Orientales

My husband just returned from a trip to Taiwan and brought me this adorable little sugar bowl (below) from Alessi.  It's from the second installment of a collection called Orientales, which is a collaboration between Italian designer Stefano Giovannoni and the National Palace Museum of Taiwan.  

There's this matching bird creamer:

And these funny monkey bottle stoppers:

And a salt + pepper set that would definitely add some color to your table:

The collection is based on 'the Far East's languages and symbols, filtered through western eyes' and strives to 'rediscover decoration as an element of communication through ventures made possible by globalization'.  What it really comes down to is the collection is fun, colorful and the characters are cute as anything!  You can purchase some of the products, including items from the first collection at Unica Home.