Designed in Hackney: next up in our showcase of local designers is Roger Arquer and his non-lethal mousetraps, first published on Dezeen in 2007 and still one of our most-clicked stories of all time. More »

In this movie filmed by Dutch design organisation Premsela during their symposium Me Craft/You Industry in January, Welsh designer Kieren Jones explains how he constructed a miniature factory to transform the uneaten parts of a chicken into a gold leather flying jacket and a bone china eggcup and spoon. More »

Milan 2012: the design world flocks to Milan next month and designer Craig Alun Smith plans to splatter the city with bird poo in every colour of the rainbow by planting dyed bird feeders around the Piazza del Duomo. More »

Slideshow: Israeli studios Monkey Business and Reddish have designed these pins for making little animal characters from wine corks at the dinner table. More »

In this movie from the V&A museum in London, Simon Peers and Nicholas Godley talk about the cape they made by harvesting silk from over a million wild spiders in Madagascar. The silk is naturally golden in colour and the spiders take just a week to replenish their supply once released back into the wild. More »

It may look like a giant bird’s nest but this stick-covered dome is actually a horse-riding arena in the Czech Republic. More »

A golden cape woven from the silk of over a million wild spiders is on show at the V&A museum in London. More »

The Temporium: today is your last chance to visit our Christmas shop The Temporium - we close at 3pm - and the final window in our Advent calendar features ceramics and glass by Londoner Shan Valla. More »

Dezeen Platform: in this interview filmed at Dezeen Space, street artist Stewy talks about painting indigenous British animals in unexpected areas of the city, including one side of Dezeen Platform. More »

American designer Chad Wright stretched the archetypal birdhouse shape to create penthouse nest boxes with varying heights. More »

London designer Héctor Serrano presents a series of paper accessories for turning balloons into animal heads at the New York Gift Fair this week.  More »

Show RCA 2011: Royal College of Art graduate Erik de Laurens has made a pair of swimming goggles, spectacles and beakers out of fish scales. More »

In this movie filmed by Dezeen at the Design Academy Eindhoven My Way talks in Milan, Dutch designer Eveline Visser talks about the wall of nest boxes she designed for birds in the city. More »

Royal College of Art student Dan Watson has designed a trawling net that filters young and endangered fish from the catch. More »