I’ve always been a big fan of steampunk and cyberpunk art, and the beautiful collages of Anna Dabrowska, a.k.a. Finnabair, are some of the most intriguing works I’ve ever seen. The mixed media artist hailing from Warsaw, Poland, uses all kinds of materials, from used computer components to old buttons and even dead moths.

“I love texture and believe in power of recycling and upcycling. I just adore flea market supplies,” Finnabair says on her official site, and it shows in her works. The Polish artist can take the boring household item and turn into the centerpiece of an engaging work of art. Whether it’s metal screws, artificial flowers, or even plain buttons, she manages to turn recycling and upcycling into exciting artistic processes that spark viewers’ imagination. Finnabair says her art is more than just a job or hobby: “It gives me moments when I forget about the world, working hard [in my] head, hands translate, paint, stick… I cannot stop.” Judging by the time and patience she needs to painstakingly place every single element in the right place and then paint the whole picture in vibrant colors, it’s obvious she pours her heart and soul into her art.

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Li Wei – The Flying Buddhist Monk (News.com.au)

Romanian Fashion House Makes World’s Longest Bridal Train (Yahoo Shine)

Brazil Real-Life Rapunzel (The Sun)

Awesome Fences Made of Recycled Sporting Goods (Environmental Graffiti)

Steampunk Corkscrew is Incredibly Cool (YouTube)

World’s Biggest “My Little Pony” Fan (Daily Mail)

Poo-Powered Rickshaw Is First of Its Kind (Huff Post)

Real-Life Invisible Man Liu Bolin Is Lost in Art (My Modern Met)

The Large-Scale Beach Paintings of Andres Amador (This Is Colossal)

American School Bans Hugging Among Students (Inquisitor)

We’ve seen insects used as art protagonists before. Mike Libby turns them into steampunk hybrids, and Ubyka creates armed insect cyborgs, but I haven’t seen anything like what Andrey Pavlov does with ants.  This is the touching story of a man who found comfort in studying and immortalizing hardworking ants performing their daily routines.

Andrey Pavlov wasn’t particularly interested in macro photography until seven years ago, when a spinal injury caused him to remain immobilized. That’s when he fell under the charm of these amazing earthlings called ants. He started reading books about them and their behavior, and became fascinated with the way the ant community cares for its weaker members – the children, the old, and the disabled. That’s when he realized they were creatures that commanded respect. This civilization that for the last 150 million years has mastered so many environmentally sustainable ways of surviving and evolving at the same time, really impressed him. So he made it a hobby to observe and take photos of these incredible insects.

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One of the most bizarre concepts introduced this year, AutoWed is essentially a wedding vending machine that will get you and your loved one hitched in minutes, for just $1.

Sure, an automated wedding machine pretty much takes all the romance out of the whole deal, but with weddings getting more and more expensive every year, people seem to be welcoming any cheap alternative with open arms. Such was the case with Concept Shed’s latest project, AutoWed. The English company managed to create what can best be described as a wedding vending machine that will do the job quicker and cheaper than a priest, minister, rabbi, or any other religious figure.

It’s part parking meter, part pink Cadillac, part cathedral and part steampunk installation, and the ceremony isn’t exactly on par with what you’ve seen at conventional weddings, but it gets the job done and for just $1. The 8-feet-tall piece of machinery features wedding music and a weird robotic voice that prompts you to press a bunch of keys in order to keep the weeding going, after you’ve inserted the mandatory coins. You start by choosing between a straight, gay or lesbian marriage and a friends forever ceremony, then you input your names and can press 1 for “I do” or 2 for “Escape”. At the end, AutoWed lets you kiss the bride and even dispenses a receipt and two plastic rings to commemorate this special day.

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The “Living Jewels” created by Etsy artist aquakej are made from real colorful insects collected from all around the world.

Insect art is definitely not for everyone, but if the mere thought of bugs doesn’t make your skin crawl, you might actually consider wearing one of these unusual accessories. The Insects come from various insect farms that provide a healthy and eco-friendly living for people in developing countries, so you don’t have to feel guilty about wearing insect species into extinction.

Here’s what aquakej has to say about her rather creepy collection of insect jewelry:

Insect Art is made of real insects from around the world. They come to me dried out and all folded up. I re-hydrate them to make them flexible again, and then spread them out on a styrofoam board with sewing pins and little strips of paper. I do not put any pins through the bodies of my insects; I like them natural-looking and lifelike. This makes the insects a bit more difficult to handle, but the end result is worth it. Lastly, I choose an art background for the shadowbox frame and glue the insects onto that. The whole process takes several days, and each end result is unique.

Unique is right, but I’m not sure I’d willingly have these creepy crawlies on my body, but if you like them, you can check the artist’s shop and official site.

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Although he only just graduated from art school in 2009, Brighton-based artist Kyle Bean already has a very impressive portfolio under his belt. Throughout his yet short but successful career, Bean has collaborated with important names like the BBC, New York Times Magazine, Selfridges or Hermes.

His latest collection, “Stick Insects”, features a series of insect models created entirely out of matchsticks.

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Ptolemy Elrington spends his time collecting hub caps lost on the streets of Britain, and transforming them into impressive-looking animal sculptures.

To prove that “one person’s junk is another man’s treasure”, 43-year-old Ptolemy Elrington has chosen to use reclaimed materials, like hub caps, as the main medium of his art. After finishing college, the Bradford-based sculptor lived close to a sharp curve where cars would often lose their hub caps. He began collecting them from the roadside ditch, and planned to turn them all into an original suit of armor, but noticing they had a marine look about them, he decided to mold them into fish.

After he gave his first sculptures to his family, as gifts, friends started coming to him asking for some hub-cap sculptures of their own. Elrington realized the business potential of his art, and now spends most of his time creating animal sculptures in his workshop. Because his work materials are practically free, he only charges customers for his time, about 75 British pounds per day. His most expensive work so far, a 10 meter tall dragon made out of 200 lost hub caps cost 3,000 pounds, but most of his works are sold for a few hundreds.

A strong supporter of recycling, Ptolemy Elrington only uses discarded materials. He never buys hubcaps, he always uses lost ones, and even the wire used to tie the hubcap pieces together comes from the junkyard.

After seven years of hub cap sculpting, Elrington says he is a fan of luxury car hub caps, from BMW or Mercedes, because they can be flexed more,and hardly ever snap.

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French artist Edouard Martinet transforms metal pieces found at flea markets and car-boot sales into beautiful works of art.

Using a series of common metallic objects, from rusted kitchen pans, to old typewriter keys and car lights, Martinet manages to create intricate sculptures of fish, reptiles and insects. Without any soldering or welding whatsoever, the artist first draws up a few detailed sketches of what he wants to create, then begins a painstaking process of piecing the metal parts together, like a puzzle. As you can imagine, his scrap metal masterpieces take quite a long time to complete, but they are definitely worth the effort.

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An Estonian sculptor, Mati Karmin, came up with this idea of creating furniture from old, rusty naval mines recovered from an ex-Soviet fortress on Naissaar Island. It seems that the naval mines were used in World War 2 and they had a “Blok” device and two electro-magnetic antennas, with the upper antenna kept steady by a buoy.

Mati Karmin has been trained in the Estonian Academy of Art and it started with bronze and stone sculptures. He drew attention for the first time in 1981 with the “Military Fox” sculpture that was made out of corroded scrap metals.

The Estonian sculptor’s passion for  furniture items created from underwater mines began 5 years ago on the Estonian Finnish Coast, which was populated with corroded mine shells. Karmin started to collect the naval mines due to their perfect and uniform aspect, with holes, spires and shackles. For creating furniture, he used only two forms of underwater mines, the hemisphere and the cylinder and the result was great. The sculptor managed to create impressive armchairs, aquariums, writing desks, toilets, beds, cupboards, swings, fireplaces, bathtubs and many more.

You can see some of Mati Karmin’s sculptures after the jump

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Artist Carolina Fontoura Alzaga uses old bike parts, like metal chains, to create one-of-a-kind steampunk chandeliers.

Inspired by Victorian chandeliers, DIY culture and bikes, the bike chain chandeliers start out as unartistic, due to the nature of the materials used, but end up as genuine works of steampunk art, fit as decorations for the equally awesome steampunk house.

Combining the elegance of the classic Victorian candelabrum with the elegance of discarded mechanical bike parts, Carolina Fontoura Alzaga’s bike chandeliers are both an example of original art, as well as upcycling done right.

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Perhaps a bit to eerie and strange for the average fellow, Seiko Kato‘s Victorian dolls are just what the doctor ordered for a bizarre-lover like me.

Seiko Kato, from Brighton, England, is an artist and illustrator who finds inspiration in old Victorian medical books, Victorian books and encyclopedias, and Victorian paraphernalia. At fist glance, her dolls look like the kind you’d expect to find in your grandmother’s room, but a closer look reveals some rather bizarre augmentations. Seiko Kato adds various steampunk elements to give her creations a unique look.

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Jurustic Park is the brainchild of Clyde and Nancy Wynia, a couple of artists who create unique creatures, out of various metals, and scatter them through their yard, for the world to see.

This wondrous place was born in 1993, when Clyde decided to sculpt a giant iron bird, and hang it from one of the trees in his backyard. A curious neighbor asked him how he got his hands on something like that and the first thing that came into Clyde’s mind was “I dug it out of the nearby marsh where it inhabited the swamp during the Iron Age.” And That’s how his yard earned the name of Jurustic Park.

Clyde calls himself an amateur paleontologist who excavates and recreates the now extinct creatures that inhabited the large McMillan Marsh, near Marshfield, Winsconsin, during the Iron Age. he explains that these mysterious metal creatures went extinct during the 19th century, when farming and industry moved into the area. Many were used as parts for various machinery, while others were destroyed by the acid rains caused by pollution.

After 17 years of work, Clyde Wynia has managed to decorate his yard with over 250 iron sculptures, from large dragons, to tiny mosquitoes. Whenever he feels the urge to recreate yet another metal creature, he just has some iron delivered to his Jurustic Park, and starts welding.

Over 15,000 people, from all around the United States, and 30 other different countries, visit Jurustic Park, every year, and although Clyde never sells his large metal sculptures, he donates his works to charitable auctions, evey year, and earns about $6,000 for various causes.

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British sculptor and active environmentalist, Buzz Knapp-Fisher, has spent the last six years working on the Womble Truck, an odd looking vehicle that has almost no impact on the environment.

Buzz bought the truck, six years ago, for a little over $400, and thought it was perfect for his environment art car. Named after popular TV show, “The Wombies”, who recycled all kinds of junk, in ingenious ways, the Womble Truck was modified to tun only on chip fat and biodiesel. One of the most amazing things about this weird looking truck, is that it was put together using parts from 21 different cars.

The Womble Truck had its original engine replaced with a biodiesel engine,and in the last year, the British inventor managed to make some adjustments that allow it to run on chip fat alone. If temperature is high enough, the truck will start and run on fat, if not, it will start on biodiesel and then switch to chip fat. And, believe it or not, this baby reaches top speeds of 110 mph, so it can hold its own, on the road.

Considering it only cost a little over $400, and the car parts were also pretty cheap, the Womble Truck is indeed a worthy technological achievement.

via Daily Mail

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Nothing says “I love my puppies to death” like spending a ton of cash on a small Victorian mansion, the pooches can call home.

Chelsea, Darla and Coco Puff can definitely brag to their barking friends, about having the most luxurious doghouse in the world. Featuring hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings, central heating and air-conditioning, this mini-mansion is literally fit for royalty. In terms of design, it has hand-made curtains, mini blinds, expensive wallpaper and ceiling fans.

And they all have to thank their owner, 42-year-old Tammy Kassis, who lavishly spent around $20,000 on this over-the-top dog mansion. She loves her two Yorkies and one Pomeranian to death, and she decided to give them a home of their own, when an owl almost snatched one of them up.

She asked deluxe kennel builder, and owner of La Petite Maison, Alan Mower, to create a small replica of her own home, a beautiful Victorian mansion, for her adorable fur balls. Next on her shopping list is a small plasma TV, because the spoiled trio loves to watch Animal Planet.

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What started out as a steampunk dreadnought/battleship evolved into a self-sustainable crawler town that roams the wastes in search of valuable resources.

It sounds like the rough plot of a post-apocalyptic flick, but it’s actually the result of Dave DeGobbi’s rich imagination. He pictured his LEGO Crawler Town as a mobile settlement roaming the barren wastelands, in a steampunk universe devastated by excessive coal use.

The Crawler Town is the best of several moving cities, a place where people can enjoy luxuries like pizza and beer. Thanks to its powerful crawlers, the town constantly searches for invaluable minerals and aquifers, and stay away from powerful sandstorms.

Dave DeGobbi’s Crawler Town got the name ‘Eco-punk’, due to its steampunk influences, and features functional powered treads, working suspension, front and rear steering, and lift from lower to upper levels.

Check Dave DeGobbi’s Flickr set for more photos of the Crawler Town

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