Barefoot Design Shows Artisanal Concrete Sinks at Greenfest

Don’t think of concrete when you think of artisanal handcrafts? These sinks custom-created by Barefoot Design might change you mind.

Imagine seeing water splash on this gorgeous fossil as you wash your hands. The spiral of the shell fossil echoes the movement of water.

This is just one example of the artisanal handcrafted concrete sinks shown at Greenfest in San Francisco this year by Keelin Kennedy of Barefoot Design, whose intention in each piece she creates is to manifest her reverence for the lessons that the natural world provides.

Sustainable aspect? Concrete lasts for thousands of years. These sinks will last as long as the concrete aqueducts built in Caesar’s time. Whether the house it is in will too… that’s another story!

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Even Rats Can be Cute and Very Intelligent, too!

All animals are cute in their own way, and even those stinky creatures called rats can be cute sometimes. Dutch photographer Ellen van Deelen (what a poetic name) has got to an idea to train a few of white rats to hold different instruments and objects.

The result of that is beautiful gallery of photos of little rats. Ellen says she didn’t like rats too much but she decided to use them as models when she meet two little rats and found they are very intelligent creatures.Author portfolio .

Don’t Drop Your Old Books, You Could Make Some Masterpieces of Them

You have an old used book and you plan to drop it in garbage? Well, after reading this post you might change your mind about that and try to make some cool paper-cut sculptures from its papers

. I always liked those books for kids with different sculptures and objects which would fold up when you open the book. Even when I grew up I was always fascinated with such kind of books.

Su Blackwell realized that she actually could create some artworks in a similar way. Those are not the books which are made only for kids and those paper sculptures definitely do not fold up when you open them, but they are great examples that you can create a true artwork even from old used book.

Su has made some really amazing sculptures cut from books’ papers and we will show you here some of her most interesting artworks. Author site .

Dogs really love to eat everything, don’t they?

We all know that dogs love to chew on almost anything, but some of them tend to swallow the items they are playing with. These pictures are showing X-rays of all the crazy things that dogs have managed to get down their throats.

The most swallowed item seems to be socks, but there are also other things that can be found – everything from little plastic toys, coins, pencils, to expensive jewelries and even sharp kitchen knives.

This Dalmatian collie ate a plastic Homer Simpson toy. She got it fortunately removed by a surgery that went well.

Other pets are also guilty for having swallowed strange objects, like a snake that tried to eat a golf ball, or a cat that accidentally ate a needle.

Speaking of looking inside an animal’s body, these embryonic photographs are showing the baby animals that lies inside the wombs.

Who would have thought that dumpsters could be so much fun

British design graduate Oliver Bishop-Young has come up with an urban art project, called the SkipWaste project, where dumpsters are used in a fun and different way. They are no longer used for trash, but for activities and other amazing art installations. You have dumpsters that work as either a skate ramp, a lawn, a flower bed, a pool, or even a cozy living room.

They appeal to everybody, both the younger and the older. It’s a great way to get people out on the streets enjoying the fun that the dumpsters are giving.

Others have also used simple objects to create urban art, like the four Australian friends that created a huge “Lego Man” out of ordinary milk crates.

City statues decorated in an amusing way

Spanish artist from Madrid that calls himself SpY is creating a different kind of street art than most people are used to. He is making city statues look a bit more interesting by putting a bucket, a paper bag or a ski mask over their heads, a red clown nose on their noses or a pie in their faces. SpY has also managed to give one of the statues red lightning eyes.

Some people call it art while others think it’s some sort of vandalism, but it’s sure both ironic and comic art that will put a smile on your face.

Making the statues look cheeky is not his only work – he has turned a tennis court into an abstract field by using duct tape all over in different directions, and he has also used neon light sticks on some roads to spice it up a bit.

Other ways that fun street art has been made is by painting smart and amusing illustrations that have been seen on the streets and paths of Montreal.

Animals hanging from bridge to rise global warming awareness

Under the Millennium Bridge in London there have been spotted two glass penguins and a stuffed polar bear hanging with ropes around their necks. The whole idea of doing so is to make people more aware of the global climate change that the earth is going through.

The artist, Vincent J.F. Huang, that made this “protest” wanted to symbolize the man’s assault to the nature and the environment. The hanging toy animals have drawn a lot of attention from bystanders and hopefully it has given them something to think about.

Several other artists are aware of the environment changes and are trying to influent through their art, like this artist who used grass to create eco friendly animal “graffiti”.

Expressing beautiful art through sand and earth

Most people have probably written in the sand several times, whether it was in the sandbox in kindergarden or on a beach during a summer vacation. But artist and surfer Jim Denevan has taken the sand writing to a whole new level. He uses a simple driftwood stick to create large-scale beach drawings that is mostly geometric circles and shapes.
He plays with his imagination and improvises on empty beaches and even other flat areas and fields on earth. Denevan can be working up to 7 hours a day walking about 30 miles creating amazing patterns. “When I’m doing a drawing, I’m personifying the place that is empty”, the artist says himself.

His beach art always ends up getting washed away by the tide water at the end of the day, but that doesn’t make him sad, because it’s just preparing the area to be drawn by another pattern the next day.

Other people that have expressed their art in the same way are Japanese farmers that turn rice fields into spectacular drawings.

Gorgeous green walls: The next big thing in green building design

A green wall – often confused with a vertical garden or a sky farm – is either free-standing or part of a building with some sort of vegetation, seeking to make amends to the lack of space on the ground. These green walls don’t only add a definitive grace to a building’s façade, they also help filtering air into edifices. Since the living walls require no soil for sustenance, the only prerequisite is water; and that too, in abundance. Through the hydroponics systems they rely on, green walls can sustain almost all sorts of vegetable growths.

The Trend:

Before we go into particulars, let’s differentiate between green façades and living walls. Green façades feature plants that are rooted into the ground, while living walls are built from pre-vegetated panels or integrated fabric systems. You can see modern office buildings, homes, and even the retail stores adorned with green façades nowadays.

Green walls focus on offering unusual visual landscapes to onlookers. Business setups are coming forth to embrace the green tendency. It’s but sensible for a company to create leafy green indoor or outdoor green walls. Not only will it promote awareness on environment, but would also compel people to recognize the particular company as green. Over the last few years, the concept has gained tremendous popularity, which is majorly attributable to French botanist Patrick Blanc. Second, the limited land and its high prices join in to make it popular beyond a measure.

Environmental Benefits:

There are numerous benefits associated to a green wall. We have listed some of them:

• Provides sound insulation.
• Filters air particulates to improve air quality.
• Reduces the Heat Island Effect.
• Moderates a building’s internal temperature via external shading.
• Creates a microclimate, which will help to alter the climate of a city as a whole.
• Helps a building retain heat otherwise lost to convection.
• Provides storm water management, absorbing 45-75% of rainfall.
• Serves as a natural water filter and water temperature moderator.
• Provides biodiversity and a natural animal habitat.

In Photos – Gorgeously green living walls:

Here is a pictorial-presentation of some of the most beautiful living walls in the world.

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