Hasta La Gadget!

If you know me, you know two of my greatest loves are video games and carbs. Now, I can enjoy these two pleasant pastimes simultaneously, thanks to this video game inspired pasta bowl.

Clay artist Keith Phillips of Mudstuffing created this wheel-thrown stoneware pasta bowl and embellished it with screenprinted images of Space Invaders and an Atari 2600 joystick. Notice how the largest invader is trapped under a big glass dome? Why wasn’t that a weapon in the original game? It sure seems more humane than blowing them away with a laser cannon.

So if you like your spaghetti served with a side of Space Invaders, head on over to Etsy now, where you can grab this video game pasta bowl for $42(USD).

My love for on-screen cats began when I discovered the Neko cat screenmate almost a decade and a half ago. I know they’re not the same cat, but when I saw this Nyan cat necklace, I was immediately reminded of Neko. (If my memory serves me right, I was running Windows ’95 at the time. Talk about ancient.)

Enough nostalgia, though, because this awesome Nyan cat necklace calls for your attention. Over the last 18 months, the Nyan cat has spawned a meme and thousands of video, photos, and related art, this necklace included.

The Nyan necklace was handmade by Olga of OlechckaDesign using polymer clay, which was then attached to a 12-inch chain so you can show your love for the Nyan cat loud and proud.

The necklace is up for sale on OlechckaDesign’s Etsy shop for $25 (USD).

PS. Ready for more Nyan? Check this site out and see how long you can Nyan!

[via LikeCool]

Due to medical reasons, I’ve recently had to give up one of my favorite vices – caffeine – but I still like to drink the occasional cup of decaf and imagine that it’s the real thing. The next time I break my coffee mug, I know exactly which one I’m going to order.

This handmade, wheel-thrown ceramic mug is made from white stoneware clay, and is inspired by the classic 8-bit NES gamepad controller. It’s the perfect place for gamers to keep their joe in between rounds of Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. I just love the dimensional A/B buttons and D-Pad on the side of the mug. I think I’d be trying to push them whenever I picked it up to take a sip.

It was made by Danyelle Butler of ArtHaus Ceramics, with the design by her husband, Jared – a real family effort. If you want one, pop on over to Etsy now, where it can by yours for $24 (USD). I think Danyelle should make a whole series of mugs based on game controllers – though it might be hard to make one based on the Kinect.

Most of us are too young to remember when televisions were black and white, and came in wooden cabinets. Heck, some of you guys might not even remember tube TVs. If you’d like to transform one of today’s most popular gadgets into a classic TV set, then check out the V-luxe iPad stand.

The V-luxe stand will hold all three generations of the iPad, and will make it totally look like an old television (with a 10″ screen), especially if you play some classic black-and-white video on it. The swivel stand allows you to view your tablet at a wide variety of angles. Each one of these stands is handmade from quality hardwoods by BKNYdesign, and has a speaker cabinet built into the base for listening to tunes or movies.

They’re available in mahogany, walnut, or cherry wood and will set you back $1500 (USD).

Last week, we featured an sculpture of a horse that was made out of old keyboards. While it was truly impressive, there’s no chance you’ll be putting it in your house any time soon. Here’s some keyboard art you might actually hang on your wall.

Christopher Cobell of SketchkeysArtistry hunts down laptop keycaps in a variety of shades of grey to create these masterworks of pixel art. The largest of the current selection is his portrait of Marilyn Monroe shown above. Each one is handmade by gluing thousands of individual keys to a black foam backing, suitable for framing. Though I kind of like the idea of leaving the keys exposed so you can actually feel them.

He’s got several other images available for sale in his Etsy shop right now, including a sailboat,  an abstract cityscape, and my personal favorite, a humorous image of a pair of bombs – reminiscent of Bob-Omb.

The artist states that part of his process is to “check for any accidental expletives from the random placement of the keys.” Darn, I was hoping to make that a game for my houseguests – to find the hidden dirty words.

Prices for this awesome keyboard wall art range from $179 to $965 (USD), depending on the size and complexity of the image. If you look closely at the bomb image, you’ll see a Windows start key in the  bottom right corner. I wonder if that’s intentional.