Space dogs and some chocolate.

I've realized that most of my friends know about the tragic space dog hero Laika, but very few know the story about Belka and Strelka .

Unlike poor Laika, who was the first dog to travel into space but actually died only few hours after the launch cause of the stress , Belka & Strelka are the first living creatures who went into the orbit and returned to Earth safely.

Belka&Strelka

The recovery capsule for Korabl-Sputnik 2

Belka (Russian for “Squirrel”) and Strelka (Russian for“Arrow”) were launched into the orbit on August 19, 1960. Strelka and Belka spent a day in space in their spacecraft Korabl - Sputnik 2 along with the mighty crew of one grey rabbit, 42 mice, 2 rats, flies and a number of plants and fungi, before returning to Earth.

Now spacecrafts from the 60's are truly inspirational. So retro and futuristic at the same time.

Rik Allen is an artist who makes spacecrafts out of blown glass and recycled metals. I was instantly enchanted with his work and I really can't decide which of these cuties is my favorite.

Photo © Rik Allen

Photo © Rik Allen

Photo © Rik Allen

While on the space topic, I need to mention mouth watering planet and meteorites chocolates ( YES, chocolates! ) made by Japanese chocolatiers L'Eclat.

light&shadows.

At the moment I'm obsessing over light and shadows.

Rashad Alakbarov whose shadow paintings are all over the Internet nowadays has sucked me into this world and I can't resist sharing some of my findings.

Rashad Alakbarov is an Azerbaijan artist who uses everyday found objects and light to create his art. The work below I find the most striking and different from other shadow artworks because Rashad managed to incorporate color by using multicolored acrylic planes to create this incredibly vivid shadow painting. You can check the rest of his work on this Facebook page.

Photo © Rashad Alakbarov

Then there's Kumi Yamashita.  Kumi Yamashita says that she turns lights on and off and rearranges objects on the wall or the floor for months . The objects that she uses for creating shadows are so pure and simple and she manages to find the precise angles for her light sources so her final works are elegant and very impressive.

Photo © Kumi Yamashita

Photo © Kumi Yamashita

Below you can check a nice animation inspired by Kumi Yamashita's work by Peter Eszenyi and if you wish to see modest Kumi Yamashita in crazy Takeshi Kitano's show ( up until today I wasn't aware of the fact that Takeshi Kitano hosted several very popular television shows !!! ), go here.

And my third favorite shadow artist Fred Eerdekens. Through his shadow art, he mostly plays around with words. Below is the series of his works with twisted wires which appear to have no meaning but with the right angle lighting ,words appear on the wall.

photos via Millions of Colors

"A very short story, with a lot of fiction in the middle, and something real in the end."