The Tattooed Baby of Jason Clay Lewis

The Drill Baby is a bizarre artwork created by New York-based artist Jason Clay Lewis. It is inspired by the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Remember Sarah Palin’s famous “Drill, baby, drill” remark? Jason Clay Lewis named his artwork the Drill Baby in respons to her infamous line. The Drill Baby is a peaceful looking baby made of vinyl rubber, mohair, plaster, oil paint and aluminum armature, covered with tattoos inspired by the BP disaster.

Oil covered seaguls and pelicans, a Koi fish swimming in dark waters and an isolated island surrounded by oil – these are the victims of the oil spill depicted on the infant’s tattoos, while the perpatrators are reprisented by a dark ship followed by floating oil barrels. Even the Virgin Mary is depicted holding a dripping gas nozzle.

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The Sugar-Cube Structures of Lionel Scoccimaro

French rtist Lionel Scoccimaro creates unique art installations by working with unusual mediums, such as sugar cubes. A big fan of Evil Knievel, skateboarding and surfing, Scoccimaro employs a great deal of fun into his art, but he says “I’m very serious about the way I ‘have fun,’ because it’s my only way of renewing myself and finding pleasure in my studio.”

Throughout the years, Scoccimaro has  created a variety of artworks, but his sugar-cube structures are definitely the most impressive. His Snow Landscape installation was 40 square meters in size, while White Lanscape was done using 400 kilograms of sugar.

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Bee Beard Competition 2010 – A Truly Stinging Contest

Bee beards have been around since the 1700s and up until a hundred years ago, honey vendors used them to attract customers, but now these organic disguises have their very own competition. Ever year, the world’s bravest apiarists gather in Aylmer, Ontario for the Clovermead Bees & Honey, Bee Beard Competition.

It’s not exactly the kind of contest people are dying to get into, for obvious reasons, but there are those who enjoy having tens of thousands of honey bees around their necks, or even covering their faces. The object of the Bee Beard Competition is to get as many bees on your body as possible. Contenders are weighed before and after they are covered in bees, and the heaviest one wins.

 

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V8 Hotel – A Car Enthusiast’s Ultimate Accommodation

Featuring automotive-themed rooms and beds made from famous cars, the V8 Hotel, in Stuttgart, is the ultimate retreat for any car fan.

Located in the center of Stuttgart’s Meillenwerk – one of Germany’s hot-spot for car dealers – the V8 Hotel is a regular tourist magnet. Practically everyone who comes to Meillenwerk wants to spend the night at this classy auto-themed hotel. At $490 per night, the rooms at the V8 are not the cheapest, but that doesn’t stop guests from booking them. Even Stuttgart locals come here to spend at least one night in the uniquely styled rooms of the hotel.

Built inside the old Boblingen Airport, the V8 Hotel has 34 rooms, each with its own unique interior, including one three level suite, set up in the old airport tower. The four star establishment uses antique accessories and original car parts as decorations for its rooms, and the car beds are made from classic cars like old Cadillacs, Mercedes or Moris Minor.

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The Soon to Be World’s Longest Bench of Littlehampton

With a capacity to seat up to 300 people, the bench of Littlehampton Beach is already the longest bench in Britain, but is preparing to snatch the title of longest bench in the world.

Designed by the guys at Studio Weave, the 324-meter-long bench of Littlehampton is definitely a sight to behold. It was made from tropical hardwood, salvaged from landfills and old seaside groynes, thus making it a monument to modern recycling.

Built along the promenade, the unique bench twists and turns, bends around trash bins, meanders around lampposts, and even goes into the ground to allow easy passage between Littlehampton’s Blue Flag Beach and the green that surrounds it.

The project may have been executed by the designers of Studio Weave, but it was initiated by locals and entrepreneurs of Littlehampton, who wanted something special for ther beloved venue. Students from a local school provided valuable insight about what makes Littlehampton Beach unique, and offered ideas about the color pallet used on the bench.

With its one-of-a-kind design and color scheme, the Littlehampton bench is already a famous British landmark, but the residents of the seaside resort have their sight set on a place in the record books. They are preparing to extend Littlehampton bench to 621 meters, and make it the longest bench in the world.

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The Intricate Paperworks of Simon Schubert

By carefully folding simple pieces of paper, German artist Simon Schubert creates amazing 2D masterpieces.

Cologne-based Simon Schubert creates two-dimensional architectural sceneries by simply folding paper sheets, and without any pen or pencil. His artworks are definitely colored enough without drawing instruments. While subtle, his folded paper artworks invite you to appreciate the level of craftsmanship that went into making them.

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God-grilla – The World’s Biggest BBQ

Measuring 16 feet across and weighing a whopping two tonnes, the God-grilla claims the title of world’s largest barbecue. It would probably get the title of all around largest BBQ, if it weren’t for the Big Taste Grill, a giant truck converted into a traveling barbecue. More on this amazing contraption, soon, for now let’s discover God-grilla.

God-grilla was designed by 31-year-old Jack Henriques, owner of the Bespoke BBQ Company. It is fitted with hinged pannels that allow easy access to add more logs, and has seven separate coal trays that allow you to cook up to seven whole lambs, at once. You can also use the God-grilla to grill 1,000 sausages or 500 hamburgers.

But, as you would expect, using a cooking monster like the God-grilla comes at a high cost. You need 14 bags of coal to get this beast started, so you better make sure your frinds pitch in at the next barbecue party.

Jack Henriques spent three months and over $15.000 to create God-grilla, and says he’s already working on an even more impressive cooking machine.

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The Banana Boats of Jacob Dahlstrup

Danish artist Jacob Dahlstrup loves to build miniature boats, but instead of using wood, he builds their hulls out of ripe bananas. His works were recently on display at the Shoreditch Town Hall, in London, and you can see his entire portfolio on his official site. While I’m pretty sure they don’t float (not the way a boat is supposed to, anyway), Jacob Dahlstrup’s banana boats make great, nutritious snacks.

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Chinese Restaurants Serve Paper-Made Dishes

As a way to attract new customers, many Chinese restaurants have started serving dishes made with a kind of edible paper.

Eating paper has so far been considered an eating disorder. For some reason, some people just can’t help themselves and gobble whole sheets of paper, every day. It can be hazardous to their health, but above all it’s a weird habit that you can’t share with everyone. Luckily, eating paper doesn’t have to be weird anymore, thanks to edible paper. A factory in China’s Nantou City has been making this revolutionary material from fibers found in vegetables and fruit, and the local restaurants quickly adopted it as an ingredient. Now, tourists and locals alike are crazy about the foods cooked mainly from the edible paper.

To be honest, I’d definitely try some of these paper foods myself, they don’t look half bad.

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The Architectural Experiments of Terunobu Fujimori

Some of his works may not even look like real houses, but Terunobu Fujimori is one of the world’s most acclaimed architectural designers. His unconventional works have been displayed all around the world, and, believe it or not, people actually want to live in his houses.

A historian by trade, Terunobu Fujimori started designing buildings late in his life, when he was 44. He was asked to design a history museum for a family from his local village, near Nagano, who had ancient ties to that place. He decided to build something completely uncobventional, in order to avoid being criticized for lack of originality, and his creation was a success.

Since then, Terunobu Fujimori has been delivering one fascinating house after another, at a rate of a house per year. Using his knowledge of Japanese architectural history and his designer talents, Terunobu Fujimori manages to create unique buildings that are ecologically sensitive and energy efficient.

The way Terunobu Fujimori designs and builds his houses is as unconventional as they look. He simply takes a tree stump and starts hacking away at it with a chainsaw, until he gets a rough model of what he plans to build. Then he invites his clients to his Too-High Tea House, standing 20 meters into the air, on two forked tree trunks, and shows them his designs. If they don’t like them, he simply shakes the house until he gets a positive answer. Galleries have offered to buy his tree stump models, but he always refused to sell them.

Although he relies on professionals for the structural and electrical installations on his houses, he handles most of the interior design, with a team of friends. He never pays them for their work, as that would be labor.

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Samurai Star Wars

Did you ever wonder what Star Wars would have looked like if it had been directed by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, instead of George Lucas? Well, someone did, and here’s what they came up with.

Sillof, a high-school history and film teacher with no formal art training, imagined the Star Wars characters through the eyes of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. He remembered George Lucas saying he was a fan of Kurosawa, and that he used his “the Hidden Fortress” as inspiration for Star Wars and decided to create a series of samurai style Star Wars action figures.

The Samurai Star wars cast definitely hints at the original characters, but they stay true to the Japanese style as well. Truly unique works of art, Sillof’s action figures can be admired in all their glory, at his online workshop.

 

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The Contaminated Ceramics of Tamsin van Essen

They may look like ceramic cups that haven’t been washed in years, but these are genuine artworks made by British designer Tamsin van Essen.

Using various “foreign” materials, the artist managed to mimic the infestation of various bacterias on ceramic bowls. As real as the contamination with Salmonella and Streptococcus may seem, the bowls are perfectly clean and ready to be used. Even knowing that, I doubt anyone would be crazy enough to actually use them.

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Germany Sets World Record for Most Human Dominoes

Before today, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as human dominoes, but it appears events involving people falling over each other have been going on for years.

That’s right, believe it or not human domino events are among the top world record attempts. That’s probably because it doesn’t require any special skills or a lot of effort. All participants need is a mattress and a god mood.

On July 31st, a new world record was set for the most human dominoes. 769 people and their mattresses fell over each other, thus beating the old record set earlier this year, in Dubai. Back then, only 344 human dominoes were toppled.

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Mona Lisa Mosaic Made of Burnt Toast

For the last 10 years, Maurice “Toastman” Bennet has been making incredible masterpieces from pieces of toast. His last work of art is a giant crunchy replica of Mona Lisa.

Last week, the Toastman spent most of his time at the K-11 shopping mall, in Hong Kong, working on his newest work for the upcoming Food Art Festival. His entire studio smelled of gas and burnt toast, but the final result was fully worth it. He managed to create a beautiful replica of Mona Lisa eating a pink ice cream, out of around 6,000 individual pieces of toast. And he did it all by using a blow torch to create patterns and different color tones.

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The Pencil Tip Masterpices of Dalton Ghetti

Many artists use pencils to create their works of art, but in the case of  Dalton Ghetti, his pencils actually become artworks.

49-year-old Dalton Ghetti loved to carve things as long as he can remember. As a child, he used to carve his friends’ names into the sides of pencils and offer them as presents. Later, he took sculpting more seriously and began making large wooden sculptures, until he decided to challenge himself and make really tiny artworks. He experimented with many mediums, such as chalk, until the day he discovered pencil graphite.

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