On the daily pre-dawn morning dogwalk I passed this store in SoHo. Their window display caught my eye. From the side it just looks like a bunch of large-scale Christmas ornaments.

But from the front you can see they've sliced them in half and are displaying their wares inside.

Some of the inside surfaces are lined with glitter, others with an iridescent finish.

How do you think the fabricator made these? My first thought was that the half-spheres are vacuum-formed, then painted, then fitted with the rims. My guess is that the rims are painted MDF that has been edge-banded with gilt strips.

I looked at these as close as I could through the glass and the workmanship appears to be incredible. There are no visible seams where the rims meet the hemispheres.

I also don't know how you get those patterns painted onto a sphere unless it's hand-done.

Any guesses?

Facebook user Michael Kang posted this snippet of a candymaking video, which caught my eye:

Shiba Inus! I'm partial because I own two, one resembling the one in the candy. But the editing and fast-motion of the video above left out too many manufacturing steps for me; how the heck did they go from that huge roll to the tiny candy?

I found the source video, which is of Montreal-based confiserie CandyLabs showing you the entire manufacturing process--of what they refer to as Akita candy. (The Akita is the size "L" version of the Shiba, and the latter is my preferred breed so I'm sticking with my Fake News title for this entry.)

The triangle is often overlooked and underrated amongst geometric shapes. Being more space efficient than a circle when in an arrangement and with a natural spout for pouring it makes sense for this kind of product. The silicone lid seals nicely and has some basic measurements in it

After Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012, the astronaut's family contacted the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum to donate some of his belongings. Writes Allan Needell of the Smithsonian's Space History Department,

I received an email from Carol Armstrong that she had located in one of Neil's closets a white cloth bag filled with assorted small items that looked like they may have come from a spacecraft. She wanted to know if they were also of interest to the Museum. She provided the following photograph of the bag and the items spread out on her carpet.

An excited Needell and a team of experts realized what they'd found: An early version of NASA's TSB, or Temporary Stowage Bag, colloquially named the McDivitt Purse after Apollo 9 Commander James McDivitt. "I developed that now famous bag during training," McDivitt said, according to the Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal. "There [were] a lot of items that we took out to use and really didn't have time to store and unstore so we just put them in the bag until needed again."

The bag picked up the "purse" moniker because it opened and closed like a clutch purse, a practical, quick-access design for an aperture.

"Photographer Ulli Lotzmann holds open the top of the flown Apollo 12 purse." - Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

The white color was presumably chosen for both visibility (below is a shot of it in the cockpit of the Apollo 17 cockpit) and because it's easier to see the tools and parts within against a white background.

Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

"View of the front. The bag measures about 9 inches tall by 12.25 inches wide (23 cm by 31 cm)." - Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

"View of the end. The pin on the right is at the back of the bag, probably for attachment to the underside of the DSKY [the nickname for the Apollo Guidance Computer]." - Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

"View from the top of the hinge on the lefthand end and of the U-shaped stiffeners. The back of the bag is on the right." - Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

"Close up of one of the hinges." - Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Journal

I bet if NASA starting producing these for retail, they'd sell like hotcakes. But in the meantime, a certain famous tool user has designed and is selling his own bag inspired by the TSB. Stay tuned.

The Designer, Nickelodeon Partner Positioning & Presentations will be responsible for the design of Nickelodeon’s trade marketing collateral. In this role, he/she will collaborate with key business stakeholders to understand Nickelodeon’s content, capabilities and target audience and translate them into compelling creative.

When he was working as a modemaker in the movie industry, Adam Savage built himself this wicked, wheeled aluminum toolbox that elevates to working height on an integral scissor-lift:

Since that's not exactly practical to carry around, Savage has evolved the design into something more portable, taking elements from both the toolbox and NASA's Temporary Stowage Bag to create the new EDC One. Produced by Mafia Bags, the company we last saw partnering with Yves Behar and Sustainable Surf on the Deep Blue Bag, the EDC One is made from upcycled sailcloth.

Savage-specific design details abound. The handles snap together courtesy of internal magnets, and will hold their upright shape due to their stiffness. The bag itself holds its shape and does not collapse due to spring steel inserts. As with NASA's TSB, the white color makes it easy to see the tools inside. And also like the TSB, the bag's clamshell mouth snaps open and shut like a clutch purse.

Here are the full stats:

Made in the US by Mafia Bags
- Constructed primarily from upcycled and salvaged sailcloth, every bag is unique.
- Durable and lightweight.
- Bag comes with a web strap, as shown in the photos.
- Each bag is identified with a hand written serial number indicating the model and production number.
- Bags come wrapped in tissue paper printed with a drawing of my original toolboxes.
- Pencil holder/pocket on the inside
- Magnets hold the handles together upright
- Wide spring steel supported clamshell mouth
- Para-aramid synthetic fiber reinforced base
- Hook and loop on the inside bottom to add functionality
- Hook and loop on the outside for patch and identification
- Machine washable
- Lifetime repair warranty on stitching and construction
Dimensions: 8" x 15.5" x 10" / 205mm x 395mm x 255mm
Weight: 1.6lbs or 25.6 oz. / 750g or 0.75kg

Writes Savage:

I have, and have always had, a bag problem. I use them constantly: for carrying tools, notebooks, or computers. I use them for shop work, when I'm in production, and for travel. I'm hard on my stuff and I've spent my life on the hunt for the perfect bag. One that fits my desire for utility, simplicity, durability, and also looks. I have collected over a hundred bags and tool boxes and while I have some excellent pieces, I've never found the bag of my dreams. So I decided to make it myself.

This bag is similar in form to the aluminum doctor's bags I built and used as a modelmaker in the film industry for 15 years. It is also inspired by Neil Armstrong's Purse that he took to the moon and stored some Apollo hardware in. Made here in the US and constructed primarily from recycled sailcloth, every bag is unique. It's also nearly indestructible. Durable and lightweight, it's ideal for whatever your need. It can be a tool bag. A camera bag. An overnight bag.It's a literal blank canvas.

I kept it simple, focusing on access to contents and durability. The color is chosen because I love NASA, but more importantly because all other tool bags are dark and that is wrong: I've spent too long not being able to find things at the bottom of my toolbags. This ends now.

While I like the thought of the bag's interior being white for internal visibility, my first thought was of how dirty the exterior would get after just a few rides on the subway. Wired's Michael Calore had a similar thought and asked Savage about it, reporting that "it seems impractical for something that's bound to soak up dirt and grime and oil [but] Savage sells me on it. It will develop a patina, and patinas are cool." I'm on the fence myself.

In any case, the $225 bag is not something you'll be picking up for this gift-giving season; you'll have to wait until next month, when the first units begin rolling out. Savage has set up his own company, Savage Industries, to distribute the bag. Watch his website to keep abreast.

It's every car-designer's dream—to design and build a supercar from scratch, with no constraints. Talking with Carlos Salaff, ex-Mazda exterior designer, I realize he is living that dream—he's the master of his own creation. And what a creation: Project Caden is a supercar with voluptuous surfaces formed by hand, flowing together to create the ultimate visceral driving experience.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

Something worth watching because any object is better when it's ridiculously tiny.

"To cure affluenza, we have to be satisfied with the stuff we already own.

Stay updated with that creepy robot named Sophia.

A look at what the coffeeshop experience was like in the 18th century.

Some tips and things to keep in mind when taking photographs or video in cold weather.

Don't mess with Gryla.

Study shows that peoples' brains respond more positively to tangible objects than images.

Doc Marten boots and their ever-transitioning customer base.

Hot Tip: Discover more blazin' hot Internet finds on our Twitter and Instagram pages.

Seems that each year more folks discover the allure of unpowered hand tools. Using a properly-balanced tool that can swiftly achieve results, without needing to be plugged in, is wildly satisfying. Here's a look at some of our faves for 2017:

Our resident tool writer David Frane posted a slideshow of his tour to Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, the Maine-based manufacturer of highly-effective old-school hand tools:

Looking to buy classic and used? Shannon Rogers of the Hand Tool School offers both buying tips and a list of resources in "Where to Find Vintage Hand Tools":

Useful new-school hand tools continue to emerge, as with 3Coil Design's Crane Knife Portable Scalpel and Puna Multitool:

Leatherman's Skeletool RX is designed for first responders, and/or those of us that wouldn't mind having a glassbreaker option on our multitool:

Sometimes you need the convenience of pliers with the precision of a wrench. That's when the Knipex Pliers Wrench comes in handy:

The Kirk Wrench is an unusual-looking tool that can get into tricky places that regular tools can't:

When it's time to destroy something, you'll want to pick up one of DeWalt's well-designed Demo Hammers:

Need a different kind of hammer, mallet or maul? UK company Thor makes every kind under the sun, including some wicked rawhide mallets:

Or maybe you're looking for a single hammer that can be rendered multifunctional with swappable heads. In that case, look no further than the Martinez Tool Company's Modular Hammer:

Wera makes this handy racheting driver bit with onboard storage called the Kraftform Kompakt Pistol RA. Click on the link to see the nifty GIF of how it pops open:

A design that looks newfangled, but which actually dates back to 1975, is the assisted-splitting Chopper1 Axe:

An unusual tool the likes of which I'd never seen, but which leathercarvers all know, is the swivel knife. Click the link to see how it operates, it's pretty darn cool:

Lastly, using a lot of different hand tools without some way to secure the workpiece in place would be impossible. Journalist and woodworker Christopher Schwarz resurrected a forgotten 17th-Century design for a workholding device that has now become one of my most useful purchases, the Moxon Vise.

More of the best of 2017:

2017 Best of Furniture Design

Our Favorite Transportation Stories from 2017

2017 Best of Transforming Furniture

The Best of Footwear Design in 2017

2017 Best of Workshop Furniture and Hacks

At the end of each year, we like to reflect on standout projects our readers worked on and then submitted to us for review. We love when our readers bring creative projects that push the boundaries of already existing design structures to our attention, and this list combines some of the ones we were most excited to see this year. We hope you guys will keep the thought-provoking projects coming in 2018!

Unfortunately, the world was hit with a number of devastating natural disasters this year. Disaster Casket aims to provide a flat-packed, affordable burial solution for disaster victims and their families.

This new style of sandal was designed to make the wearer feel as though they're walking barefoot. Inspired by Amazonian tribes that used to dip their feet in rubber for protection, the design consists of just two 3D printed parts.

A group of design students partnered with Audi to explore the idea that a car can work as your friend through the creation of their "breathing" car seat.

This modular construction helmet gives construction workers the option to safely and quickly switch out accessories, leaving their hands free to focus on the task at hand.

Here's what happens when kids take the industrial design lead to design their own kitchen products! 

This wearable chair was designed to alleviate some of the pressure put on factory workers that have to stand for long periods of time. The design allows users to sit or stand whenever they need to change positions.

We love seeing new interface design ideas and were particularly intrigued by this 3D modeling interface.

This foldable hair dryer is a genius organization upgrade, and it's accompanied by beautiful renderings and sketches.

Feel like sword-fighting one day and playing air hockey the next? These modular gaming controllers make switching between controller style much more convenient. Looks fun too.

Another modular project we enjoyed this year was these modular, self-assembled shoes. They require no glue in the manufacturing process and are designed to replace specific parts when needed, instead of entire shoes at a time.

A camera assembled by 3D printing and then combining the best parts from discontinued cameras.

A fire extinguisher redesign created to make putting out fires easier for regular citizens. Lets be honest, the traditional fire extinguisher has seen better days.

This protective super suit for loggers is, well, intense. Looks like it really gets the job done!

Kniterate, the digital desktop knitting machine, took the internet by storm with its hope to alter and improve the traditional fashion cycle.

This student-developed method of 3D printing will allow doctors to print functional organs and internal structures just by analyzing MRI results.

This key organizing solution was a big crowdfunding hit, and we see why. Orbitkey holds all your keys in one place and conceals the sharp edges in your pocket or bag.

A desktop Vacuum former—need we say more?

Stay tuned for our list of favorite reader-submitted furniture and lighting projects!

*****

More of the best of 2017:

2017 Best of Furniture Design

Our Favorite Transportation Stories from 2017

2017 Best of Transforming Furniture

The Best of Footwear Design in 2017

2017 Best of Workshop Furniture and Hacks

2017 Best of Hand Tools

Shopify is a leading cloud-based, multi-channel commerce platform used by small to medium sized businesses and global brands alike. We believe entrepreneurship should be accessible to everyone. We are powering the future of commerce by removing barriers to enable anyone anywhere to build, grow, and scale a business, both online and offline. Shopify currently powers over 500,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries.

A pair of unsuspecting chairs designed for office lounge spaces to revitalize risky play in everyday adult lives.

Teeter

Tall Teeter gives you double the fun.

Teeters and Tots in use

Teeters and Tots in use

Teeters and Tots in use

Teeters and Tots in use

Teeters and Tots in office

Teeters and Tots in office

"Star Wars" fans are pretty divided on "The Last Jedi," which for the record I thought was pretty good. But here are some things that jumped out at me about the movie:

- Why is Laura Dern's character, a freaking Vice Admiral leading a rebellion that's about to be snuffed out, dressed like she has dinner reservations in midtown Manhattan? She looks like she's about to send a steak back to the kitchen: "I asked for medium rare, this is overdone--no, I don't want to hear your excuses, take it away."

- Why is Kylo Ren's voice module so shitty? With the helmet on he sounds like he's speaking through the door intercom of a low-income-housing apartment building. Whenever I hear his voice I feel like I'm about to buzz the pizza guy in. "I SAID, THE ELEVATOR IS BROKEN, YOU NEED TO TAKE THE STAIRS."

 - Whenever Kylo and Rey did their Space Skype/ForceTime chats, I wanted to see those chats preceded with a buffering symbol. Ideally it would look like the GIF at left but with the Death Star in the middle of it.

- Snoke has clearly been in some kind of moped accident, yet can't be bothered to get reconstructive surgery to fix his eyeline? The man is Supreme Leader for chrissakes, and all political leaders at that level are vain. Also he needs to get Invisalign and see a dermatologist.

- How did Captain Phasma ever get promoted to Captain? She's utterly incompetent; I'd sooner follow Captain Crunch into battle. Maybe if she spent more time training and less time polishing her armor she'd be effective. "Phasma" should be spelled with an "F" for "Fail."

- In the earlier films, even when they cast older Jedi--Sir Alec Guinness, Liam Neeson--they had a vitality to them. Not so with Luke this time around. I kept waiting for him to yell "Rey! Have you seen my fanny pack? I can't find my heart pills!"

- When Poe is reunited with BB-8, Poe is so happy to see him that he uses both hands to stimulate the droid's belly like he's rubbing a spherical puppy. I found this gross and unhygienic. Because of the manner in which he locomotes, BB-8's entire body is like the sole of a shoe. Poe Dameron has just wiped his mitts over every filthy flooring surface in the movie and you never see him wash his hands.

- Instead of being armed with laser rifles, all of Snoke's bodyguards have freaking melee weapons. When the camera panned across them I expected to see the last four holding a baseball bat, a tennis racket, a rolled-up newspaper and a broken beer bottle.

How lightsabers are made

- When Luke runs into Yoda's ghost, the latter says "Missed you I have, Skywalker." Luke should've been like "Well, whose fault is that? You're the Force Ghost that can just pop in whenever he wants, it's not like I can go visit you. Unless I kill myself at the end of this movie and become a Force Ghost too. Okay, hint received."

- There's a scene where the transport ships are being bombarded and Poe screams something at the female pilot like "C'mon, faster, give it full thrusters!" and she goes "I am, sir." Her line should've been "No shit, you mansplaining dick, I've already got it floored! They're shooting at us, you think I've got this motherf*cker in second gear?"

- At the end there's like 200 of those crystal fox-dog things running around, and not a single one of them takes a crystal dump or lifts his leg on an X-wing? I'm not buying it. At least two of the escapees on the Millennium Falcon should be wrinkling their noses and inspecting their shoes going "Goddammit--Rey, you got any paper towels on this thing? Or like a scrubber brush?"

- When Finn is on his suicide run, Rose supposedly swings her ship around and crashes into him to knock him out of the way and save his life. On the ground they exchange some dialogue, she steals a kiss and then appears to succumb to her wounds.

I've thought about it a lot and realized what really happened. Rose is a technician with no mention of piloting experience. She probably crashed into him by accident, improvised a good excuse, stole a kiss to distract from the obviousness of her lie, then pretended to die because she was so embarrassed. Well-played, Rose Tico.

It's that time of the year when nerds start overanalyzing the latest "Star Wars" movie. But designer Isaac Botkin recently went back to the previous film, "Rogue One," and asked himself a practical question: From a structural standpoint, how would one construct a Death Star? I.e., in what sequence would which components come together in order to form the finished sphere?

Because I lack imagination, I always thought you'd build it like a house, where you get the framing lumber up first in its totality, then attach the cladding. But as we saw in "Return of the Jedi," that's not how the Empire's contractor decided to do it:

In any case, here's Botkin's take on how you'd put the thing together:

Writes Botkin:

This is a personal project that I worked on with my brother. I enjoyed watching a little bit of Death Star assembly in Rogue One, but I wanted to see more. I came up with a very simple method of revealing geometry with Lightwave's instancing tool, and then started building the underlying parts of the fully armed and operational battlestation. Since there was a lot of procedural animation, I was seeing a lot of interesting shapes appear that I hadn't planned, but the thing that really pulls it together is the new score by Ben Botkin.

See Also:

- Death Star Architect Speaks Out, Defends Design of Exhaust Port

- Energy Company Calculates Daily Operating Cost of the Death Star

- The Death Star vs. Florida and Other Photorealistic Scale Comparisons

Hand tools have a way of forging a kind of connection between user and workpiece, but sometimes there's no substitute for attaching a tool to a power source and letting 'er rip. Here's a look at our favorite power tool stories from this year:

This Insane DIY Spiral-Action Chainsaw-Wielding Automatic Tree Trimmer is as awesome as it is terrifying:

A more conventional sort of innovation came from Makita, who released the world's first cordless worm-drive circular saw:

Makita also seemed to be muscling in on Festool territory, coming up with this clever design for a dust-collecting Cordless Cutout Saw:

Speaking of Festool, this year the company surprised many by launching a website where you can buy their reconditioned tools at a discount:

We saw some unusual tool designs from manufacuturer Worx , like this reciprocating saw that turns into a jigsaw…

…and this unusual twist on the chainsaw:

A rather amazing tool combination is Metabo's cordless angle grinder and U.S. Saw's Core EZ System, which when paired enabled you to drill enormous holes in concrete, cordlessly:

DeWalt borrowed a design trick from snap-blade utility knives, designing a line of Breakaway Blades for reciprocating saws:

We saw another wildly unusual blade, as a couple of YouTubers discovered that using paper blades in an angle grinder is surprisingly effective:

A lot of us own Dremels, but reader Nathan D. pointed out that heavy-duty users favor overhead flex-shaft grinder set-ups:

And finally, we got to hear observations from an ex-power-tool-designer. Ironically, it turns out that Joel Moskowitz, who runs our hand-tool-heavy Tools & Craft section, used to design power tools for Black & Decker's Industrial Construction division in the '80s.

Few weeks ago I spotted this "Police Barricade Upcycle Fail." By its daily, unmoving position against a wall, I figured it had been discarded and served no purpose. One reader suggested that it might have been repurposed as a bike rack, which I'd not thought of.

Turns out we were both wrong. I see this object in the same place each morning because I walk my dogs past this spot around the same time. But the other morning I had to take them out at a different time, and saw this:

Why's it out in the street? Well, it's right in front of this industrial noodle manufacturing facility (yellow sign). 

In the Google Street View image above, you can see:

1) That there's a car parked in front of it,

2) That there's a "curb cut," i.e. that a vehicle can drive directly up to the 3) Grey double-hinged doors that form the business' entrance. Sometimes when you pass you can see them loading the truck. And,

4) The barricade happens to fit perfectly along that blank spot of brick wall for storage.

So what I figured out by passing this place at the right time, is that the noodle guys use this thing to block off the street at certain times so that no one parks there when they're expecting the truck to come. Technically illegal, but I'm guessing the local cops have better things to do than to write them up.

Anyways, just an example of how a local business has "borrowed" a piece of municipal kit and engages in a bit of harmless lawbreaking in order to keep their business running smoothly.

What's the hardest part about design? I suppose it depends on your personality, but for me it was never the CAD problem-solving, which I actually enjoyed, but the pitching and presenting part. In order to swiftly convey a complicated idea to a client, you really need to be a masterful storyteller armed with concise visual aids and well-researched statistics.

I thought of this as I watched the following video, which was the winner of the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge. That's a competition where students have to explain something scientific and complicated in under three minutes, in such a way that everyone can understand it.

This year's prize was awarded to twelfth-grader Hillary Diane Andales from Tacloban City, Phillippines. She explained the following concept in such a way that even I, a science dummy, was able to grasp it:

As with any good pitch or presentation, the short length belies the many hours that went into it. In this interview Andales reveals it took her 20 drafts of the script and over 200 hours of shooting to produce the sub-3-minute video.

The reward was worth it: For her troubles Andales won a $250,000 scholarship, a $100,000 science lab for her school and $50,000 for the teacher that inspired her. Congratulations to Ms. Andales!

Post-it notes were famously invented by a failed experiment to create a high-strength adhesive. Now another glue experiment gone wrong, this time in Japan, has yielded another potential hit product.

Yu Yanagisawa, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo, was trying to develop a new type of adhesive. Instead he accidentally created a low-weight polymer they're calling ""polyether-thioureas." When glass is made out of the stuff, Yanagisawa's research team discovered, if shattered, it can be healed by simply pressing the broken pieces back together with hand pressure.

According to The Guardian:

The research, published in Science, by researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida from the University of Tokyo, promises healable glass that could potentially be used in phone screens and other fragile devices, which they say are an important challenge for sustainable societies.

While self-healing rubber and plastics have already been developed, the researchers said that the new material was the first hard substance of its kind that can be healed at room temperature.

There's a brief video demonstration below, but the narration is in Japanese with no subtitles.

Skechers USA, Inc. designs, develops and markets more than 3,000 styles for men, women and children. Skechers' success stems from its employees, high-quality, varied product offering, diversified domestic and international distribution channels, and targeted multi-channel marketing. The company offers two distinct footwear categories: a lifestyle division and performance footwear. Through licensing agreements, the company also offers branded apparel, bags, eyewear, toys, and more.

A garment that provides comfort by applying controlled pressure on the upper body to simulate a hug for anyone suffering with anxiety or stress. Instant stress relief