A visit to Atelier NL

Today was a good day...

A couple of months after inviting Atelier NL to design a beautifully crafted kinatic object for Laikingland, (filled with the busy Christmas period & the arrival of Felix (my 3rd son)), today, I was "finally" in Eindhoven to discuss with Lonny and explain how we like to work on such collaborations.

As you can see I brought along a Chalk White Applause Machine.... it's always nice to see peoples reactions.

And now we know how much she likes it,,, maybe we can offer one as part of the contract negotiations!

Sold Out @ Moss, NYC.

In December we were really happy to receive this mail from Murray Moss after our first delivery of Applause Machines to his fabuolous NYC store :

"THANK YOU! We've just put them out for display, and I love having them - they look great! Thanks so much for your collaboration."


Last week Daniel Basiletti, the Product Manager at Moss sent us an summary of how they were "discovered" by Murray and the wonderful customer reaction in New York :

"Murray discovered the Applause Machines while visiting the Laikingland installation at 100% design in London, and he was very taken with the little kinetic sculptures. He was looking forsomething new and 'positive' to offer in the shop for Christmas, and he knew these fanciful inventions would be great."

He came back to our buying office in New York and showed me what he had found. I agreed: they were smart, well made, fun - and perfect for a recession Christmas. We tried a small variety of bright colors in the early part of the shopping season, and they sold out immediately. I had to re-order them, as we had customers waiting for us to get machines back again; we sold out before Christmas. They were so popular that on Christmas Eve one customer even asked us to have an Applause Machine ordered for her."

And this week we're busy organising our next delivery... Thanks to Murray & Daniel for all your support.

Hidden Talents?

Its a very well known fact that the Laikingland gang like eating cake and Friday is our regular "cake day". Imagine my surprise when Thomas presented this homage to the Port Rectangles Mobile that he baked last night.

I don't think there is any real port in it and he assures me that the silver balls aren't real magnets!

Yum, yum, cheers Thomas.

Ted Noten for Laikingland

I visited the guys at Studio Ted Noten in Amsterdam last week.

After deciding which of us would eat the last beschuit met muisjes to celebrate the birth of my 3rd son Felix, we got down to the seriously fun business of choosing which of the wonderful Ted Noten concepts, we'll develop and release as a Laikingland beautifully crafted kinetic object.

Mechanical Hand

Several years ago I was commissioned by Historic Scotland to make a centre piece for the Jester's Vault in the Palace at Stirling Castle. In response I made an almost life sized automata figure, caved in wood with 8 elaborate movements that allowed him to pull all manner of faces and expressions.

Recently I have been asked to renovate this Jester in order for it to be re-sited within the newly refurbished Palace Vaults. Above is an image of his hand opened up to reveal the mechanism that activates his wiggling fingers.

Mind Over Matter

Fingers by Nik Ramage.

Nik Ramage and Ivan Black both have work in the exhibition Mind Over Matter at the Phoenix Gallery in Exeter. The show is organised by the Kinetica Museum in association with the Animated Exeter Festival.

The exhibition also features the work of two other Laikingland friends, Tim Lewis and Balint Bolygo, and runs until 28th February 2010.

Marc Koska is Joint Winner of the Dezeen Applause Award 2009

Marc Koska,OBE - (Joint) Design Person Most Deserving of Applause 2009

Designers Marc Koska and Studio Makkink & Bey have been awarded joint first place in Dezeen's competition to find the person most deserving of applause for their work in design in 2009, organised in collaboration with Laikingland, makers of the Applause Machine.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE ON THE SAFEPOINT TRUST BLOG.

We don't recommend that the Applause Machines are used as Nose Squashing Devices!