The Country Child

Here are a few early developments on a poster I am working on for the production of Alison Uttleys', 'The Country Child'. The production will be happening some time next year in Derby. Uttley was from Derbyshire (Cromford) and wrote some very well loved books - she was said to be Derbyshire's 'answer to Beatrix Potter' (which I don't think Beatrix Potter liked very much!)

Anyway, onto the poster...

The poster is going to be a mixed media piece, and so far I've worked in Ink ....and of course my favourite; PAPER!:

Ink drawings for the poster background

3D paper sculpture with some digital extras added in!

Silouette of the sculpture

The ink drawing was done to mimic the style of C.F.Tunnicliffe who illustrated many of Uttleys' books. There is still quite a bit of work to be done, I'm still at the fun fun fun stage of making and experimenting.

To be continued...!

Wedding celebrations and birthday gifts!

Sorry it's been a while! I have been really busy, still getting set up actually.

Just wanted to show a couple of paper projects I have worked on lately. Both utilised slightly different methods so here goes!

Roxannes' 21st birthday! (my little sis :] )

Remember a few posts back, the jewellery storage frame? I said I would make one for my sisters 21st and I did! It's a much smaller version, I made it specifically for earrings and I also bought her a lovely pair from Accessorize to go with it

Roxannes' frame

A close up of the earrings I bought her for her 21st.

I found inspiration from a wrought iron panel and made her a paper cutting for her birthday card;

 

A close up of the bird detail

Steve and Chantelles' wedding;

I hand made this wedding card using 2 different methods of paper craft; paper cutting for the main piece and for the inside of the dress I used iris folding.  

A full view of the piece for the wedding card

A close up of the cut lettering and the heart / leaves detail

A closer look at the iris folding for the dress

Unfortunately I had to work that evening, so I didn't get to attend the reception. At least the card shows I had thought of them :)

Anyway, just a quick one this evening, very tired and have a busy and long day tomorrow!

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!

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!

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!

Welcome to Rebecca Simpson Design!

OK, so... I have spent the last few weeks registering my business as a Freelance Designer - and all that comes with it! Setting up a website, Facebook page, Twitter, Linked In (all the things a business needs to do these days!) But, I have been mostly looking forward to staring my blog - I haven't written a blog properly since my exchange to Norway during my degree and BOY have I missed it. I mainly want to connect with all the other amazing artists and designers online, and reach as many people as I can... and also write about how my 'enterprise' develops, and maybe discuss my way through certain projects too. I find writing helps me to straighten thoughts out - a bit like talking to other people! Anyway, this is a quick hello! and please come back!