bltd

Your photos are meant to be shared and displayed, not stuck on your computer. If you’re having trouble deciding on how to print and frame your photos, Fracture has you covered by combining both processes. A ‘Fracture‘ is a digitally photograph printed directly to glass, providing an archival quality print as well creating a display frame. Upload your photo via the Fracture website and in 48 hours you’ll have a print on your door step, with all hardware included to hang it. Prices range from $8 for a 4 x 6” to  $35 for a 14 x 10”. I’d say that’s a pretty decent price for what you’re getting. Also, you can contact Fracture for custom sizes. I bet a wide panoramic landscape would look killer in this format. The prints are shatter-resistant (they’ll even replace it if it breaks!) and because the artwork is printed beneath the glass, it will never scratch. Visit Fracture for more information.
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Building upon their original speaker design, Koostik expands their product offering to those looking for a slightly less expensive and smaller footprint speaker. The Mini Koo measures at just 3.5”³ x 5”³ x 1.5”³, making it a good size for bedside tunes and to follow you on your travels. It makes use of natural passive amplification through its “trumpet horn” speaker port, and requires no power to operate. Available in solid walnut and cherry, finished with an orange oil & beeswax. (more…)

I’m currently writing this with a hole in the crotch of my pants. I have three other pairs of pants suffering from the same condition, all from the result of riding my bicycle. Levi’s thinks they could help me with this. Recently launched is their Commuter series, a line of jeans with specific features for urban bicycle riders. Based on the 511 skinny fit jeans, they feature enhancements such as stretch fabric, a water-repellent & anti-odor finish, a built-in U-lock holster, a raised back to help with unwanted skin exposure in the riding position, a reinforced crotch gusset (yeah!),  and 3M reflectors for better night-time visibility.
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Designer Henry Wilson takes the classic and ubiquitous anglepoise lamp and updates it with both technology and handcrafted elements. First the lamp itself is rewired for a cooler and more efficient LED bulb, then, either a ceramic or glass shade replaces the original. This is an extremely limited edition of 20, and will sell for $940. However, for $670 you can also supply your own anglepoise lamp to be updated by Wilson. I’d rather not mix up any words or intent, so here is the designer’s statement on Led Anglepoise in his own words: (more…)

The more gadgets we depend on, unfortunately, also means an endless amount of cables and adapters, with never enough power outlets to plug them all in. The FlipIt USB Charger is a device that solves the issue in a very unique way, by “leeching” off an existing plug and drawing enough current to power charge USB devices. Pretty sneaky! While useful at home, I see it particularly being handy while on the go, for you have the reassurance that when you’re traveling you always have a USB port to charge your devices, regardless if there’s an outlet available!
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Designer Brendan Ravenhill makes a third appearance on BLTD with his newly released Wall Clamp. We previously featured his fabulous Facet Lamps and Cord Lamp, and we’re excited to see he’s continuing an industrial theme with this pair of shelving brackets. Inspired by the functional beauty of working tools, these brackets have nothing to hide in their appearance, and work exactly you expect them to work; mount them on your walls, clamp in your shelf. As of writing, Wall Clamp is available for pre-order with an approximate ship date of Oct 1 2011.
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Highlight those presentation notes without bleeding through the page, and minus the fumes. The Eco Highighter Yellow is a dry alternative to highlighter markers. I have a feeling a plain yellow colored pencil would work too, but this one does have eco-cred; it uses no ink solvents, no volatile organic compounds, and is fully biodegradable.
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Give the gift of flowers, freshly printed flowers, that is. Designed by Sandra Bautista, Fresh Flowers is a 32 page newspaper with flowers replacing headlines. It would be a good gift for someone who has an appreciation for art and design, and definitely less tacky than plastic flowers. I personally would forgo the vase and dedicate a place on the wall for these and rotate in a new print every few weeks.
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Bring out that inner geometry teacher in you with these neat graph stamps. These are indeed the real-deal and are actual teaching tools, but if you’re like me, you’ll be using these for crafts projects instead of graphing inverse trigonometric functions.
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If you’re looking for some art —okay not just any art, but big, large-scale art—to put up in a room, this may be your answer. Ixxi is a modular connecting system to piece together printed panels that make up a larger picture. Simply upload your image to their website, choose your final output size, and Ixxi will determine how many panels and “x” and “i” connectors are needed for the artwork. Ixxi is printed on Synaps synethetic paper, a material that is moisture resistant and tear-proof, so rest assured your investment should last you for many years to come. It takes about a minute to load, but it’s well worth it to check out Ixxi’s inspiration gallery. Every other image I saw in there I caught myself saying, “ohh i want that.”
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Here’s a fun photo application for you iPhoners. Gif Shop uses your phone’s camera to create animated gifs. I got the chance to play with it yesterday and it’s pretty fun! It’s very simple to use: snap a few photos, set the animation speed, and you’re done. You need to create an account to upload the gifs to the web, but from there you can also post to Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. I goofed around and made a few examples, but here’s my best attempt at creating an amusing one for you all:
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The Piano hanger takes the traditional coat hanger and smushes it flat against the wall. Inspired by traditonal piano hinges, each hook swings out when needed, and then folds back flat after usage. The Piano is available in a large (32” x 58”) and small size (15” x 58”), and in two finishes; Beech Lacquer and Oak Varnish. Designed by Patrick Seha for Feld.
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We’ve featured quite a few different iPhone accessories here, each with its own unique characteristics, but I’ll have to say this is the first that merges a bit of traditional crafting and requires DIY hands-on user interaction. Reminding me of the Panier Perce bowls by designers Guillaume Delvigne & Ionna Vautrin, the Neostitch is a plastic iPhone case with a gridded backside, providing a surface to cross-stitch your own designs. If you’re not feeling ambitious at first, the case comes with a few patterns for you to start with. Available in white, blue, green, black, orange, and pink.
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Not proud to admit it, but I’ve never solved a Rubik’s cube. Wthh this on my desk, I could at least pretend I have when co-workers walk by, and also have a cool looking speaker to boot. Powered by USB and connects to audio sources with a standard 3.5mm audio jack.
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The Video Notebook is a throwback to humble pre-Netflix days. Conveniently, saving only the best parts —a protective sleeve and label stickers!— and sparing any of the headaches —tape trackng anyone?— of the obsolete format.  Video Notebook is 260 pages and available in Ruled or Plain. How long will it be until we see the DVD version of this?

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