Awesome Art & Design

The first portable computers weren’t exactly compact or lightweight. DIY Perks’ briefcase PC follows in these footsteps, but the payoff for the heft is a high-end gaming PC with a wrap-around 144Hz triple display, a 16-core AMD Ryzen 5950X CPU, an NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU, 64GB of RAM, and a premium audio system with a subwoofer.

Ian Jimmerson shows off a truly impressive wooden model he built that demonstrates the inner workings of a 9-cylinder radial engine, like the ones used on some older airplanes. It’s amazing how stable it is as it gets up to speed. Check out his in-depth explainer videos here and here.

Burls Art creates guitars from unusual materials. This time, he made an lap steel guitar from aluminum $1 coins that were once good for a discount at RadioShack. He started by making a sand mold, melted the coins to cast its body, then anodized it in red. We were hoping he would have embedded some unmelted coins though.

Showcasing Nathan Myhrvold’s obsession with food, photography, and science, Food & Drink is a slip-cased art book collecting 200+ delicious photographs from the award-winning Modernist Bread and Modernist Pizza plus Myhvold’s Modernist Cuisine Gallery, the first gallery showing food photography by a single artist.

This unique bridge allows pedestrians to cross a river or canal, and lets ships pass underneath by rolling over to increase its clearance. It uses a hand-cranked cable system to flip the bridge along a rippled track. The concept was turned into a real bridge by Thomas Randall-Page.

Photographer Joerg Daiber takes us on a vibrant visual tour of The Netherlands’ capital city. Using tilt-shift and time-lapse techniques, the enlightened Dutch city’s historic canals, charming neighborhoods, and countless bicycles appear even more magical than they do in real life.

Maker DiesInEveryFilm wanted to see a sword with a flexible blade could be as effective as a straight blade. He created his unusual weapon by machining a custom blade, cutting it into segments, sliding them onto a length of aircraft cable, and welding them into place. The result is a bit floppy but still dishes out damage.

Portuguese street artist Vhils creates incredible large-scale portraits by chipping away at the surface of concrete walls with an electric hammer drill. This short video gives us a glimpse of the artist working on a giant face. His Instagram is packed with similarly impressive works.

Artist Uri Tuchman is an expert at building unique devices with a Steampunk aesthetic. This time, he built a pair of mechanical wooden hands that appear to type on an imaginary keyboard. It’s part of a larger installation headed to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Ironically, Uri broke his hand after he completed the project.

Filmmaker and world traveler Brandon Li takes us on a captivating and colorful journey through Morocco. The short film is packed with exciting motion shots that put us in the middle of the action and capture the energy of the country and its people. Learn about Brandon’s inspirations and process in the director’s commentary.

Hedron Rockworks handmakes dice from gemstones. In this video, he transformed a hunk of amethyst into a stunning purple D20. He started by scanning a 3D model of the stone to identify the best orientation, carefully cut and polished its facets, then sandblasted its numerals. Those frosted edges and star facets are gorgeous.

British Colombia artist Kevin Stone creates large-scale metal sculptures. Among his works is this massive steel dragon inspired by Drogon from Game of Thrones. It took him two years to complete the 15,000-pound metal beast, which even breathes fire. Coolest Thing met the artist and got a look at some of his incredible works.

South Korea-based artist Drawholic wows us with a colored-pencil portrait of Din Djarin and Grogu. The time-lapse video lets us observe the entire process from start to finish, as the rough outlines give way to color, shading, and a background that makes the image pop off of the page.

In LEGO terminology, “GBC” stands for Great Ball Contraption, and Berthil van Beek is an expert at building these complex LEGO machines which connect to other GBC modules. His latest build is an enormous Ferris wheel that picks up tiny basketballs and soccer balls, takes them on a trip, and delivers them to the next station’s inbox.

Luke Adams Glass offers an extensive selection of miniature glass objects, from tiny cocktails to thumb-sized skulls. These teeny balloon animal dogs are some of our favorites. Not only do they fit in the palm of your hand, but they’re also way more affordable than Jeff Koons’ iconic balloon dog sculptures.

Shanghai, China firm 100 Architects designed this vibrant outdoor space inspired by hot lava. Instead of drab concrete, it’s been decorated in brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow. The park includes lots of play areas, including an obstacle course, see-saw, and merry-go-round, along with a jogging path for adults.