Parisian Adventure - a few more photos

I took a few photos of other things in the gallery that caught my eye, though didn't make a note of the makers of them (as I said before was in a bit of a daze, from excitement when I was there, I had to control my feet from doing a happy dance in the middle of the gallery). I wish now I had taken more photos, Oh well another trip to Paris will be needed very soon.

A lampshade and installation made out of pegs with ends painted blue and white.  So simple yet stunning.  The designer is from Argentina (that's all I know)

I love this stool/brush combination.  The colour was just stunning.

That's it for Gallery S Bensimon, if you are in Paris I would recommend a trip, its just around the corner from Merci and other lovely boutiques.

Parisian Adventure

On Wednesday I went off to Paris to see my work at the Gallery S Bensimon in the Marais district of Paris.

I was very excited, though a little nervous as you never know how some one will hang your work (I've had some bad experiences in the past).

I arrived at the gallery. A very Parisian scene.

I needn't have worried it all looked amazing, I was so happy.  Francois who runs the gallery is very charming and we had a good chat.  There were even a couple of red dots which is very exciting.

The gallery has an amazing collection of furniture and objects, I will share some photos of them in another post, though I didn't take nearly enough as I was a little overwhelmed by seeing my work in the gallery. I forgot to pay more attention to everything else.

Gallery S Bensimon - Exhibition Open

 

To find out more information click here

Things that inspire me - Beautiful Tiles

I have been lucky enough to travel to Sevilla, Lisbon and Marrakech in the past couple of years and for a lover of patterned tiles all 3 places a real treat.

Here are some of my favourites

From Lisbon

I love the graffiti on the tiles

From Sevilla

And these are from Marrakech

I really love the way these next ones have been worn out by years of being walked on, would love to have a floor like this.

Will have to plan my next trip to get my tile fix, I wonder where that will be.

Paris...

I am exhibiting some work in Paris, for the first time, in March, am very excited as its in a very beautiful galley in the Marais.

I had to ship the work before I could get some of the pieces photographed as my photographer had to let me down at short notice (an hour before he was due) so I took some pictures myself, which confirms to me that its worth paying the money to get a professional as without the proper lighting they just don't come out.

You can see for yourselves.

Period Living

I've been featured in the April edition of Period Living magazine (on sale now!).  They have a feature behind the craft on the last page and for this issue they interviewed me.

Laser Cutting

Last week I did a short course on laser cutting at Metropolitan works in London.  It was great fun and really interesting to try something new. As part of the course we got an introduction to the whole process of Laser cutting (and water jet cutting).  We had to bring in a project that we wanted to have cut. The course is free so its a great way to learn about to the processes first hand.  The other members of the course were all artists and designers so it was great to meet some new people and see their work.

My initial thoughts were to have a bird laser cut in paper but after seeing the machine in action I decided to use plywood instead, as it something I couldn't do myself.

The hardest thing was getting the hang of transferring my drawing to a vector file.  Learning new software is always a challenge, though illustrator makes it relatively easy, but that is something I will need to work on if I want to get some more things cut.

So here's the process

My original drawing.  Its important to make sure the file is as clean and tidy as possible before you import it to illustrator, this saves a lot of time deleting vector lines in illustrator, which is a very time consuming job.

And here's the image after its been changed to a vector line drawing ready to be cut.

 

And then the laser is ready to go and start burning away.  It's a mesmerizing process.

 

And here's the finished article

And I must say I'm very happy with it, its interesting to seemy work in a different material and not cut by me.  My relationship with it feels very different, I know its my drawing but I almost don't recognise it, as I didn't physically make it. I do feel inspired to do some more, I'm imaging a whole flock, maybe painted or printed on, or plain wood. Time for some experimentation I think.

Metropolitan works is a great place, Ed and Barry who ran the course were amazing and so full of knowledge. They do all sorts of training courses you can find out more about them here Metropolitan Works