Cool Stuff: Irana Douer's Path to World Domination

Speaking of Irana Douer ...

If original art is out of your price range, young Ms. Douer has also created a variety of budget-friendly prints, housewares, and other items bearing her strange and beautiful artwork. Top: Untitled limited-edition Giclee print, $40 at Poketo

Wallet 2, $20 at Poketo

Untitled 6 ($20), Todo Pelo ($20), and Angel ($25) archival prints, all at Thumbtack Press

Hair Pillow, $30 Australian (about $20 US) at Third Drawer Down

Portraits of Broken Hearted Women limited-edition 'zine, $7 at Islands Fold

Maria, Christina, and Nadia, teacups, $46 each at LAMA

Safiya Cup, $48 at Makool Loves You

Check out more of Douer's artwork and other creations right here.

Cool Stuff: Poketo

I blogged Marco Cibola's new Middletons Plate Set at Poketo the other day, and have since spent a little more time clicking around the site founded by Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung (above).

Poketo bills itself as an international artists' network producing limited-edition lifestyle goods. Some of my top picks there:

Clockwise: Irana Douer Untitled giclee print, Pietari Posti Giant Deer giclee print, Little Friends of Printmaking Cosmic Drawer letterpress print, and Lisa Congdon's Where I End and You Begin giclee print, $40 each

Oksana Badrak Birds of a Feather Plate Set, $40

Betsy Walton Wallet 1, Camilla Engman Wallet 3, $20, Hannah Stouffer Wallet 5, $20 each

Leah Chun Forest Roller Gang Notebook, $7

Check out all of Poketo's offerings right here.

And if you're in the L.A. area, don't miss the first-ever Poketo Warehouse Sale on Saturday, May 10. Wallets, t-shirts, plates, stationery, prints, and more will be on sale for just $5 to $10 each. (Plus: Cupcakes!)

The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 510 S. Hewitt St. #506. The first 50 folks to arrive will get a gift bag and 10 percent off their entire purchase. More info here.

Cool Stuff: Marco Cibola "Middletons" Plates

I love these melamine plates by Toronto illustrator Marco Cibola.

Each lightweight, 10-inch plate has a subtly varied design, though they're clearly all of a piece. Cibola named the set "The Middletons" and ascribed a different personality to each member of the melamine family: Doug, Janet, Claire, and Perry.

Rather than serving food on them (though I have to admit they would be a pretty great addition to the picnic basket), I'd hang these on the wall, where they'd serve as both art and a tongue-in-cheek tribute to your granny's wall mounted plate collection.

They're $40 for the set of four from Poketo.

(P.S. Click here for more great melamine designs.)