Awesome Art & Design

Say what you will about the Tesla Cybertruck; Elon Musk’s chunky and funky electric truck has given us countless memes and fan-built projects to enjoy. ND – Woodworking Art’s metal-framed, wood-covered vehicle is a roughly 1/2-scale replica of the truck. It runs on battery power like the real deal and has room in its bed for his kid’s mini Cyberquad.

It’s breakfast time somewhere, right? Sit back and enjoy a tall stack of pancakes, as DA BOMB ART fixes 20 meticulously illustrated edible logos, inspired by movie studios and production companies. They look awesome, but we’d slather them with butter and syrup and devour them all in minutes.

Random Hands shows how they turned a stack of stainless steel rulers into a unique Damascus pattern, which he sandwiched around high-carbon steel to make a beautiful Japanese-style meat cleaver. He fitted it with a hexagonal wood handle and a hand-stitched leather sheath. We’d love this knife in our kitchen, but sadly, this one isn’t for sale.

We already know that hexagons are the bestagons, so why not use those magical shapes to decorate your walls? Hexagonica makes these laser-cut wooden tiles that transform any wall into a work of modern art. Each set comes with 32 hex tiles and a set of mounting frames to ensure even spacing. Adhesive not included.

What’s cooler than a regular katana? One that hides in its handle and extends like a lightsaber. After seeing an example of this awesome collapsible katana design at a convention, Maker David Miao printed a copy of it at home on his Prusa XL 3D printer. He made it look even better by printing it with Fixdry’s tri-color PLA, which gives it a rainbow sheen.

MoMA’s modern calendar works every day of every year. It displays the day of the week, month, and date using red markers that slide along a snake-like acrylic track. Mount it on your wall or stand it on your desktop with the included pegs. Designed by Giancarlo Cipri in collaboration with the School of Visual Arts.

This palm-size printer makes quick work of labeling cables, circuit breakers, parts drawers, and more. It uses thermal printing, so it never needs ink and can print text, QR codes, and bar codes on dozens of different label styles, including transparent ones. Its labels are waterproof and peel off without leaving a mess.

The guys from Corridor Crew are usually wowing us with their visual effects work. But in this video, they took a break from creating art with computers and broke out real canvases to take a painting lesson from Bob Ross. But instead of acrylics or oils, they painted their happy little scenes with sauces and condiments. We can only imagine how the studio smelled after this.

OptiKinetics’ Kino light projector takes you on a trip back to the 1970s. It combines a 10-watt LED light source with rotating color wheels to cast psychedelic patterns on your walls or ceiling. Available wheels include lava lamp-style oil effects, colorful kaleidoscopic images, a multi-mirror effect to split images, and rare vintage Pluto effect wheels.

This metal spider looks like some kind of creepy-crawly robo-arachnid. It’s made from dozens of tiny stainless steel parts and can be assembled or disassembled without glue. The finished model measures about 4.92″ x 4.92″ x 1.38″. They also make a more complicated steel scorpion kit.

This unique motorcycle-shaped decanter from The Wine Savant is handmade by blowing and bending borosilicate Pyrex glass, using similar techniques to making laboratory glassware. It measures 14.5″ long and holds 750 ml of spirits. It’s a special gift for motorcycle, whiskey, and wine lovers.

Miguel of Marmota Works shows how he took an acacia tree stump and turned it into an eye-catching coffee table. He sawed the stump into slices, then cut them to fit like a jigsaw puzzle. After sealing the pieces with clear epoxy, he bonded them with black epoxy, then sanded and finished the top before attaching metal legs.

If you were around in the 1970s, you might recall those compact cameras that used 110 film cartridges. Maker Wesley Treat shows us how he made a coffee table based on the popular (but grainy) film format. He built the super-size Kodacolor cartridge from wood using kerf bending techniques to make the curved sides. Also, his wooden Gonk Droid is awesome.

Most axe heads are made from steel because it’s a strong and inexpensive metal. Knives Project created this shiny golden axe from a brass ingot instead. He cut a piece of steel from an old wrench to give the axe a sharp and durable edge since a fully blade would deform.

(Flashing images) Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. To create his short film SIGNS, filmmaker Daniel McKee spent months collecting images of thousands of road signs from around the world, then arranged and animated them in a logical sequence. The music by Resonate complements the videos’ driving pace.

Tomosteen animated this delightful stop-motion LEGO short that of a tabletop nature simulator. With the push of a button, a tree grows from seed and flourishes through the seasons, a penguin plays in the snow, and a festive field of flowers provides a home to bees and butterflies.

Object manipulator SHAO shows off an amazing stage prop that can smoothly change shapes in the hands of the right performer. Designed by flow arts prop maker Thomas Foyk, this series of interconnected rods can morph from a cube into various other geometries.

It’s amazing what you can make with cardboard. The S shows off a fantastic cardboard blaster he built called “The Transformer.” Rather than cutting all the pieces with a hobby knife, he used a Two Trees laser cutter to get nice sharp edges and repeatable shapes. The blaster doesn’t just look incredible; it fires projectiles using exploding butane.

Dissatisfied with the bass response of his off-the-shelf subwoofer, maker BigWR got to work retrofitting its speaker and amplifier into a new cabinet. He extended its acoustic chamber using angled sections of PVC drain pipe and assembled them inside of an acrylic cube. We’re not sure it sounds better because of the distortion, but it sure looks amazing.

Hygge & West’s Abide collection will really tie your room together. Their Big Lebowski-themed wallpaper and shower curtain are covered with a hypnotic vintage-style pattern packed with imagery from the Coen Brothers’ classic. Details include The Dude in his bathrobe, bowling balls and pins, Walter Sobchak smashing a Corvette, white russians, and much more.

The MSG Sphere in Las Vegas has quickly become one of the world’s most talked-about attractions. Inspired by its enormous LED display surface, DrZzs & GrZzs thought making a replica of the digital wonder would be fun. Their 8-foot diameter backyard mini-sphere has 20,028 RGB LED pixels and is driven by a Kulp 32 controller and xLights software.

The makers of the HyperCube infinity light are back with two new conversation pieces. The app-controlled HyperHedra and HyperPyramid are triangular mirrored structures illuminated with hundreds of colorful LEDs inside. Thanks to their angled frames, the 11″ tetrahedron and 15″ pyramid produce even more kaleidoscopic patterns than the cubes.

During MAX 2023, Adobe showed off Project Primrose, a groundbreaking technology for fashion and interior design. Researcher Christine Dierk modeled an awe-inspiring dress that can change patterns instantly. Based on her research paper with TJ Rhodes and Gavin Miller, it use LCD reflective, non-emissive light-diffuser modules to change state electronically.