Emotional Paper

Jum Nakao's 05 collection of paper dresses is an amazing spectacle on the catwalk which I happened upon today through Stylebubble (superb blog). Just make sure you follow the link to the Jum Nakao site and watch the video there to the end.............!!!!!!!!!!! :0

Board of Bored

Work is finally in progress and I managed to complete the top of one of the *chandeliers* that Im planning for the show. I say complete, I mean get the basics sorted, as there still needs to be an owl on top and details added to the outside, but I thought I'd try and get the main bit done first. The whole 'chandelier' thing is my attempt to make the show multilayered with different exhibits - in this case, hanging in the space. The idea is to eventually have a mirror suspended below so that you can see up into the interior, and be surprised by whats inside! 

Just to add to the white board theme, heres one part of the other piece that I'm developing for the show - the Secret History themed architectural thing. The top of the temple got bashed when I was taking it outside which is REALLY ANNOYING!! haha

Paper Inspiration

I wanted to post some of Lizzie Thomas' work that I particularly like:

On the way to finding the images, I came across the work of Emma Van Leest which is also really interesting, and has some architectural and layered qualities which are pretty inspirational.

Windows

So my work is going actually quite well at the moment, although I am worried about the time I have left before I'm meant to be mounting my show. I have a hefty amount still to do and I'm really excited about it, but I'm also thinking I might have planned too much stuff -  I'll have to see how it goes. Over Easter I designed a book cover sculpture for Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History (one of my favourite books), which was meant to be entered in the Penguin Design Competition. I'm extending this model for the show, as well as making some hanging models, based on the Gormenghast Trilogy which I've got plans for being interactive on some level. All this book -related work was sparked off by my exam project on Edgar Allan Poe and the house I produced. This pic shows the house in progress - all the cut pieces arranged together before I glued them, and it shows a lot of the elements and atmosphere that I'm trying to develop in my new pieces.

*Diorama Drama* haha

At the end of the Easter hols, me and my sister went to a little workshop in Birmingham at the RBSA Gallery which was run by Lizzie Thomas, a brilliant craft artist who makes beautiful books and cutouts in various forms. I first saw her work at the Brighton degree show last year and the again at Hove Art Gallery not long ago where I happened to join her mailing list. It turns out that she was doing this workshop during the time I was at home so I had to go along! We were basically the only marginally grown up people there - everyone else was about seven, but I still enjoyed it loads!! We made paper dioramas - Lizzie's version, and the one she brought in for an example is called Blue Fox and is beautifully toned and has a select number of layers, making a lovely composition. My diorama was sort of doomed from the start in terms of subtle tones, as the kids had chosen all the best box frames before I got mine, so I had a red one. I then thought id would be a good idea to put in as many layers as possible, which turned out a little bit haphazard, but I did like it in the end, and its inspired a few aspects of my work for the show! I'll do a post soon about Lizzie's work...

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New Blog

Welcome, welcome to my new blog, which will be a little visual diary of what I am doing everyday, anything interesting that I find and projects which I am working on. An actual bear garden is where bears used to be kept for fighting etc. hmm... however the idea of a bear garden sounds cute and/or relaxing for bears, which I am in favour of. It sounds a bit like the bear version of Monkey Forest (a real woodland in Stoke where monkeys are allowed to live). I quite like the idea that a bear garden sounds nice if you are a bear, but is a pretty scary place for anyone else he he... - enough of this rambling! See you very soon :0