I’ve seen my share of Jabba the Hutt birthday cakes on the web, but this is by far the best ever.

Edible Jabba was made for the birthday of a four-year-old fan of the famous Star-Wars character, who specifically requested that Rotta (Jabba’s son) also be included in the sweet work of art. It was made by an unnamed ‘friend of the family’, out of chocolate cake, chocolate fudge and fondant. As delicious as that sounds I couldn’t take one bite out of this Jabba the Hutt cake, it’s just too perfect.

Congratulations to the artist for a job well done! Photos via icruise_flickr, parent of a very lucky 4-year-old.

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Why kill an animal and have it stuffed with straw and stuff, when you van have artist Shauna Richardson crochet you the best trophy head you could ever dream of?

Shauna Richardson is a true crochetdermy expert. What is crochetdermy, you ask? Well it’s kind of like taxidermy, only without the dead animals. The UK based artist uses coarse wools like mohair, and glass eyes to create animal models and hunting trophies. She uses a single color and only one type of stitch for an entire crochetdermy model, changing the direction of the stitches to highlight certain anatomical features. She works with a single 3mm hook.

Although it takes Shauna over a month to complete one of her crochetdermy masterpieces, the end result is definitely worth the effort.

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Each year, the French town of Menton hosts an event unique in the world, La Fete de Citron, or the Lemon Festival.

This year’s 77th edition of the Menton Lemon Festival takes place between February 12 and March 3 and has the theme “Menton does cinema”. The second most important festival on the French Riviera, after the Carnival of Nice and just before the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco, The Lemon Festival draws in a crowd of over 230,000 people.

The lemons grown in the Menton area are favored by the world’s star chefs, for their distinct flavor and superior sugar content. The French town enjoys a sub-tropical climate,sheltered by a nearby mountain chain.

Back in the 1930s, locals used to celebrate by parading a few carts loaded wit orange and lemon trees, but throughout the years, the festivities turned into an international carnival. Over 300 professionals work on arranging around 145 tons of citrus fruits as giant sculptures.

Photos via CCTV

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Jim Jablon used the skin of a dead alligator to create one of the strangest bikes ever seen on the roads of Florida.

Ironically enough, Jim Jablon’s ‘Gator Bike‘ was created using the skin of an alligator killed by authorities, but it’s now used to raise funds for a wildlife foundation. Alligator are constantly culled, in order to keep their numbers under control, and most of the skins end up pinned up in people’s yards. So Jim thought to put one to good use and get some exposure for his Wildlife Rehabilitation of Hernando (WROH) foundation. That’s basically how the Gator Bike was born.

The Gator Bike took Swedish leather expert Benny Ohrman a full year to complete. The skin and tail come of the bike, but the alligator head is fixed in place and has the speedometer and the rest of the gauges in the back of the head.

Jim Jablon decided to raise money for his foundation by organizing a raffle with the Gator Bike as the prize. A raffle ticket costs $100 and only 1,000 will be sold. The winner of the bike will be selected in May, in Fort Lauderdale.

It’s worth mentioning the Gator Bike comes with a powerful Ultima engine, and over $86,000 to make.

via Daily Mail

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Minnesota farmer Bruce Andersland thought to himself “Nothing says I love you like a big heart made of manure”.

That’s right, the (overly) original Bruce decided to surprise his wife of 37 years with a stinky Valentine. He used his animals’ manure to draw a half a mile wide heart , on their farmland. Y’all might think it’s gross, but his wife Beth says she thinks it’s cute and by far the most original Valentine she has ever received.

The stinky Valentine’s Day gift isn’t visible from the ground, so Darren Schone, from the Minnesota Aviation took some photos, as proof.

Photos by Darren Schone/AP

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Well, it looks like a giant hamster, but it’s actually a capybara, the largest rodent on the planet, and it makes a great pet,apparently.

Melanie Typaldos, from Buda, Texas first came into contact with a capybara on a trip in Venezuela. Her daughter Coral fell in love with them the moment she got to pick one up and hold it in her arms. The moment they returned home, Melanie began searching for a capybara as a pet. She found 11-day-old Caplin Rous on a rare animal farm in Texas and it instantly became a member of their family.

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The chandeliers designed by Dutch artist Hans van Bentem are anything but ordinary, taking all kinds of weird shapes, like skulls, revolvers or airplanes. But that’s exactly what makes the special.

Everyone who has set eyes on van Bentem’s glittering masterpieces, from celebrities to members of royal families, have fallen in love with them. Madanna ordered a revolver-shaped crystal chandelier designed by Hans van Bentem, to be hung somewhere in her house.

The artist claims he finds inspiration for his work in everything around him, from culture, to history or the daily news. Thus he manages to take classic crystal chandeliers and, while maintaining their beauty, transforms them into something “contemporary and meaningful.”

The smallest of Hans van Bentem’s chandeliers costs around $23,500, but the larger custom models reach the hundreds-of-thousands level. Every one of them is hand-crafted by Czech chandelier-makers, from diamond-shaped crystal beads, according to van Bentem’s design.

Photos by HANS VAN BENTEM/CATERS NEWS

via Telegraph.co.uk

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Scantily clad models showed up at malls, bus stations and on the streets of Brazil, as part of the celebrations for Brazilian Underwear Day.

The event took place on Tuesday, and was organized by Brazilian fashion website Finissimo. The models, both male and female, showed off their underwear in the most crowded places, to attract as many views as possible.

I know it sounds meaningless, but there’s more to Underwear Day, than beautiful models and plain fun. Style consultant Maria Thereza Laudares explains the aim of this national event: “The aim of the National Underwear Day is to make people recognize the importance of these garments left unseen, but which are the first to be put on and the last to be taken off.”

She’s got a point there, and since this is the fourth edition of Brazilian Underwear Day, people seem to be responding positively.

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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A former dockyard worker, Motoi Yamamoto is now one of Japan’s most talented artists, known all over the world for his intricate artworks, made of salt.

His working with this unusual medium was caused by the death of his younger sister, back in 1994. Mr. Yamamoto says that by working with free-form salt he is able to touch precious memories from the time his sister was alive, something he just can’t do by simply looking at pictures or reading a diary.

Some of his most amazing works are the intricate salt labyrinths. When he’s creating them, Motoi Yamamoto feels like he is following a trace of his memory that he can only reach when the work is completed. He stands in a cross-leg position for hours-on0end carefully laying the lines of salt, until he reaches the essential point in his memories.

Salt plays an important role in many cultures Like Hinduism or Japanese Shinto. Motoi Yamamoto uses salt as a life-giving substance, so after his art installations are no longer exhibited, he insists the salt be thrown back into the ocean so it can continue its path.

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Wearing nothing but swimsuits and summer apparel, contestants conquered the snowy slopes, during a fun carnival held in the Shanyang Forest Park, China.

Skiing is fun (Or so I’m told) but sliding down the slope and climbing back up again, can only be exciting for so long. So to spice things up a little, the people at Forest Park organized a fun winter carnival where participants would wear swimsuits and summer clothes.

As you can see in the photos, it was a pretty big hit that attracted a hefty number of skiing (and probably swimming) enthusiasts.

Photos by Zhao Jingdong/Xinhua

via Sina

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Chayne Hultgren, an Australian street-performer who goes by the name of Space Cowboy managed to swallow 18 sharp swords in one gulp.

31-year-old Chayne has been practicing the art of sword-swallowing since he was just 16 years old. Back then he started out by swallowing a garden hose, which he still uses as practice for the more dangerous stunts. After a few years of swallowing hoses, he finally moved on to steel swords.

According to the Space Cowboy himself, sword-swallowing is not as dangerous as it looks, if you know how to do it. It takes years of practice, meditation and knowing your own body. He says it took a while before learning how not to gag and controlling his internal organs.

The Space Cowboy Hultgren entertains Sydney passers-by for a living, swallowing swords all day long, but this time it was special. The crowd gathered near Sydney Harbor witnessed a new Guinness Record being set, as our hero slipped 18 swords down his throat, and towards the stomach, missing the heart by less than an inch.

The previous record of 17 swords, each of them 2 feet 4 inches long, was set by the same Chayne Hultgren.

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One of the most original and well-executed artworks I’ve seen lately, Joana Vasconcelos “Marylin” will be auctioned off on Tuesday, at Christie’s, in London.

Made out of hundreds of stainless steel pans and covers, Marylin was inspired by the high-heel shoes worn by Marylin Monroe in the infamous clip from “The Seven Year Itch”, when the blond bombshell walks over an air-vent.

Through her stainless steel work of art, Joana Vasconcelos points out that modern-day women are expected to look beautiful in public, and do all the work around the house. Despite the seemingly feminist message, Ms. Vasconcelos is actually an advocate for equal human rights.

The 13ft by 9.8ft stainless steel pan Marylin is expected to sell for a sum between $155,000 and $233,550.

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Unless you live in Detroit, you might not have heard about the Ice House Project, but it has really been the talk of the town for the last couple of weeks.

Architect Matthew Radune and photographer Gregory Holm, both living in New York, decided it would be a great idea to create an ice-covered home as an art installation. The idea came to Matthew when he laid eyes on a photograph of a house wrapped in a frozen waterfall.

And what better place for their artistic endeavor than Detroit, a city full of abandoned and foreclosed houses. They managed to convince Michigan Land Bank to let them borrow the abandoned house at 3926 McClellan. The building was scheduled for demolition, but Radune and Holm got it into a program that deconstructs and recycles materials. They also agreed to pay back taxes on a foreclosed house, so a single mother and her family could have a home. This was their gift to Detroit for allowing them to go on with their project.

Day and night the two watched over the house, constantly and stubbornly fighting Mother Nature, who alternated cold days with sunny ones that almost melted their Ice House. The whole thing cost around $15,000, most of which was raised through a donations website. This included the project licenses, the city water and hiring the police to cordon off the street for a few hours. The rest was just watching water ice-up and making shore passers by didn’t injure themselves on the ice.

On Saturday, Gregory Holm finally got the photo he wanted from the Detroit Ice House project, and they’ve stopped spraying it with water. But you can still admire it for a few days, until the sun melts it.

via

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If you’re a fan of horror, monster and gore, then you are about to become a big fan of Undead Ed’s work.

There is a lot of disturbing stuff in Ed’s grave of goodies, on Etsy, but if you want to show the world what a hardcore horror fan you are, these freakish rings and bracelets are just what you’re looking for. They’re bloody, creepy, scary, in one word: perfect!

And if you want your toddler to share this disturbing theme, take a look at the cyclops stroller.

via SuperPunch

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Two workers of Travancore Cocotuft Ltd. have spent months creating the world’s longest doormat hand-woven from coconut coir.

The giant mat is just 1.2 meters wide and 30 mm thick, but has a length of 101.6 meters and weighs 999 kg. Impressive numbers, but the most impressive thing about this mat is that it was handmade by just two workers. They spent 111 man days, over a period of 4 months, inserting 4,70,000 coir tufts between alternate wefts of coir yarn.

Although Guinness Book of Records is already considering declaring it the world’s longest hand-woven doormat, it serves a higher purpose. Cocotuft Chief Executive Officer P. Mahadevan says it was created to emphasize the miserable conditions of workers in the coir industry, who are paid much less than the minimum wage fixed by the Indian Government.

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