Awesome Art & Design

Artist LiuMutou shows off his expert model-making abilities by carving an impeccable replica of a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. Every detail is there, including a tiny steering wheel, a curved acrylic windshield, working lights, and sharp tailfins. And it doesn’t just sit there; it’s got a working powertrain and even can drift.

Adam from North of the Border apparently got confused and got the names of two of Marvel’s superheroes backward. His Man-Ant and Man-Spider sculptures are two of his most disturbing creations to date, making the insects the hosts with human genetics taking over their bodies. It’s the human skin that really creeps us out.

If you’ve ever curbed the rims on your car, you know how awful it can look. But with the proper equipment and expertise, it’s possible to repair damaged rims. Wheel Restore USA shows how their diamond cut wheel lathe can make even heavily damaged wheels look as good as new by removing a thin layer of metal. They also have a wheel-painting robot.

Maker Connor Holland has previously shown us how he creates puffy metal objects by hydroforming. He teamed up with artist Hanna Clarkson to create a wearable armored puffer coat by welding together sheets of steel and then inflating them with compressed air or water. The finished suit looks like the Michelin Man and a Dalek had a child.

Metalworker Koss shows off a bold knife design with an angular profile, a thick blade, and a built-in knuckle guard. Rather than forging the blade, he started with a thick plate of high-carbon steel that he shaped using power tools and files. He crafted the handle scales from white G10, a strong fiberglass and epoxy composite.

Filmmakers Páraic and Kevin McGloughlin created this brief visual love letter to New York City. By editing together hundreds of still frames they shot while in the city, they managed to boil down the essence of the Big Apple into a 51-second short film. We’d love to see them do this with every city they visit.

While you could buy some cheap folding chairs, we prefer the modern design of Get Hands Dirty’s design, which has a clean, angular look and is something that you can build for yourself if you’ve got the right tools and lumber. The wood-shaving interlude was a nice touch.

Woodworker Jack Mack shows us how a bunch of wood veneer strips can become a beautiful piece of functional art. He started by placing the colorful wood strips into a bucket he filled with resin, then carved the piece by hand on a lathe into a vase. It’s not until it’s close to its final form that its eye-catching patterns are revealed.

These artful playing cards from Montenzi feature imagery inspired by the ancient Roman tile floors. Their backs have tiled patterns, while their fronts reveal shapes and images with the well-worn look of millions of footsteps. They come in a greenish-grey classic edition and Purple and Teal limited editions. A three-color bundle is also available.

Textile artist Greg Climer creates quilts that look like pixelated photographs. After filming a brief scene of his friends kissing, he transformed them into a series of 36″ x 48″ quilts which he animated into a 3-second sequence. In total, he made 36 quilts from about 59,000 squares of fabric. It took him roughly five years to complete the project. (Thanks, Rusty!)

There are tons of stop-motion LEGO animations out there, but Legotto’s approach is different. Rather than moving models and minifigs, they create frame-by-frame pixel art animations using 1×1 LEGO bricks. This process requires great patience and attention to detail, but the results are impressive. Check out their octopus, slime, and Pokémon animations.

Artist and maker Hassan Abu-Izmero was given the nacelle from a decommissioned jet engine as a gift. After thinking about what to do with the unusual piece of junk, he decided to clean out its interior, add shelves and lights, and turn it into a liquor cabinet for storing his whiskey. It’s a cool build, though we’d need a 777 engine to hold all our booze.

One of the coolest weapons that ninjas carry is the throwing star – also known as a shuriken. Maker B offers a satisfying machining video showing how he transformed a large industrial bolt into a pocket-sized shuriken with points that deploy with the push of a button. He made its body from the bolt head and its retractable points from slices of its threaded shaft.

Feit Electric’s unique smart light bulb can produce the warm amber glow of an old-fashioned Edison-style filament lamp, or one of millions of colors from its RGB LED strips. Works in any standard E26 base, and can be controlled remotely via Alexa, Google Assistant, or the Feit Electric app. Amazon sells a discounted 4-pack.

Printed full-color images are often made from dot patterns called halftones. From a distance, they produce the illusion of smooth shades and millions of colors, but made from just four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Posy’s video offers a brief overview of the technique and a series of close-up dot patterns zoomed out to see their full images.

Etsy seller BUproducts makes these unique decorative racks for organizing keys. The hexagonal honeycomb design is made from bamboo and has five magnets for holding its matching hexagonal metal key rings. The rack measures 11.2″ W x 4.3″ H x 0.4″ D.

Louisville, Kentucky-based The Wooden States creates precision-cut hardwood wall art based on state shapes. Each one is backed with four strong magnets which can hold onto key rings, pocket knives, jewelry, and other metal objects. In addition to individual states, there’s a version of the entire continental U.S.

Woodworker Frank Howarth wanted to turn a slice of a fir tree into something different than a typical coffee table. So he set out to create a giant version of a LEGO gear. After patching a crack in the wood with bacon-shaped ties, he encountered a frustrating obstacle while cutting the pattern but persevered.

The Smithsonian Channel takes us near Shanghai, China, where what was once a rock quarry has been transformed into an extravagant luxury resort. Architect Martin Jochman of JADE+QA designed the structure that appears to be just two stories when approaching from the top, but is actually a 16-story tower that blends into the rocks.

When Serengy Technology came across a micromotor from a camera, he thought it would be perfect for driving a miniature power tool. He made his mini drill from a hunk of acrylic, which he painstakingly cut and shaped, then outfitted it with the motor, wiring, hearing aid batteries, and a tiny switch.

The whole point of a laptop computer is that it’s portable. That didn’t stop makers Evan and Katelyn from building a laptop that’s so ridiculously large that you need two people to carry it. It has a 43-inch display, an oversize keyboard and runs on batteries. They should try and borrow Glarses’ giant keyboard.

Mustard’s Instant Coasters look like blank Polaroid instant photos. Each tempered glass coaster has a slot where you can insert a 3.3″x 3.3″ photo, so you can personalize and change it up whenever you want. Sold in a set of four, they also come in gold.

This stainless steel stencil is ideal for sketching out user interface and user experience concepts. It features common icons for things like menus, arrows, buttons, and sliders, as well as social media. Its top edge includes a pixel ruler and column guides as well.