3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

You Thought Reborn Babies Were Creepy? How About Vampire Reborn Babies?
Friends in Real Life – Man Opens Iconic Sitcom Cafe in Beijing
Artist Creates Incredible 25-Foot-Tall Castles from Icicles

You Thought Reborn Babies Were Creepy? How About Vampire Reborn Babies?

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:18 AM PST

Reborn baby dolls have been around for a few years now, and while some people love them so much they actually treat them like real babies, their ultra-realistic look creep a lot of people out. But one artist has managed to make these thing even creepier by making vampire reborn babies.

After seeing Chucky the killer doll in those cheesy 90s horror movies, I’ve never looked at dolls the same way I used to. So it’s fair to say the first time I saw photos of reborn baby dolls, I freaked out a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, I admire the skill and patience of artists who spend hours on end sculpting these realistic newborns and applying several layers of paint just to make their skin look more natural, but i wouldn’t want to have one of them in my house. And just when I though reborn babies couldn’t get any creepier, I discovered artist Bean Shanine, who creates vampire and zombie reborn babies.

Bean won her first coloring contest when she was just five years old. It happened at a McDonald’s and the prize was delivered by a man in a bunny costume, but it meant so much to her that she continued exercising her artistic talents all through her high-school days. But the older she got, the more she realized she didn’t have much of a chance to make it as an artist, so she decided to put her art days behind her and move one. But then one day she discovered reborn babies. She was stunned by their realistic look and she though to herself that it would be so cool to have a little reborn vampire. After searching online, she realized there weren’t any out there, so she decided to make one herself. After she was done, Bean posted her doll on eBay and sold it right away. It was just the reaction she needed to keep her making more. Now she has her own Twisted Bean Stalk Nursery.

One of these monster reborn babies costs between $650 and $950, but it can go up to $1,500 for child-size dolls. Bean Shanine also takes custom orders, so, depending on specifications, I guess the price can be even higher. But if you’re a fan of creepy things, I’m sure you’ll spare no expense to own one of these creepy toddlers.

Photos © The Bean Stalk Nursery

You Thought Reborn Babies Were Creepy? How About Vampire Reborn Babies? was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Friends in Real Life – Man Opens Iconic Sitcom Cafe in Beijing

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 05:41 AM PST

If you were a fan of the hugely popular sitcom Friends, you surely remember their favorite meeting place, the Central Perk Cafe. Tired of just seeing the characters experience the coziness of that soft orange couch, one Chinese fan decided to create his own Friends cafe, in Beijing.

Like so many of us, Du Xin loved Friends. “I'm crazy about Friends. For me, it's like a religion. It's my life,” he told NPR. After watching the show, he started searching around Beijing for a place where he could actually sit on an orange couch just like the one his favorite heroes relaxed on in the sitcom. When he couldn’t find a Central Perk, he decided to create it himself. And he wasn’t going to settle for something similar, he wanted a place that looked exactly like what he’d seen on TV all those years, down to the tiniest details. Tucked away on the sixth-floor of the Chaowai Soho complex, this replica of Central Perk has the coveted couch, the same windows and doorway as the original, the brick interior and even the same hand written snack items featured on Friends. In order to nail all the things he wanted, Du studied thousands of photos of the show’s set and watched endless reruns, and five months later he had the cafe of his dreams.

Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP

But after all that effort, working with Beijing manufacturers to get the designs just right, he was off to a very slow start in the cafe business. ”It didn’t go well at the beginning. No one came,” 30-year-old Du Xin told CNN. But with the help of the Internet, news about the Friends cafe spread quickly throughout China’s capital and soon the place became a big hit. Customers even started calling Gunther, after the guy who ran Central Perk in the sitcom. Most of the cafe’s clientele is made up of college students and young professionals who stop by to get a quick cup of coffee and end up staying for hours, gripped by the friendly atmosphere and overstuffed couches. Reruns of Friends are played on plasma screens inside the Chinese Central Perk, which attracts a lot of students who want to improve their English skills.

Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP

But an almost identical cafe wasn’t enough for Du Xin. This avid Friends fan also built a replica of Joey’s apartment, complete with an identical foosball table, a collection of Baywatch DVDs and an oversized cabinet. “I learned a lot from Friends: how to treat friends, girlfriends, my wife, how to be generous, how to be gentle, ” Xin said.

Photo: The Beijinger

Friends in Real Life – Man Opens Iconic Sitcom Cafe in Beijing was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Artist Creates Incredible 25-Foot-Tall Castles from Icicles

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 02:03 AM PST

50-year-old Brent Christensen, an artist from Alpine, Utah, creates extraordinary structures that I thought only existed in my imagination and really cool fantasy stories. For the past four years, Christensen has spent his time perfecting the craft of making structures as tall as 20 to 25 ft, using nothing but intertwining icicles as building blocks. He developed an interest in the unique craft began way back in 2000, when he and his family moved from sunny California to chilly Utah, and he was looking for some fun outdoor activities.

"We started off doing winter stuff in the yard, playing around with the kids, making igloos, ice forts and slides and stuff," he says. "And it just evolved. One year I stumbled upon the concept of doing icicles by spraying water. We made one with a big wooden frame under it, and when it melted in the spring it was a huge mess with a pile of soaking wood. The following year I didn't use any wood so it would just cleanly melt away. During the course of that winter I stumbled upon the concept of fusing icicles together to make a lattice to spray water on and build upon." It was then that Chirstensen began building his magnificent ice fortresses. Utah locals would often stop by his house to gawk at the castles. Once he got pretty good at making icicle castles, he approached a few resorts nearby and asked if they would be interested in displaying his work for their guests. It took a while before the manager of a small local spa and resort agreed, in 2009, but this small opening got him into the public eye and there was no looking back from there.

Photo: Ice Castles

Christensen's creations look like they've come straight out of a Disney fantasy movie, but they are quite real and always prove a big hit with children and adults alike. Just looking at photos and videos of them makes you feel like you've left the real world and landed in a magical kingdom of ice. This winter he had two ice castles on display – one in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and a much larger one in the parking lot of the Mall of America near Minneapolis-St. Paul. The public is allowed to visit his ice castles spread out over an area of about an acre and a half, after paying an admission fee. It takes at least a half hour to look around the castles and take pictures. The ice castle he built at the Mall of America took him two weeks to complete, with the help of a team of 20 men. It was opened to public on New Year's Eve. There is no 'closing date' as such for the displays; Chirstensen plans on dismantling the pieces of ice when weather forecasts predict temperatures in the high 30s. He will move these ice pieces into safe piles at the end of the parking lot, a safe place for all the ice to naturally melt away.

Photo: Brent Christensen

To build an ice-castle, the structure first needs a strong foundation. Christensen starts off by running water on the grass and waiting for it to freeze. After that, icicles are simply attached to the foundation and built upon, slowly bringing shape to the entire creation. Water acts as the glue, freezing new icicles to the existing ones. The icicles themselves are 'grown' by Christensen, just like plants. Water is run on custom-made racks, and freezes to form vine-like structures hanging down from the racks. Once the icicles are 'ripe', Christensen and his crew pluck them and put them in custom bags made out of carpet (the best material for this task). 3,000 to 5,000 icicles are grown in a day, and a 20 person crew works non-stop every night to deliver the icicles from the racks to the actual structure. The ice castles are complete with towers, tunnels and stairs. Christensen isn't completely in control of what a castle will look like at the end, because of factors like temperature, wind, snow and the volume of water that's run on the structure. "The weather customizes the look," he says. So sometimes the icicles will look like petals or leaves with veins in them. Or they might be long and ribbony.

Photo: ShutterStein

A single castle requires about 2 million gallons of water. For the project in Colorado, he got the water from a nearby water main in the town. In return for the water, he gave the town a dollar for every ticket purchased, and that money is funding a local scholarship. For now, most of Christensen's castles are in the 20 to 25 foot range. "The goal is to eventually go to 40 to 45 feet," he says. "We get to a point where it's something the public's going to enjoy, then we continue growing it."