Recycled and Re-made

Hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine right now. I’m glad to say it has finally returned to Denmark after a very rainy June.

I have a couple of items of my own work to show you, thought I’d never get finished as I’ve been so far behind, but I’m happy with the results.

Chandelier
The chandelier will form part of a collaborative July exhibition at our Gallery. Most of the Artists exhibiting use vintage or recycle in some way; it’s very different from other stuff we’ve shown in the Gallery, so it may provoke some interesting reactions from the visiting Danes and foreign tourists.

I found this brass chandelier in a charity shop, looking like it had seen better days. I’ve used old quilt fabrics; I find that they have a lovely faded quality that I like. Went the whole hog on this one and decided to wrap the links of the chain with embroidery cotton and wool to tie the colours together. The only new item I’ve used are the wooden balls which again I wrapped to form decoration where you would normally have crystals on a glass chandelier. Added some paper mache flowers, some bias binding and some paint for the candlestick parts and ‘Voila’!

I secretly want to keep this one but I always feel like that when I finish a piece! I must get a grip, and sell it!

Lamp
The lamp I’ve made for my own home using vintage silks I’ve had for many years.

I think it’s quite a fun piece now with the ribbons and the wrapping, and the light has a really warm tone when it’s on, so will be nice for cosy evenings.

I’m still playing around with ideas for the trimming, hence the pinned lace doilies!

Bowls

Had some fun making some paper bowls last week, wanted a nostalgic feel so used vintage books and magazines with colours and text that was appropriate for the ‘feel’ of them.

Have just started a larger bowl to exhibit along with these and am experimenting with stitching some of them too.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow my blog and for the lovely and sometimes funny comments you leave, they make me smile.

I’ll be back soon with some of my favourites in Art, Design and Vintage.

Large Luscious Woolly Pom-poms

Calling all crafters and skilled creative people everywhere, please be part of my flickr friend Elvis Robertson’s pom-pom project.

For those of you who haven’t seen it on-line, this is a wonderful collaborative project which aims to bring together the International craft community and show what they can do by creating ‘blossom’ in the Autumn. Elvis will hang the pom-poms in the trees in Lower Gardens park area in Bournemouth, once the leaves have fell from the trees.

Having been part of various collaborative ‘art happenings’ or events myself, when I lived in the UK, it feels great to once again be part of a wonderfully worth while project.

It gives you a great feeling to be involved with the community and contribute towards something as visual and fun as this, and the pom-poms are not difficult to make. Here are some pictures from people already part of the group.

Elvis has set up a pom pom blog and flickr site specially for this purpose where you can see more images and find out more about the project, including a short tutorial on how to make the pom-poms. They are easy to make and very satisfying to ‘play with’ once finished as they are so soft and woolly! Even if you can only find the time to make one, that’s fine.

For me, an added bonus of this project is that you can recycle your left over wool or wool found in charity shops, boot sales etc…

Elvis herself, is an active and enthusiastic recycler. As an establishes Textile Artist, she only uses vintage materials in her work and has exhibited at liberty London, and Browns. Pom-poms are very much part of her own work where she uses them to finish and embellish her beautiful memory quilts. See below

She has a great personal blog which features not only her work and her memories but also the art and design of other great Artists.

Her flickr site shows more great pictures including some of her stunning home. Elvis’s work has a wonderful nostalgia about it and her choice of colours and fabrics are so well put together. She works under her label ‘Lovely’ and in addition to her memory quilts; she makes beautiful wall and window pieces, to commission.

Her work is concerned with memory, gaps in memory, intimacy, community and humility. Lets all work together to make Elvis’s Pom-pom event as spectacular as possible.

Before I end this post, I just wanted to say apologies for the wait, I am 3-4 weeks behind with my blog my website and my artwork, due to a severe eye infection!!!

I am now up and running again and will endeavour to finish my two new lamps so I can document them on here next week.
I would also like to thank and welcome any newcomers for joining my blog, and those that continue to support it :-)

Paper Goddesses

I have a love of all things paper crafted, especially from vintage and recycled materials. Two Artists who just blow me away with their vision and skill are Jennifer Khoshbin and Lisa Kokin.

Lisa Kokin
Lisa’s fascinating work revolves around re-occurring themes we can all identify with such as loss, rescuing of memory, cultural and sexual identity and a critique of social values.

These are ‘pakaged’ in a variety of ways including, mixed media books, altered books, sewn, found photographs, sculptures and button works.

I particularly like the pieces using books, which she stitches, collages, layers and digs in to produce gorgeous aesthetic artworks, which evoke feelings and memories for me with their intriguing array of mixed media imagery.

New works, not yet on her web site and from her last exhibition at the Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, California, are more sculptural ‘art books’ or ‘reassembled books’ as Lisa herself calls them. Catalogues can be purchased by contacting the Gallery.

I am in awe of her imagination and creativity in turning a humble rectangular book into a passionate work of art involving many meticulous processes and statements about issues affecting many of us. It is easy to smile at the humour within these pieces, where she articulates her messages.

To see and read more about Lisa’s fascinating work see: http://www.lisakokin.com/

Jennifer Khoshbin
Jen’s beautiful and evocative work revolves around narratives; objects and symbols create meaning, both past and present and this is how she makes sense of things.

Jennifer’s work consists of ‘art books’ and sculptures. An avid reader, she delves into vintage books and by altering them explores their loss and recovery of meaning. By combining cut-outs with drawings and photographic images, she creates something more tangible, look at these:

To me these evoke nostalgia through her choice of subjects and meaning through her choice of word and imagery.

The circles or holes that she cuts have a quality which creates pleasure in looking; pleasure in seeing that one word at the bottom of that ‘pit’ like hole, like finding ‘treasure’ or a lost item at the bottom of your bag or in you pocket, and thinking about it’s meaning or memory. The word has been singled out or highlighted and I find this very intriguing and thought provoking.

Purchase a book for yourself at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6229400

Other work includes, paper covered resin animal heads, birds and insects. Some of which were originally from a collaborative exhibition called ‘Off With Their Heads’. I would love to buy one of these stag heads! And just look at the little beetle!

Purchases can be made at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5501066
To see more of her work see: http://www.jenkhoshbin.com/

Hope you enjoyed this post, I’ll be back in a few days, when hopefully I will have finished two new lamps I’m working on.

The Art of Chess Exhibition

Just had to show you this! An exhibition, just shown at the Reykjavik Art museum and which seems to have been touring the world for quite some time now.


Fifteen established Artists from around the world came together to show their interpretations of the design of a chess board and pieces.

Artists include some from the early 20th century and current important Artists such as Tracy Emin, Damien Hurst and Rachael Whitbread.

Rachael Whitbread
Rachael produced this amazing board, made up of dolls house pieces. I love the dinky furniture pieces, made from casts of her own dolls house collection and the squares made from carpet and lino pieces, gorgeous!

Yayoi Kusama
This one also caught my eye. It’s by Yayoi Kusama. Made from porcelain it has a sliding top with tiny porcelain pumpkin pieces inside, decorated with the Artist’s signature spot motif.

The whole thing is encased in a white soft sculpture display case made from leather and again, in the shape of a pumpkin.

I love things with compartments inside and hidden drawers, so exciting to discover things.

Wonderland

More and more we are surrounded by this trend for ‘wonderland’; of surrealism or imaginary worlds of awe and wonder. Personally, I love it; I think we all need a little bit of escapism in our lives, and now more than ever with the world recession and the long dark winters that some of us have just gone through, we need a little bit of fun and fantasy; wonderland is alive and everywhere.

copyright Tim walker

Fashion Photography
Tim walker has captured this in his delicious photographs, exhibited last year. He creates marvellous shots with vintage colours and a fairytale feel.

copyright Tim walker

My favorite is this one, ode to the princess and the pea.

copyright Tim walker

Circus inspired
Here in Denmark, we have this great style magazine called ‘Rum’; a couple of issues back, they did a shoot called ‘Vintage Circus’, take a look.

copyright RUM Magazine DK

I love these pictures

copyright RUM Magazine DK

Modern and surreal
Found a great young designer too; working in a very contemporary way with surreal themes. Ashley Thomas creates prints, wallpaper and accessories which can be purchased from her on-line or from outlets throughout the world see her site at: www.ashleythomas.webs.com

Look at these, based on surrealism, Ashley mixes everyday objects and domestic scenes, with quirky characters. It is a world where cats wear glasses, pigeons have moustaches and Llama's wear monocles.

Over at Fairy Cake Pond

Maybe we should all indulge in some creative play; a flickr friend who is doing exactly that is ‘oldflowers4me’.

Jo from Melbourne regularly dresses in anticipation of the white rabbit, runs away with the circus, and indulges her toys and pets in tea party activities and costume changes fit for a queen.

Thank you Jo for inspiring my creativity and giving us all a wonderful bit of your magical world. Find Jo here, www.oldflowers4me.blogspot.com/


All this got me thinking about styling some ‘wonderland’ sets for our boboho interiors magazine site, might take a while but watch this space…..

Old Things and Inspiration

Amazing talents
The more I research, the more excited I get about some of the amazing talents around; embracing recycling and using elements within their work.

Zoe Murphy
Found a great designer the other day, Zoe Murphy, who’s British and from Margate. For all you retro lovers out there, take a look at these.



What a great way to re-invent a sideboard!

She was short-listed for the New Designer of the Year award, and promotes: “loving what belongs to you”, by re-using in an ethical and up beat fashion. Her imagery is inspired by her hometown of Margate, on the South coast on England. Her work is fun and colourful and her designs are reminiscent of the 1950’s.
See more at www.zoemurphy.com


Print designs are applied to wood veneers, Formica and even silk wedding dresses to create new works of Art. Also, her blog at www.zoemurphys.blogspot.com

Etsy, vintage renaissance
Also loving this etsy shop I found under the name vintage renaissance. It got me thinking about endless possibilities for re-using stuff. Check out that suitcase, great idea.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6821938

Forgotten Treasures
On that note, I thought I’d have a rummage around the fabric cupboard and studio! Found forgotten treasures ;-)


Look at this! So beautiful, 1940’s silk satin, which I bought from e-bay ages ago. It’s fantastic quality, and so lovely, I haven’t been able to bring myself to cut it yet!!! Love it with this pink satin. I might have to scour the charity shops for a very large standard lamp to use it on.

These are some of the vintage embroidery motifs, still attached to the original papers, which I use to decorate my lamps. I was lucky enough to come across this stash, many years ago and at the time didn’t realise what I would use them for.


Also found these old printing sets with letters and holders and pictorial stamps of stags and zebra etc.. found them at a local bric-a-brac place, perhaps I’ll try printing these onto ribbons, could work well with my lamps.


Jane Schouten
Last but not least had to show you the work of Jane Schouten. Those of you not on flickr may not have come across her amazing creations and re-invented furniture. Jane’s designs are vibrant and fun: she recycles previously loved items by customizing them in her own unique way.


How fabulous are these reupholstered chairs, using vintage blankets, and hand stitching in great colours, such as these orange ones.


The details are so beautiful, with motifs such as flowers hearts and hands.

She also has a handmade range of gorgeous items to pick from, available on her website and an equally colourful and stylish home to match, which you can see more of on her flickr photostream, search ATLITW.

Love the Wall Art pieces, they’re an eclectic mix of found treasures, and almost forgotten memories.

You can buy Jane’s work including the recycled and the handmade items at www.alltheluckintheworld.nl take a look it’s really great.