Awesome Art & Design

Inspired by the shavings created by sharpening pencils, designer Nanako Kume created a series of hanging lampshades with gigantic versions of the curly wood scraps. She started out by making an oversized pencil sharpener, then massive pencils to stick into it. Her process is just as fascinating as the finished pieces.

Steel rebar is a stiff metal bar typically used to reinforce concrete. But like any metal, with enough force, you can bend it to your whim. Metalsmith Gavin Clark shows us a series of maneuvers he used to tie a length of 1/2″ rebar into a clove hitch knot. We’re impressed that he did it without applying heat.

Artist Steven Richter has wowed us with his sculptures before. This time he took on a different kind of challenge – replicating the rocket car from the end of Toy Story. He started by modifying existing toys, sculpting a new head for Woody, and building a model rocket. He then assembled it all into this crazy creation.

We always enjoy seeing craftspeople turn one kind of object into another. Maker Jimmy Diresta shows off his blacksmithing skills by melting down a steel crowbar in his forge, hammering it into the shape of a bowie knife, and crafting a wood and brass handle. He only used about a third of the metal, so he could probably make another.

The Halfgrid is an environmentally-friendly design for a fully-autonomous urban transportation system. It runs on static overhead cables, decreasing traffic and emissions. Each independently-powered transportation pod is just the right size for a single person. The pods could also be used to move cargo.

(Flashing Images) With COVID travel restrictions in place, filmmaker Adam Chitayat longed for the outside world. Stuck at home, he collected thousands of Google Maps Street View images, which he eventually used to complement the sounds of musicians Axel Boman, Man Tear, and Inre Frid on the track Out Sailing.

Unlike the CGI abomination that is Disney’s Pinocchio reboot, Guillermo del Toro’s take on the classic fairy tale was animated by hand using stop-motion puppetry. In this brief video, we get a look behind the scenes at the craftsmanship that went into the movie, and Guillermo’s rationale for sticking with traditional animation.

After wowing us with their 60-sided RPG dice, Flying Horseduck is back with a series of 120-sided metal dice. Each 53mm die is CNC-milled from solid aluminum and weighs an impressive 0.5 pounds. Available in d20 and d120 variants in five colors plus a hefty 1.4-pound stainless steel version.

Tokyo_Bird shared this 3D-printable design which makes use of plastic soda bottle caps for sealing small containers. They’re ideal for storing items like screws, washers, or pills. The design is available for download from Thingiverse. We’re not sure they fit U.S.-size bottle caps, but they include STL files for printing your own caps.

Photographs that capture a split-second of action can be pretty amazing. The guys from COOPH put together this excellent tutorial video that shows techniques using powders, fluids, glass, and filters to capture crisp and detailed photos that seem to freeze time. Having a good flash and remote trigger can definitely help.

The music video for Die Antwoord’s track Age of Illusion is notable for a couple of reasons: 1) the trippy animations were created using AI technology by artist Sagans, and 2) its hypnotic electronic groove is a departure from the group’s hard-edged rave music. For a moment, we thought we were listening to Gorillaz.

At Brickworld Chicago 2022, LEGO builder Jarren Harkema turned up with an amazing display – a castle with a blue-green water fountain that flows up and over its structure – except the water is LEGO diamonds moving on conveyor belts. Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick’s gets us up close with this impressive creation.

Now that Better Call Saul has wrapped, we’re probably done with the Breaking Bad universe. Animation Therapy paid tribute to Vince Gilligan and his team’s amazing 14-year run of some of the best television ever with a beautiful CGI short film that commemorates some of the series’ iconic props and locations.

Artist WUZU clay made the cutest little sculpture of a Nintendo Game Boy / Game Boy Advance hybrid. They built the display inside a metal tin with an acrylic control section and working switches, then sculpted the game’s D-Pad, buttons, and characters out of polymer clay with magnets to hold them in place.

Whenever we try to decorate a cake, the frosting comes out an uneven mess. What we need is the Bakon Piston Depositor with the Cake Decorator option. This robotic cake-making machine smoothly applies layers of frosting to a spinning cake, then a second component squirts out perfectly piped frosting flowers.

This substantial wood speaker looks like something from a high-end audio line, but it’s actually the result of a DIY build. King Minhvuong walks us through their process of recycling pallet wood into this beautiful portable audio system. If you’re feeling inspired, there’s a full parts list in the video’s description on YouTube.