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Tuesday 14 September 2010

Paper Sculpture - my favourite medium! (Tutorials coming soon!)

If I had to pick one thing concerning my creativity that I would NEVER give up, (it would be extremely difficult to pick) but it would be my paper crafting and sculpture. It covers so many areas such as quilling, folding, decoupage, cutouts, etc. I love to work with paper so much - the different weights, textures and colours and how each respond differently to manipulation. I may be weird but it gets me going - but each to their own, eh? If I could be paid enough to do nothing but paper sculpture, that would be ideal. One day it will happen!

I will be posting often on this topic, so I wanted to use this as an introductory post on the subject and show some works I have previously done. I am working on a big project at the moment and taking pictures along the way, so when it's done I will give a write up and tutorial for anyone who wants to try this amazing art form.

The way I work focuses heavily on layering techniques, and very importantly - lighting, to convey emotion and show the work in it's true form or the way it is meant to be seen.

Some previous works; the first few pictures are from my final self directed project during my degree - the theme was Imprints, and I took the memories of a good friend after interviewing her and making a series of paper sculptures.It's actually not finished, there is alot i want to do with it, but here are some images as they stand now:

Introductory / typographic sculpture  
'Nanna' and 'Poppa's' wedding day
A close up of the bouquet, made with wedding confetti!
Watching through the window
Daffodils
Another piece I made for self promotion (they went on business cards)


A very recent piece, done in practice for my new secret project!

Without Lighting, still interesting and beautiful
Lighting makes all the difference
A closer and more detailed / high contrast view
Anyway, I hope you see why I love paper - so versatile and so beautiful. All of the sculptures are made with nothing but paper, maybe glue, 3d tape, knives obviously, scissors and like the last image some jewels used for decoration.

Hope you enjoyed this! More to come, so stay posted!

Sunday 12 September 2010

Handmade Book Project - Phobias

Anyone who knows me will know that I am a huge fan of anything handmade - I like things to be a little bit different! I carry this (style? don't really know how to say it) through to my Graphic Design as well as all of my personal projects. One of my 'things' is that I don't believe that everything these days has to be digital - there is a place for this OF COURSE! But I think finding a nice middle ground is key. I get bored of designs all looking the same to be honest, and especially if there is no real idea or purpose behind them then purely digital works can look empty. Do you understand what I mean? It's like the difference between beautiful letterpress type and printed digital type.... ANYWAY, I think I am waffling/ranting so I'll move on :)

I wanted to write a bit about a project I did during my degree, my Handmade Book. If I can remember correctly, it didn't start out as handmade. Or a book. I think the project was to design a brochure based on a subject of our choice, and my topic was 'PHOBIAS'. But without going on too much it evolved into being a book, and then handmade. It just felt right, I mean phobias are irrational or intense fears that often evolve over time or because of a certain incident. Its very real and terrifying to each individual. So my idea was that this would be a typographic exploration of chosen phobias, in a small and strange book. 

I had made books before but I really wanted something different to this, and I ended up buying 'Handmade Books; Binding Folding and Decorating' by Heather Weston.  I highly recommend the book, it was so clearly written and lots of great examples by artists too.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the book, what do you think?

cover
 The cover was made with card, overlaid with strips of very thin card to symbolise being 'bound' by your fears. The book was then covered with black handmade paper, and to touch it it feels leathery, slightly like skin. A bit horrible!

Opened fully

The book was a 'star book' or circle book, so when opened fully the front and back covers actually meet. I thought this was a good way to represent the endless 'cycle' of fear. There were 3 layers, so the book became a 3D piece, very tactile.

Agoraphobia
I loved this page of the book, agoraphobia - a fear of open spaces. The page was a pop up which left the words elevated and isolated away from the page. The typeface was heavily spaced/kerned and the overall effect was really strong.

arachnophobia 
Arachnophobia page structure.
Everybodies favourite phobia - the spider one! This was more textural than anything else - and it's interesting to watch people who have picked up the book and looked through; people who dont like spiders HATED the page :) (i'm not being mean - i am terrified of spiders too!) I used a sheet of angel hair for the middle layer of the book to give a webby background. The actual name of the phobia was cut out of the whole page to form a seperate web type structure.

Dextrophobia
Dextrophobia. This is a very rare and odd phobia, as you can see by reading the text - I would love to find someone who actually has this! I have a really weird phobia too, but I keep it secret these days as last time i told my lovely friends about it they proceeded to find nice 'examples' for me, to see if i freaked out! Anyway, I used stamps and inks to make the letters appear as though they were falling or gathering toward the right of the page.

There were more pages, this is just a selection!

Sorry if there has been any of this that didnt make sense (or silly typos), I am very sleepy and off to bed now!

Goodnight!

Wednesday 8 September 2010

My new jewellery storage!

I have been busy the last few weeks. Alot of sitting working on the laptop which is good but at the same time, I need to have regular breaks and be doing stuff! Anyway I have been painting and doing a few random bits around the flat, and I finally got around to doing a job I have had in mind for a while; I transformed a picture frame into a jewellery storage/display piece. I have seen it done a few times, and you can even buy some nice enough ones from eBay and whatnot, but anyone who knows me knows that I like to get my hands dirty and crafty head on!

I love the fact that I live near a few different charity shops as I am always finding super cool, super cheap (and often vintage) bargains! A while back I found a HUGE wooden picture frame which I bought for next to nothing, so last night I removed the back and the glass (which I recycled!). I sanded and whitewashed the wooden frame, then using a staple gun attached on the reverse some very fine black mesh material that i got from the market. I then backed it with a sheeny pink type paper and hey presto! It looks great I am happy with it - I can finally see my shiny things! Oh, I also used some pink cotton ties to hang it with.

Full shot of the frame


Mesh and whitewash detail



Jewellery in all it's glory!

It's actually not even finished, I want to do a bit more work distressing the frame (which you'll see I love to do when I upload more DIY project pics) and also the backing paper is temporary - I'd like to find some really nice fabric and use that instead.

My sister has just moved out of home and in with her boyfriend, and she has a birthday coming up. I am thinking of making a smaller one for earrings, it would be a fab gift for her!

Finally - another cheap and cool piece of DIY: Ages and ages ago I picked up some tiny square 3D frames (again at the charity shop) 75p for 3! I just very quickly sanded and washed the frames as I did for the project above, although this time I kept the frame back and stapled some left over vintage rose fabric to it (left over from a chair I re-upholstered (using an apron - but that's another story!)) They look really cute (but upon showing them to Hans, I don't think they were to his taste! A bit too girly :) I added them to another second-hand find (a small shelf) that I had distressed. They are sitting pretty now on my bedroom wall along with a dried rose - I kept the rose from the flowers Hans gave me on our first date, so it's nice and sentimental for me too!

The little shelf and rose


A closer look at the fabric frames (I love the fabric!)



An even closer close-up! You can see the lovely 'shabby chic'
effect you get from distressing the painted wood.


So, anyway - very happy with those little bits of DIY, and it's been good to get away from the screen occasionally. I intend on refurbishing my desk soon as it has a huge ink stain on top - so when I get around to it I'm going to do a proper 'how to' with before and after and everything, so watch this space!