Monday 18 May 2015

Old Abandoned House Adorned with 4,000 Flowers



Well, what do you think, when you give a deadline of 48 hours to florist to fill an old, abandoned house with flowers? What does it look like? Well, the below photographs, taken by photographer Heather Saunders, are from the trail run of Flower House, because an exhibition will be held in October that will fill 15 rooms of a dilapidated Detroit home with between 60,000-100,000 flowers. For the preview event, it took florists 48 hours and 4,000 flowers to transform a neighboring house into a wildly lovely wonderland. Lisa Waud, (The creator of Flower House), has a floral design business named “Pot & Box” for 5 years. After seeing images of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapped Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris and Christian Dior's 2012 couture show, Lisa Waud had an epiphany. I knew I had to create something different to my own house of flowers and invite maximum people to experience it with me. 

She said, I found it very surprisingly easy to get florists on board with her vision. The Flower House installation will be an unprecedented one. We’ll experience something changed that has never been done before for one weekend at least, the walls, ceilings, floors, and fixtures will be bursting with luscious blooms and textural foliage harvested from American farms coast to coast, and featuring our own Great Lakes state. There is a real and sturdy momentum gaining for perception in growing, sourcing, and buying flowers grown in our own soil. Therefore, much like the slow food movement and the Slow Flowers Movement is changing the way people perception about where their cut flowers come from in America.

The abandoned flower house will be open to the public from Friday, October 16 to Sunday October 18. In that period visitors will be able to witness the exclusive setting before the house gets torn down and replaced with a living, growing flower farm. We know the goal is to pull apart the structures and divert as much 75 per cent of the re-usable materials out of the landfill. Moreover we’re hoping that this deconstruction and land re-purposing will inspire others to see abandoned structures and platforms for art and business and to use them in an environmentally responsible way. Lisa Waud also sees the project as a way to give the house "one last hurrah" before it gets torn down.









Friday 15 May 2015

A Japanese Artist Made Ethereal Bowls from Skeletons of Maple



Japanese artist Kay Sekimachi’s has created inspiring ethereal bowls made from the skeletons of maple. She is most famous for her labor-intensive loom works. She creates these sylvan masterpieces by adding Kozo paper, watercolor and Krylon coating to the leaves, giving them solid form. Sekimachi eventually graduated at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland from 1946 to 1949. Kay Sekimachi’s life has been defined by perseverance. Despite being born in California in 1926, she was held at the Topaz Relocation Center in Delta, UT, with other Japanese Americans during World War II. 

She says when I saw the students working in the weaving room, the next day I decide to spend all of my savings to buy a loom, even though she didn’t know anything about weaving. She has written several books on crafts, some of which were co-authored with her husband, Bob Stocksdale. The couple will be having an exhibition at the Bellevue Arts Museum from July 3 to October 18 in Washington. The exhibition will show the works of two of the most revered artists in American craft history. The couple married in 1972.




Wednesday 13 May 2015

Australian Artist Turns Old Keys and Coins Into Recycled Art



Well, there’d be numerous things at your home, which you consider useless, even though discarded keys and coins can be turned into good-looking art with some creativity ideas and the right sort of know-how. Australian artist Michael or Moerkey, does accurately that, turning rejected keys and coins into lovely bottles, lampshades and other exquisite recycled metal sculptures.

He says; one day I decide to be cleaning out my shed, I came across some rejected old copper pipe saved from a previous renovation. I cut it up into rings and started making it into spheres. The first ones were a bit uneven but once I worked out the technique I got creative ideas and making different things Michael explains on his Etsy shop. You know I’m a bit of a hoarder and searched around for all those old keys and copper wire that were no longer required, and got creative ideas with them as well. I think it's extremely creative and I like it very much. 

Absolutely it's an art and I love the rustic raw edgy beauty of it, because the colors from the coins look so good in composed manner. I’m hoping everyone will admire my efforts. 











Rearrange able Layers of Glass Form Spectacular 3D Landscapes and Seascapes



Lucie Boucher and Bernie Huebner of Stone Ridge Glass are the creators of Glass-capes, spectacular three dimensional sculptures made of layers of colored glass. A lot their works are interactive, meaning that the glass layers can be re-arranged to take on entirely different scenes. Moreover, for the seascape piece above, called Ocean Laughter II, the glass pieces each represent a distinct wave. They can be arranged like a restless ocean or a symphonic work of geometric art. Furthermore, the glass pieces are carefully hand-cut or sawn, ground, and beautifully painted with specialized pigments. Then, they are fused or fire-polished in an electric glass kiln. Though, to give the illusion that each landscape is floating in space, a dark hardwood base is used as a stand. To each of the pieces is illuminated by a radiant light that's at the rear of the hardwood base. The light beautifully reflects off the wall behind it giving the sculptures an otherworldly glow.

Therefore, by consecutively layering pieces of colored glass, the artists make exclusive three dimensional sculptures. Michael Monroe, a famous leading authority on American art glass and the former curator-in-charge at the Smithsonian Museum’s Renwick Gallery specified about Cathedral Dusk (the piece immediately below) , By using flat sheets of kiln-polished glass in layers separated by space, Huebner and Boucher’s Cathedral Series of sculptures flawlessly captures the subtle shading and layering effect of fog-shrouded mountain ranges. The internal lighting more adds mystery and drama to this peaceful landscape.”