Shoutout Sunday: Guy Incognito Designs

When I went to The One of a Kind show a few weeks ago, I tried not to buy anything until I'd gone around and seen everything.  There are always so many amazing things there that it's easy to spontaneously spend all of your money in the first five minutes and then come across stuff you would've wanted even more...so my plan was to hang back and be all nonchalant.

But then halfway through my systematic circuit of the room I reached the booth for Guy Incognito Designs  and I totally caved.

Guy Incognito Designs makes Zippies - a kind of bag or storage container.  Picture a hollow, brightly-coloured metallic sphere with a zipper around the equator and a soft, fuzzy lining.  Some are smooth, some are bumpy ("like Daleks!*" The Boy said, nerdgasming), and they range in size from approximately two inches to six inches in diameter.  I love them all**, but being jobless at the moment I restricted myself to buying one small, smooth purple one.  It reminds me of one of those glass Christmas tree decorations,which made me decide that some day when I have more money I will in fact decorate a Christmas tree entirely with red mini-Zippies - each one containing a different bauble for The Boy.  Maybe I can have him open one every day for a week or two, kinda like an advent calendar, except instead of chocolate each "compartment" will contain an eye shadow compact or pair of skimpy panties.  Anyway.

Zippies are very lightweight, and this - combined with their smooth, room-temperature, kind of rubbery texture - made me think they were made of plastic - but I was WRONG!  Turns out they're made of aluminum via a process called metal spinning, in which a disc or tube of metal is rotated at high speeds and shaped by hand over a form.  Apparently the process is sort of similar to using a lathe and some wood to make a fancy, curvy table leg.  So each Zippie is carefully formed by hand using really cool methods that I totally want to learn to do, and I'm assuming its texture comes from the coating of stuff that gives each Zippie its vibrant, non-chipping, non-fading metallic colour!

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to store in my beautiful purple Zippie.  So far I've just been holding it in my hands to ooh and ahhh over the shiny, and for now that's good enough. :)

You can buy a Zippie of your very own on Etsy.com or see a list of stores and upcoming art fairs on the right side of this page.


*Daleks are a Dr. Who thing.  I know this because I have always dated nerds and they would mention that word.  I did however have to do a Google image search to actually see what they look like.

**My fascination with pretty shiny things is well documented.