Tag: lava lamps

Buy my lamps you won’t need drugs – a compelling and effective marketing slogan

1. Edward Craven Walker and his Astro Lava Lamp.jpg
Craven Walker: daredevil, pioneering naturist and inventor of the lava lamp

I am intrigued to see that Mathmos, the Poole based company that, back in 1963, launched that soon to become indispensable hippy accessory the lava lamp are celebrating the centenary of their founder Craven Walker.

Craven – his full name was Edward Craven Walker – was in some ways an unlikely inventor of the lamp that fascinated the counter-culture.

A former RAF pilot with a passion for fast cars, speed boats and helicopters, he was also a pioneering nudist who made a number naturist films that avoided the censor by being shot underwater. Continue reading “Buy my lamps you won’t need drugs – a compelling and effective marketing slogan”

From underwater naturist films to lighting the way for the tripsters and hipsters

mathmos_astro_lava_lamp_with_inventor
Edward Craven Walker pioneering maker of underwater naturist films and  inventor of the lava lamp

With its gloopy, trippy, luminous light, the gently bubbling Astro lava lamp will forever be associated with the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out generation of the 1960s. Organiser of the famed Woodstock Festival, Wavy Gravy, was an early enthusiast declaring it “Amazing!” before adding with breathless enthusiasm that: “It causes the synapses in your brain to loosen up.”

Continue reading “From underwater naturist films to lighting the way for the tripsters and hipsters”

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