

Italian industrial designer Bruno Munari designed this radical Cubo posacenere ("Cube ashtray") around 1954:

Image: Di Albertozanardo - CC BY-SA 4.0

Placing the butts inside the box was completely outside-the-box; up until that point, anything we'd call an ashtray was an open dish, with the crushed butts and ash clearly visible.

Image: Di Albertozanardo - CC BY-SA 4.0

Munari explained his thinking: "I thought I'd do something that would hide the mess, because when we're at the table and there's someone smoking we have a plate of food and a plate of butts in front of us, which isn't very nice."

No manufacturer was interested, and the design sat on the shelf for three years. Finally, manufacturer Danese Milano decided to give it a go in 1957.

The shell is made of compression-molded (non-flammable) melamine, and the insert is an anodized aluminum sheet with four bends in it.

Mixed results on the UX, I'd say. On the one hand, breezes can't scatter the ash, and you can move it even in a windy environment without making a mess. On the other hand, you can only tell it needs to be emptied when the butts start clogging the slot, and I don't see any way of emptying it without making a mess.

In later years Munari himself criticized the design, or at least an aspect of it. Delivering a design lecture in 1992 in Venice, he said of the Cubo (roughly translated):

"I got the psychological aspect of the product wrong, since generally one thinks of an ashtray with the butts and ash in plain sight. People seeing Cubo for the first time didn't immediately understand its functionality."

It's refreshing to hear a designer actually speak critically about their own work.

Flaws aside, the Cubo is still in production by Danese Milano. They're a lot smaller than you think, coming in two sizes: Small, 6cm (2.4") and Large, 8cm (3.1"). They go for €64 (USD $68) and €82 (USD $87), respectively.

Designer and manufacturer unknown, but this chair hails from 1970s Norway, according to reseller Møbelhøker.

It demonstrates mastery of steam bending and, surprisingly, it's listed as a folding chair. You can guess where the pivot point is, though the hardware is unseen.

The armrests must have been fiendishly difficult to make. Using a shaper or router to remove the material to create the armrest lip would've been straightforward, but the bend angle is crazy, particularly for a piece that thick.

If anyone knows who the designer is, do tell.

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