Black Diamond-Tipped Carbon Dater

Used to write and illustrate directly onto glass, the carbon dater is a black diamond-tipped pen created by Reykjavik-based designer Sruli Recht. Combining his poetic sensibility with a passion for process leads Recht to design objects that look to the future yet retain an impression of the past, such as the shoes and blankoat we highlighted earlier this year. With its luxe materials and subversive …

The Recently Deflowered Girl

Edward Gorey's strange and twisted illustrations, often coupled with his similarly odd prose, illustrates this inimitable book of manners "The Recently Deflowered Girl." Written by Mel Juffe under the nom de plume Miss Hyacinthe Phypps, advice for the society girl offers "the right thing to say on every dubious occasion." Juffe, narrating with a humor so dry it resembles sandpaper, tells what to do when …

Artist Miles Thomson

If the kitschy brushstrokes of Miles Thomson don’t transport you to a beachside speakeasy staffed by monkey waiters serving cocktails in tiki heads, well, something must be very wrong. The Californian effortlessly blends elements of surf art, jazz iconography, cowboys and injuns, vagabonds and drunks, life and death—all that good stuff—in a lowbrow style that looks like a Hallmark card from the '50s. He’s also …