Instead of spending his money (I guess in these recessionary times careful spending is necessary…), Won Park has decided to master the art of Japanese paper folding, which has given him the opportunity to pursue two of his most favourite things; making money and making art. Money folder as he is known as, uses mainly United States one dollar bills as his canvas to fold, tuck, twist and bend the bills into life. “No glue, no cuts, no tape” he says.

The first time I encountered the term Parallel Universe was from Brian Greene’s book on String Theory –The Elegant Universe. It describes the notion that every possible outcome of an event occurs, each creating a new universe and continues to evolve with that specific outcome. The universe that we live in right at this moment is unique, but not the only one in existance, there are many equally valid universes running in parallel, carrying out their own history.

Okay, that sounded kinda deep… but it is the reason why I felt a personal connection when I saw Kristina’s work on Behance, titled (yes you guessed it) –Parallel Universes.

Since it looks like we’re on the theme of re-using and transforming waste into something a little more useful, I’ll keep the ball rolling. Maybe it’s due to the recession (that we’re hopefully almost out of) or the whole eco-friendly movement, but whatever it is, we’re seeing a huge influx of products made from reused goods. Remember the Dynomighty Wallets we talked about before?

Help us spread the Vidafine word! This is our inaugural Tweetaway contest. Every month beginning with this one, we’ll be having a special prize pack giveaway.

How to enter?

It’s easy. All you have to do is follow Vidafine on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Vidafine) if you haven’t already done so. Then just retweet the following contest message to all your friends for a chance to win a free gift pack from Vidafine.

The contest message is:

Just entered to win a VIDAFINE GIFT PACK! Follow us @vidafine and retweet. http://bit.ly/QFFZq

Similar to the idea brought to us by Junior Fritz Jacquet (an individual that we’ve recently blogged about), Creatables is a Swedish based network of designers and engineers that have teamed up with various product designers to create simple yet functional products. What ties them all together is that they’re all developed and created by using waste materials found in everyday places. Their simple idea comes from the fact that often times during the production of products, more waste is made than what is actually being created. That’s why it makes sense for them to utilize the scraps to create something usable.

The new school year is back in full gear for most of our younger readers so that means more time spent studying and doing homework. With technology at the pace that it’s currently moving at, less people are heading to the library for research, rather the convenience of accessing the world wide web right in the comfort of their own home seems more appealing than heading out to study. In hopes of making things a little more interesting for those who have strayed away from visiting the library, I thought I’d share the winning project from the 2009 JCD Awards in case any of our student readers would like to make a visit this place one day. This wooden library has won the Japanese Design award hosted by the Society of Commercial Space Designers in Japan for its interesting design and practical application.

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Thinking of hosting a party with the old fashion fruit punch bowl? If so, these floating ladles designed by Seongyong Lee will definitely come in handy. I came across these the other day and really liked the concept. It’s a simple idea that helps greatly. Usually you need to lean the ladle against the edge of the punch bowl. 5 seconds later after you’ve walked away, it tends to slide under and you end up with a ladle submerged into your concoction. With this one, it won’t happen as you can see from the video above.

A couple of weeks back, we showed you some exuberant exhibitions that Mr. Koo and his team have displayed in different parts of the world (see here). Mr. Koo and his NOTHING dESIGN GROUP has shown through their compelling projects that they’ve meticulously crafted a story behind these works while successfully executing on implementing the installations.