WHAT?S with the weirdness? I thought to myself as I stared looking at different photos of ?innovative? pieces of furniture. Well, the world of design brings us many things. Aside from beauty and creativity, we sometimes get a bit of the strange and the bizarre. Curious pieces come from the most experimental minds. And at times, these odd inventions can be extremely successful that they merit mass production and consumption. This is not an article I missed turning in for Halloween. Rather, it?s an interesting parade for the creativity of others, no matter how weird.

Weird goes whimsy and extreme. No, these aren?t air-filled tubular balloons that the artists use for making balloon swords. These are the actual balloons but filled instead with fiber reinforced polyester which makes them hard, solid and actually usable. Probably as comfortable as a monoblock stool, they would be interesting accent pieces, especially for a child?s room or in a company pantry or breakout room.

Avant-garde concept

Organic design goes to the ?lowest? level with this lamp made of cow dung. Quite an avant-garde concept. Would you like your place to be lit by what comes out of a cow?s rear end? Designed by Karin Frankenstein and Tomas Auran, the lamps are formed from a mixture of clay, sand and peat manure. The lamp was a part of an exhibition by the Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design in Sweden. Aside from this lamp, the pair designed a chair as well.

The ?Sea-Urchin? lounge chair from Danish design house Studio OOOMS looks like it can prick you faster than you can say ?Uni.? This chair is handmade from 8,000 cable ties attached to its frame, which, despite its vicious look, may not be all too prickly after all. The ?Sea-Urchin? lounge chair is meant to be hung anywhere but would probably be a good foyer piece for a sushi restaurant.

Quite expensive

Enter PlayDoh-like furniture. These children?s furniture pieces are actually made of ?synthetic clay? molded over a metal frame. Each piece is modeled by hand, making each piece unique, and by our local standards, quite expensive.

The ?Hairy Chair? is made of very fine cut paper designed by Charles Kaisin from Belgium. Each wisp of paper was carefully glued on to the chair frame. While it makes you want to plunk into it (or stroke it?), paper upholstery in our humid weather is probably not a very good idea.

German firm Mirakadi designs and creates highly original furniture like this toy storage. Part Gaudi, part Sesame Street, it is made from recycled paper mache and cardboard, nontoxic glues and paints. For those who want to get creative and do some painting, these pieces can be bought in off-white color.