Garden Jawas

Want to make your favorite landscaper green with…wait, thats envy, right? You aren’t just going to be sick on my shoes? Well, never mind then!

If you have a rather tacky nerd in your life who has everything, surprise them this Christmas with a garden jawa. Crafted from sturdy, solid, painted resin, this little guy is sure to find the droids you’re looking for.

Unfortunately only available at the Star Wars store, because Lucas is stingy that way.

Chain Clock

I don’t know what it is about clocks, but they are a magnet for innovative designers. I love the simplicity of this device, which is made from a gear and a bicycle chain with copper digits. I think it would be fun to make a clock under this principle with scoops on the numbers. Put the bottom of the chain in a basin with ball bearings or some other scoopable which would ring the hour when they fall from the top.

Unlike a lot of the more unusual clocks, this one is available for sale, although it will set you back, via amazon

Awesome Case Mod

This case mod (origin unknown, likely Russian) is like an AtomPunk Norman Rockwell, or the Barbie geek dream house.  I love the little LED lamp, the cozy looking couch and chair, the little touches of home. I think that rug is one of those mouse pads.

I’d love to come up with a case mod, but I’ve got a case curse. As soon as I put a case on a computer, it breaks and I have to take it apart and fix it again. My microchips live wild and free.

Extreme Slow Motion Bullet Video

The above video was taken at one million frames per second, so fast that you can watch the individual cracks forming as a bullet shatters a sheet of glass. The video is much art as science; both mesmerizing and illustrative of just what a narrow realm of matter and velocity we exist in. At these velocities a bullet deforms like a lump of butter, a sheet of steel no more substantial than paper.

(Via Geekologie)

Pastels on the Plaza 2009

Pastels on the plaza is an annual event in Arcata California, and is put on as a fund raiser for a local childen’s center. Local businesses can donate a hundred dollars for a three foot square (two hundred for six by three feet) to have a local volunteer artist draw a picture with the company name attached on the town square. It’s a great example of an event where everyone wins, from local businesses and artists, to the public who comes to see the end results, and of course the children who benefit from the charity.

I’ve been going to this event for eighteen years now, and the square above is the first time I can recall seeing two artists with a seamless transition between their squares.  I did the third on the right for Arcata landscape designer Genevieve Schmidt, while the two thirds on the left were done by local artist Leah Vaughn For Holly Yashi Jewlery. Her husband Casey Vaughn did the square below for Mad River Brewing Company, and managed to work their Jamaica Sunset logo in nicely.

This was my second year participating in the event (Pastels on the Plaza 2008 entry), and I’ve already found that the weather has a big impact on the end result. The even tis held on the first Saturday of October. Last year it was raining when I got there and I started drawing in a puddle with chalk pastels. The results came out fine as they dried, but it was a bit daunting. This year the weather started out beautifully, until it very suddenly got windy, at which point the chalk started blowing right off the sidewalk, destroying the finer details and highlights and making it hard to continue.I’ve also found it very helpful to have someone else to do the lettering (thanks Meadow!), as this stuff isn’t as easy as it looks on the Internet.

This shot from the 2008 Pastels on the Plaza should give you a better feel for the event itself. There are usually around a hundred entries, about an eighth of which can be seen in the photo.

The mouse below was done by Coco Thorpe, a talented veteran of the event and master of all things chocolate.

Probably our most famous local eccentric artist, Duane Flatmo (you may remember him from his appearances on Jay Leno, America’s Got Talent, or our previous photos featured recently on Environmental Graffiti of his giant steel firebreathing dragon. He had an oversize square protected from the wind, but not unfortunately from the shadows. My apologies for the picture quality.

The picture below I didn’t get a full picture of but I believe it was done by Jerry Lee Wallace for the Humboldt Family Service Center. I’ve long been a fan of his pastels, which are always instantly recognizable and of similar theme. His is the one I always seek out first, though I’ve never met him.

I’m already looking forward to next year and will likely make this an annual post.

Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

Dan Pink gives a Ted Talk in the above video that touches on the nature of inspiration and how our actions to motivate its inception are actually stifling ideas. A good watch for inventors, artists, and anyone in a management position.

A similar Ted Talk recently spoke about the ethhical nature of autonomy.

Spoof Art | M. C. Escher Hands

CrunchGear had an unusually short and sweet caption on this photo, and I must admit, I don’t think I can improve upon it:

“Give a robot repairs, and it will operate for a day. Teach it to repair itself, and it will touch off a Robocalypse.”

The combination in machines of the dexterity for self assembly and the intelligence for self improvement will undoubtedly herald some very interesting and fast paced times. As apocalypses go, I can think of worse.

Trash Bag Topiary

Joshua Allen Harris is a street artist who has truly created something that is more than the sum of its parts. With nothing but a bit of tape, some trash bags, and a subway vent, he creates some of the most crowd stopping street art I’ve seen.

Steampunk Lamps | Frank Buchwald

The artist who created these lights , Frank Buchwald, has a design trait I commonly see among the greatest of machine oriented designers: He doesn’t so much see himself as an artist creating art, but as  evolving the design of an object to the point where the form becomes inseparable from the the function without becoming a slave to it; a state morre often seen in nature than machine.

SteamPunk Computer Mods

The above SteamPunk computer casemod was commissioned as a giveaway for a new computer game. Jake of all Trades did a great job of it. I’vc seen quite a few SteamPunk computer cases go by recently, but this was the best. I wonder if it is water cooled?

Update: The above SteamPunk Flash Drive was a one of a kind piece.  I hope this inspires a wave of flash drives.

Update: Click the above mechanical flash drive to see its construction.

I’ll post any other SteamPunk computer mods I come across here.

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