I can hardly believe I’m included in this book – it is magnificent in every way. I think Olivier Dupon has created something very special. In less expert hands this wealth of information might have been overwhelming or the spirit could have been lost but Olivier presents it with simplicity and real elegance – you are never distracted from the central idea: that this is a book about love of craft, process and materials or Olivier’s true affection for the subject.
Find the book: http://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/new/fall11/551585.htm
on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Artisans/108346249261751
Olivier’s blog: http://dossier37.tumblr.com/
“This book captures the new mood – a return to a preference for the unique and the handmade. Design expert and acclaimed blogger Olivier Dupon has sourced the cream of the contemporary design world from all over Europe, Australia and the United States, profiling 75 artisans who use craft techniques, rather than mass-production methods, to create stylish, whimsical, covetable objects. Hundreds of colour photographs feature a huge variety of crafts, including art, ceramics, furniture, glasswork, jewelry, lighting, metalwork, papercraft, textiles and woodwork. Complete with a directory of products, and Dupon’s personal recommendations for inspiring shops and websites to visit, this is the perfect resource for discovering unique and beautiful objects made by new, talented artisans from all around the world.”
I made the ship above as a prop for a TV commercial a couple years ago. I assembled some boxes and parts of boxes into a shipish shape and then added all sorts of stuff – pipe cleaners, dixie cups, part of a birthday crown, wooden ice cream spoons, buttons, felt, etc. etc. The castle collage below was for an ad as well. I think they would be fun for little people to make ( with some grown up help).
Both involve using the die cut sections of boxes for details . I can’t resist a good piece of cardboard – I live near a fancy grocery and their recycling is full cartons and boxes with interesting cutouts and shapes.
Everything I make starts in a box and then lives there until it’s done. The boxes are for organization – keeping the many little bits for many little projects together and they are also a thinking tool and most importantly a way to start, it is very easy to put things in a box.
I love Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit. Here’s a little of what she has to say about boxes:
“The box makes me feel organized, that I have my act together even when I don’t know where I’m going yet. It also represents a committment. The simple act of writing a project name on a box means that I’ve started work”
I have different sorts of boxes for different sorts of projects. The clear plexi boxes above are children’s shoe boxes from the Container Store.
Stephen Szczepanek of Sri Threads came for a visit a little while ago and brought me a fabulous present.
Beautiful bits of Japanese indigo and bright floral dust rags. I love them. You can find more about Stephen and these amazing things at his website. I think I’m going to make a bat out one of the dust cloths.
These little birds are on their way to London today for a garden wedding.
I like this photo – I think they look very earnest or maybe sincere. Note on wedding birds/ cake toppers: I’m still making them but not taking orders right now so I can focus on current orders, tackling my massive backlog of email and doing a little restructuring to make everything more manageable for all concerned. If I were to continue without making some adjustments and changes I would certainly lose the rest of my marbles. If you would like updates please join the mailing list or check back here.
This lace and fabric is for some brides and grooms I’m beginning today.
My favorite parts of the bird making process are picking out the fabric and taking the photo when they’re finished. I like the middle parts too – just not as much.
It did get a bit brighter yesterday for picture taking but I still needed a little artificial enhancement so I invested a total of about 15 minutes and 8 bucks in putting together a sort of simple light box I found at Make. I used drafting velum instead of interfacing and I had one florescent bulb and one incandescent ( wish I had two florescent) which were clipped on either side. I would have shown you the clip lights ( which I already had) but that would have meant taking a wider shot and revealing some embarrassing disarray here in birdville.
Here are a couple bird portraits taken in the box:
This is the daily bird abra
and nan. She’ll be in the shop at one.
Pretty simple and it made the difference in being able to take at least acceptable pictures on a lousy day in a place where I’m already kind of light challenged particularly in the afternoon.
