Seriously, my kid's so balloon-crazy, if I told her that with just a single LED, a coin-sized battery, a tiny plastic case, and a balloon, she could have a balloon lamp in her room, her little head would explode with excitement.
But if I told her that they were only $25 a piece from Conduit Group in NYC, I'd like to think she'd say, "That's mighty affordable, daddy, but why not just wait until the nerds at Make reverse engineer them for a buck, and you can fill my whole ceiling with them?"
To which I'd reply, "Why wait? I'll just order some Balloominators, and use the money we save to buy a couple of handblown glass balloon lamps from Toby Sanders on our next trip to Milano."
Which will elicit her innocent correction, "Don't you mean 'Murano'?"
And even though I don't--Toby's studio IS in Milano--I will just look down and smile at her.
Balloon Lamp, $25, the same price as their collection of cleanly designed black one:sies (sic) [conduitgroup.org, via nyt]
Balloominator LED balloon lights, $17.23/doz., balloons not included [balloominator.com]
There was a Japanese designer selling something exactly like this (not sure if it was actually the same product) at that Designboom mart in the lobby of the ICFF. I think it was cheaper though. We almost bought one, but the kid was at Defcon 1 so the guy gave us a balloon and we moved on.
[same folks. The credit mentions Kyouei Design, a Japanese outfit, who were at Designboom mart. -ed.]