OK, nobody tell my kid about ~renegadecow's "Applejack's Apple Harvest" My Little Pony automata. Nine days left on eBay, bids open at $200:

No pony appreciates a good days work more than Applejack. She loves the hard-earned life so much that she doesn't even look like she's working at all! Of course, not everybody is gifted with the talent for apple bucking. It's also an untold mystery as to how she can send each and every single apple into a bushel with nary a one touching the ground. But I think her ever faithful, canine companion Winona has rooted that secret out. That or she's on the lookout for bad apples.

The figures, stand, tree and bushel are carved out of Philippine mahogany while the gears and apples are made out of Narra hardwood. They're painted in enamel and protected by clear flat lacquer. Applejack stands at 5 1/8" tall (with her hat down) while the entire complete piece measures 11 3/4" high, 9 1/2" long, and 3 1/2" wide. It took 161 hours to complete.

Applejack's Apple Harvest (via Neatorama)

Facecord is a chest of drawers disguised as a woodpile, with hidden drawers:

the vision of a stockpile of wooden logs, brings forth visions of fueling the fire and keeping warm by the hearth on cold winter's night.
american artist mark moskovitz translates this into 'facecord', a chest of drawers using the irregularities and haphazard geometry of cordwood,
and the accidental poetry of its stacking to camouflage the storage furniture's actual function. the work is included in new york's museum of arts & design
exhibition against the grain which features projects that examine the age-old medium of wood, and how it can be transformed into
a contemporary object.

 

hidden log drawer - facecord by mark moskovitz [DesignBoom] (via Neatorama)

Marco Fernandes's R³bots are absolutely sweet little light-up junkbots made from electronics salvage. They're even poseable! They run about €350 each.

R³bot series (via Colossal)

This week I visited BB pal Kirsten Anderson's wonderful Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle where Casey Curran has hung a number of his exquisite kinetic sculptures. Each sculpture is a baroque ecosystem of wire plants, synthetic flowers, metallic creatures, faux feathers, and other ornate faux-naturalia. Gently crank the handle on each sculpture and these fantasy worlds come alive. At first I thought they would benefit from an electric motor but I quickly realized that cranking them myself not only made me a more active observer, but it required a physical proximity that immersed me in each surreal scene. You can glimpse still photos and videos of the show here: "Casey Curran: Dissymmetry" Also showing at the gallery is a series of beautifully dark paintings and drawings by Sam Wolfe Connelly, titled "Nocturne." Both exhibitions will be up through March 2.

The latest from steampunk/fetish maskmaker Bob Basset is the "Insect Inspector": "Leather, Brass, Glass, soviet gas mask parts."

Insect Inspector. Steampunk art Leather Gas mask.

The wonderful Ukrainian horror/fetish/steampunk mask maker Bob Basset has produced a two-faced Cthulhu mask; on one side, the betentacled visage; on the other, a lecterine horror.

Call of Cthulhu. One mask 2 faces.

DeviantArt's dogzillalives is makes jewelry and housewares studded with eyeballs, tentacles, yellowing fangs, stitched faux-skin, and more. She's got an Etsy Store, too!

Stitched eyes cuff side (via Neatorama)

RealAbsurdity's "Modular Snap-Fit Airship" on Thingiverse is a 3D-printable toy whose parts can interchangeably form part of a Saturn V rocket. More snap-fit vehicles are planned.

This is a fully modular snap-fit (no glue required) model of an Airship. It is the vanilla base for a series of absurd mashups that currently includes a Trireme and a Saturn V rocket. Designed for 3D print, it comes in two flavors: solid and shell.

Modular Snap-Fit Airship (Thanks, crystlem!)

Artist Chris Shen made a TV out of 625 discarded remote controls, hacking their LEDs to light up in a grid, creating a low-rez moving image. The Evil Mad Scientists posted his loving documentation of the the technical aspects of the project:

The main change to the Peggy was to solder molex headers instead of LEDs: this is to allow the wires to be easily plugged in and out of the board which is necessary when dismantling and reassembling the piece. Yes, all 625 remotes are numbered so they can be removed from the frame for transportation! The current and voltage was also adjusted fo IR LEDs as opposed to visible LEDs.

While researching, the main thing I was looking for was the ability to play video (live) on a low-res matrix. I looked into various ways of doing this but once I found the Peggy 2 kit it gave me confidence to go ahead with building Infra because of the open-source nature, existing work done by Windell, and Jay Clegg’s video Peggy mod.

I connect all the remote controls via 500 meters of speaker wire to the Peggy, held into the frame by a simple looped elastic band. The circuit is mounted to a sheet of acrylic as the circuit bowed with all the wire attached. Each remote had to be opened to solder the wire directly to the LEDs legs. The wire is then routed out through the back of the remote and closed back up.

The TV is on show in London, at 18 Hewett Street, London, EC2A 3NN, until 3rd February 2013.

Infra, a TV built from remote controls Artist Chris Shen made a TV out of 625 discarded remote controls, hacking their LEDs to light up in a grid, creating a low-rez moving image.