Awesome Art & Design

These dramatic playing cards incorporate heat-sensitive inks for a unique color-changing effect. The Rebirth deck features a holographic red foiled Phoenix with copper embossing, while the Ashes deck has black cards with cold-foiled silver and carbon black tuck box with an embossed phoenix and lenticular fire effect.

A standard LEGO minifig stands roughly 1.6″ (4 cm) tall. Maker of many crazy things, The Q, shows us how he used a 3D printer to produce the parts needed to make a giant minifig bigger than he is. Before making the XXL model, he printed small, medium, large, and XL figs. We can only imagine how much time and filament it took to make the biggest one.

Clocks that use water to tell time date back thousands of years. Most examples worked like an hourglass, measuring the amount of water that dripped into a vessel to count the passage of time. Others used the dripping water to move a clock mechanism. Artist Uri Tuchman shows how he built such a timepiece using wood, copper, and brass components.

Each Uniq Volumetric puzzle is made from soft PVC and molded into sculptural pieces. The first three puzzles feature curvy, organic shapes and 30 to 70 pieces each. The finished puzzles measure about 8″ x 12″ and come with a kickstand frame for display. Choose from Phantom, Timber, or Froth designs, as well as a 3-puzzle box set.

What you’re looking at isn’t a video effect. Artist Joshua Vides masterfully hand painted these cars atop matte vinyl wraps to look like the black and white artwork from comic books. The three fully-drivable cars and their backdrop are part of Joshua’s solo show, Check Engine Light, recently displayed in LA and heading to NYC.

If you’ve seen BattleBots, you’ve probably seen the robot that spins the giant nut. Inventor Hknssn created a similar machine, but it looks way cooler and doesn’t use electricity. Fingerbirgit is a kinetic sculpture driven by a hand crank or a weight. The 1170-piece artwork uses a series of cam tracks to manipulate the globe balanced on its fingertips.

Despite only firing rubber bands, we would not want to be on the business end of this wooden minigun. Generic Woodworking shows off the incredible amount of blood, sweat, and tears it took to build this impressive toy weapon. It uses parts from a lawn trimmer and a belt sander to drive its mechanism, and makes an unnerving popping sound as it fires off rounds.

Designed by artist Panisa Khunprasert, this reversible chess and checkers set features a bold color scheme and modern, minimal iconography. Both the playing pieces and board are made from sustainably-grown rubberwood, and the board slides open to provide storage. Measures 8.75″w x 8.75″d x 1.75″h.

What you’re looking at is a unique round display that creates images using fiber optics. Maker James Brown of Ancient shows how he built the gizmo using a dollar-store fiber optic wand that he connected fiber-by-fiber to a grid of LEDs. The real magic is the logic that detects the position of each dot on the circular screen and maps it to the grid.

Most writing is done with pens or pencils. Artist qiaobiangugu creates text by manipulating colored sand with edge of a utility knife. The technique produces 3-dimensional letters with an embossed look. Their creations include English words as well as intricate Chinese characters.

This isn’t a computer-generated image you’re looking at; it’s a 3D-printed object. Martin Etzl generated this intricate model and placed it inside of a cube with one-way mirrors, resulting in the illusion of an infinite room out of a science-fiction universe. The fractal shapes were produced entirely using mathematical equations.

Artist Chet Phillips created this series of fanciful illustrations that imagine wild roadside attractions inspired by the music of They Might Be Giants. Sold as a set of six 5″ x 7″ postcards, the fictitious travel destinations include The Puppet Head, The Museum of Idiots, and The Shoe Horn with Teeth, among others.

Few objects from the Star Trek universe are more iconic than the Borg cube. Maker Grieg Johnson shows us how he made a lamp based on the imposing 6-sided starship. He made it using mesh, an old birdcage, and a bunch of sprues – the plastic frames that hold model parts. We love how much depth he achieved with all of the layers.

(Flashing Images) The rhythmic track I Exist Inside This Machine is accompanied by an appropriately mechanical music video by artist Henning M. Lederer. The intense, high-contrast imagery takes us deep inside the inner workings of a massive machine driven by human thoughts, emotions, and movements. From the album On Being, due 2.28.2025.

This goofy 3D printed desk lamp is described by its creator Hellgy as “a lamp to look like your cat when your cat is looking like a lamp.” You can grab the STL files for the cat cone of shame lamp on Printables and buy the required LED lamp kit from Bambu Lab. Now, we need a version for dog people.

Saturday Night Live is celebrating 50 years of laughs and music. This coffee table book from resident photographer Mary Ellen Matthews showcases some of the many fun-filled photos she’s taken of hosts and musicians over the past two decades. The book features more than 200 portraits and behind-the-scenes images along with a forward by Lorne Michaels.