Shape notes
Shashibo Art Worx and Artist Collabs: Gartel, Meow Wolf
Shashibo art cubes in our catalog: the Laurence Gartel Art Worx designs, four Meow Wolf collabs, Tales of Ovirnia and other art drops, and how to display them.
A Shashibo is a canvas that keeps rearranging itself. The classic DODECA has one outer design and three more inside, and every fold reshuffles them, which is why artists love it. The cube itself was invented by Andreas Hoenigschmid, a sand artist, so art has been part of the fold from the start. This guide walks through the art collaborations on our shelf.
Laurence Gartel and Art Worx
The artist series with Laurence Gartel, sold under the Art Worx name, brings four designs to the classic DODECA.
- Blue Crystal: cool, faceted, glassy color for a calm workspace.
- Technicolor: saturation turned all the way up, reshuffling with every twist.
- Water Color: the softer side of the collab, painterly and slow.
- Stained Glass: a cathedral-window feel, folding into new mosaics.
The four work as a set. Blue Crystal and Technicolor are a cool-versus-vivid pair; Water Color and Stained Glass lean gentle and graphic. Connect all four for a mixed display that looks like a small gallery.
Meow Wolf
Meow Wolf is known for immersive art, and the four collab cubes carry that strange, playful energy.
- Hyper Melon: a juicy, playful theme with a bold, fruity name.
- Eternal Friends: warm and friendly, an easy gift for a best friend.
- Dryer Portal: surreal laundry-room art with a portal-to-elsewhere theme.
- Qdot Map: a map-and-explore design for people who like remembering routes.
All four connect into one Meow Wolf build that feels as surprising as the installations that inspired it.
Dice Paradise: Tales of Ovirnia
This collaboration brings Tales of Ovirnia fantasy art to the DODECA. It is made for tabletop players who need something silent to handle between turns, and it sits naturally beside a dice tray.
More art drops on the shelf
Our art drops shelf also gathers designs that are less about one artist and more about a mood:
- Renaissance: an old-master, classical-painting mood.
- Hypnotic Digital: a mesmerizing, pixel-age look.
- Tie Dye Twist: swirling festival color.
- Candyland Fantasy: sugar-bright and whimsical.
- Harvest Sunset: warm golden-hour autumn tones.
- Soccer and Patriotic: sporty and red-white-and-blue themes.
The Artist Series on our classic shelf, with Mystic Ocean, Chaos and Confetti, is another place to look if you want bold, painterly patterns.
Why art cubes feel different
On a plain cube you notice the shape. On an art cube you notice the image breaking apart and recombining. Because three inner designs appear as you fold, the same shape can look quite different from one session to the next depending on which faces end up outside. Art lovers often spend more time on simple shapes, like the crown and star, just to watch the composition shift.
Collecting art cubes without overspending
Art sets can grow fast. A calmer way to collect is to choose one thread and follow it. Some people collect by artist, finishing the four Gartel designs before anything else. Others collect by mood: all the cool blues, from Blue Crystal and Water Color to Mystic Ocean. Others pick one cube from each collab, so the shelf shows the range of the art drops rather than one series in depth.
Whichever thread you follow, play with each cube before buying the next. The inner designs only show up as you fold, and knowing what a cube looks like inside its star or crown tells you a lot about which neighbor it will look best next to. That is also the most honest way to enjoy the art: in your hands, not just on the shelf.
Displaying an art collection
- Group by artist or collab: the four Gartel cubes or the four Meow Wolf cubes make a natural row.
- Use the official star sculptures: four stars combine into a large hexagonal sculpture, a striking centerpiece for a shelf.
- Rotate the display: refold one cube a week so the inner designs get their turn.
- Keep it out of direct sun and away from electronics, since the cubes contain magnets.
Is an art cube a good gift?
Very. It is a puzzle and a small piece of design at once, around $25 for a single DODECA at the time of writing. For someone who visits galleries, Gartel or Renaissance. For someone who loves the weird and wonderful, any Meow Wolf. For the friend who runs the game nights, Tales of Ovirnia.
