Rouleaux Art by Anastassia Elias

February 16th, 2011

I always feel a little sad every time I discard an empty toilet paper roll. Art class was always one of my favorites as a child and there were so many fun things you could do with those. Apparently French painter/artist Anastassia Elias feels the same way. She’s transformed those discarded rolls into a marvelous collection of beautiful little scenes! She uses manicure scissors to cut shapes from sheets of paper the same color as the roll, giving the illusion that the paper figures are part of the roll. She then uses tweezers to manipulate and position the shapes. She must have steady hands and a lot of patience! I’m glad someone finally had the inspiration to rescue these sad discarded rolls and transform them into little treasures.

Anastassia Ellis Rouleaux Art

 

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God of the Broken by Dan Stevers

February 12th, 2011

You wouldn’t have to know me long to figure out I’m a broken person and I don’t mean broken in some spiritual sense that implies a humble and submissive spirit. I mean broken like my Dyson DC16 handvac – it plain don’t work. Sure, all the pieces are still there and yes it has the potential to be the most powerful dirt-lifting device ever imagined by man, but all it is now is an oddly shaped lump of plastic taking up space on my counter top. It would be nice to just walk over there, grab him and give him a firm and rigorous shaking and shout “Damn you Dyson! Look at what you’ve become! Pull yourself together man! Reach down deep inside and find the strength to get yourself back in working order! Make yourself great again!” However, I have little hope this strategy will have any effect. No. As humiliating as it may be for him, he is going to have to be disassembled, placed back in his styrofoam molds, and shipped back to the factory where the good folks who know him inside and out can diagnose his malfunction, clean or replace any faulty parts, and set him back on the path of dirt-lifting greatness. The good news for me is there happens to be a factory for broken people too. His name is Jesus. I really enjoyed this short video by Dan Stevers highlighting a few examples of the broken people whose lives crossed paths with their creator.

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Fantasy Art by Wangli Feimo

February 7th, 2011

No one seems to know much about Wangli (or Wang Li) Feimo other than that she is from China and her art is pretty fantastic. It kind of reminds me of the Dynasty Warriors video game series by Koei which, thanks to the fact I watched the movie Red Cliff this weekend, I finally understand what the heck was going on in those games. It was a great movie and this is some pretty great fantasy art. Enough said.

Wangli Feimo Fantasy Art

 

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Flip Phone Concept by Kristian Ulrich Larsen

February 2nd, 2011

Back in September I posted some photos of the Seabird mobile phone concept. The Seabird certainly does seem like the ideal phone with everything you could ever want from a mobile device. The triple-display Flip Phone concept by Kristian Ulrich Larsen features a remarkably creative design with more versatility than anything I’ve seen before. This concept features three displays that flip out and collapse as well as a full qwerty keyboard. Check out the video and additional photos after the break.

Flip Phone Concept by Kristian Ulrich Larsen

 

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The Ross-Littlewood Paradox

January 30th, 2011

Whenever I feel especially frustrated or burned out I will often turn to art or music to rejuvenate myself. Whenever art and music aren’t up to the task, I turn to mathematics. I once spent an entire afternoon working to figure out a formula that could predict prime numbers. This week was one of those frustrating burn out weeks. I started out looking into Hilbert’s 23 problems which were way over my head and then somehow ended up at the Wikipedia page for the Ross-Littlewood Paradox which is really just a variation on Zeno’s Paradoxes or the Thomson’s Lamp Paradox. The Ross-Littlewood Paradox is often referred to as the balls and vase problem or the ping pong ball problem, but I like to think of it as the marbles in a jar problem because that just seems much more elegant to me.

Ross-Littlewood Paradox

 

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The Switch Modular Pocket Knife

January 20th, 2011

I ran across the quirky.com website this week. Quirky is a social product development company that brings two brand new consumer products to market each week. Users submit product ideas and the community along with Quirky’s expert product design staff help turn those ideas into real products and share the profits. One of the products they currently have in production is called Switch. Switch is a modular pocket knife with 17 different attachments you can mix and match to create your own unique tool. The tool will be as thick or thin as you wish depending upon how many attachments you chose to include. Other utility tools I have are either too large because they have more features than I need or too small and you find yourself wishing it had one or two more features. I’ve already ordered mine.

Quirky Switch Modular Pocket Knife

 

Posted in Gadgets & Gear | 2 Comments »

Illustrations by Nanami Cowdroy

January 14th, 2011

Today I’m checking out the artistic talents of Nanami Cowdroy. Nanami combines ink, pen & pencil, water color and spray paint on paper, with some digital elements into a visual style uniquely her own. She has also conveniently included a bio on her website which I could copy and past here, but you guys are clever enough to follow a link and check it out yourself. Her art has even been made into jewelry so if you’re looking for a unique artistic gift for someone, you should shop here. I always love stumbling upon new and unique artistic styles. Maybe someday I’ll even have one of my own!

Nanami Cowdroy

 

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