Hasta La Gadget!

Last year we saw a 24-foot long print that depicts the history of Doctor Who, which was inspired by the mysterious Bayeux Tapestry. The talented pop artist Aled Lewis was also inspired by the relic to make an illustrated history, this time of Star Wars. But instead of drawing it he decided to hand-stitch the entire thing.

Aled calls his creation The Coruscant Tapestry. Yes, it’s not actually a tapestry, nor is it from Coruscant, but you can say the exact same thing about the Bayeux Tapestry. The whole thing is 30ft. long and 13in. tall. and relays the first six episodes of Star Wars. Along the borders of the strip Aled inscribed quotes from the movies in Aurebesh, the alphabet that was invented for the Star Wars universe.

The Coruscant Tapestry is currently on display at Gallery1988 in Los Angeles, California, but you can take it home for $20,000 (USD). Check out the gallery’s blog to see larger images of the piece.

[via Boing Boing]

Check out this mixed media Darth Vader, made from all kinds of electronics and gadgets. It looks just like the real Vader – if he were made from circuit boards, PlayStation controllers, Game Boys iPods and mice. It looks amazing and I would love to have this guy on my wall.

The piece was made by Argentina-based artist Elisa Naranja Metalica, who is inspired by all things pop culture. To make her pieces, she uses toys, trash, jewelry, electronics and more. In addition to the aforementioned gadgets, I spy some old floppy disks, cell phones, AC adapters, remote controls and at least one Super Nintendo cartridge.

Elisa has made lots of other awesome mixed media piece as well – like this My Little Junk Pony.

She does amazing work. You can check out her Flickr page to see more. Be sure to check out the hi-res versions for all the detail.

[via Geeks Are Sexy]

Valentines day is upon us. It is time to once again prove your love by buying sweets and flowers. Why not put those sweets directly into a cake and make your valentine fall into a sugar induced coma?

This cake is shaped like a candy heart and it has actual candy hearts inside. I can’t imagine a more heartfelt Valentine’s gift. It was made by Beth Jackson Klosterboer and is basically a cake piñata, but don’t whack it with a stick.

Just cut a slice and your candy hearts will all spill out. This is some serious sugar here though. I’m getting a sugar-high just looking at it.

[via Neatorama]

I was going to talk about a pixel art LED display that’s currently raising funds on Kickstarter when I remembered that I already saw something much better: Al Linke’s PIXEL. It turns out he’s also raising funds on Kickstarter for PIXEL V2, an improved version of his display.

Like the original display, PIXEL V2 has 1024 LEDs arranged in a 32×32 matrix. After all, it’s designed to display low-res images and animations so increasing the displays resolution wasn’t necessary. What makes PIXEL V2 much better than its predecessor is that it’s more versatile and customizable, both in terms of software and hardware. For starters, you can now control it with an OS X computer and a Raspberry Pi via USB, in addition to the Android and Windows USB and Bluetooth connectivity that was also present in the original. Unfortunately, it still has no support for iOS though.

Aside from directly sending images to the display via a PC or an Android device, you can also store images on PIXEL V2′s onboard SD card in stand alone mode, after which it will keep displaying images and even animated gifs even if it’s not connected to any computer or mobile device. Another neat feature of PIXEL V2  are its mixed media overlays. As shown in the image below, the overlays allow you to display a drawing on top of the LED display.

PIXEL V2 comes with over 150 samples of pixel art, but as always you can send other images to the display. As shown in the video below, you can even make apps for PIXEL V2. Turn it into a message board, make it display the weather and more. It also has five sensor inputs and optional alcohol and proximity sensors for even more creative applications, although these sensors require an Android device to work.

Pledge at least $260 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a fully assembled PIXEL V2 display. Unassembled kits and partial parts are also available at lower pledges.

Whatever you have going on today, no matter how stressed out you are, things are about to get better. I present to you, Spock riding an unicorn over a rainbow. Yeah. Life is awesome.

Just check out the image and take a deep breath. Relax. And thank Tim O’Brien who made this painting for an issue of Men’s Health. THIS was in Men’s Health? Clearly I have to start reading that magazine.

Now I want to see the Star Trek TOS episode where this happens. I bet Kirk is riding one too. And McCoy. McCoy is probably hanging on for dear life and grumbling about how man wasn’t meant to ride such a beast. Why beam up to the Enterprise when you can ride a unicorn?

[Tor via Neatorama]