A Berlin-based art collective known as Raubdruckerin – German for ‘pirate printers’ – has come up with a unique approach to creating textile patterns. They have been traveling around European cities turning utility hole covers into printing presses to decorate totes, t-shirts, hoodies, gym bags, and more.

Founder Emma France Raff began experimenting with the concept of ‘urban printing press’ in 2006 when she founded the project in partnership with her father, Johannes Kohlrusch. They started in Lisbon, but have since expanded to Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin, the latter being their base of operations. The Raubdrucken team members find inspiration in the urban landscape and often overlooked surfaces of the city, such as utility hole covers and drains. Sustainability is a crucial component of the project, as they aim to offer an alternative perspective and approach to mass production.

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A Miami based artist creates stunningly detailed paintings that look like real Persian rugs. Jason Seife, who is a muralist and a graphic designer, began developing the intricate pictures in 2015 as a form of self-expression, but also as a nod to his Middle-Eastern roots.

Each dizzyingly elaborate piece is ink and acrylic, and feature the floral motifs and geometrical shapes seen on the large floor coverings. The history of classic rug design inspired the series, with a nod to the weavers’ use of pattern and color to signify the specific tastes of their tribe. Accordingly, Seife weaves his moods and mindsets into his work, choosing colors and patterns that represent his mental and emotional mindset at the time.

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A Belgian man had to be cut free from his art installation after failing to liberate himself after 19 days. Mikes Poppe had tethered himself by the ankle to a three-meter (10ft) chain that ran through a massive four-ton block of marble and spent 438 hours attempting to chisel his way to freedom.

The performance took place in the courthouse of the coastal Belgian city of Ostend. Poppe ate, slept, and washed there while chained to the block, all while live streaming to Youtube. He worked toward liberation from his self-imposed captivity by chiseling toward the stone every day, but after 19 days had to be cut free by a workman with an angle grinder.

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Manabu Kosaka, an artist from Saitama, Japan, has a very special skill – he can recreate virtually any wristwatch model exclusively out of high-quality Kent paper. The results of his painstaking labor are so utterly incredible that the saying “seeing is believing” doesn’t really apply.

So how does one go about recreating a seemingly perfect replica of a Rolex or Casio wristwatch out of nothing but paper? You could probably use a special 3D printer or some other advanced device, but Manabu Kosaka does it all by hand, first drawing the design on a sheet of Kent paper, and then using rudimentary tools like glue, dremels, an Xacto knife to cut tiny characters as small as 1 mm in size, and tweezers to place them at just the right place. I still can’t understand how he can mould the paper dials and the wristbands of the watches in such great detail, but they are certainly impressive to look at.

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In 2015 researchers from the University of Cincinnati uncovered a Bronze Age tomb in Pylos, in southwest Greece. It belonged to the so-called ‘Griffin Warrior’, a wealthy Mycenaean man, and dates back 3,500 years. Inside archaeologists uncovered a trove of treasure including precious jewels, armor and weapons, and many vessels made from precious metals. One of the most exciting discoveries, however, came in the form of a seemingly insignificant agate stone. It was covered in limestone initially, and it took a year of careful restoration to reveal its true form.

What lay beneath the limestone is a discovery so astounding that it is set to rewrite art history. As the intricate details of the stone’s design began to emerge, the researchers were astonished to discover that they had unearthed a masterpiece. The agate stone was revealed to be a seal, used for stamping an image onto clay or wax. The seal, named the ‘Pylos Combat Agate’, depicts a fierce hand-to-hand battle between tho warriors, with a third one already crumpled on the ground. The scene was meticulously carved on a 3.6-centimetre piece of hard stone, and some of the details are only half a millimeter in size.

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Four sophomore students at the University of Hefei, in eastern China, recently proved that you don’t have to spend a small fortune on a designer dress to look stunning. You can make it yourself, for free, using only plant leaves.

Photos of the four students’ stunning leaf dress have been doing the rounds on Chinese social media for about a week, and people still can’t stop gushing over them. And who can blame them, really? Just take a look at what these kids were able to do with about 6,000 leaves, some thread and mountains of patience.

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South Korean artist Young-Sung Kim has a very special talent, he can paint photographs. That may sound like a gross exaggeration, but just take a look at what he’s able produce with a paintbrush, some acrylic and mountains of talent and patience.

The old saying, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’, doesn’t really apply to Youn-Sung Kim’s art. You can stare at his incredibly detailed painting for hours and still not be able to tell them apart from high-resolution digital photographs. Kim is so good at what he does that, sometimes, he himself has trouble telling his hyper-realistic paintings from the photos that inspired them. Once, he actually mistakenly sent the press the file of a photo he took, instead of the painting he did, because they looked virtually identical to the naked eye.

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Shayna Leib’s French desserts may look delicious, but they are only meant to be savoured with the eyes. While these exquisite treats may appear to be the work of a talented confectioner, Leib is actually a porcelain and glass artist.

If, like me, you have an insatiable sweet tooth, you’re probably wondering how anyone could be so cruel as to tempt us with these positively mouth-watering desserts that we’ll never get to try. Well, in Shayna Leib’s case, the idea for her “Patisserie” porcelain and glass series was inspired by her own inability to indulge in decadent desserts. Apparently, her body reacts to food with high histamine, salicylate, and copper content, like puff pastry and chocolate mouse, which results in many dietary restriction. So by salivating over photos of her porcelain and glass desserts, you get a taste of how she feels every time she walks by a dessert shop.

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42-year-old Gabi Rizea only discovered his talent for wood carving three years ago, and has since put it to good use, saving dozens of old tree stumps from being completely removed, by turning them into impressive works of art.

A former forest engineer, Rizea became a wood carver completely by accident. Three years ago, after buying himself a new chainsaw, he started “playing” with it on a block of wood he had in his workshop. He tried carving a human face into the wood, and to his surprise, it turned out pretty good. He liked using the chainsaw for art, so he kept honing his skills. Today, he is so good at it that local authorities in his home city of Craiova, Romania, allow him to work his magic on the old tree stumps dotting the local parks.

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Casa Ceramica, a floor tile company from the UK, recently went viral on Twitter after creating an impressive optical illusion out of 400 floor tiles to discourage people from running through its hallway.

It’s not clear why anyone would be running through the hallway of a floor tile showroom, but they’re sure to think twice about doing it after taking a look at the floor ahead of them. Even though its designers assure us that it is perfectly flat, seen from a certain perspective, it looks like there is a big hole in the middle of it. Interestingly enough, seen from the opposite end, the hole actually looks like a bulge rising up from the floor. Both illusions are sure to prevent visitors from navigating the path at too fast a pace.

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To say that Japanese artist Noriyuki Saitoh is a master when it comes to capturing the anatomical features of tiny insects using only bamboo would be a serious understatement. The level of realism displayed in his creations is simply uncanny.

From the wiry whiskers of grasshoppers to the veiny wings wings of dragonflies and cicadas, the attention to detail in Noriyuki Saitoh’s bamboo insects is breathtaking. It’s true that the natural versatility of bamboo really helps, allowing the artist and his team to bend, score and layer the material to capture every little detail almost to perfection. Or at least that what you’re tempted to believe when you look at his tiny insects, even though things are not quite as they seem.

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Inal Bersekov is an incredibly talented tattoo artist from Belgium whose black and white, photo-realistic tattoos look printed on the skin of his clients.

There are plenty of celebrated tattoo artists in the world today, each with their own unique styles, but when it comes to inking detailed portraits, you probably won’t find anyone better than Inal Bersekov. The quality of his works is so insane that it’s nearly impossible to tell that you’re looking at someone’s tattoo, and not a black and white photo, or a really good hyper-realistic drawing.

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Soon after launching her cake design business seven years ago, Maggie Austin was already producing edible works of art for Hollywood parties, royal weddings and even White House Christmas celebrations, and looking at her portfolio, it’s not hard to see why. Her designs, especially the incredibly realistic edible flower decorations, are beyond everything I’ve ever seen.

At first glance, Austin’s flowers look 100% real. In fact, the level of realism is such that no matter how long you stare at them, it’s hard to believe that they are actually hand-made edible decorations created with sugar, waffle paper and food coloring. From simple roses an hydrangeas to her signature peonies, it seems like there’s no flower that ballerina-turned cake designer Maggie Austin can’t reproduce.

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Elmer Padilla, a young construction worker from Manila, Philippines, recently shot to internet fame after photos of his hand-made action figures went viral on multiple social networks.

While being able to make your own action figures is an impressive talent in itself, what really caught people’s attention was the medium used by the Filipino amateur artist – old flip-flops. Photos posted on a Facebook group dedicated to Filipino art show Elmer Padilla cutting colorful flip-flops on a sidewalk using knives and scissors, and assembling them into intricate toys like Transformers, Predator and Marvel superheroes. As you can see in the photos below, his creations are nothing short of awe-inspiring.

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32-year-old Ben Kurstin, of Humboldt Park, Chicago, has 8,816 dime bags in his apartment, but he’s no drug dealer. The aspiring artist and filmmaker has been collecting drug bags in virtually every color and design imaginable off the streets of Chicago and using them as an art medium.

It all started one day, a couple of years ago, when Ben Kurstin noticed a discarded dime bag on a sidewalk in Humboldt Park, and decided to pick it up out of curiosity. From that point on, whenever he saw drug bags on the street, he would pick them up and take them home. Soon, his unusual habit became an obsession, to the point where he would search for the bags and come home with dozens , sometimes even hundreds of them, every day. He then spent hours cleaning and organizing them by color and design. At one point, he even started thinking of a rational explanation, should police one day stop him, thinking he was a drug dealer.

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