Wow! - Magical Scenes Sculpted with Chicken Wire

Wow! These sculptures are so insanely beautiful, and whimsical, and nostalgic, and just simply gorgeous!  I keep going back over and over again to look at these photos, so I thought I would share them with you.

Made by London based artist Benedetta Ubaldini - they are made from chicken wire of all things!  Who knew that it had the potential to look so stunning!


You can see more of her work here - thanks to My Modern Met for this fab discovery!

Enjoy!

Odd One Out vs Picasso

I have this picture of a painted plate in my studio on my inspiration board - it was painted by Picasso in 1957.  I knew Picasso had produced ceramic pieces and I thought this was one of those - but just recently I found out that this is actually an upcycled plate - I knew there was a reason I was drawn to it! Ok so maybe it was a bit about the dog too - and possibly more about the fact his name is Lump! too cute ;)

Anyway - it's kind of nice to know that (in a somewhat removed way!) I am following in the footsteps of an artist I admire so much.  A link to the cute story behind that plate here.  

All inspired to do a bit of research now - I've been checking out his other pieces.  It seems we both share a love of painting animals and silhouettes on to plates, loving the matador and bull silhouettes.... maybe I might be lucky enough to add one to my collection  - a girl can dream!

(other pics from Ro Gallery, Taglialatalla Galleries & Christies)

 

  

Life is Beautiful

I love contradiction in art and this installation by Farhad Moshiri is brilliant!  Making something beautiful from the mundane is something that I like to explore in my own work.

I love how the gorgeous flowing font and the phrase "Life is Beautiful" is formed with 1242 knives of different sizes and colours stabbed directly into the gallery wall.  You can just imagine how manic and brutal the act of stabbing all of those knives would have looked to an observer - but look at the stunning result!

Stunning New Penguin Book Covers

These new Penguin book covers are just stunning!  Using illustrations hand embroidered by Rachell Sumpter they are works of art and so deserve to be on display.  I want the lot!

HAND embroidered, seriously!  That is a . lot . of . work .  right there.

and possibly my favourite (if I had to pick)

So Inspiring!

Pics from her Flickr photostream here

Kill your TV, bake cake, drink tea

Love this!  Adding to the Christmas wish list (hint hint)

Printed using red and black ink on recycled cream paper, using traditional letterpress type by Aardvark, in Hastings, UK

Buy it here - and it just happens to be one of my favourite shops too :)

33 ways to stay creative

I like lists....a lot....I make them all the time.  Mostly it's my way of procrastinating actually doing something but still feeling like I am doing something at the same time.  My other favourite form of procrastination is looking through blogs at other peoples lists!

 thought this was a particularly cool one.  Found it here

                                                                                                

Something to think about.....

“Draw something, sew something, cook something, sing something, build something, make something .... 

buy nothing.”

Original quote from Gala Darling - found on Pinterest and I even found the stencil if you feel like spreading the word! ....

                                                                                             

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul...

Sometimes you come across a quote that expresses the exact feelings you are having at a certain point in time.   I think this is the universe telling you that wherever you are right now, it is where you should be.

Today my soul is filled with rainbow colours and woodland animals - I think that is pretty cool!

one of my birthday pressies and a stunning book!

So about a week ago it was my birthday - and we are most definitely not going to talk about that (I am still completely in denial over the last few ones!)  Anyway, I was given this lovely new book by Mr Odd One Out.  What that really means is that I bought it myself for him to give back to me! I love, love, love design books and this one is completely gorgeous.  It is by Geraldine James, who has worked at Harrods and now Selfridges as a design buyer - need I say more - she has a great eye. 

It is subtitled 'How to display and enjoy your treasured collections', but I don't really see it as a generic how to book.  More so a feast of visual inspiration - perfect for those who are hoarders of vintage bits and bobs and obscure objects.  Yes, a bit like moi!

I won't bore you with a long winded review - mainly because I haven't read it yet!  But I have pored over the pictures at least 5 times so that is what I will show you.  Anyway I wont lie to you, I always make up my mind about these books based on photos and not text anyway (how shallow!).  It might be dead boring who knows - but at least it is pretty!  James does seem to have a bit of a bent for the Gothic and the distressed.  Taxidermy and Victoriana fill many pages with a bit of industrial and retro thrown in.  If that sparks any curiosity then you will love it!

 

This is not a book for those who love minimalism, in fact as she states in her intro "Cold minimalism has its place, but not at my place"  Here here! 

 

There are also some lovely images of plates on walls - as there should be, so I am one very happy lady!

Oooh, and the book is hardcover and beautifully bound with a very cool textured and faded cover - it would most definitely fit into one of the homes she describes.  I brought this one from Book Depository - free shipping yay! and by far the cheapest I have seen it priced anywhere in NZ.  Check it out here....