THE INVENTABLES WORKSHOP

Textured Transluscent Plastic  is a very curious material.  With a light behind it, the material seems to glow as a smoky monsoon of diffuse radiance.  A laser through it will diffract into chaos, but a laser through two layered sheets will instead spread into constellations. But how to build a lamp of it? Originally, I wanted to see if I could get the lamp to float, perhaps held aloft in a fan, or somehow using magnets.  Ultimately, the imperfections in construction made these plans impossible; a fan will not hold it up much better than it would hold up a cheesecloth. That said, the construction is hours away from a semi-permanent home above my bed. Behold, a 3-photo tour-de-force of its construction:  Parts used: 1 yard of textured transluscent plastic Clear tape Garage lamp (deconstructed) Grate from a kitchen strainer Clamp to hold the lamp parts, and rest the strainer atop it Ideas for improvement: Stronger tape and more precisely cut par

Last week, we spoke to Glen Liberman from Kinekt Design ( http://www.kinektdesign.com ). Glen launched his company with the patented Gear Ring, which features six micro-precision gears that turn in unison when the outer rims are spun. The Gear Ring currently has over 1 million views on YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI2N6fsPjjg ). Glen has been designing since his 3rd year in college where he became interested in making prototypes of objects and products. Please find three examples of his work below: One of his most recent design objects, inspired by Toshio Iwai’s Electroplankton game, is a square object designed to convey a sound wave. For fabrication, Glen intends to make each limited edition object out of glass and create a “new kind of snow globe” by filling the object with water and tiny plastic “square wave” fish. Glen describes another design, Bauhouse Blocks, as a play on the German art movement, Bauhaus. To help convey the concept, Glen added i