It was designed by Joonsoo Kim, and is carried around in a stick form through which the cloud part is inflated when the rain starts to fall. Perhaps this is what Crowded House were singing about when they said you were always taking the weather with you. 

That suits my mood, but the really angry rainwear enthusiast has got to go for this baby…

This picture is by Candice Stringham, a New York based photographer who seems as obsessed by brollies as I am. She collects umbrellas and gets various friends and models to pose with them around Brooklyn and other places in New York that I would have heard of if I paid more attention to movies.

This might be umbrella image of the year… it’s everything umbrellas are to me: colour, lightness, happiness and protection. And you just have to love jumping pictures.

From a Greek carnival. Be warned, you might want to turn your speakers down before you head to the site. I got quite a shock, but am now sambaing round the office.

This site, subtitled “An Appreciation of the Mundane: Discarded Umbrellas Left to Die Lonely Umbrella Deaths” does exactly what it says on the tin.

I suppose it’s appropriate to follow that with Ai Ai Gasa who make jackets, shirts and dresses out of discarded umbrellas. While the one above is a little Bill&Ted future for my tastes (but not for many people I know – the word is being spread) the skirts they do are lovely and ruffly and, of course, waterproof. Which makes them the perfect items to go with and under the umbrellas that will one day become them. If you see what I mean.

Um… umbrellas are now available all over the world as I have added international shipping rates to the shopping cart buttons. Each umbrella has its own page on the site.

In other news I’ve bought some fantastic fabric paints which will soon be applied to the canopies of plain Um…s and some great ribbons to adorn the insides. Production begins next week and I can’t wait to show you the results!

First of all the new Channel 4 sculpture which was made from 2000 umbrellas (none of them mine, sadly) by artist Stephanie Imbeau. Pretty bloody lovely. Umbrella art is clearly a fashion set to stick around a little while longer. 

This guy got fed up of umbrella bargers and stabbers and invented his own wee faux-weaponry to make pretending to shoot them a little more authentic. Pnow! Zap! Kping!

And in my own news an Um… umbrella is set to feature in the April edition of oh-so-hip and oh-so-funky 247 magazine, which is distributed all across the South West and is pretty damn wonderful. I shall of course post a link when this happens.