House of Fairytales collaboration

For the past few months I've been working with the artist Astrid Sonne for the arts charity House of Fairytales. The house of Fairytales have just opened a six month long exhibition in Hall Place in Bexley. I worked on the creation of an interactive puppet room. We wanted to create a set of fantastical characters from the actual historical fabric of the house.One of the most fascinating facts of the house was its use as a base for the american branch decoding the enigma messages in World War 2. Therefore we came up with an excitable crayfish (as the house borders the river cray), a glamourous WW2 service woman decoding enigmas and a talking enigma machine.

We also had to decorate and paint the actual puppet theatre created by Mark Bayley. This meant cutting and painting more than a hundred of fabric bricks. The exhibition is on until October.

What I've been up to: Hobbs continuation

Processing from my initial concept of rooftop gardens I decided that I would like to make an installation piece instead of straightforward drawn Illustration.

Carr and Co. Offices, Shirley, Birmingham, 1956

2, Willow Road, Hampstead, London, 1939

Inspired by the modernist National Trust property Willow Road, situated in Hampstead, I am creating a working flower box complete with real flowers. I hope it will convey a playful concept in a sleek and sophisticated way. Its quite an ambitious undertaking but I'm heading towards completion and as yet it is going well.

Colour Scheme and Design mock up 

Cardboard Maquette

I began with creating a small maquette in cardboard. I quickly realised the main problem would be creating a base and legs that were sturdy enough to hold the bulk of the flower box. Luckily when i was at the Wimbledon Boot fair i picked up a Footstool with un screwable legs for £4.
 After i had created a box shape from MDF it was then easy to attach the legs to the base of the box with bolts.

Unpainted box without legs

Half completed Flower Box

I have a week and a day until this has to be completed so am on schedule but there is alot to do including finding flowers to sit in the box and a container for said flowers. All in all its shaping up quite satisfactorily

Initial Hobbs Work/Ideas

20 or so students on my course have been asked to come up with some ideas for Illustration for a new Spitalfields branch of the Clothing store, Hobbs. My Concept is about looking at the architecture of Hampstead where Hobbs first began and creating work informed by the brand's connection with the atmosphere and connection to Hampstead. Below are some early fashion illustration sketches. Im quite interested in creating work inspired by images of girls on summer rooftops and balconies.

WIP Stop Motion Puppet

Have been sewing the stop motion puppet for the animation I want to make. Started with a wire armature (skeleton) of the body made of twisted wire. I've then stitched felt over the wire to create the body. Its stuffed with cotton stuffing from a cushion. Right now the stitching has quite a beautiful quality in its rough state so thought this would be a good opportunity to photograph it.

Assessment.

Finally handed in all the work I've been doing this term. Quite a relief and now for the next hurdle

Work in progress Cover

Finally all the pieces are coming together for my booklet on the history of Smithfield.
I've been looking at more graphic work and wanted something bold and fresh looking

This is the work in progress Front Cover

Folio Society Entry: The Bloody Chamber

' I could contain myself no longer. I telephoned my mother'

 The Bloody Chamber 

'There she is, the evening star with the clouds around her'

Puss-in-Boots

'The last thing the old lady saw... was a young man, eyes like cinders, approaching her bed'

The Company of Wolves

Binding Cover Image

The Folio Society's annual brief is to complete three illustrative images for the novel of their choice. The Bloody Chamber is a collection of re-told fairytales published originally in 1979. I have admired the book since reading it a few years ago so even though I had other projects that needed attention I felt I'd regret not entering a submission. The illustrations are Gouache with Photoshop. The binding design was entirely produced on Photoshop