clear tube hose salt and pepper shaker

Once on the internet I came across this salt and pepper shaker which a long thin clear hose coiled up, about the diameter of a pencil. One end of the tube was for salt and the other for pepper. I guess there was a divider in the middle. It seemed like you just sort of lifted the end of the hose and shook.

I have looked everywhere for this shaker. I want to make my own. I don’t exactly “need” an image of the shaker, but would really like the reference.

I wonder if anyone else has come across this design before?

i know of the s ‘n’ p shaker you talk of. it is lovely…

i suggest you buy an original, instead of ripping off (even if its for your own use) someones hard work. designers do get royalties you know? check previous posts of how designers feel when their ideas are “stolen”

first of all, no idea belongs to anybody unless it invloves money.

and no one has ever had an original idea. all ideas are built from other ideas, and all ideas come from nature, not us…

another example of insecurity and poor thinking as a designer.

designer need to be thinking of how things are connected, and positive development, instead of ‘getting mines’- by doing that you are simply a money loving fear driven capitalist, not a designer.

“no idea belongs to anybody unless it invloves money” - and i’m sure the orignial designer has an agreement that “involves money”.

everything comes from nature…including ethical codes.

Poor thinking as a designer starts from examing another admired product, and re-styling it.

i think i may have hurt your feelings by suggesting you were copying someones idea.

Dont be precious, especially about stealing.

While I am not “guest,” I do firmly believe…

“no one has ever had an original idea. all ideas are built from other ideas, and all ideas come from nature, not us…”

I like the design of the shaker, and thought it would be a good execise in resourcefulness and contstruction to create my own version. I don’t exactly see myself as part of the actual market for the shaker. I am a teenage boy with little income… I am not part of the business model for high design pepper shakers. I think there is something meaningful to be found the reclaiming of objects by means of personal fabrication. It is a shame our role as paying consumers is more important than our own achievments. Man used to have to build all his objects. Nobody exactly owns a design… just think of the shaker as a “windsor chair.” A classic design that people just modify for themselves over and over.


“Poor thinking as a designer starts from examing another admired product, and re-styling it.”

I don’t really understand this statement. Admired products have hit something people need. I hope designers aren’t out there battling for orginiality, as opposed to proven quality. I don’t mean to make a living superficially altering existing products(as I assume it is this phenomon you mean to attack).

Anyway, I like this kind of debate. I think it would be a fun exercise on the whole forum to see designers take products they like and challenge themselves to build their own identical or modified versions.

I still wish I could find the page selling the item…

“I am a teenage boy with little income…”

what has that got to do with anything?

anyway you will find what you are looking for here…

http://www.j-me.co.uk/html/products_compact.html

I do hope, that in the spirit of your argument…you will post images of your salt and pepper shaker.

good luck young lad.

It’s true. That has nothing to do with it. I guess I just sort of wanted to defend the “student discount” idea. In reality I can afford this shaker.


I have access to this posters IP address. If anyone can find the patent holder of the said salt and pepper shaker, I say we find the patent holder and sue for this person name. Then we will all go over and bust his balls for trying to circumvent our intellectual property laws.

I’ll be waiting with my bat for the next post Ferris, I don’t have time for this kind of research.

Here is my version…

I scoured Home Depot to find just the right caps. Those are some kind of air pressure caps, whats nice is that I can get some flat top screws and thread them right on top if the holes need to be covered. Its just a cork in the center rammed in with a coat hanger.

i can’t quite figure out your motives here. why would you want to copy someone’s design so blatantly? you haven’t applied any of your creativity to it.

to avoid such accusations maybe you need to outline your intentions.

I have to assume that as you are a “teenage boy” then you are perhaps naive to what you are displaying here. in which case I feel bad for criticising you in such a way.

it is interesting to consider how one could reproduce designed items from found objects. but perhaps something more challenging. could you make an ipod from scratch.? now that would be something.

How is it at all different from building an ipod from scratch?

My intentions are to personalize a product. I guess it may be a mistake to put in on a design forum, when in it may just be a craft.


I do think I applied creativity, and more importantly resourcefulness. For one, my version has both shakers in one piece, as opposed to two seperate tubes like Jme’s. It took me lots testing and checking different screws and caps until I happen to stumble on just the right item. I guess I could say something about process as opposed to raw creativity…

“I think there is something meaningful to be found the reclaiming of objects by means of personal fabrication. It is a shame our role as paying consumers is more important than our own achievments. Man used to have to build all his objects. Nobody exactly owns a design”

This is genuinly my favorite thing about design… it is just an idea in the conext of an object. Object ideas which have the power to trasform our world. I wish I had the time to copy all the designs I like. I don’t want to be a consumer at all, that is why I want to be a designer. There is absolutley nothing sacred about consumer items. Throughout history we have had the skills and power to modify or recreate products. Now(industrial revolution) perhaps our skills no longer led themselves to object construction.

Either way, I see this as totally philosophical and historical… I am checking my access to things like plastic tubing, and cork, and screws. It is about the fact that we over manufacture things. Once the idea is out there, people can just grab it and build their own, a version that suits their own needs.
In that may be the cure for the general modern depression that those in the West feel. We have stopped expressing ourselves through construction. That makes us sad.

This is all sort of idealistic, and perhaps irrelevant to the rest of the forum. Being idealistic may be my role as a young person. I guess I am little over excited about the fact that you question me about my intentions.

I see nothing wrong with what you did. It may not be as novel, seeing as there is a similar design, but it does have some nice improvements. I have always been a fan of an objet trouve aesthetic too (aka, hardware aesthetic).

The people that are all offended, I believe are one of three types of designers:

  1. In industries with so little history there is nothing to directly compare their products to.

  2. Designers who are in denial.

  3. Designers who are out of work and jaded.

Something to think about is housewares and furniture. How many chairs have we seen that little more than Gerrit Rietveld’s Zig-zag chair in a different material? In fact, I saw a metal one at the recent interior design show in Montreal, and many people said how great it was. I think it was good too…it was the first time I had seen that particular mix of materials and form.

On an educational note, I would suggest to guest that he/she read Koen de Winter’s article on Originality over on the designaddict website. (I’ve referenced it before on the Core boards).

Lastly, guest, keep posting what you are working on!

very interesting…


















A friend of mine designed this exact same shaker back in college for a dimand crystal project.

strang