The Birds and The bees - part 1

Well dear readers I promised to tell you what I have been up to recently and why I have been absent from this blog.  Apart from suffering from a bit of bloggers block.  I was working on a large commission for a new hotel in London, that is opening in August.

I had to make 5 large pieces, that reflected the hotel's location, near to of our best museums, The Victoria and Albert Museum and The natural history museum.

The pieces I created used a pattern from an 18th century textile that is in the V&A combined with birds and insects.

Here are the drawings I did for them.  I use these as my templates for cutting, though I change bits as I go along and final arrangements only happen once all the cutting has finished.

I will post the finished pieces in my next post.

(c) Claire Brewster 2012

(c) Claire Brewster 2012

(c) Claire Brewster 2012

(c) Claire Brewster 2012

A kind of madness

(c) Claire Brewster 2012

I'm sorry dear readers that I have been a bit quiet of late, but I have been working on a really exciting commission for a new hotel in London (a preview above). The commission has occupied my brain to the point when I haven't been able to think about anything else.  Which is why I call it a kind of madness.  After many late nights and early mornings I finally had the work finished and photographed  (ok I was still pinning some of the pieces when the photographer arrived, but he was an hour early!).

But it got me thinking about the creative process and how it becomes so absorbing that the outside world barely exists.   I become obsessed by the work and often loose all sense of proportion over the work, I don't want to look at it and feel like it will never end.

I was wondering why I always stress so much towards the end of a piece of work and realised, it's nerves and anxiety, this is the point when they will be shown to the world, my babies will be set free to face the world on their own.  It doesn't matter how proud I am of what I have done, it's hard not to want the world to love them too.  Of course I know not everyone will like them but they are a part of me and although I might put a brave face on it I am still anxious every time.  It is worse with commissions because someone has already committed to buy the piece so there are expectations.

Anyway, normal service will resume shortly as I have lots of exciting things to blog about and am itching to share with you.

cx

Mind the Map workshop

 I ran my first proper workshop as part of the museum at night event at the London Transport museum.  It was great fun.  There were lots of keen people wanting to take part, there was even a queue at one point.


I had some templates of my birds for people to use or they could go free style.  It was great to see how people took to it and made their pieces their own. Some people used my templates as a starting point and some people created their own thing.  it was really fun and I hope I've inspired some people to take up paper cutting.

me ready for action!

explaining what we are about to do

a quick demonstration

a little more explaining

and they are off cutting away

intense concentration

a pleasing sight

Here are some of the finished pieces.

a tube train

a lovely humming bird, made using one of my templates but in a totally different way

a giraffe and a humming bird

a flying bird

a different use for a cut out

2 lovely birds

Another side of the storey...

Whilst at the London Transport Museum me and the BF took the opportunity to look around their permanent collection.  It was very quite as most people where in the Mind the Map exhibition.  I'm not sure if it was the lack of people or the glasses of wine, anyway I somehow lost my usual camera shyness....

look at my shiny shoes....

will this never end

some friends I met on the tube

the thinker

can I get off?

Mind the Map - opening night

The opening of the mind the map exhibition was great fun.  The exhibition is really great, the London Transport have such a great collection of posters, maps and other ephemera and also commissioned some great works for the exhibition. 

And here's my piece in the exhibition.  It was very exciting to see it hanging there.  The museum has bought the piece for their permanent collection, which was great.  There is also a book to go with the exhibition, which I haven't managed to get yet, you can find it here on amazon.

It was a great party and I would recommend a trip to the museum, it's really interesting and also great fun.

Jubilating...

I saw this on my wanderings and this is about a close as i get to commemorating the event that is happening in the UK this week.

Star Fish

On a recent visit to my parents in Lincolnshire, we went for Sunday lunch to Norfolk and on the way home stopped for a walk on the beach in Hunstanton.  It was a cold and rainy day, but we managed to dodge the rain drops to get on the beach.  The tide was just starting to come in when we arrived, and there were loads of starfish stranded on the beach.  They were very beautiful, though many of them were already dead.

And some lovely ripples in the sand.