Here are some beautiful products that give the illusion of floating. Perhaps the weight of the worlds problems feel a little too much, we’d like to float off or at least rise above them.

Blown by Nendo

Looking like bubbles about to lift off into the air, these lanterns were inspired by the traditional Japanese chochin lanterns. Created for Tokyo Fibre 09 Senseware the material they used is ‘Smash’ a long-fiber non woven polyester.  The properties of Smash allowed Nendo to shape it like blown glass into a seamless lantern. This technique allowed them to use the imperfections and mutations of glassblowing to create a product that is far from the standardized forms created by mass production. The translucent quality of the fibre add to the feeling that these lanterns may gently float off at any moment. But they won’t. The base is weighted and contains an insulated chamber to prevent the fibre loosing its shape from the heat of the lamp.

http://www.nendo.jp/en/

The Ghost of a Chair by Valentina GonzalezWohlers

Valentina describes her chair as “An apparition from death revealed to the living as a nebulous image – no chair, only its memory, its disembodied spirit captured and frozen in time.”  Inspired by Starck’s Louis XV Ghost chair mixed with the old custom of draping furniture in a white sheet when it is not in use, Valentina has created a floating apparition of a chair.

www.valentinagw.com 

Floating Garden by Benjamin Graindorge & Duende Studio  

An ingenious idea that saves you a couple of jobs in one go. It’s a recycling system based on hydroponics and though the piece looks highly decorative its designed to help out with the mundane tasks of water changes and watering your plants.   The aquarium water is filtered through a natural process of sand and plants it mimics in miniature the symbiotic relationship that exists in nature.

Ovangkol by Reiko Kaneko

Made from Ovangkol a tropical African hardwood the weighty tabletop appears to be floating in the air. Reiko has cast crystal clear resin onto the table legs to create the illusion. I would love to see further developments on this idea.  

http://www.reikokaneko.co.uk/table.php