Splish Splash

Mrs. Rose and I have been busy on our summer project, renovating the downstairs bathroom. This weekend we laid the wall tile. It took from Friday night till late Sunday afternoon, basically evaporating the entire weekend, but we are really happy with the results. Of course the tiles are all from Mrs. Rose's employer Trikeenan Tileworks. and are all seconds. As all ceramists know, the seconds are always just as good as the firsts, with more personality.

As you may know we bought our first house last Fall and we have been moving through the house making it our own. It was mostly a lot of wall paper stripping, changing out fixtures, drywall and paint. Once that was done we started gutting. We started at the beginning of June and in two months have made it pretty far. With the help of our friend Dan we have completely changed the room.

Let's see if I can remember all the changes. After demo, we cut a hole into our perfectly good wall. The old bathroom had neither a window or a vent fan. So we added both.  I won't act like I had anything to do with it except the conceptualization. Dan and Mrs.Rose, did the cutting and installation. That said it was still quite a nerve racking process, where there once was wall, now there is window. We then insulated wall and cased out the window. Dan then replaced all the electrical in the room and installed the new light and fan. 

Rose and I took it upon ourselves to do all the new plumbing. Thanks to these shark bite connections and PEX plastic plumbing it was a breeze. Then it was on to the Drywall and Cement board, and the Tiling that we have today. There were a bunch of small jobs in there that had to get done but that was the major stuff. 

Just a few more jobs left. Sealing and grouting, install the in floor heating, floor tile, redo the drain lines and then final installation of the fixtures and accessories. All in all I have to say that I am really happy with the tile job.

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Slipcast is brought to you by Matt and Dave's Clays. 

Porcelain for the People!

Clays designed by Scientists to work for Artists.

Getting Steamed

Being a child of the 80's and 90's I have expressed my love of the thermally activated mug before. I find their cheese to be charming.
Yet, I have never seen the technology used for a functional application, until now. The folks at STATIC! have come up with these thermall activated tiles that tell you about your water usage. This is because, as you use your shower, the hot steam activates the thermal decals.
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Heat is a form of energy that is often taken for granted, invisibly escaping from appliances, boiling water, lamps and radiators. Energy lost through heat may be visualized if artifacts communicate leakage in various ways. In the example ‘Disappearing-Pattern Tiles’, bathroom tiles are decorated with patterns in a thermo-chromic ink that reacts to heat, fading away to reflect splashes and intensities of hot-water use. The longer the shower, the less decoration on the wall! The architectural surface acts as a subtle reminder of personal energy use over time, reflecting the duration and waste of water during a shower.

Project Team: Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, Anna Lindgren, Katja Sävström
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What about a Bear Mouth Urinal?

There is no better way for man to display our conquest over nature then having representations of it's animals vomit on you in an attempt to clean yourself.


This particular porcelain ungulate was recently featured at the Milan Design Week and drummed up quite some attention. There is not much documentation on the who, what, where, why and how on this particular item. That doesn't mean I don't want one. Of course the problem is that I am 6'5" and so to get it mounted to a functional height for me, I would have to punch a hole in the ceiling for the antlers.

The things we do for a fabulous life...

This particular item was found by Freshome.

I'm glad to be back... I missed you all. It was a long semester, but I survived. 

Peeple

Sometimes, things are too fantastic for words. This is one of those things. 

These are Peeple, heat activated, two layer decals that live inside large format urinals. As the decals are.... ummm, deposited on, the top layer disappears with the heat of the urine. Revealing the undergarments of the people.

...As if getting peed upon was not degrading enough. Unless that is your thing.

Created by Alex Schweder and Dieter Janssen  

 Via

Splish-Splash of Color.

This one's going out to Mrs. Rose. 

These sinks are by the Spanish group Disegno Ceramica. The come in sink and shower pan designs, and by my mind are pretty awesome. 

I sort of love were sinks have gone. One can argue that bathroom/kitchen materials have gone crazy. That may very well be true. I don't care for granite counters and I'm not the biggest of the new kind of sinks with the "bowl on the counter" appearance; But for the most part I really like when fixtures get playful.

I also love color. I was talking with a coworker yesterday about painting. His son is trying to pick a color for his bedroom and my co-worker said "as long as it isn't purple" I grunted vaguely and thought of our new purple stair well.


Adding color and playfulness to bathroom fixtures is a great addition to bathrooms.


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Fountain

This fountain installation is by Reece Terris. Pretty cool.


American Standard is an installation that featured fifteen functional urinals arranged in a pyramid formation on the wall of the men's washroom in the Alexander Centre studio at Simon Fraser University.  Transforming the facility into a public indoor fountain, water overflowed from the uppermost urinal and splashed its way down through the formation creating a deluge of water flooding the sunken floor. Visitors enter the space via tiled stepping stones, providing access directly to the sink and preexisting toilet, leaving the facility fully functional and open to both sexes.

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Stand and Deliver, Ladies!

The topic of the female urinal rears its ugly head again. We have discusses it previously here and here and it is one of those fascinating concepts. There is no doubt that there is a inherent gap in functionality between the sexes in the world of sanitary ware.


Artist Christin Johonsson tackles the concept in a new and (possibly) functional method. Not having the correct hardware I could not say if this was actually functional. But it raises a new question, for the ladies in the audience. If you could use a female urinal, would you? I'd be really fascinated to know. Urinals are consistently dirty and although I often hear the complaint that women's restroom are worse than men's. I can't imaging that a female urinal would improve the situation. Also, height would be an issue; as an exceptionally tall man, I can tell you that most urinals are mounted somewhere around my ankles. 

So what do you think ladies? Would you if you could?

Synergey!

Does anyone else in thier 20'S & 30'S remember "Jem"? I thought so.

This is Jem's toilet.

You're welcome.

Made by FRT Mosaics

Via: Craftastrophe

Maker's Etsy Store.

Bathroom Porn

I do get sick of seeing all of the obscene bathroom renovations out there. I will fully admit it is nothing but jealousy, I want a luxurious bathroom. The reason I really want one is for the bathtub. I want one of these obnoxiously large whirlpool tubs, one that I can fit in. I love the water, I am swimmer and when I was younger (and smaller) I was all about the bath. Even to this day, I kind of dislike showers, because they are not as nice as the bath. I kind of think of myself as the Captain in Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy who never wanted to leave the bath. I forget which book, I think Life, The Universe, and Everything.
These tubs are the most obscene of the obscene, And I will gripe about the issues of form as a reflection of function. But I love the mosaic work, so I will look past it. Made by Sicis a company specializing in amazing mosaics.

Via: Freshome