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I love it...but I can't afford that. A gun would be cheaper.....

i don't get it. the vase in the shape of a gun with a flower in the barrel is pretty cool, but this doesn't look like anything until you flip it over...then it dawns on ya what it is. and for that price? really?

Wait, so this guy is lamenting the pall of gun violence over American society with an item that would replicate gun-oriented design in non-gun-related products and settings?

Yeah, the answer to the US's gun problems is totally MORE gun paraphernalia, not less...

That said, it's a pretty vase.

Lamers.

I think it's cool. But you don't get to appreciate the stamped numbers unless you pick it up. And I certainly would not want people picking it up and flipping it around. Because maybe they would drop it and the water and flowers would spill out and.....

I'm sure people "in the know" will know there are those markings on the bottom of the shell. And if it's on a glass table you can have your friends appreciate the full detail by telling them to sit underneath the table and look at the vase from underneath.

I bet you could knock one of these off pretty easy. A spent casing from a tank shell could probably ordered over the internet. A nice smooth spray paint would finish the job!
Oh my! Some of these are very intricate! http://www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/display.aspx?pgID=969

Making fun of Americans and getting us to pay to be made fun of... hard to beat that as a career move.

why, not produce this vase in viagra blue? all this guns and bullets stuff is a poor substitute for dealing with the real issues of guns and violence. it did really mean something when a student put a flower in a real gun at kent state ( google it and see the famous photo).

Gee, at the next design meet-up, (most of) you can all confront the designers with these same types of questions in person.

p(too), I saw RL in the earlier pics from the Meetup and assumed he was you.

Oddly enough, the vase costs about as much as a Remington 597 .22 rimfire rifle. Or 870 Express autoloader with a synthetic stock shotgun.

How long has this guy been in NYC??? Or is he just overdosing on "Law & Order"??? If he wanted guns & violence, he should have been here in the 70's and 80's. New York is no longer the center of American urban violence and decay that used to make creampuff Euro ex-pats feel edgy and tough. For that you should maybe start with Newark. Today, NYC is the land of SoHo as outdoor shopping mall, Coach stores opening on Bleecker Street, luxury condos in Harlem, gentrification of Bed-Stuy and the Atlantic Yards, and waterfront park develpment. Not to mention the cupcake wars.

The vase is great looking, and I'd like one or two, but it's ridiculously priced, and to say NYC is the inspiration... perpetuates the past, but certainly not the present reputation of what NYC is.

Anyway, didn't SUCK.UK.com already do this "guns & roses" motif? We talked about it in regards to the Pivoting Perfection. And didn't Philippe Stark already do this too? This isn't the most original concept.

Please put a porcelain pacifier in Robert Langhorn's mouth.

I really want one of the Stark gun lamps by Flos, it's too bad they are so expensive. I'm kind of tempted to make my own our of airsoft guns and a lamp kit.

Robert was very articulate and a good speaker, he seemed like the kind of person who would have welcomed the questions people have posted above.

I became burnt out on critiques in college, but had a lot of fun listening to the constructive conversations at the meetup. A big portion of the presentation was about the process of having something made (and distributed), and was a very good story to hear about - especially for a room that had other designers that also were looking to have something produced. Robert had to design and then learn quite a bit about porcelain sculpting and firing in order to talk/haggle with and negotiate with manufacturers - which would come in useful for any future projects with porcelain, regardless of the subject matter.

I also think part of the fascination was that so much has been put into making destructive devices, and when they are taken apart they have some very beautiful, simple shapes contained within them. As a vase shape it is very pretty, and no doubt many pieces from a gun or destructive devices could be used for everyday, non-destructive uses.

I may actually prefer the vase without the numbering on the bottom and just enjoying the simple form.

There was a bronze sculptor (can't remember his name) in MA. that based his shapes on prehistoric weapons. Everyone enjoyed the shapes and the tactile quality of the forms, even after we asked him what had inspired his design. He had taken them away from their original use and made them solely about their form, weight (solid bronze weighs a ton), and feeling in the hand.