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Showing posts from September, 2015

Children can play with these wooden blocks and learn math at the same time

I'm not sure why nobody has thought of SumBlox before, but it's brilliant regardless.

Brazilian artist reuses electronic scrap to make art

As our insatiable demand for faster and more powerful devices rises, so too does the pile-up of electronic waste. According to a recent report , 41.8 million tonnes of e-waste were dumped around the world in 2014 and only an estimated 6.5 million tonnes were taken for recycling. To highlight this issue, Brazilian artist Christian Pierini Macêna has created a series of art installations, where he used discarded electronics as materials to form portraits of famous people. Aside from being an artist, Christian is also a producer, musician, and cultural and visual arts teacher. He has a degree in Visual Arts from Bennet Methodist University and took classes of observation drawing, live model and painting. Take a look at some of his awesome artworks below and visit his Facebook page to find more.  [h/t: design you trust ]

A visit to Beijing and a stay at the Sunrise Kempinski are now on my bucket list

Located on the shore of Yanqi Lake, the Sunrise Kempinski is housed in a bold, spherical structure that looks like a scallop from a side angle. It has 306 guest rooms and suites spread across 21 floors, and is covered with more than 10,000 glass panels which are meant to reflect the hotel's surrounding mountains, forestry and lake. Chief designer Zhang Hai Ao of Shanghai Huadu Architect Design Company collaborated with a team of more than 60 individuals from around the world to build the luxurious hotel. Its construction took two years, and required 9,300 workers to complete. 

Unconventional Portraits by Red

Hong Yi is one of my favorite artists to have discovered this year. The talented Malaysian hottie, who often goes by the nickname Red, likes to paint... but not with a paintbrush. Instead, she uses everyday objects like socks, sunflower seeds, melted candles, coffee cups, and chopsticks to create stunning pictures. Who wouldn't be amazed by the portrait of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that Red created out of 36 books by carefully slicing off the sides of the pages, or the rather unusual image of famed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou made of 750 pair of socks? Red could do almost anything with her hands but the most remarkable work she did was with food. Among her most impressive pieces was a coffee cup stain portrait of Italian singer Lucio Dalla. "Patience has developed overtime," she said . "I studied architecture for six years, and it trained me to work very hard until late at night. There was a certain discipline in my life during my university years.

Helene Meldahl combines mirror selfies with her love of art

A few days ago my good friend Kim alerted me to this adorable artist on Instagram. I must've been living under a rock because I wasn't aware of her work. Well, better late than never. Most girls are addicted to taking selfies, and Helene Meldahl is no exception. However, the 27-year-old Norwegian artist has taken the game to a whole new level. Her self-portraits are fresh, quirky, creative and they remind us all to have a little fun. For more than two years, Helene (aka @mirrorsme ) has been filling her IG account with unique mirror doodles. Using chalk, markers, and a little imagination, she creates delightful environments before snapping away. Initially drawing on mirrors with her lipstick to leave cute messages for her roommate, the drawings evolved from small to elaborate illustrations. Check out some of her clever selfies below.

Miha Brinovec's Ephemeral Land Art

Slovenian artist Miha Brinovec makes environmentally friendly, biodegradable, outdoor installations from purely natural substances. These remarkable land art will eventually go back into nature leaving no chemicals behind.  What you see here only begins to scratch the surface of Miha's work. Aside from art installations, he also paints, balances stones, and creates portraits from pieces of magazines. For more on his work, visit his website . 

This guy makes suits of armor for mice and cats

Calgary-based multi-media artist Jeff de Boer creates suits of armor… for cats and mice. He started designing and building these meticulously crafted metal pieces over 30 years ago as a little side project on his sculpting class at the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he majored in jewelry design. The side project eventually turned into a full time job. Jeff's work is inspired by Medieval times, Ancient Rome, the Renaissance Era, and Japan's Edo period. He uses different metals for his sculptures, but mostly bronze and copper. Though his creations look wearable, the artist has never really tried putting them on mice, though he did get scratched by one of his cats while doing so. While most of Jeff's work is done on a commission basis, he occasionally have pieces available for sale. Check out more of his impressive sculptures on his website and follow him on Facebook .

The Beautifully Grotesque Wax Sculptures of Sigrid Sarda

There are two types of reactions to seeing Sigrid Sarda's work: turning away or moving in closer. Sigrid, a talented sculptor based in New York, creates unbelievably detailed and delicate-looking human figures made of wax. She's been carving beautifully grotesque pieces for many years now, but for over 30 years she was a painter. Due to the death of her father and the psychological aftermath she experienced, she quit painting. Sigrid's sculptures are life-size wax pieces built on hand wrought armatures, sometimes real human bones upon which she hand-models cast faces and other body parts. Be sure to check out her blog or follow her on Instagram for information on exhibitions and more of her fabulous work. Artist Statement: "Sigrid Sarda constructs life-size human figures made of wax incorporating human remains in the tradition of the doll as a magical object. The figures become talismans, reliquaries housing human bones. Each tableaux, in tradition of the

This cartoon summarizes the inspiring life of Frida Kahlo

This comic by Philadelphia-based comedy writer and cartoonist Sissy Biscuit serves as an ode to Frida Kahlo's storied life. Like the famed Mexican painter, Biscuit also had a near death experience when she was a teenager. She told The Huffington Post that Lyme disease left her bedridden for several months when she was just 14. During that time, the aspiring artist found solace in art history books and immediately fell in love with the work of Kahlo. "To say I fell in love with her would be an understatement," she said. "She was so bold and honest about her situation." For more from Sissy Biscuit, be sure to check out her blog .

Would you spend the night in a hotel made of sand?

Many tourists only come to the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam. But this small yet fascinating country has a lot to offer outside its capital. There are many wonderful canals, splendid beaches, picturesque windmills, colorful flower fields and unique hotels: Castles in the countryside, trendy boutique hotels, hotels situated on the water, and these two new hotels built entirely out of sand. The SandHotels were constructed recently in the Dutch cities of Oss and Sneek, as part of the Friesland and Brabant sand sculpture festivals. The lodgings, which took four weeks to complete, include fully furnished one-room suites decorated with intricate sand carvings. The one in Oss looks like a medieval castle, while the one in Sneek is inspired by Chinese architecture and features sculptures of dragons and the Terracotta Army. Rooms go for $172 a night, which includes free breakfast, a guided tour of the festival grounds, a bottle of Prosecco and other treats. Like the ice hotels in Swe

Rose McGowan gets weird and naked in debut music video

Here's Rose McGowan reminding us all that she used to date Marilyn Manson. The 42-year-old actress-turned-filmmaker-turned-musician has teamed up with Spun director Jonas Ã…kerlund for her first music video, RM486 . The clip contains some nudity and features McGowan portraying multiple eccentric characters, including a white, hairless alien-like creature. Here's what the former Charmed star had to say about the video: "All five characters in the video are versions of me. All are pieces that make up my whole — an artist, a public figure, and most importantly, as a person. I’m pushing back at the idea of what I am supposed to be, I want to expose people to art in a real way, and I want to change the idea of what beauty is. There is true power in art and true power in we who believe in it."

With this organic urn, you can become a tree when you die

There's an increasing trend of people choosing cremation over burial as a funeral rite. Why? Because in most cases, cremations are cheaper, and they offer some flexibility for the family in terms of memorial service. Some people wish their ashes to be scattered, while others choose to keep their remains in an urn or in special jewelry. I don't know about you guys, but when I die I want to be immortalized as a tree. This is possible with Bios Urn , a biodegradable vessel made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose that turns ashes into a beautiful tree. Designed and created by Barcelona-based Gerard Moline and Martin Azua, the urn comes with either pine, gingko, maple, oak, ash or beech tree seeds, but just about any type of seed or seedling can be used. The ashes are stored in the lower part of the container and the upper section holds soil. Eventually, both the urn and ashes become part of the subsoil. In case you didn't know ashes, including those from cre

Artist creates beautiful illustrations that look as if they've been cut from paper

A little late to the party on Eiko Ojala's work, but better late than never. Eiko is an illustrator and graphic designer from Estonia who creates stunning minimalist designs that look as if they've been cut from paper. He does all of his illustrations digitally by hand using the likes of Photoshop – though sometimes he uses elements created from photographed or scanned paper.  In order to create these illusions, Eiko thoroughly studies the forms of shapes and works closely with light and shadow. His technique is so good at first I thought all these were paper crafts. He doesn't use 3D software to create his images, and only uses 'real' paper to make the really difficult parts. Check out some of my favorites below: You can see many more amazing examples of his work here .