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Master Castle Makers KingSand Rule The Beach

If your idea of fun at the beach doesn’t include rape, brawling, and drowning, you may want to study the more cultivated beachgoing activities of KingSand, an international trio of sculptors who are making some of the illest sandcastles in the world.

Founded in 2001, KingSand consists of three artists (Dan Glover, Jeroen Meijer, Martijn Rijerse) who travel to international competitions and build the kind of sand structures that make us want to erect massive dykes on the coastline to protect them (paging Rosie O’Donnell!). See a gallery of their work below.

Hundreds Of Balls Dangle At New BMW Museum

Yeah, dangling balls (do we even have to say pause?) don’t really ring our cherries either, but in this case we’ll make an exception. The good volks at BMW recently opened a museum next to their HQ in Munich, and one of the displays is a kinetic sculpture. Consisting of 714 metal spheres attached to the ceiling by string, the sculpture moves constantly through a variety of shapes, before settling on the silhouette of a classic BMW. We admit it sounded weird to us at first too, but it’s actually pretty cool (despite the New Agey music that’s piped in). Check the video after the jump.

Dead Animals Get “Fixed” By Lisa Black

Remember Pookie, the stuffed bear you got when you were two that you refuse to throw out despite the fact it’s missing both legs? Well, there may be hope after all (for Pookie, not you—you’re obviously damaged beyond repair). Lisa Black, a sculptor based in New Zealand, has a new collection out called “Fixed” that consists of broken stuffed animals that she puts back together with clock parts, antique hardware and other mechanical odds and ends.

And while Black uses real animal skins (i.e. taxidermy victims), the PETA folks can put down their posters—the Kiwi artist is an animal lover just like you: “I was a girl running around in the rain saving ants from drowning,” she says in a recent interview. After the jump, check out a video of the above crocodile’s working gears, and photos of other examples from “Fixed,” including the sheep’s heart that Black completed in one day (for certain decomposition reasons).

Surreal Creature Sculptures By Andrew Scott

CGI is overrated. We miss the old days when crazy aliens were painstakingly sculpted piece by piece to create eerily realistic looking models. If Hollywood ever wants to take it back, we suggest they hire Canadian sculptor Andrew Scott.

Using primarily acrylic, PVC gel, wire and aluminum as his materials, he’s created a wide variety of insects, trilobytes and strange fictional creatures pulled from his imagination. His Bugmaker Flickr Photostream and blog are full of step by step photos showing his whole process. See a few of his more memorable creatures below.