Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight…

I’ve covered my fair share of household hardware here on SolidSmack: from an intricately-designed LED lamp all the way to a pizza oven made from a Pilates ball. But nothing has been as simple as this: The Vettis Concrete by luxury fittings brand Brizo is as simple as faucets come. No hand-activated sensor or hidden soap dispenser here – you just turn the handle to the right and out comes good old tap water. But there’s something about its concrete makeup and unique shape which makes you double back and take a closer look. Only 500 of these faucets are in existence, each created by sculptor Christopher Shannon from his…

It would seem like an impossible endeavor to top NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson’s Super Soaker water gun, but a team of German engineers may have taken the water weapon crown with their Spyra One- a water rifle that fires ‘water bullets,’ meant to improve accuracy and distance. Whereas the Super Soaker requires you to fill a water reservoir manually and pump air to create firing pressure, the Spyra One uses a motorized pump that does all the work for you. Filling the Spyra One is done by simply submerging the business end into a bucket of water, lake, or another water source, and an internal pump automatically fills its tank.…

Those of you who know us well know of our longstanding love for the iconic rOtring 800 Mechanical Pencil. But heck, it isn’t the only great mechanical pencil to have on your desktop. For those who are particular about sharp lead points — AT ALL TIMES — the brilliant engineering behind writing tool manufacturer Uni’s Kuru Toga mechanical pencil just might be the best thing for you since, well, sliced bread. Ideal for sketching, writing, engineering linework, or just about anything else that requires a nice bit of lead to the paper, the Kuru Toga features a mechanism that rotates the lead ever-so-slightly each time it’s lifted from the page—meaning, you’re always…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. LEGO Designers Created a Life-Sized—and Drivable—LEGO Bugatti Chiron Remember LEGO’s Bugatti Chiron model kit earlier this year? Well, apparently they thought 3,599 pieces wasn’t enough… so they made a life-sized version to…

We heard the crunch as we stepped up on the platform. Wood. Metal clamps. Held together with what looked like veins of a five-day-old onion thrown against the wall and dowsed with curry powder. The smell wasn’t too dissimilar. We had two choices, continue on and make the ridge before dark or settle in, grill up some Sri Lankan chicken, and watch these links hatch. Michal Kus – He has plenty of full-color concepts, but his sketches and line art is just incredibly intrguing. Process video inculded with some as well. Base Sketch to Polished Scene – This is the process Amir Zand goes through to turn a very basic…