Awesome Art & Design

There’s much more to acting in a full-body puppet than just wearing a costume. During a visit to Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Adam Savage met with creative supervisor Peter Brooke and performer Morgana Ignis for a look at what’s involved in bringing one of these jumbo-sized characters to life.

Presenting the tape dispenser to end all tape dispensers. MAN Manufacturing uses a CNC mill to create this hefty 1-pound desk accessory from a solid block of aluminum. Its roller locks in place using a satisfying magnetic locking mechanism. A true centerpiece for any desk.

There’s an entire photographic community inspired by the flat, symmetrical, color-coordinated world of Wes Anderson. Imitative Photography offers some great pointers on emulating the look in your original images. Beyond some basic techniques, the best and most important part is finding the right locations.

The latest version of Sony’s Spatial Reality Display has a 4K screen that can show realistic 3-dimensional content without glasses or a VR headset. Its 27″ screen is much larger than the first model and has an upgraded vision sensor and improved depth of field and resolution. Now we need a version for gaming.

Random Hands pulled off one of the most dramatic transformations of an object that we’ve seen. They started off with a rusty old industrial drill bit, heated it up in a forge, and reworked it into a pointy Japanese kunai. It took a whole lot of work to get it into the right shape, then they polished and finished it with a 24K gold plating.

Watch as a talented craftsperson turns a metal disc into a beautiful work of art by applying heat from a torch. The control it must take to create such a precise pattern is extraordinary. We’re not sure who created this piece, but it looks a lot like the work of Skip and Racheal​ Mathews, who use the technique on copper.

Masks have been part of Japanese culture for more than a thousand years. Process X takes us inside, Womokage, a small company that makes these detailed masks the traditional way. Skilled artisans use chisels to carve facial features from a solid block of wood, then hand-apply a coating and paint pigments to bring out details.

This fictionalized biopic follows the later years in the life of artist Salvador Dalí (Ben Kingsley). The story is told from the perspective of a young assistant hired to help Dalí prepare for an upcoming exhibition – while Dalí’s marriage to his wife, Gala crumbles. From director Mary Harron (American Psycho).

Maker Peter Brown once made a handle for an ice cream scoop out of moldable thermoplastic, but it didn’t last. So he decided to retrofit his brass scoop with something more appropriate. He took a big batch of colorful sprinkles, submerged them in resin, then turned the block on a lathe to form the handle.

We’re always amazed by macro zoom photography. This satisfying montage from YT Object gets us close up with all kinds of objects interacting, including a hot soldering iron tinning copper wire, a blueberry being sliced in half by a string, and a light bulb filament glowing as electricity is applied.

Magnetic Games walks us through the painstaking process of assembling a 2030-piece metal model that comes together to form an awe-inspiring dragon. It’s not for beginners and takes 20+ hours to put together, but the result is worth the effort. You can buy the kit from EngineDIY.

The TPC Louisiana golf course is home to numerous alligators. Among them is a three-legged beast nicknamed “Tripod.” Blake McFarland was commissioned by Zurich to immortalize the big guy. Like some of his other sculptures, he carved Tripod’s body from foam, cast a fiberglass shell, and covered it with recycled tires.

Artist Sunday Nobody creates art inspired by memes. He created this amazing 16-foot-tall pixel art portrait of Bob Ross using 7104 paint swatches collected by his followers. Now that he’s dismantled the piece, he’s selling fragments of the work in batches of eight framed swatches with a map to their original location.

If you’ve ever looked through the case back of a mechanical watch, you know they can be incredibly complicated inside. Jake from Animagraffs created this detailed 3D animation which shows how all of those intricate gears, axles, springs, and dials work together to accurately tell time without batteries or electronics.

Stressed out? Put on your headphones, press play on this video, and expand it to full screen. Project JDM created this digital music box that plays notes as its dots bounce back and forth along rainbow-colored arcs. As the hypnotic visual patterns evolve, so do the soothing sounds, panning from ear to ear.

Moscow mules are served in a copper mug for a reason. Not only does copper look awesome, it helps keep cold drinks cool. Not content with storebought mugs, Robinson Foundry decided to make his own. In this video, he shows how he made a pair of beautiful mugs using ceramic molds he created from 3D-printed forms.

Today, movie studios have powerful computers dedicated to creating visual effects. But in the early days of motion pictures, special effects had to be created practically, in-camera, or via editing. Film Riot looks back at classics like Metropolis and The Wizard of Oz to see how they pulled off their memorable illusions.

Omozoc is known for their creative stop-motion animations. Their latest clip plays with the idea that everyday objects come to life and play while the humans are sleeping. It’s actually a commercial for Chinese automaker BYD, but you’d never know it until the logo appears at the end.

This concave metal coin from MetonBoss feels good in the hand and is a great place to focus nervous energy. It’s made from aerospace-grade aluminum and engraved with a detailed topographic map pattern. Available in 1″ dia x 0.15″ thick and 2.15″ dia x 0.35″ thick versions. Personalization is also available.

An isogrid is a kind of metal structure that uses hollowed-out triangles to provide strength while reducing weight. Barry from Titans of CNC Machining used the technique to create a truly awesome skateboard. He started by plotting a design in SolidWorks, then used a CNC mill to carve the board from a block of aluminum.

These unique curved rulers have a decided advantage over using a compass to draw circles. They have markings that let you measure the diameter of a circle, as well as arc length, allowing you to draw precise circles and curves with a single tool. Sold in 1″ to 3.5″, 3″ to 6″, and combo packs.

We’ve seen how cheap mass-produced marbles are made. Now let’s take a look at a small West Virginia factory that combines machinery with glass art to create its unique marbles. Stephen Bahr captured this delightful behind-the-scenes look at Dave’s Appalachian Swirls as it creates a batch of its prized custom marbles.

Broinwood is known for making intricate cutting boards with a combination of technology and craftsmanship. His most complex design yet features more than 1700 elements. His process involves CNC cutting the butcher block and inverted pieces, gluing and hammering them in place, then milling away the excess wood.