While there used to be a painful shortage of inspirational design sketching books out there, these days, design students and those looking to refresh their skill set may, in fact, have too many to choose from. The good news is, there’s something different to learn from each—so go ahead and build out that library. Among other design sketching book favorites, we love the broad variety of sketching styles presented in Sketching. While the book is ideal for any design student or classroom, many professionals and design studios will also likely learn a thing or two from the wide variety of sketching styles and form examples presented within the book’s 256…

We’ve seen some pretty neat wood carvings recently. From a mind-boggling dowel puzzle to hefty river table, woodworkers all over the world have shown there’s just as much creativity within dead trees as there are in hunks of metal. This time around, woodworker Andy Phillip is taking wooden art for a fantastical spin. Taking the ugliest wooden burl I have ever seen to his workshop, he cuts and carves away until all that remains is a fine-looking dragon egg fit to grace any Harry Potter film. Most of the carving takes place on a wood lathe, where Andy chips away at the hard bark with his tools. It may look…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight…

A blue moss wall, iced with frost spider webs, grappled its way past roots and branches of the Shornfort realm. The forms would glisten and melt, recrystallized with a shrill scream as you pass holding your finds, cold shadows waiting to be within reach of these links. Nick Gindraux – Ancient dragon riders, old Russian mechs, space desert buggies, and crashed ships are just some of the scenescreated by this LA-based Concept Artist. Right There – Beautifully odd ceramic sculptures that oddly illustrate the artist’s feelings in an odd and magnificent sort of way. Aerial Facades – Instagram follow of the week. Camilo Monzón Navas has turned top-down facade shots…

Unlike wood or plastic, cutting metal on a CNC requires a lot more precision – needing use of both a high cutting speed and a specific spindle speed ratio to get those eyewatering-clean edges. To keep up with the high rotation speeds, the area around the milling area also has to keep cool to avoid overheating and damaging the objects being worked with. The APSX SPYDER is a CNC milling machine which cuts metals, plastic, and wood while using a liquid-cooling system to keep it chill under pressure. It runs on a configured LinuxCNC and has an embedded PC, keyboard, pendant, and monitor – all of which are powered via…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this week’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. The Weekend Reader features a handful of the most interesting articles featured on the ‘Smack over the past week ranging from tips and tricks to inspirational designs, processes, and more. So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too. The Latest Barbie Doll is a STEM-Trained Robotics Engineer From Hollywood movies to a plethora of apps, the appeal of STEM skills in the mainstream has never been greater. And when it…