Paper art

Art in leaves

We came across an amazing artist called Lorenzo Duran. He has developed our favourite art of paper cutting into a whole new dimension.

He’s created beautiful masterpieces out of leaves! Lorenzo would find a perfect leaf then wash, dry & press it gently. He would then carefully cut away to leave a unique & delicate piece of art.

It must take incredible patience as leaves can be so fragile and brittle when dry! Just as he finished a piece that could have taken days to create it may just break!

Lorenzo has now moved on to develop new ‘Naturayarte’ projects & is no longer creating these amazing leaf creations but we just thought they were so inspirational that we wanted to blog about them! We’re looking forward to seeing what he develops next!

Paper & treasures

A couple of weeks ago I popped down to Brighton & thoroughly enjoyed the ‘Artists Open House‘ weekend! It was wonderful to see so many people of all ages & back grounds creating unique art & also popping into their homes to get glimpse into where the magic happens. OK, so its a little nosy, but some artists homes were just as inspirational as their art!

So we love all things paper here in the studio & I fell in love with Jo Cole’s paper sculptures made from old vintage romantic novels! Something different to paper cutting. Here’s one of her mushrooms that I treated myself to. Jo was also making delicate little apples & pears that were hanging in twisted willow branches. They looked so magical & you just wanted to sneak a peek inside the pages to try & read a snippet of text!

Jo showed at The Garden House, an oasis created in an old market garden hidden behind a row of Victorian Terraces. Artists displayed work with plants & gardens in mind & the setting was perfect as was the weather, hot & sunny! Jo creates from the treasures she’s collected on woodland walks & from junked romantic novels, she’s made a set of female figures made from old sprigs, with jointed arms fashioned from twigs and other bits and pieces she’s collected along the way.

Twig lady.

Jo made her from bits and pieces collected in autumn, her head is made from an acorn found in Poland and the rest of her is from East Sussex foraging!

The Heart Of Paper Cuts

Is paper the new gold?

Stumbled across a brilliant blog the other day‘The Heart of Paper Cuts’and just had to share it with you all. It celebrates paper cutting, as the name says, but really brings a sense of magic and mystery to this ancient art.

Whilst so many of the incredible creations caught my eye – it was a fabulous paper ring that really stood out. Who knows, this could actually become quite popular as a novelty for brides, or even worked into a display on the ‘big day’. Either way, there is no denying the work and skill that has gone into this little gem.

Have a browse at the blog as there are hundreds of themes aside from bridal and you can spend a good while looking at all the creations. I just loved the intricacy of the paper cutting and thought it would complement the delicate laser-cutting works of The Hummingbird Card Company, too. Items from ‘The Heart of Paper Cuts’ are on sale on Etsy.

Nicole Farhi & Su Blackwell Collaboration

We are thrilled to announce we have been working on a fantastic project wih Nicole Farhi.

All will be revealed next week, when the cards are back from production.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the private view at the flagship store on Bond Street, on Tuesday evening. The store was transformed with its beautiful windows and pieces from Su’s latest exhibition (which just opened yesterday) on display.

Champagne, canapes, and some fantastic live music (from the effortlessly cool Bluey Robinson) all made for a lovely evening, it was lovely to put face to the people we have been working with throughout the project.

Editors from Harpers and Tatler were also present so it may be in the press shortly!

The Christmas windows were transformed with stunning interpretations of Su’s exquisite paper cuts, The windows tell the story of “When Lady Hare meets Su Blackwell…” and celebrates the collaboration of paper sculptor Su Blackwell and Nicole Farhi.

(Nicole Farhi told us that as she is married to the playwright Sir David Hare that she is in fact Lady Hare herself). The story was created by writer Stephen Doig, from Harpers Bazaar and we received a beautifully illustrated little booklet telling the story in our Goody bags at the end of the night!

Su Blackwell is an artist and art director, having recently worked on advertising campaigns for Volvo, Pilsner Urquell, and Cartier Store, Paris.

“I often work within the realm of fairy-tales and folk-lore. I began making a series of book-sculpture, cutting-out images from old books to create three-dimensional diorama’s, and displaying them inside wooden boxes”.

“For the cut-out illustrations, I tend to lean towards young-girl characters, placing them in haunting, fragile settings, expressing the vulnerability of childhood, while also conveying a sense of childhood anxiety and wonder. There is a quiet melancholy in the work, depicted in the material used, and choice of subtle colour.”

Su’s current exhibition, ‘Happily ever After’, is now open at Long and Ryle Gallery her work is stunning, whimsical fairytale characters with a haunting quality..definately not one to miss.

Exhibition runs from 25th Nov – 18th Dec. 2010 www.longandryle.com

The Guardian also running a fantastic competition in conjunction with NICOLE FARHI to win £500 to spend at the flagship store + the services of a personal shopper!…what a nice treat to yourself before Christmas!! Click HERE for more details.

Amazing video!

Just came across this fantastic video over on one of our favourite blogs: Papercrave (www.papercrave.com)
released by New Zealand Book Council produced by Colenso BBDO and animated by London based Andersen M Studios.
It uses paper craft animation to promote books and reading.
The animation features paper cut imagery using Maurice Gee’s novel Going West, and eight months of intricate paper cutting work went into creating the final two minute video.
Totally stunning, check it out here

Book Sculptor……..

Just came across these stunning book sculptures….made by the Melbourne based artist Nicholas Jones who uses books and printed paper to make works which question the manner in which books are ‘read’.
“these books were conceived, born, loved, stored, discarded, found anew, studied, cut, folded and reborn”.
Nicholas folds, tears, cuts and sews the pages of used books to create these beautiful, subtle pieces. Check out his site here: http://bibliopath.org/