Nov 13, 2014 6:30 AM

Gallery: Would You Lick an E.Coli-Shaped Popsicle?

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UX designer Wen Li took a break from pushing pixels to create a new series of popsicles based on cacti and killer diseases.
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Li writes that "before tasting with your tongue, you first taste with your eyes and mind" and her goal is to challenge palettes with the spiky physicality of cacti and the pseudo-suicidal act of running your tongue over HIV.

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Li studied many species of cacti and created hybrid designs that would evoke their spiny nature while remaining easy to produce.
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Li built models using 3-D design tool Rhino and printed them on an Objet Connex 500 3-D printer.

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Liberties were taken with the cacti to make them easier to mold, but Li made every attempt at scientific accuracy with the viruses.
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The 3-D models were cast in food safe silicone.

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Great care was taken in formulating sugar water solutions, the color of which would help accentuate the designs.
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Don't ask what's in the garbage bag. Seriously.

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Li counts a wide range of artists as influences, including iconoclasts like [Yayoi Kusama](http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/information/), [Leigh Bowery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Bowery), and David Lynch as well as minimalist [Muji-art director Kenya Hara](http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/about/en/) and lyrical landscape shaper [James Turrell](http://jamesturrell.com/). "I like almost all art forms and that’s also the reason I don’t limit myself to a specific media," she says.
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Full instructions on how to produce Li's popsicles of mass delight are available at [Instructables](http://www.instructables.com/id/Dangerous-Popsicle-Two-Part-Silicone-Casting/).

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