Illustration Friday » sculpture

International Group Exhibition for Forest Preservation

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:01:59 +0000

On May 13th the international group exhibition ‘The Enchanted Forest’, which is dedicated to the forests and their inhabitants all over the world, will open at Strychnin Gallery Berlin. The show should remind people of the drastic damage that is constantly done to our forests as well as their beauty, uniqueness and importance. Many lovingly and elaborately crafted sculptures as well as paintings and photographs by over 30 international artists will display both the desolation of deforestation and the forest‘s magic and liveliness that we have to save.
10 percent of the price of every sold artwork will be donated to a project of the WWF.

Share/Bookmark

whimsically wonderful: Megan Bogonovich

Melanie — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:40:14 +0000

It would be practically impossible to overstate how completely besotted I am with the ceramic stylings of Megan Bogonovich. I completely understand why all those beskirted women are trying to wiggle their way into her ceramic wonders. When I look at them, I am absolutely overcome with the mad desire to climb inside and set up home. I cannot thank Susan of Artstream Studios and Art Esprit enough for introducing Megan’s whimsical wonders to me.

Share/Bookmark

Ponoko!

brianna — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:58:49 +0000

Ponoko is a very cool service from New Zealand that takes your designs and laser cuts them on demand into a variety of materials like acrylic, felt, wood, and cardboard. I decided to try out the service with some images from public domain books available on the web to make a variety of acrylic jewelry, keychains, and hair sticks (hey, hair sticks are infinitely useful. You can poke people with them in addition to keeping your hair tied back).

I downloaded their templates for Inkscape, a free vector graphics program that creates .svg files. Then I found a public domain book called Rambles of an Archaeologist Among Old Books and in Old Places by Frederick William Fairholt that had beautiful engravings of old jewelry designs, including a fascinating little Memento Mori ring that I thought would do quite nicely for Halloween.

I figured since I was paying for a full sheet of acrylic, I should probably cram it full of stuff. Plus, it gave me a chance to test the different engraving thicknesses as well as the exactness of sizing – ring sizes are precise to the millimeter, so I created three versions of the Memento Mori ring in ladies’ size 4, 5 and 6 to test. Then I added some images from L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series because I thought it would be super cool to have an Oz ornament hanging from our Christmas tree this year.

I uploaded my designs to my Ponoko account, then chose my materials – in this case, white frosted acrylic. The interface of the Ponoko site just makes this process that much more fun. I finalized my order, then sat back to wait for the results.

I certainly wasn’t disappointed! The package showed up five days after my order was completed, and I was very very happy with what arrived – everything was exactly as I’d specified, even the mistake I made on the Oz ornament was fully intact. :D I quickly tried on the rings, then checked them against a sizing chart, and they were perfect. The engravings are a bit difficult to see on the material I chose, but I brushed India ink over one of the rings to “antique” it and it looks awesome.

Now my head is full of ideas for truly 3D creations, like picture frames and puzzles and lampshades. They’ve added a variety of new materials in the last week, like bamboo, and they have a GREAT blog with links to designers experimenting with laser cutters and custom manufactory.

Since I used public domain images for my designs, I made the .svg files I created available under the same (non) license, so you can download them for free at Ponoko and do whatever you like with them. If you make something with Ponoko, let me know, I’d love to see your work!

Share/Bookmark

red and white by Elsa Mora

amanda — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:32:50 +0000

This 3-D looking paper doll by Elsa Mora is absolutely stunning! Check out more of her stuffs on her blog and flickr and even buy her jazz on etsy. ps. This necklace is also gorgeous :)

Share/Bookmark

potted poetry: diana fayt

Melanie — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:59:21 +0000

I cannot for the life of me remember exactly where I found the link to Diana Fayt’s extraordinary ceramic creations, but I am ever so thankful. I love everything about her work: the colors, the organic shapes, and especially the “drawings”. They feel like maps to some secret and incredibly beautiful life, maps of the soul, etchings of imagination. Every time I look at her work, I start to tingle all over with the urge to draw, to map out my own inner world. Quick, get yourself over to her website and treat yourself to a bowl of wonderful:

Diana has been pushing the envelope recently… quite literally. And the results (posted on her blog One Blackbird ) are just as spectacular.

Share/Bookmark

wool & water II

rama — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 23:21:43 +0000

yay, amanda! i was so excited to see your post!

amy earles, aka wool & water, made these gorgeous paper doll portraits of my wife and me. they were drawn from our wedding invitations but she took the idea a dozen steps farther with the colors, details, and accessories. every joint is hinged and the figures are attached to the background so they were easy to frame. seeing the piece in person took my breath away. thanks again, amy!

Share/Bookmark

stickwork

penelope — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:22:16 +0000

Patrick Dougherty is a different kind of scultptor. Instead of traditional materials, he uses branches and twigs as his medium, creating large forms that are like whimsical things from fairy tales. They aren’t found in do-not-touch museums… they are out in the open: On restaurant fronts, in parks, in offices. You can walk up on them and touch them. So beautiful… Check out the videos on this page.

Share/Bookmark