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Posts Tagged ‘Carved’

Fractal Fruit: Produce Carved into Elaborate Geometric Patterns

20 Apr

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

S

The mathematical precision of the patterns cut into raw fruits and vegetables is almost too perfect to be real, but on top of that, Japanese artist Gaku has to work as rapidly as possible to capture a photo of the finished product before it starts to turn brown. Imagine how hard that is with apples and avocados! ‘Mukimono’ is the Japanese art of food carving based in the idea of taking time to appreciate food before it’s consumed. But while many people are dazzled by the elaborate carvings, others are disturbed.

Clearly, it takes a practiced eye and a steady hand to deftly carve out each temporary masterpiece, especially considering that the patterns are so perfectly sized and spaced, they could be computer generated. Gaku says he learned the art five or six years ago, and that he’s a chef by trade, but rarely gets to use his carving skills at work.

You could say it’s too beautiful to eat – or maybe you’d say it’s terrifying. Buzzfeed rounded up a bunch of hilarious Twitter reactions to the work, ranging from “This kind of pisses me off and I don’t know why” to “I want to punch this food.” Perhaps these folks have undiagnosed cases of trypophobia (irrational fear of holes), intensified by the fact that it’s something you’re supposed to put in your mouth?

See more of Gaku’s work on his Instagram.

Plant Patterns: Living Roots Manipulated Into Nature-Based Art

The intricacies of a plant’s secret life beneath the soil, where its roots grow and change almost constantly, become a true work of art when manipulated into specific patterns. Artist Diana …

Lead Finger: Incredible Miniatures Carved Out of Pencil Tips

Eagle feathers, the folds on Yoda’s robe and individual bricks on iconic buildings are among the impossibly tiny details captured in pencil lead by miniaturist Salivat Fidai. The Russian artist …

Fruitless: 10 Abandoned Roadside Fruit & Produce Stands

Once vital threads in the fabric of Americana, these abandoned fruit & produce stands no longer entice hungry travelers into making roadside pit stops.

An urban farm in a state …

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Winter Carousels: Circular Spinning Ice Islands Carved with Chainsaws

08 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

ice carousels

Ice fishing huts and art shanties allow people to enjoy peaceful winters and creative expression on frozen lakes, but for those with something more dynamic in mind: rotating DIY islands of ice are also an option.

ice

Ice circles have been known to form naturally, particularly in streams where a current can round the edges of a free-floating chunk and keep it spinning. The ice circle below captured by Kaylyn Messer is one such example, found this winter in the Snoqualmie River near Seattle, Washington.

ice circle

These kinds of formations happen on their own at times in Scandinavian and American rivers, water currents slowly shaping the ice. Lakes with fully-frozen surfaces are another matter — creating ice islands on their surface requires a bit more ingenuity (or at least: labor and machinery).

winter spinning ice

Once created, these may or may not move on their own, depending on currents below the surface — in some cases they have to be helped along by an outboard motor. Seating and shelters can be brought out to make them more homey (small fires can even be lit if the intended use is temporary).

Fair warning, though: if you plan to light your ice circle on fire at the end of a festival or gathering, be sure to stay far back from the flames and warming ice.

The best part is that there is no waste in the making of these things nor assembly required. And if your first attempt fails (assuming you don’t go down with the island), you can always carve out more.

Angling for Warmth in Winter: 21 Ice Fishing Hut Designs

Not just cold comfort, these portable shacks designed to be towed out onto frozen lakes come in a variety of forms, from the practical and resourceful to the funny and artistic.  These ice …

Spinning Zen: Real-Time Patterns Painted on a Potter’s Wheel

Like a hypnotist’s pendulum, this fifteen minute visual experience will charm you with its rich variety of mesmerizing patterns, all drawn by hand before your eyes.

An amazingly meditative …

Concrete Islands? An Incredible Vision for Venice

Venice is sinking, and the city of canals is in dire need of solutions that can help it survive. This isn’t one of them. Architecture firm Bam! has envisioned a fantasy future in which residents …

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Neolithic Modernism: History Museum Appears Carved from Stone

30 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

cave museum

A bold break from traditional closed-box museums, this gorgeous open Museum of Indigenous Knowledge design is as much an interactive rock-hewn landscape as a work of contemporary architecture.

cavernous neolithic history museum

Kengo Kuma & Associates of Japan are the team behind this stoney structure slated for construction in Manila and designed to showcase Philippine history starting in the Neolithic period, known for its huge stoneworks.

ave museum contrast

Populated with tropical plants, waterfalls and pools, the carved-out center of the structure is made to feel both organic and inviting, encouraging visitors to climb up, wander and explore their environs.

cave museum interior spaces

The building is meant to stand out in contrast not only to more minimalist and austere museums but the surrounding urban environment as well, providing relief from the relentless urban cityscape on all sites.

cave museum sections

cave museum floor plates

Restaurants and shops are located along the artificial ravine toward the base of the building, meant to be accessible independently but also a gateway to the galleries and exhibition spaces on the floors above.

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Monument & Void: Massive Stone Museum of Mayan History

Commissioned for Guatemala City, this weighty megalithic structure is set to be the largest museum commemorating Mayan culture and history in Central America. …
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City Museum: Abandoned Warehouse Full of Caves, Rides & Slides

Somewhere between a huge funhouse, playground and circus, the City Museum of St. Louis may be the most entertaining and interactive urban architectural …
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Penthouse Mountain: Stone Villa Tops Chinese Condo Tower

Over six years, one dedicated man has constructed his dream house, complete with (presumably fake) boulders, trees, gardens, pools and ponds. It is the kind of …
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Lead Finger: Incredible Miniatures Carved Out of Pencil Tips

30 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

pencil carvings 3

Eagle feathers, the folds on Yoda’s robe and individual bricks on iconic buildings are among the impossibly tiny details captured in pencil lead by miniaturist Salivat Fidai. The Russian artist uses an X-acto knife to carefully scrape away minuscule shavings of graphite, revealing everything from realistic dinosaur heads to the Eiffel Tower.

pencil carving 5

pencil carving 4

Sped-up videos on Fidai’s Instagram give us a look at the process, which starts with scraping away an inch or two of wood to reveal the graphite core. The artist creates the basic shape of each sculpture and then makes the refinements. This technique requires not just an eye for detail but a very light hand as well, to avoid putting too much pressure on the lead and snapping it.

pencil lead carvings 1

pencil carving 9

pencil carving 8

They’re all cool, but perhaps most impressive are the ones featuring little pieces that have been carefully separated from the main graphite core, like this lock. Many originals are up for sale at the artist’s Etsy shop.

pencil carvings 11

pencil carving 6

pencil carving 7

Another artist creating similar works is Dalton Ghetti, a carpenter by trade who uses sewing needles and razor blades to carve entire chains of graphite as well as other sculptures, all without the benefit of a magnifying glass.

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Zen-Like Artist Creates Intricate Pencil Tip Carvings

Artists have been creating works of art in pencil for centuries – but in this artist’s capable hands, the pencil itself becomes the canvas.
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Scratch Art: U.S. Dollars Sculpted Into Incredible Works

One artist uses incredibly unconventional material to create some fantastically beautiful one-of-a-kind sculptures.
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Past Preserved in Paper: Miniatures Document Gentrification

Today, that charming old brick building on the corner might be a market where you can still grab a six-pack at a decent price; within mere months, it could be …
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Glacier City: Icelandic Ice Cap Carved Out for Year-Round Use

27 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

ice cave blue chapel

Burrowing hundreds of feet into the second-largest glacier in Europe, the world’s largest system of ice tunnels and spaces (including a chapel and cafe and exhibit spaces) are being excavated to connect visitors with a massive natural blue-ice cavern buried deep beneath the surface of Iceland. This incredible complex is set to open within the next few months – just in time for a summer vacation.

ice cave project

ice cave interior tunnels

Set inside Lanjoekull (Long Glacier), the Ice Cave rests on hundreds of feet of ice and is set nearly 5,000 feet above sea level – naturally, its location within a glacier means it can be accessed year-round. Combined with its record-breaking size, these factors make it unique among global ice architecture projects.

ice cave lighting design

ice cave underground light

Lights have been embedded using ice and snow in the passageways to create stunning illumination effects as one passes into the glacier. Visitors will be driven up the entrance via a special 8-wheel-drive, 40-passenger vehicle with 360-degree views and accompanied by guides who will then bring them inside these amazing tunnels carved from ice. One has to wonder: why stop at tours and visits? One could conceivably create an entire city below the surface, or at least a remote outpost for winter sports, using these same techniques.

ice cave entry carving

ice cave walls passageways

ice cave infrastructure

More on the history of the project from its makers: “In 2010, one of Iceland’s leading consulting engineering firms had an idea, that resonated with a some of Iceland’s most experienced adventure tour operators. They had a bold and daring vision, to take people not just around and onto, but also inside the heart of the remote and extraordinary glacier ice cap.”

ice architecture project

ice cave greenland military

Geoff Manaugh of BldgBlog highlights a similar historical endeavor called Camp Century (aka Project Iceworm) in which the US military burrowed beneath the ice in Greenland (video above): “Camp Century was a sprawling complex of prefabricated architectural units and steel arches installed within the ice cap, and, astonishingly, it was powered by a portable nuclear reactor.”

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Spooky Street Art: Halloween Graffiti All Year Round

Halloween is one of the big seasonal favorites, but the love for the creepy and scary doesn’t fade as the year wears on.
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Cultural Center Carved Out of 42 Grain Silos in South Africa

An amazing hybrid of preservation and transformation, this project involves carving a series stunning spaces inside a huge series of concrete silos set …
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Car-Free City: Hamburg Announces Audacious 20-Year Plan

Germany may be known for its green political party and sustainable energy focus, but this daring plan to eliminate the need for automobiles entirely across the …
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Micro Metros: Abstract City Models Carved from Wooden Scraps

27 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

wood art on pavement

With the eye of an architect and hand of street artist, James McNabb blends urban inspiration with a fast-paced creation process to make these amazing sketch-like sculptures of all sizes.

wood sculpture offcut art

wood grain closeup detail

woold sculpture james mcnabb

wood art in gallery

His latest series, dubbed Metros (opening at the Robert Fontaine Gallery), follows in the footsteps of Long Nights, Big City Lights, taking exotic and beautiful wood offcuts then chipping, chiseling,, cutting and sawing them into buildings and towers to form abstract skylines.

wood art new piece

wood sculpture urban woodworking

wood sculpture table design

wood sculpture above below

The results reflect a combination of architectural and artistic sensibilities, seeming much like pieces of furniture or sculpture but intentionally crafted without the same slow detail-oriented care we normally associate with those arts.

james mcnabb various woods

jaames mcnabb closeup detail

Seen at a distance, the structural details seem to blur into skylines – up close, like trees in a forest, individual buildings take shape, highlighting differences in form, color, grain and materiality.

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From Abstract to Actual: Unrealistic Art Models Made Real

Some of the world’s greatest abstract artists have created portraits of humans that, while inspired by the human form, have completely dispensed with any …
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Got Wood? 14 Brilliant Carved Wooden Bench Designs

Designed to seat a specific number in a particular way, to rock, roll, wheel and more. From artful to artisan, tentacled to transforming, here are 14 brilliant …
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Offcut Cityscapes: Sketching Sculptures with Band Saws

An adept furniture maker is familiar with scrap – but this artist has turned leftover materials into something just as fantastic as his designer projects.

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What Lies Beneath: Skeletons Carved into Everyday Objects

29 May

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Maskull Lasserre 1

Creatures large and small seem to have eaten their way out of the confinement of everyday items like rolling pins, axes, pianos and chairs in the hands of Montreal-based artist Maskull Lasserre. Previously known for his incredible skulls carved into the pages of books, Lasserre now reveals unexpected life (and death) within wooden objects.

Maskull Lesserre 2

Lasserre has carved crow skeletons, vulture skulls, rats, beetles and even a human ear out of found objects, often stacking more than one item together to produce the illusion that the sculpture is emerging from the wood. According to his CV, Lasserre’s sculptures “explore the unexpected potential of the everyday and its associated structures of authority, class, and value.”

Maskull Lesserre 3

Maskull Lesserre 4

“Elements of nostalgia, allegory, humor and the macabre are incorporated into works that induce strangeness in the familiar, and provoke uncertainty in the expected.”

Maskull Lesserre 5

In a two-part video interview with Liana Voia, Lasserre explains “When the remnants of life are imposed on an object, and that’s true especially with the carving work that I do, it infers a past history or a previous life that had been lived, so again where people see my work as macabre, I often see it as hopeful, as the remnants of a life.”

Maskull Lasserre 6

“Despite the fact that the life has ended, at least that life had a beginning and middle as well, so often by imparting these bodily elements to inanimate objects it reclaims or reanimates them in a virtual way.”

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Incarnate: Skull Carved from Outdated Computer Books

Artist Maskull Lasserre carves a skull from old software manuals, a snake skeleton from the handle of an axe and a child’s teeth from a wooden picture frame.
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Extreme X-Ray Tech: Revealing Beauty in Everyday Objects

Artist Nick Veasey uses powerful x-ray machines to reveal what lies under the surface of objects like teddy bears, light bulbs, even entire office buildings.
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Topographic Tomes: More Carved Books by Guy Laramee

Books are transformed into stunning landscape scenes of glaciers, mountains, lush green hills and ocean waves in sculptor Guy Laramee’s new series, Guan Yin.
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Cultural Center Carved Out of 42 Grain Silos in South Africa

13 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

grain silo mega atrium

An amazing hybrid of preservation and transformation, this project involves carving a series stunning spaces inside a huge series of concrete silos set alongside the waterfront of Cape Town. Once the tallest structure in the city, but abandoned since 1990, this converted complex will provide a home for 80 art galleries and create a hub for cultural activity.

grain silos close up

The spatial solution proposed by Thomas Heatherwick Studio involves scooping out huge voids within the existing industrial heritage site. This approach in turn exposes visitors to the tubular interiors of the silos via a newly-formed atrium while conserving much of the original building exterior. Meanwhile, below the surface, a series of re-purposed underground tunnels and storage spaces will provide additional access to the architectural history of the complex.

grain silo atrium zoom copy

The non-profit endeavor will exhibit contemporary African art via indoor galleries as well as a rooftop sculpture garden, bookstore, restaurant, bar and more. THS will be working on the Zeitz MoCAA (founded with the collection of entrepreneur Jochen Zeitz) with a series of local partners including Ven Der Merwe Miszewski (VDMMA), Rick Brown Associates (RBA) and Jacobs Parker.

grain silos at night

grain silo interior space

In an interview with DesignBoom, he architect sough to ask and answer the critical quesiton: “How do you turn forty-two vertical concrete tubes into a place to experience contemporary culture? Our thoughts wrestled with the extraordinary physical facts of the building. There is no large open space within the densely packed tubes and it is not possible to experience these volumes from inside. Rather than strip out the evidence of the building’s industrial heritage, we wanted to find a way to enjoy and celebrate it. We could either fight a building made of concrete tubes or enjoy its tube-iness.”

grain silos building section

grain silo section zoom

Of the project, David Green (CEO of the V&A Waterfront) said: “thomas heatherwick understood how to interpret the industrial narrative of the building, and this was the major breakthrough. His design respects the heritage of the building while bringing iconic design and purpose to the building.”

grain silos south africa

grain silo slice closeup

Regarding the search for a perfect site, Jochen Zeitz explains that “for five years we investigated suitable sites across Africa. The V&A waterfront provided an iconic heritage building, situated in one of the most visited and iconic sites in [the country].” Meanwhile, all of the existing silos will be capped with glass to let in light and show off their shape from above.

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Indoor Skydiving Inside Concrete Silos & Cargo Containers

Take your pick between a pair of once-abandoned silos: one lets you explore nearly 100 vertical feet of underwater space with hidden caverns, while the other …
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Abandoned Cement Factory & Silos Transformed into Offices

An abandoned factory complex in Spain has been transformed into a massive office for an architecture firm, leaving much of the old machinery intact.
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Flowing Forms: Curved New Cultural Center by Zaha Hadid

Architect Zaha Hadid’s designs are graceful and sinuous, imbued with dance-like movement, and the new Heydar Aliyev Center in Azerbaijan is no exception. …
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Not a Glitch: Cabinet Carved with Disorienting Design

15 Mar

[ By Steph in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

Glitch Cabinet 1

No, there’s nothing wrong with your screen – this intricate wooden cabinet was actually carved to resemble an image error. The ‘Good Vibrations’ storage unit by designer Ferruccio Laviani combines traditional Oriental craftsmanship and design with the visual effects of a digital or analog glitch.

Glitch Cabinet 2

Designed for the 2013 Furniture Exhibition in collaboration with Italian furniture company Fratelli Boffi, the wooden cabinet features two distorted areas where conventional carvings seem to have been stretched.

Glitch Cabinet 3

Unfortunately, the only image of the cabinet made available to the public shows it from the front, so we can’t get a look at how the distortions appear from three-quarter and side angles.

Glitch Cabinet 5

Glitch art plays on the psychological effects that come with looking at these images, whether they were created accidentally or intentionally, inviting us to take a deeper look at technological mistakes. Also referred to as ‘databending’, glitch art can be strangely compelling.

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