Things That Make You Go Hmmm

Tyson Walters originally developed the Shed Defender for his St. Bernard, Harley, who was shedding like a...St. Bernard...all over the place. After a few iterations based on the first one his mom sewed for Harley, Walters felt he'd perfected the cut and fabric for a leotard-like suit that would contain the dog's fur effectively for the owner, and comfortably for the dog.

When dogs wear a Shed Defender, the fur that would normally spread from their coat to your carpet, couch, and car seats remains locked inside the suit. So too do any canine allergens and dander. If you're having guests over with fur sensitivities, or just don't want to vacuum out your car every time you take Darby to the dog park, a Shed Defender is a pretty easy and cheap way to quarantine the problem.

NakeFit stick-on shoes - or, to be more precise, NakeFit hypoallergenic adhesive pads - remind me of when I'm walking barefoot and start to feel like something's stuck to my heel, but I'm loath to look down because I just know it's going to be someone's dirty old Band-Aid. Except with NakeFits the thing stuck to my foot would be supposed to be there. It would also be helping to protect me from the dirty old Band-Aids in my path, along with any sharp objects and fungal infections looking to latch on to my feet too.

Designed, like all fine shoes, in Italy, NakeFit adhesive pads look like a cross between an insole and a tray of paint you accidentally stepped in. According to the team that created them, the barefoot enablers stick on and peel off your foot easily, and stay firmly in place, ready to provide a bevy of services during your wear time in between.

Just when you thought your Cup Noodles and microwave Ramen couldn't get any sexier, the geniuses at the Japanese brand FuRyu went and made this series of instant noodle lid stopper figurines. The ladies range in appearance from sexy and innocent to sexy and playful to sexy and devilish to sexy and Yes, Mistress. Your slave will not remove the lid on his Spiced Chicken Cup Noodles until the contents have adequately cooked.

Boobies and butts, butts and boobies! Now pickled for your gustatory pleasure!

No, not really for your gustatory pleasure, for your viewing pleasure only. These jars of pickled butts and pickled boobies (and pickled people heads if you're super weird) are not edible. And not made of real butts and boobies either. Red Vessel Designs weaves, puckers, cracks, and nipples them out of some kind of textile, and then smooshes them together in jars to create the perfect novelty gift for your favorite ass man or breast man. (Or super weird decapitated head man.)

Oh the fun you could have using some of Katerina Kamprani's Uncomfortable designs to mess with the new guy at work. Ask him to water the plants. Invite him to the break room for a slice of pie, served up with ice cream and a chain neck fork. The Uncomfortable is a series of "deliberately inconvenient" everyday objects the Athens-based architect has created to show...how mean she is.

And make you and I go Hmmm.

First published in 1981, the radically strange and unparalleled Codex Seraphinianus took Italian architect, illustrator, and industrial designer Luigi Serafini 2-1/2 years to complete. What is it? Aside from floating in the general sphere of "art" no one really knows. The nearly 400-page book's illustrations are only slightly less inexplicable than the unknown language that accompanies them. While oddly captivating, and possibly the Most Interesting Coffee Table Book in the World, trying to decipher and understand the Codex Seraphinianus has long been an exercise in futility.

Thorns In meaning #1: Ten thousand mic-rose thorns lining the inside of this shark skin glove. Thorns In meaning #2: Ten thousand mic-rose thorns gouging fish-hook style into the hand of its wearer, such that pulling the glove back off also means pulling a layer or two of skin off with it. The piece is recommended for philosophically-charged art and oddity collectors, the S&M crowd, and individuals whose intelligence is inversely proportional to their bank accounts.

Icelandic design firm Sruli Recht conceived and fabricated the thorn-lined glove with an exterior consisting of laser-cut Icelandic basking shark skin fused partly by hand-held needle, and partly by a Pfaff 1445, which I'm pretty sure is some sort of electric eel. Sruli Recht caps its Glove of Pain and Asset Misappropriation with the words, Lethal lethal, my right fist and its sequels. I don't really know what that means in this context, but it sounds frikkin' cool, and is definitely what I'm going to say instead of Thank you when I leave the checkout at the grocery store from now on.

Talk about lighting that makes a statement, sets a mood, and shows up all your friends with bass, elk, and golden retriever taxidermy.

Skinned cod fish, or Uggi, lights are the fantastical creations of Icelandic artists Dogg Guomundsdottir and Fanney Antonsdottir. The two skin and clean by hand fish measuring anywhere from 28" to 39" and, after allowing them to dry and shape against molds, turn cavities that used to be filled with guts and entrails, into luminescent works of art. The process takes up to 3 weeks.