Israeli designer HIlla Shamia has found a way to mix “oil and water” or aluminum and wood – two materials I’ve never seen fused together. The product designer has created a novel way to meld both poured aluminum with irregular wood chunks to create modern tables and benches with a warm industrial feel. Old world and new world in one.

Daredevil Christopher Gillette writhes around with a huge alligator he has saved from death. He works at a Florida sanctuary that rescues the wild beasts if they stroll into neighbourhoods where residents can legally kill them. To raise cash for the centre at Homestead, staff put on shows to feed and wrestle the alligators. Photographer John Chapa, 41, and girlfriend Adriana Canargo, 30, took these shots. Photo: Assistant photographer Adriana Canargo dives with a wild alligator. (Photo by John Chapa/Barcroft Media)

Flowers have always been used in art and fashion. They are everywhere from haute couture scarves to household wallpaper but one artist Lim Zhi Wei, who calls herself Limzy, has created beautiful paintings using fresh flowers that outshines all of those things.

Sweet-toothed jet setters don't even need their passports for this worldwide tour, as they can travel around the world in 40 cakes. Some of the world's most famous landmarks and cultures have been created by some of the best bakers, as featured in this month's edition of Cake Masters magazine. Pictured here is “Japan”. (Photo by Mimi Cafe Union/Mercury Press/Caters News)

The photographer best known for his surreal celebrity portraits has teamed up with Lavazza to create their 2020 calendar. Shot in Hawaii, his shoot is a hymn to the relationship between humankind and the natural word. Here: Care – May. (Photo by David LaChapelle/The Guardian)

The sun shines on Weston-super-Mare's Sand Sculpture Festival and the sand art currently being displayed on July 4, 2011 in Weston-Super-Mare, England. Now in its fourth year and with a Amazon Jungle theme for 2011, the seaside resort's event attracts top sand sculptors from across the world and runs throughout the summer months. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Meerkats are weighed and measured during the ZSL London Zoo 's annual weigh-in on August 22, 2012 in London, England. The height and mass of every animal in the zoo, of which there are over 16,000, needs to be recorded. The measurements are collated in the Zoological Information Management System, from which zoologists can use the data to compare information on thousands of endangered species. (Photo by Oli Scarff)