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.

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.

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Above photos via thisisgrimsby

Ah, these knitted artworks take me back to my high-school biology classes. Come to think of it, these memories are kind of gross…

The Crafty Hedgehog,  a skilled knitting artist, decided to immortalize one of the most exciting moments in the life of a high-school student, the dissection of a frog or rat. Entitled “Knitting in Biology 101″, his project depicts dissected animals, made out of wool and pinned to a dissecting tray of a cork frame. They’re not glued,so you can pick them up and examine the work on both sides.

You’ll be glad to know The Crafty Hedgehog has taken his knitting art even further and is now making “dissecting” fetal pigs and even…the Easter Bunny. If you like this sort of thing, you can order one via The Crafty Hedgehog’s profile on Etsy.

via worldfamousdesignjunkies

Using only a couple of knives, a handful of scalpels and some special waxes, young Mark Evans turns pieces of leather into unique works of art.

All Mark Evans needs to create art out of cow hide is a knife, time and inspiration. Days, sometimes weeks, even months go by until his work is completed, but after all the etching and carving, a masterpiece is revealed. As if he he’s painting with a blade, mark is able to create mindblowing tonal pieces.

It all started when he was just seven years old, growing up in the Welsh Mountains. His grandfather gave him a knife and he began carving shapes in tree bark. Later he studied fine art, in London, and although he worked with more conventional materials, he could never get over his passion for playing with knives

Have a look at some of his most important leather paintings and also check out his official site.

Photos via Buzz Beast

Well, actually, this bizarre artwork is entitled “Metal Fucking Rats“, but I couldn’t use that as a title, now could I?

Created by Tim Noble and Sue Webster, as part of their Shadow Art installation, Metal Fucking Rats looks like a pile of welded metal junk, but cast a light on it and the shadow will reveal two hairy rodents getting it on. Now that’s something art collectors pay big money for, and they did. This particular art piece was auctioned off at Sotheby’s and sold for a staggering $250,000. Must have been those heart-shaped tails that convinced the buyer.

Photos via Mighty Optical Illusions

Talk about a cool way to ruin a perfectly good Xbox 360 Elite and make a profit. Although I have to say the end result does look like a creature form a horror movie.

Kenny Irwin is a an American artist who microwaves stuff, using the AMIR 9000 microwaving robot, to create weird-looking art pieces. In the past he’s been known to nuke a fully functional Nintendo wii and now he’s done it again using Microsoft’s console.

Except for the creepy prosthetic eyes that the artist applied himself, it’s all 100% microwaved Xbox 360 Elite and it can be yours for the symbolic price of  $31,002! That’s right folks, $31 K for a broken gaming system, but at least you’ll be the proud owner of the world’s only microwaved Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite. Now this is what I call a bargain!

I know I’ve said “you can turn anything into art”, but I never imagined someone could actually use household dust as material.

Paul Hazelton collects dust and manages to shape it into incredible works of art. The British artist says his affinity for dust might have something to do with his upbringing in a very clean environment. At one point n his life he noticed a layer of dust on a mask and realized he could pick it up. That was the beginning of an extraordinary dust-shaping career.

Paul works with ordinary household dust, which he gathers from furniture, hanging paintings, pictures, but never from vacuum cleaners. He stores the “precious” matter until he’s ready to mould it. Then he wets it, gives it the desired shape and carefully dries it.

It’s a painful process, but the 43-year-old dust artist loves it.

via Metro.co.uk

Above photos via saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Above photos via Metro.co.uk

They may look like just elaborate models of Christian, Jewish and Islamic holy places, but Al Farrow’s artworks have a much deeper meaning.

Al Farrow’s Religious Trifecta: A Synagogue, a Cathedral and a Mosque tries to reinterpret three of the world’s major religions according to their political, military and cultural history. As you surely know, religion played a major role in some of the greatest conflicts in history and that’s what the artist is trying to emphasize through his models. Built with used gun components, bullets and steel shots, these unusual holy places reveal the violent side of religion.

Al Farrow’s steel masterpieces are displayed at the de Young Museum, in San Francisco.

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Before you scroll down to the photos, be warned you may never want to eat seafood again. If you think you’re brave enough, prepare to be brain-raped by the macabre seafood art of Daikichi Amano.

The self entitled “perverted master of fish and girls” is the most twisted photographer/film-maker/pornographer I’ve ever seen. His work is…simply the most disturbing I’ve come across and quite frankly I was too close to throwing up. His artworks closely resemble the ancient Japanese shunga, where erotic acts are represented with octopi. I can’t imagine why anyone would associate seafood with eroticism, but hey…maybe it’s a matter of taste.

The photos you see here are the most SFW I could find, but believe me this is only the tip of the iceberg. I was going to post a link to some of Amano’s hardcore art, but I didn’t want to be responsible for your getting fired or feeling nauseated. Just google genki-genki and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

One of the most sickening facts about Daikichi Amano is he eats all the seafood he uses, to prevent wasteful animal cruelty. Wow, how commendable! If you’ll excuse me I’m going to throw up now.

Huang Xin, a hairdresser from Beijing has created replicas of monuments and famous buildings around Tiananmen Square, using discarded human hair.

I’ve seen some pretty impressive models throughout the years, including a plywood helicopter, a matchstick Minas Tirith or a toothpick city, but never anything made from human hair. But, they say there’s a first time for everything, so today I stumbled over some photos of famous Chinese buildings made entirely from human hair.

Huang Xin, a young Chinese hairdresser wanted to celebrate the 60th anniversary of People’s Republic of China in a unique manner and used his talent to do it. Using discarded human hair, mostly from women, he spent almost an entire year creating some very impressive models of Tiananmen Square.

photos via ImagineChina