Hasta La Gadget!

If cars were made of metal that looked like lace, the road would be a classier place. Croatian metal shop MG Vrbanus had three artists modify this 1970 Volkswagen Beetle and that is just what they did. This car took 3,500 hours of work, 5,000 Swarovski crystals and hundreds of pounds of wrought iron and gold leaf. The end result? Well, you’ll probably love it or hate it.

They began by sketching a design on the sheet metal body, then they removed it, section by section, and replaced it with designs inspired by metal fencing. The best part is that the see-through body shows the machinery underneath. These guys were so precise that they were able to fit the original windows back into place without any trouble. Now, that is impressive.

I would love to see this thing driving down the street.

You can check out more images of the wrought iron VW bug here.

[via visual news via Neatorama]

You may have noticed the sepia-toned Google doodle today and clicked through to find out it’s a train designed by midcentury industrial designer Raymond Loewy, whose 120th birthday would’ve been today. Even if you don’t know Loewy, I can almost guarantee you’ve come in contact with his work—which decorates everything from the Coke Bottle to Air Force One.

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What makes traveling costly aside from airplane tickets and transport is the price you have to pay in order to get decent accommodations. One possible solution lies in the Fold Inn.

As its name suggests, it’s a bedroom that you can set up wherever you might need accommodations, so you can unfold it and get ready for bed when you’re ready to turn in for the night.

When it’s fully expanded, the Fold Inn is about the size of an average elevator. Packed inside is a bed and cushy bedding so you rest easy and snooze comfortably. Additionally, the walls are made from sturdy wood so your privacy is assured.

While it’s not something you’d probably carry around with you, it’s an innovative idea for reconfiguring spaces into sleeping quarters on an as-needed basis – such as when companies are bringing in workers from remote locations.

The Fold Inn was designed by Lieke Jildou de Jong and Alei Verspoor. It was on display this past October at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

[via Pop Up City]

Using a robotic mechanism that works sort of like a giant 3D printer, artist Jonathan Schipper has created a device which fills a room with tiny sculptures made from grains of salt.

The robot moves around a room filled with 12 tons of salt on a set of four suspension cables, sort of like those cameras they use at NFL football games. But instead of a camera, there’s a mechanism that can pick up and extrude layers of salt.

The system was constructed for an art exhibit called Detritus, and it gradually creates tiny salt sculptures, as others collapse. The sculptures being built are representative of objects we take for granted in our world, like chairs, toilets, tires, and other everyday items.

…objects are continuously being formed but, due to the fragility of the salt crystals used to make them, they deteriorate at nearly the same rate new ones are being built. this installation is an attempt to create a vantage point that is impossible in the real world. a vantage point that both condenses and speeds up time and provides an objective view of the things we value which, at times, we recognize as merely detritus.

While the exhibit is already highly intriguing, perhaps the most unusual part is that you’re supposed to observe it from the comfort of a hot tub, while the robot does all of its work.

Detritus is currently on exhibit at Pierogi Boiler in New York, until November 24, 2013. No word on whether or not you need to bring a swimsuit.

[via designboom]

Designers are constantly pushing the envelope when it comes to the materials they’re using for their designs. Artist Jolan Van der Wiel and designer Iris Van Herpen certainly did when they collaborated to create a collection of dresses made using iron and magnets.

The duo designed the pieces by using the material’s magnetic property, moving and shaping a composite of iron filings and molten plastic using a tool with very strong magnets embedded within.

The entire process is a lot more complicated than it sounds, and that fact is certainly backed by the results. The dresses don’t look that comfortable to wear, but each one is probably the only one of its kind in the entire world.

The dresses were unveiled recently at Dutch Design Week. What do you think?

[via designboom via Dvice]