Thursday, December 31, 2015

Miniature trains from pencil lead

Cindy Chinn has done something I could never aspire to: carved tiny trains out of pencil lead (while it's still attached to the pencil. See it here.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Tiny Whispering Rabbit Concertina Series

Five tiny pieces for #sydsmlgly. 
Each book is 2x3x1.3cm when closed.
Altered (or upcycled maybe) from the Little Golden Book The Whispering Rabbit. If you're interested in the story, see the end of this post.
Some of the pockets have paper printed with French postcards from the 70s (M et Mme Piton), and a map of Paris.
Concertinas with pockets. Held closed by a belly band.
The photos below on the green background are of the first book I made. The rest I finished and have photographed on the white background.

For those who are interested, the Whispering Rabbit is about a baby rabbit who yawns without closing his mouth and a bumblebee flies into his mouth and falls asleep in his throat. He has to whisper because of the bee.  He whispers to many animals in search of what to do, and the best advice is to make a very small sound. 
The ideas of what the small sounds are (snow melting, a fireman thinking) are just beautiful. In the end the sound of a bee miles away sucking nectar from a slower wakes up the bumblebee. And finally the rabbit can sleep. 

Monday, December 14, 2015

Birds birds birds

Sheridan Jones' spectacular bird-themed work will give you flights of fancy, feathers of fantastic here and here.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Friday, December 11, 2015

Tiny hanging mobile dragonfly

Laser cut acrylic works on canvas paper  turned into a tiny mobile.
dragonfly
3cm x 2cm

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Tiny sculptures

These sculptures are part of my #sydsmlgly submission.
They are made from paperclips.
Each sculpture measures less than 3 x 3 x 3 cm

Tiny mobile

These are the three cakes Psyche took to hell to feed to Cerebus, so she could get Pandora's box and be with Eros (despite her mother-in-law's murderous opposition).
Measures 2.2cm in diameter, 1.5 cm tall, suspended.
Cotton, beads, paper, ink

The writing is scans from my mother's application for employment with the Department of Education and a quote about dragons.

The Psyche Series for #sydsmlgly

This series of works is tiny: I'm submitting to Sydney's Smallest Gallery 2016, all works are maximum 3 x 3 x 3cm.
This page is one of my submissions (so I don't have to retype all of the details)
This series is inspired by Psyche's trials.
The entire series is made from miniature clothes pegs reconstructed.
Each piece is 3cm high, and the plinth they are standing on is 1.8cm in diameter.
I made these pieces on 6 December 2015.

Title: Bound together
Description: Wood and metal, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 

Title: Bound without Heart
 Description: Wood, cotton, plastic bead, re-fashioned miniature clothes peg 

Title: Psyche: Proclaiming with swollen heart
 Description: Wood, cotton, re-fashioned miniature clothes peg, laser engraved oval

  
Title: Lean on me
 Description: Wood, metal, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 


Title: Peer pressure
 Description: Wood, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 


Title: Falling apart with broken heart
 Description: Wood, cotton, plastic beads, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 
 
Title: Off kilter
 Description: Wood, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 
 
Title: Crowded words
 Description: Wood, metal, plastic bead, laser cut and etched letter, re-fashioned miniature clothes pegs 


Title: Heart Without
 Description: Wood, plastic bead, re-fashioned miniature clothes peg 
 
A group shot of the series


Sunday, November 22, 2015

tiny works 1

Tiny sculptures from paper clips and laser cut letters.
Developing some works for #sydsmlgly 2016

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Tiny boxes

Created today for the smallest gallery exhibition.
All artworks must be 3cm cubed or smaller.
I was part of last year's event (I made 9 tiny books), and it was enchanting. I was so inspired by other artists' work, so this year I'm taking a little time to make a few different works.
These cubes are between .4 and 1.5 cm each.
they are made from the pages of a Little Golden Book of Paddington Bear. The complexity of the watercolour illustrations look great abstracted in "tiny"

Friday, November 20, 2015

Accordion with boxes 2

Added belly band (see last week's pix here).
Covered boxes inside and top with a map of Vienna.
Still not happy that it's done. 
I'm thinking some beads or some extra pages. I imagine like usual the answer will come when I least expect it!

Friday, November 13, 2015

Accordion with boxes

Two small boxes I've hoarded for a year.
Some encaustic treated paper.
A few diamante brads.
Voila stage 1 of this accordion/ concertina book.
Now to make books to go inside the boxes.

Friday, October 30, 2015

And a curtain

One of my other artistic pursuits is improvising. (Improvactally.blogspot.com ).

Today's artistic output is a new curtain backdrop for the show. The show's called likewise.

The curtain features a placket so performers can entire from behind it.  And inside there is also a pocket (for props or cameras or other show paraphernalia - never had one before so haven't yet imagined its uses).

The curtain is 480cm x 160cm. It will suspend over a rod each week on a Wednesday night for the show. The rod is 240cm high so there will be some overhang.
Still to determine the best way to make it stay up.  For the first few weeks i imagine bulldog clips will do the job. ..

Friday, October 23, 2015