Awesome Geometric

Croissants are typically shaped like a crescent, but at Turin, Italy’s Farmacia del Cambio, they make croissants that are shaped like cubes and spheres. Pastry chefs Matteo Baronetto and Giorgia Mazzuferi explain how they work their geometric magic in the kitchen. Be sure to turn on captions. (Thanks, Zico!)

TraceLoops creates eye-catching mixed-media art and animation. Much of their recent work involves making sequences by layering precision-cut sheets of paper and layering them to create a stop-frame sequence. Their YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram pages are filled with more of these hypnotic animations.

We’ve seen machines that can draw patterns in sand, but this is the first time we’ve spotted one that was built using LEGO Technic components.  Brick Machines created this sand art machine with a magnetic assembly that moves along a set of custom aluminum rails using corkscrew gears driven by a Mindstorms controller and tech from PyBricks,

Jeff Sanders, the builder behind the Brick Bending YouTube channel, is an expert at creating unconventional LEGO structures. This video shows off some large and elaborate wheels he built by layering hundreds of trapezoidal slices together. They look like they should be strong, but they’re quite fragile due to their weight and incomplete connections.

Artist Cole Newman uses the power of physics to make large-format paintings. He starts by swinging a can of paint over a moving canvas. Different geometric patterns emerge depending on the velocity and angle of both the can and the canvas. The process does make quite a mess on the floor, but the result is worth it.

This fascinating machine uses gravity to draw smooth spiral images known as Lissajous curves. It’s modeled on a 19th-century device called a harmonograph, updated with self-aligning gimbals and a spring-loaded pen holder that can accept various writing instruments. It attaches to any tabletop using a single clamp.

Portland-based Honey & Ivy Studio makes these casual but modern accent lights that have a faceted shape reminiscent of a gemstone. They’re 3D printed from high-quality PLA and come in four colors. Also shown is the matching Mishi faceted vase.