Awesome Art & Design

Artist and woodturner Andy Phillip takes us through the complicated and time-consuming process of gradually refining a hunk of birch tree trunk into a beautiful 7″ globe, complete with the continents, and iridescent blue oceans made from epoxy resin. This isn’t the first time Andy’s made something cool and spherical.

Scientists from MIT CSAIL have developed an incredible technology which allows for personalization of objects by using special photochromic dyes. By exposing the pigments to ultraviolet light, designs be “reprogrammed” by removing portions of their cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes to expose new patterns. More here.

We’re gonna need a bigger cup. Somehow a great white shark has made its way into your kitchen, and is swimming around in your tea. Fortunately, that’s not blood in the water, but just the red from a fragrant hibiscus and rosehip tea blend. Still, sip at your own risk. Sold in sets of three. Also available from CD Japan.

Prepare yourself for six minutes of weird and wild machines that are ready to fuel your nightmares. Since putting together this amazing showreel back in 2012, London animatronics designer Gustav Hoegen has gone on to run the creature effects department for the latest round of Star Wars movies.

The University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center now has a 3D printer that can crank out objects up to 100 feet-long, 22 feet-wide, and 10 feet-high. In this brief time-lapse, watch 72 hours condensed down to 30 seconds as it outputs a 25 foot-long boat that weights 5,000 pounds. And yes, it floats.

AltDynamic’s wonderfully tactile plaything is CNC-machined from a solid block of aluminum. Each one features an open-structure geometry inspired by a design found among Leonardo daVinci’s drawings. It measures 2.5″ at its widest point, and is available in raw aluminum, bead-blasted satin, or anodized colors.

Philips continues to expand their Hue smartbulb line with a series of bulbs that look like vintage Edison-style filament lights. There are numerous LED bulbs with this look these days, but only these ones can be remotely controlled via the Hue app. Available in A19, ST19, and G25 styles.

Ray Villafane knows his way around a pumpkin, having carved some of the most incredible and intricate Jack-o-lanterns ever. In this clip from azcentral, we learn a bit more about the artist, and what it is about the orange squash that inspires him. Each fall, his studio cranks out countless pumpkins for displays around the world.

The Breaking Bad movie El Camino is almost here, but there’s little chance we’ll be seeing any of Walter White given its place in the timeline. For now, we’ll have to settle for this amazing mini bust of Bryan Cranston’s bald noggin by Steven Richter. He also shows off how much his skills have improved since his earlier sculpt.

Designed by Khanh for BombMagic, these cards have a gorgeous design, inspired the objects and patterns found in ancient Lạc Việt culture. The backs feature an intricate geometric pattern with hieroglyphs, while the court cards display Vietnamese faces, and the suits and numbers are uniquely stylized. More pics on Kardify.

FutureDeluxe shows off a cool project that was on display during the Google China Developer Days – an interactive display which allows people to create unique ceramic vessels simply by moving their bodies. Each virtual work of art changes shape as the person in front of the camera changes poses. More here.

There’s a whole lot to love about the visuals and storytelling in Hayao Miyazaki’s films. Among his regular subjects are flying machines, and The Royal Ocean Film Society takes to the skies to find out why they’re a recurring theme, and why aircraft are so important to this master of anime.

Xyron’s unique machine turns any piece of paper up to 2.5″ wide into a sticker. Cut a design, load it in, and turn the knob, and it’ll apply an edge-to-edge adhesive and a backing sheet. Refills are available with permanent or repositionable adhesive. Their pricier Creative Station can also do lamination or add magnetic backs.

Builder Andrew Szeto created an awesome custom version of the iconic Eames lounge chair, replacing the traditional bent wood components with layers of laminated skateboard decks. We love the touch of color that Andrew’s design adds to this classic piece of furniture. More here.

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Tabletop game players, it’s time to upgrade your dice set. Designed by Andy Kurovets, these highly-tactile D6 dice feature bubbly textures that make them look like something boiling in the primordial ooze. They were 3D-modeled for balance, and come in three unique shapes, in deep blue, blood red, or earth brown.

While you might think that origami was exclusively an art form, engineers are taking inspiration from the paper-folding craft to create innovative designs that can shape-shift to fit objects to into smaller spaces, and enable compact mechanisms, while decreasing the number of parts used. Veritasium explains.

Maker pocket83 walks us through the painstaking process of building a geodesic sphere which not only looks super cool, but offers up a good challenge for those fascinated with puzzles. See how to assemble the wood pieces and rubber bands here.

Add some new energy to your photos with the latest series of tips from COOPH, who show off a few low-fi ways to make it appear that objects and people are floating in mid-air. In the end, it’s all about using the camera’s shutter to freeze time.

Roll your dice and move your mice every time you sit down to your computer keyboard. These playful Cherry MX-compatible keycaps are great for number or function keys. They’re sold in six different transluscent colors, so you can match or complement the design of your current keyboard.

Motion designer Matthieu Braccini created a series of 15 wonderfully polished and appetite-stimulating animations to promote the Egg McMuffin for McDonald’s. We still think perfectly round eggs are unnatural, but they seem right at home in this geometrically-pristine universe.

Sudbury, Canada’s Old St. Joseph’s Hospital has been dormant for more than a decade, and may eventually be demolished. But before its bricks hits the ground, West Coast graffiti artist Kelly “RISK” Graval and a team of artists splashed the exterior of the 74,000 sq.ft. building into a bright and colorful work of abstract street art.

Designed for cardistry and magic, The Seers‘ latest playing cards feature a bold red and black geometric back design with an all-seeing eye at center. Their fronts offer high contrast designs that really pop, along unique, but easily recognizable suits, numbers, and face card images. The uncut sheets make sweet wall art too.