Swan Lake: Elegant Ladle ‘Swanky’ Floats Atop Your Soup, Punch Bowl

By Rotem Landesman, NoCamels December 08, 2016 3 minutes

Swanky Ladle. Courtesy

If you’re hosting a Christmas dinner this year – or any other dinner party during the winter – you’re probably preparing a sizzling soup for your family and friends. If you’re going to go all out, you’ll use your best tablecloth, your neatest looking utensils – and don’t forget your ladle.

Your ladle? Seems a bit trivial – but a deeper look into the matter reminds us of the horror of sinking, moist ladles in hot soups, punch bowls, and all the inelegant fishing in the liquid to find it that follows.

Now, Swanky, a new and improved ladle by Israeli design firm Ototo, can save the day. With an elegant design and an unprecedented balancing act – this swan-looking ladle actually floats atop the soup or punch bowl – Swanky ensures a less messy dinner table.

All you have to do is place Swanky inside your pot or bowl of liquid, and watch it twirl at the surface like the graceful swan it’s meant to honor. The revolutionary buoyant design of Swanky, a ladle with a handle the shape of a swan’s head, is made of non-toxic plastic, and is heat and dishwasher resistant. Swanky is built to balance itself on top of a liquid surface, giving the impression of a swan gracefully skimming through your soup lake.

In just a few weeks, the Swanky ladle raised nearly $31,000 on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, tripling Ototo’s goal of raising $10,000. For as little at $15 per unit, you can purchase this magic ladle, to be delivered in the coming weeks.

The ladle comes in three colors – grey, black, and pink. Designed by Ototo and Dikla Libresco, an Israeli industrial designer, Swanky can turn the everyday ladle into a talked-about piece of dinnerware that can be propped up in your soup, cocktail bowl, or on the table waiting for service.

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“Any minute now”

Founded in 2004, Ototo is a homeware design firm based in Tel Aviv. It has designed numerous products, such as vegetable peelers, doggy bag holders, and other elegant, sometimes humoristic objects for the elegant homeowner.

Founders Ori Saidi and Daniel Gassner met at a local design school, where they designed a spiral-shaped light fixture together – a project which would later become the prototype for one of Ototo’s bestselling items – the “Poing” fruit basket. 12 years ago, they founded Ototo, which in Hebrew means “any minute now.”

Swanky Ladle. Courtesy

The firm’s newest invention, Swanky, has already been reviewed by magazines such as Gizmodo and Bored Panda. Ototo’s previously released Nessie ladle, which looks like the Loch Ness Monster, made it to Amazon’s top wish list a few months after its release.

We suspect that Swanky might get the same level of admiration.