Plastic bottles are ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. So instead of throwing them out, why not extend their lives by transforming them into beautiful vases? Kami no tsubo (literally, paper vase) is a flat-pack sheet with narrow slits, allowing it to bulge into a 3-dimensional shape. And, oddly enough, its unique form was inspired by squid sashimi.
One day, designer Hiroshi Kajimoto was eating ika somen, a type of squid sashimi that has narrow slits and resembles noodles. As he would pick up the squid with his chopsticks, he noticed how each of the strips would bend and a three-dimensional shape would naturally form. Adapting this principle and applying it to industrial design, he developed what he quaintly calls ISS (ika somen system).
Plastic bottles come in all shapes and size and the Paper Vase will adapt a unique form depending on the bottle. Experiment with different shapes and sizes! They’re available in our shop.
