Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader.

This week we saw everything from “smart Silly Putty” to architecture-inspired building blocks and a brand that’s using the “vacuum forming aesthetic” for their soft goods designs and more…

So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week.

Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too.

Silly Putty Gets Smart: Thinking Putty Adds Magnetic Powers to the Classic Moldable Toy

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“Of course you remember playing with Silly Putty as a kid. Thinking Putty, however, is no longer just Silly; it’s all grown up and developed even more superpowers! Thinking Putty is a silicone polymer-based children’s toy that carries the same unique properties of Silly Putty: it is viscoelastic, meaning it can be stretched and shaped and mashed back together again…”

Behind the Design: POMCH Brings the Vacuum Forming Aesthetic to the Masses

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“POMCH is a Hong Kong based bag brand and concept store that began as a school assignment between 2 friends. Jeffery Leung and Felix Tai epitomize the synergies that exist between industrial and product design through their pet project, POMCH. POMCH is the sound from the heavy machinery operation, which leads to the brand concept – Industrial Essentials. The concept is based on the nature of industrial design with a splash of fashion elements to neutralize the design, so thus blending industrial design with fashion in a harmonious resonance…”

How I Overcame The I-Don’t-Have-The-Right-Stuff Syndrome

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“For just about as long as I can remember, I was obsessed with making things. My ceiling was completely obscured by hanging model airplanes and my collections of Legos and K’Nex were, let’s just say… significant. As a kid I absolutely loved making models and toys just to have them, play with them, and look at them. But as I grew up I found that I was less and less satisfied making things that somebody else had designed, and more interested in making my own creations. I had a bit of a problem though…”

Is the Noke Smart U-Lock the Best Bike Lock Ever Made?

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“Considering that recent statistics have proven that 62% of Americans believe that we will eventually be living in a “Keyless Era”, it should come with little surprise that there is an increasing demand for smart locks of all shapes and sizes that speak to different markets. According to those statistics, 4 out of 5 Americans believe that there would be significant benefits in a “Keyless” generation – but how do we start to redesign all of our existing locks?”

Ferrari’s New Augmented Reality App Offers Real-Time Exploded Views of Car Assemblies

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“Previously, we’ve already seen how car manufacturers are able to bring their customers into their manufacturing process by way of virtual reality. Considering that the future consists of various head-mounted displays and other VR-tech including the Microsoft Hololens, the Oculus Rift and Magic Leap – among others – we may as well start to fabricate these virtual experiences somewhere where they make sense…and the car industry isn’t a bad place to start…”

Blockitecture Building Blocks Add an Extra Engineering Challenge for Young Architects

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“Back in 2013, many of the world’s best architects and designers attended the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Among other concepts being presented for the first time, this was where “Blockitecture” was introduced to the world by James Paulius…”

Traditional Craft Meets Modern Technologies in Overgaard & Dyrman’s Wire Collection

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“It’s hard to deny that of all the things that go well together, workshops and rural settings are among the best. Perhaps it’s the mixture of nature and industry that seems to balance everything out, or maybe the rolling brooks and grass hills are simply just a nice contrast from the more industrialized factories in busy urban centers that we’re used to seeing…”

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