Gone are the days of slipping into the chemist's and furtively whispering: "A packet of three and a brown paper bag please."

Condoms are no longer taboo and rather than people being forced to visit the local pharmacy or barbers to buy "something for the weekend" they are now on open display in shops.

Now Hove inventor Steve Sole has come up with a rather unusual way of getting people talking about them.

Steve, 34, has created the condom vase, a metal structure to support a condom - unused and rinsed of spermicide, of course - filled with water and a flower or two.

While hardly something to sit on Grandma's mantlepiece in between the Royal Doulton and pictures of the grandchildren, Steve reckons they make an interesting novelty present and are a great way of getting people to talk about safer sex.

Steve, of Furze Hill, said: "The idea first came to me when I was at the Glastonbury Festival years ago and saw a condom hanging from the fence one day.

"Overnight it was filled with rain and then someone came along and stuck a daisy in it and I thought it looked good.

"About a couple of years ago I thought I would try to get it designed.

"I played around with a broken coathanger for a bit and went into the factory with a condom hanging off it.

"They gave me some really strange looks but they did make my first batch for me."

Since then, Steve has set up a web site, www.condomvase.com, which has received almost 1,000 hits and has started taking a few orders.

He has even sent his vases as far as Australia and Spain.

But not everyone is impressed with his novel invention.

He said: "My mother is very embarrassed about it.

"I used to run a stall on the seafront by the West Pier and I remember her coming down with my nan and when I pointed them out she was very quick to change the subject.

"I get a lot of reactions like that, although some mothers said it was a good idea because if their children knocked it over it wouldn't shatter."

Steve, who used to work for a water cooler company, said he hoped his vases were a good way of getting people to talk about condoms without embarrassment.

He said: "The main thing is the safe sex promotion.

"A vase in a restaurant with two people having dinner is a nice way of bringing condoms into the conversation.

"One day it would be quite nice to see it in lots of restaurants and bars."

Steve said people could have a different vase every week just by changing the condom.

Different colours and flowers had different meanings. Roses were for love and passion while an iris meant friendship. Forget-me-nots symbolised true love and a gardenia meant secret love.

A red condom might indicate the person was a tiger in bed while lovers of the orange leant towards sexual fantasies.

people who liked blue were affectionate and sensitive to their partner's needs.