Crafts: Spirited Away Bathhouse Model

Spirited Away Bathhouse Model by Sorakio (キオ)

Source: Twitter via Reddit via Imgur via NerdApproved

Check out the incredible detail in this handmade / handpainted model of the bathhouse from Miyazaki's Spirited Away.  I can't find a clear source for these photos, but I loved this model too much not to post it.  The artist doesn't appear to have a website, but if you know of one, please drop me a link in the comments below!

Also relevant is this palm-sized model of  Howl's Moving Castle.

Sculpture: Micro Matter

"Micro Matter" by Amsterdam-based  Rosa De Jong

Dutch designer Rosa De Jong creates tiny yet detailed architecture environment inside glass tubes. Her creations include buildings of every description, from skyscrapers to a tent balanced precariously on top of a boulder.  The tiny little structures are symbols of the isolation of modern society. 

Crafts: Nano Totoro Bottle

"Nano Totoro Bottle" by Blackmago

Crafts: Totoro Book of Secrets

"Totoro Book of Secrets" by Blackmago

Lego Creation: Coruscant

Micro-scale Lego Coruscant by KW Vauban

Papercraft: Miniature Millennium Falcon

Miniature Millennium Falcon by Caleb Kraft

This tiny and insanely detailed Millennium Falcon was made completely from scratch. It enters hyperdrive by giving the universe a paper cut, thereby opening up space.

The whole thing is roughly business card size, so I am just amazed at all of the detail that he was able to put on this ship. Not bad at all for his first attempt at a scratch-built Falcon. Kraft says that the whole project went smoothly, although the cockpit gave him a bit of trouble and he had to redo it.

Check out the full build process at Kraft's blog, beginning with the Basic Frame and Mass.

Dioramas: Palm-sized Railways

Palm-sized Railway Dioramas by Japanese model artist Akihiro Morohoshi

Via: Spoon & Tamago

Simply building model railroads wasn't enough for Akihiro Morohoshi.  After years of creating more traditional models, Morohoshi decided to put a fresh twist on his traditional miniature models by embedding them into everyday objects.  He sets scenes of imaginary worlds on top of Pringle chip cans, across electric guitars, and inside matchboxes.

Sculpture: Bonsai Skull

Bonsai Skull Treehouse

Ocoze is a young Japanese artist raised in the Hiroshima-prefec and fond of nature, dioramas and metric analysis. He is the man that gave hands to the amazing “bon-kei” houses  that rocked the web a couple of years ago, formerly part of the Takanori Aiba duo. Today Ocoze is doing it all by himself and is taking it to a next level. This is his latest work.  If you're near Berlin, you can see his work first-hand during The Woods art show at Strychnin Gallery, which began April 12th.

Dioramas: Institute of Intimate Museums

A Miniature Post-Apocalyptic World by James Cauty

A 1:87 scale model of what appears to have been a post-riot London.

Lego Creations: Leonardo’s Workshop

Leonard of Quirm’s Workshop by Captainsmog

When I first came across this short, I mis-read "Leonard" as "Leonardo," as in DaVinci.  Dunno who Leonard of Quirm is supposed to be.

Dioramas: Institute of Intimate Museums

"Institute of Intimate Museums" and "Viewer Outside" dioramas by Kenji Sugiyama

A series of intricate dioramas created in 2005 that replicates the museum experience.

"Viewers create their own museums from my work by remembering the museums that they have visited before and reconstructing that memory in their minds. What viewers see depends on their attention area, their eyesight, and their past experiences in similar spaces. In other words, each museum looks different to each viewer."

Diorama: Miniature Libraries

Miniature Library Dioramas by French artist Marc Giai-Miniet

French artist Marc Giai-Miniet makes some of the most incredibly detailed (and disturbing!) dollhouses that we’ve ever seen. Marc started creating these disturbing shadowbox dioramas rather late in his career, recurring themes include libraries, furnaces, laboratories, submarines and intestine-like tubing in lonely, decaying spaces.

Diorama: Tiniest Apocalypse Ever

Tiniest Apocalypse Ever by Brooklyn-based photographer Lori Nix
[Previously: January 2011]
Via: Wired

Constructing these dioramas is a painstaking process. Nix only manages to create about three in each year.  Because it takes so much effort, she constructs them with extraordinary care.  In this series, she portrays crumbling institutions in the aftermath of the apocalypse.

“I think these are incredibly important places to learn about ourselves, learn what it means to be human,” says Nix. “These institutions are telling us about our pasts so that we may avoid the same mistakes in the future. Unfortunately, we’re not listening very well.”

Diorama: Strange Worlds

“Box of Lightning"

"Strange Worlds" by Matthew Albanese

New Jersey photographer Matthew Albanese creates small, meticulously detailed dioramas of beautiful natural landscapes using everyday materials like coffee, cotton, feathers, paper, or salt.  He then photographs them under dramatic lighting to transform them into super realistic scene you could swear had been torn from the pages of National Geographic.  See more of Albanese's work at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery.

"My work involves the construction of small-scale meticulously detailed models using various materials and objects to create emotive landscapes. Every aspect from the construction to the lighting of the final model is painstakingly pre-planned using methods which force the viewers perspective when photographed from a specific angle. Using a mixture of photographic techniques such as scale, depth of field, white balance and lighting I am able to drastically alter the appearance of my materials."

Sculpture: Minorities

"Minorities" by Norwegian artist Benedicte Lyssand

Playful sculptures of intricately detailed miniature laborers.

"To me, art is about observing the small important things in life. It´s about listening to children talking, watching how the snow falls or registering how a seed-pod bursts open in the sun. I try to capture the essence of each observation, interpret some of the magic from these everyday moments and illustrate them by making three dimensional objects. They all sum up to tell stories about extinct insects, relations between people, environmental policy and coincidences that lead up to unexpected changes in history."

Video: Tokyo City Symphony

"Tokyo City Symphony" from Roppongi Hills

Tokyo is an incredibly lively and beautiful city, but amid it's busy streets and constant changing cityscape, it's easy to loose sight of it's architectural beauty. Tokyo City Symphony looks to change how we see the city using a 1:1000 scale model of the city. The result is captivating.

Lego Creation: Packmann 850

Packmann 850 by Cole Blaq

Lego Creation: Orībuchikoma

Orībuchikoma by Ironsniper

Lego Creation: Mini Millennium Falcon

Lego Mini Millennium Falcon by Obedient Machine

Photography: Ghosts in the Machine

"Ghosts in the Machine" by Mark Crummett

A photo series featuring miniature figures inside electronics.

"The 'ghosts' in these machines are just folks, dwarfed by the technology that pervades their lives. Engaged in enigmatic activities in an out-of-scale, high tech landscape, workers toil on industrial-scale electronic components or move through an out-sized industrial/technical environment."