Man-Made Tiger, Literally

I know what you’re thinking, that’s a nicely drawn tiger. Only…Well, just check out the pics, this is one of those “a photo is worth a thousand words” post. Also check the video at the bottom to get an idea of how it came to be.

tiger-body-art

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Whiteout at the Xinzo Festival Flour Battle

One of the many Ourense festivals, the Spanish village of Xinzo de Limia host one of the most unique food fights in the world, the “flour battle”.

Every year, Galicians from  Xinzo de Limia celebrate their very own Ourense festival. The entire festivities are centered around a number of mythical characters (peliqueiros) whose significance and stories have been forgotten in time. Still the are part of local tradition, so the people dress in colorful clothes, put-on intricate masks and run through the streets of the city, making as much noise as possible.

People all over Galicia come to see the “peliqueiros”, but also to take part in the Flour Battle, where people through tons of flour at each other. Glasses are recommended as the fine ingredient can get pretty much anywhere.

Take a look at some photos taken at this year’s edition of the Flour Battle, Xinzo de Limia.

Flour-Battle-Xinzo

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Dayton Webber – The Limbless Warrior

11-year-old Dayton Webber lost all his limbs when he was just a baby, but that didn’t stop him from performing in wrestling matches and riding his skateboard.

Young Dayton is a true inspiration. he lost his hands and legs when he was just 11-months-old, due to a life-threatening infection in his body. But for him, the absence of limbs didn’t mean he couldn’t live a perfectly normal life. Armed with ambition and will to succeed, Dayton took on sports other perfectly healthy people can’t do.

Both Dayton’s parents say they never pushed him to do anything, it was always his idea to try new things. These days he competes for the The Rampage Westling Team, in Waldorf, rides a skateboard, ice-skates, drives go-karts and even plays video-games like Madden NFL.

Other boys are surprised when they first meet him, especially in wrestling matches, but they soon find out he’s a worthy adversary. What Dayton can do physically he compensates in willpower. When asked what happened to his hands and feed, he simply answers “it’s no big deal”.

 

The Basketball-Playing Elephants of Thailand

I don’t know how they do it, but Thai trainers get elephants to do the most amazing things. After the amazing elephant painters, from the National Elephant Institute, it’s time for the extraordinary basketball-playing elepahnts.

Malie and Toktak are the stars of the Island Safari Center, on Koh Samui Island. After undergoing months of rigorous training, the two pachyderms have mastered the sport of basketball. I know what you’re thinking, Shaquille O’neal finally found someone his own size to play with.

The elephant trainers start by teaching them the basics of basketball control, before they get to the carrying of the ball in their trunk and shooting it to the basket. It takes a few months before they get the basics of the sport, but they’re improving every day. it won’t be long until NBA drafters start checking these two out, mark my words.

Photos by Bronek Kaminiski/BARCROFT INDIA

via Telegraph.co.uk

elephant-basketball

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Models Look Even More Delicious in Chocolate Outfits

As if ripping a model’s clothes off with your teeth wasn’t cool enough, imagine if her clothes were made entirely out of delicious chocolate. Guess what, your dreams have become a reality! Well…without the ripping clothes off part.

What’s hotter that Asian models dressed in chocolate? Can’t think of anything right now, and if you can, you’re the one with the problem. These girls took part in a parade to kick off the 2010 Salon du Chocolat, in Shanghai. I have to say this is the way every event should start.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Chocolate-clothes

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Kris Kuksi’s Recycled Toy Sculptures

We’ve seen recycled toys used in sculptures before, but Kris Kuksi’s macabre art is on a whole other level.

Born in Springfield, Missouri, Kris had a rough childhood, isolated and secluded with his blue-collar mom, two older brothers and an alcoholic stepfather. This was most likely what caused him to retreat in his own imagination and realize the macabre and grotesque seemed beautiful to him.

As an adult, Kris Kuksi developed his passion for the bizarre into an art that allowed him to break free from his negative childhood. Using old, recycled toys and mechanical parts, Kris creates breathtaking sculptures that seem to host a world of their own, each filled with the most bizarre characters and creatures.

many find his work scary and repulsive, but Kris Kuksi‘s talent is appreciated by famous people like Mark Parker (CEO of Nike), Chris Weitz (director of American Pie and The Golden Compass) or Kay Alden (writer of soap-operas like The Young and the Restless of The Bold and the Beautiful), who own some of his works.

Kris-Kuksi-art

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The Skiing Witches of Belalp Hexe

I remember a time when witches flew on brooms. Nowadays they’re flying on the ski-slopes, using their brooms as sticks. What’s the occult world coming to?

Every year, between January 10-16, over 1,500 people from Switzerland and other European countries gather at Belalp, for one of the wackiest downhill skiing races in the world. The Witches Downhill challenge has contestants dress up as witches and race down a snowy mountain.

Races are organized for children and adults alike and between challenges there are fun parties to go to. Witches Night is the biggest, with over 3,000 participants indulging in singing, dancing, drinking and all around partying.

The Belalp Hexe Ski Race began in 1983, inspired by a real witch that apparently lived nearby and terrorized locals. she actually flew around and everything.

Belalp-Hexe-ski-race

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The World’s Largest Pokemon Collection

21-year-old Lisa Courtney, from Welwyn Garden City, UK, has the world’s biggest Pokemon collection in the world, according to the newest edition of Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition.

Lisa received her title in June 2009, when her collection numbered 12,113 different Pokemon items. Now the passionate collector says she owns over 13,400 items. Since new Pokemon stuff comes out in Japan almost daily, Lisa says she won’t stop collecting any time soon.

She’s been to japan five times already and is planning a new shopping trip. Lisa Courtney started collecting Pokemon memorabilia 13 years ago, when her mother gave her a Nintendo magazine featuring the popular animated characters. She fell in love with Pokemon and hasn’t gotten over it since.

During her troubled adolescence, when schoolmates bullied her, laughed at her physical disabilities and even called her names like “Elephant Man”, Lisa turned to her beloved Pokemon collection, for comfort. Her entire family understood her passion and were very supportive, especially with the giant Pokemon collection taking up most of the house.

Lisa Courtney says holding a record for something she feels so passionate about is an indescribable feeling.

biggest-pokemon-collection

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Mike Libby’s Steampunk Insects

Stop! Don’t even think about screaming “Photoshopped!” because Mike Libby’s Insect Lab is 100% real. And so are his incredible Steampunk insects.

Mike began his unusual project on a day like any other, when he found an intact dead beetle. Thinking about how the little bug functioned as a mechanical device, he remembered he had also found an old wristwatch and decided to combine the two. After dissecting the beetle and mounting the mechanical parts, he realized he quite liked his new craft and decided to stick to it.

Now Mike Libby creates all kinds of Steampunk insects, from scorpions to ordinary beetles and dragonflies. He only works with non-endangered species from all around the world, fitting them with mechanisms from antique watches as well as old typewriter and sewing-machine parts.

Check out Mike Libby’s Insect Lab and feel free to email him if you want to purchase any of his Steampunk wonders or place a special order.

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Incredibly Realistic LEGO Flames

If you ask me, it looks more like lave gushing out of the Earth, but if the artist says it’s fire, I’m sure not going to argue.

Cole Blaq proved his LEGO mastery by creating what many thought impossible, flames out of LEGO bricks. Using light gradient in the center and red on the edges of his creation, and an overhead lamp for the glow, Cole managed to get the desired fiery effect, without any light sources inside the LEGO sculpture.

What’s even more awesome is that if you look carefully you can see the artist’s name (COLE) engulfed by flames. Pretty cool.

via Brothers Brick

LEGO-Flames

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Crucified Jesus Made of Toast

British artist Adam Sheldon recreated Jesus’ crucifixion using some pieces of burned toast and a scraping knife. His work of art is now on display at the Anglican Church of St Peter, in Lincs.

33-year-old Adam Sheldon took on the project at the request of his mother, who worships at St. Peter’s Church. Before starting work on his 1.8 ,meters long, 1.1 meters wide masterpiece, Adam scraped the Last Supper on three pieces of toast, to perfect his technique.

He used a regular toaster to burn the pieces of bread, then dried and flattened them so they would fit in a giant frame. Using a scraping knife he managed to create the lighter parts of the artwork, and darkened the background with a blowtorch.

At first, the reverend and parishioners were stunned by Sheldon’s creation, because they didn’t expect something this…original, but now they’re thrilled to have such art on the walls of their church. The artwork was so skillfully scraped, some believed it was actually painted on tiles, before realizing the tiles are really pieces of bread.

The toast crucifixion of Jesus will be on display at the Anglican Church of Saint Peter until January 30, if the rats don’t get to it by then.

toast-Jesus

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St. Anthony’s Feast – A Fiery Celebration

Every year on January 17,the people of San Bartolome de Pinares celebrate St. Anthony by riding their horses, donkeys and mules through piles of burning tree branches.

The unique tradition of leaping over and through flames dates back 500 years, but the men and women of San Bartolome de Pinares still celebrate it religiously. They gather all the branches they find in the days leading up to the festivities, and when dusk falls on the eve of Saint Anthony’s, they light them ablaze. Riders lead their mounts through the burning piles of the village, accompanied by sounds of drums and Spanish bagpipes.

Jumping through the flames is said to bring the animals the protection of St. Anthony Abad, acknowledged as the patron of domestic animals, ever since the Middle-Ages. Locals believe the fire purifies their animals and protects them against illnesses, all year long.

Animal rights activists don’t buy the whole purification deal, but in a country like Spain, where traditions like bullfighting, Shearing of the Beasts or Day of the Geese, they don’t have too many hopes of putting an end to it. Plus, the owners say their animals remain unharmed…

San-Bartolomeo-de-Pinares

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Michel de Broin Builds World’s Largest Disco-Ball

Make the entire world your disco. I bet that’s what French artist Michel de Broin thought to himself when he decided to create the world’s largest disco-ball.

It might sound like a crazy idea, but Michael de Broin actually did it. Using a 7.5 meter disco-ball, featuring 1,000 mirror pieces, the artist managed to light up Paris on a winter night. He did so by hanging the giant disco-ball 50 meters up, using a giant crane, and projecting light onto it.

The ball was hung up in the Jardin de Luxumburg and the light effects that covered Paris were more than worth the effort of bulding the whole installation. plus now Michel de Broin could enter the record books for the World’s Largest Disco-Ball.

via Lifelounge

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Virgin Mary Mosaic Made from 15,000 Easter Eggs

Ukrainian artist Oksana Mas has created an unusual mosaic portrait of the Virgin Mary, using 15,000 painted Easter Eggs.

Unveiled yesterday, inside the gorgeous Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the giant mosaic weighs 2.5 tons and is made out of 15,000 wooden Easter Eggs. Oksana Mas started working on her masterpiece nine months ago, painting the eggs all by herself, but later children from all across the country got involved and helped out with the painting.

The Easter-egg portrait of the Virgin Mary, by Oksana Mas, measures 7×7 meters.

Easter-Egg-Mosaic

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Chandeliers Made from Prescription Spectacles

Stuart Haygarth uses thousands of spectacles and eyeglass lenses to create impressive-looking chandeliers.

The tiered chandelier made my Haygarth is called Spectacle and is made out of 1,020 spectacles attached to an acrylic frame. The artist believes using spectacles, tools once used for seeing, draws an analogy between their old purpose and the new one.

Optical is another chandelier by Stuart Haygarth, made from 4,500 spectacle lenses hanging on a monofilament line.

Stuart Haygarth via VeryVeryFun

eyeglasses-chandelier

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