Monday Spotlight On: Karen and Rich of Grin, Grimace and Squeak!

Rich and Karen live across the Pond, in a quite village in the Cornish coast of England.  Both artists in their own right, they got together and a mutual love of costume resulted in their wonderful masquerade designs, from hair vines to beaded masks all of which can be found in their shop, GrinGrimaceandSqueak!

Silver and Seaglass Headband

Tell us three other things about yourself.
We are mad as two balloons, both really quite shy though we like good company and we are constantly on the lookout for new things to try, be that a new material or a jam recipe.


I'm not quite sure how mad two balloons are, but it sounds lovely. What’s your medium and how did you get into it?   We work in enamelled wire and glass seed beads for the most part though we also use resin and sea glass. Like most crafty types, we have piles of different materials and it wasn't until there was a party to go to and nothing to wear that a coil of purple wire got turned into a mask. It worked so well, we tried it again and got hooked! Asides from it being beautiful, it has so much potential- years on and we're still designing new ways of working with it ;)

Sea glass masks that sounds absolutely endearing.  What's your favorite thing the two of you have come up with? Oooh, tough one. Can we have two?

Purple Ladies' Cat Mask

Yes, since there are two of you.
It would have to be our cat mask because it represents a change in how we worked around the human face shape and the horned jester, because it was the first to have three dimensional horns.

Horned Jester Masquerade Mask

From where do you take inspiration?
We work a lot from nature, be that plants, birds or just times of year- we have simple party pieces but it's also nice to work on a theme, create something with a personality of its own.

Name one piece of art you wish you’d created and why?
We'd love to have created Darkness from the film Legend , brilliant :)


That's probably the most interesting answer anyone has given as of yet.  And a brilliant film. What are you doing when you’re not crafting?
We spend a lot of time out walking, taking photos – which is probably as well since our other great passion is cooking.

If you had to give up your medium and pursue another, what would it be and why?
Actually, there are lots more mediums we want to try, just don't have the space to use.....yet :) We see our work getting more theatrical as time goes by, we'd like to create in sheet metal amongst other things but could use a little more elbow room and new tools for that.

Tell us about a time you were making something that came out better than expected and how it happened.  That would have to be Le Cyrano, one of our mens masks- getting from a paper design to a 3d wire sculpture can take several attempts and lots of adjustments but that time, it worked perfectly first time around and was the subject of much astonished staring for quite some time :)

Who is one person living or dead, famous or not, who you wish owned one of your creations and why?  Eartha Kitt, the original Catwoman, very cool lady who had a wicked sense of humour.

Mayqueen Masquerade Mask

She'd probably look smashing in one of your masks, as well. How would you explain how to do what you do to an eight year old?  Actually, our work has only become complicated because our designs have evolved to much- the basic process of bending wire to shape and wrapping more wire strung with beads around that frame is pretty simple.

What’s your favorite part of said process?
Standing back and admiring it afterwards, at which point we magically forget how much swearing was involved and think it would be a great idea to do make another one.

One random thing you think people should know.
Monkeys peel bananas upside down- apparently, it works better because you don't squash the fruit by snapping the stalk like most people do :)


Your shop address/facebook/Twitter/blog/website. Etc.
Our UK website where we also offer rental: http://www.gringrimaceandsqueak.co.uk
Our Etsy shop: http://www.gringrimaceandsqueak.etsy.com
Our blog: http://gringrimaceandsqueak.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ggsetsy

If you could go anywhere on Earth at any point in time, where and when would you go and why?
We'd go back to prehistoric britain- to see what the landscape looked like then and to find out what language we spoke back then because nobody knows ! Oh, and there were deer the size of elephants.

Treasury Thursday: In My Tiny Kitchen

Tiny sweets and treats for your itty-bitty house.

'In My Tiny Kitchen' by cursiveart

Food and decor for a dollhouse kitchen.

Miniature Cake Stand Do... Marisha612 $12.00	Dollhouse Accessories -... miniaturepatis... $26.90	Dollhouse Miniature Kit... FripperyFactor... $12.00
Miniature shabby chic p... viliaminiature $18.00	1 mini rolling pin, you... honeyandbee $8.50	Miniature 3-Tier Fruit ... littlethingsby... $26.99
Dollhouse Miniature Cup... littletimewast... $25.00	Grandma's Hand Pain... AtomicBlythe $10.00	Making Strawberry Tarts... sarahmaloney $35.00
Ladurée Pink Wedding C... HummingbirdMin... $370.00	Modern Minimalist Dinin... AmazingMiniatu... $20.00	Miniature Cleaning Supp... mulberrymoose $7.95
Set of Three Kitchen St... ParisMiniature... $35.00	Miniature Doll House Pa... dalesdreams $12.00	Dollhouse miniature foo... Cutetreats $20.95
Pie alavenderdilly $3.50

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Less Talk Tuesday: Dollhouses

http://www.toideloi.com/stackhouse.html

From crumpledenvelope.tumblr.com

From daisypinkcupcake.blogspot.com

From brincadada.com

Also from brincadada.com

Less Talk, More Rock Wednesday: Dr. Who

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathieus/art-nouveau-movies-8q4

The Little Blue Box Illustration from NanLawson on Etsy

http://www.feelingstitchy.com/2011/04/who-is-behind-stitching.html

http://circusbread.tumblr.com/post/3167857169/mistergookey-art-deco-doctor-who-why-do-i

Monday Spotlight On: Sarah Hennessy of SometimesISwirl

I don't remember how I came across SometimesISwirl on Etsy.  She might have shown up in a TasteTest or in my activity feed as someone else's favorite or in that little section at the bottom of the front page labelled "You May Also Like."  All I knew is she was one of the few shops I favorited nearly immediately.  I have to admit, I think I like her art so much partly because it reminds me of my own.  Simple black lines that curve and swirl and move, basic color palettes, weirdly cool looking flowers and plants...any of this sounding familiar?

 Well, she's also like me in that she's twenty-eight (okay, I'm twenty-nine, but close enough), and is a brunette (though she dyes it red).  She's not like me in that she works as a university administrator and makes amazing pen and ink illustrations that are downright complex and beautiful.

Climbing Flower Pods 8x10 Print

Tell us three things about yourself: 
1) I majored in art history in college and wrote my senior thesis on the early French surrealist movement, which is by far my favorite art movement 2) I am obsessed with books about criminal psychology and memoirs about traumatic childhoods (I am quite well adjusted myself, though!), and 3) I am physically incapable of getting a brain freeze - I have never had one.

What’s your medium and how did you get into it? 
Although I’m constantly dabbling in everything, the medium I use the most is drawing with archival ink pens, preferably Prismacolor. I got into it by literally doodling on everything as a kid – in notebooks during class, on my shoes, on my walls, on my hands, quite seriously everywhere. And from there, I started focusing my linework within a 5x7 composition, then got bigger to 8x10, then 11x14, and so on. I also took quite a bit of art classes in high school and college, so I picked up some wonderful things there, and experimented a lot on my own. I also consider paint and fabric/thread to be favorite mediums as well.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve made? 
I would probably say my “City Built on an Axis” drawing because that’s what started my entire City Series.

City Built On An Axis 8x10 Black and White Print

From where do you take inspiration? 
All over the place – just last week, I was stuck in a budget meeting at work and was inspired to draw a new City Series composition after studying the wood paneling of the meeting room walls (the repetitive rectangular panels are a component I’m exploring in a new drawing). I was recently inspired by a swooping teardrop shape in a chandelier at a friend’s house and incorporated the shape in one of my flower drawings, so things jump out at me at all times from everywhere. If I had to be more general, I’d say the mehndi art tradition has a huge influence on me, as does the surrealist art movement. The early surrealists’ automatic drawings, or any black and white pen drawing really, are big inspirations. And I have to mention the early drawings of Paul Klee, who is perhaps my favorite artist of all time.

Name one piece of art you wish you’d created and why?
 I wish I had created Rene Magritte’s “The Key to the Fields” or something with the same concept, because I think it’s genius.

What are you doing when you’re not crafting? 
Since I’m still fairly new to home ownership, chances are good I’m doing something around the house, whether it be sewing a pillow cover, painting a room a new color, rehabbing a piece of furniture, I enjoy all of that. I also loooove to go thrifting (estate sales and church rummage sales are my favorite places to score deals) and I also get very addicted to books, particularly memoirs, or like I mentioned above, anything about criminally insane people. :) I have two cats and they entertain me quite often, and I also just enjoy hanging out with my husband - on evenings after work, we often go out to the backyard and just sit and chat over yummy wheat beers while firing up the grill.

If you had to give up your medium and pursue another, what would it be and why?
 I would probably go to sewing full-time. Lately I’ve been experimenting with my free-motion foot, which means you can sew with your machine in any direction without the machine actually feeding your fabric through at a steady pace, in just one linear direction. That means you’re literally creating pictures out of thread by pushing and pulling the fabric under the needle as it’s going a mile a minute. I also love quilting and embroidering, so fiber art is something I’d definitely be happy to take up more.

OOAK Black & White Swirl Pattern Pillow

Tell us about a time you were making something that came out better than expected and how it happened. 
Well when I first started embroidering, I had no clue what I was doing. I had never embroidered anything, and there I was trying to recreate one of my designs WITHOUT a pattern, and although it’s not perfect, I was shocked that I was able to translate my drawing into fabric and thread and that it turned out okay. Ever since, I’ve been doing a lot more embroidery hoops and actually have researched different types of stitches, etc.


Who is one person, living or dead, famous or not, who you wish owned one of your creations and why?
My first instinct was to say Tori Amos, and I’d say it’s because she is one of my all-time favorite musicians. She is so weird and wonderful and kind of “out there” and yet so so in touch with current events with a really smart, humanistic take on things. I just love her.

How would you explain how to do what you do to an eight year old?
 I would say that I get a piece of blank paper and some pens, I close my eyes and imagine something, anything that pops into my head. Then I open my eyes and try to draw it. Start with a small detail and let my hands work the design out from there. I never look at an actual physical object and try to draw it, everything pretty much comes up as I’m drawing.

What’s your favorite part of the process? 
Allowing new, unexpected things to happen on the page. One random thing you think people should know. I am obsessed with carbs – so much so that one year, for my birthday, my husband got me a gourmet loaf of bread and stuck candles in it instead of getting a cake. I could never, ever go on a low-carb diet.

Your shop address/facebook/Twitter/blog/website. Etc.
Shop: www.sometimesiswirl.etsy.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sometimesiswirl
Blog: sarah-hennesseyhouse.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sometimesiswirlatetsy
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/sarahhennessey

Rushing Swirls and Pods Original Illustration

If you could have one superpower what would it be? 
Definitely the ability to fly. It seems so freeing and amazing. I actually had a dream that I could fly when I was about 11 years old, and I can still remember to this day just how it felt in the dream – so cool.

Love At First Sight

There is such a thing.

It had to have been the very late 90's or early 2000's, because I was in NoDa (our arts district) back when it was better (more on that in another post), on a Gallery Crawl Friday.  I used to go to Noda nearly every weekend, stopping in all the galleries from Green Rice to Beet, and ending up at Fat City to watch firedancers outside, eat a grilled cheese, and undoubtedly lust after some boy whose band was playing.

But before I got around to all that, I walked into the (now-defunct) Center of the Earth gallery and immediately fell in love with an artist.

The painting was called "Invitation to Optimism" and it showed a woman with wings, head bowed, holding a dark frame.  Behind her, on the horizon, was a line of dead trees, but inside the shape of the painting they all bloomed brilliantly.   It was everything I ever wanted to see in a painting, everything I wanted to be in an artist. It was soft, ethereal, surreal. It had a bit of fantasy, darkness and just enough light.

The artist's name is Duy Huynh (pronounced Yee Wun), a Vietnamese-born artist who moved to the United States as a child  in the 80's and found refuge in art in a new and foreign place.  Obviously, he grew up, got great and makes breathtaking works.

His paintings were often shown at Center of the Earth, and whenever I went down to a gallery crawl, I would go look, see if there were new ones, look at the old ones.  Eventually, I stopped chasing the boy in the band and stopped going to Noda quite so much.  Whenever I would go down there, however rare, I would still look, and dream of the day (which hasn't happened yet) on which I'd own one of his painting or, better still, the day when my art would compare.

Center of the Earth is closed, and Huynh opened his own gallery a few years back, Lark and Key, first one in Noda, then one in South Charlotte.  The one in Noda closed and I haven't seen a painting of his in person since.  Still, like an old girlfriend checking on the flame she never quite fell out of love with, I still often look up his work online, visit his website, and that of his gallery, and dream little dreams that are not quite as beautiful as his paintings.

Spotlight On: Meg of Red and Main

I love RedandMain. I found Meg's shop the exact way I've found all my interviewees lately-- the April's Army team on Etsy.  However, when I saw her little monsters, I automatically fell in love.  They remind me of my own work.  They are strange, whimsical, unique.  I could actually picture her little creatures tromping through my landscapes .  Even her owls are a bit odd, in a very cute and colorful way. Like they should be perched in trees on Mars, rather than Earth.   She also makes beautiful organic-looking dishes that come in softly spotted colors, if incredibly adorable beasts aren't your thing (but they really should be).

Ceramic Moss Bowl

Tell us three things about yourself.

1.) I once met Henry Winkler (aka: The Fonz) and he was incredibly kind

2.) I consume an unhealthy quantity of both coffee and marshmallows daily

3.) I recently left a very lucrative consulting job to pursue ceramics full time (sub-context: I may or may not be completely insane)

What’s your medium and how did you get into it?

I work in white earthenware clay and various glazes.  My first experience with ceramics was in high school- I took an advanced ceramics class with a totally awesome teacher.  She pushed us to do projects well beyond the scope of what we thought we could do.  Even though I've taken lots of ceramics courses since then, I still look back on her class for techniques and inspiration.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve made?

I absolutely adore my mom and my favorite piece is one that I made for her birthday.  My mom and I are both year of the Rat in the Chinese Zodiac.  We took a trip to China 2 years ago and had the best time, so for her birthday this year, I made her two small ceramic rats holding paws.  Her birthday is May 9th and I am so excited to give these to her.

From where do you take inspiration?

I really love animals, so most of my inspiration comes from trips to the zoo or videos of cute animals online.  I also really enjoy creating new creatures and monsters, which I put in scenarios in my head (i.e.: two yetis having a picnic or a monster eating an ice cream cone).

Name one piece of art you wish you’d created and why?

Anything by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  His work is phenomenal.

What are you doing when you’re not crafting?

I'm probably doing accounting, site development, blog posting, or craft show preparation for Red & Main.  If I'm not doing that, I am hopefully at the gym.  But realistically I'm probably drinking coffee or wine... or coffee and wine... and catching up on TV I've missed through Hulu.

Cleft Chin Dashing Yeti

If you had to give up your medium and pursue another, what would it be and why?

I think I'd go into hand-carved stamp making.  I think there's something really awesome about carving away at something to make a beautiful object. It's like you're taking away all the parts that don't belong and substituting your creativity- that's the awesome part.

Tell us about a time you were making something that came out better than expected and how it happened.

I was glazing a new creature- my Dapper Swamp Thing- and I decided to get a little creative.  Generally, you're not supposed to mix glazes due to chemical reactions that may occur when firing that can turn your piece all kinds of crazy colors.  I threw caution to the wind and put 4 different glazes on the Swamp Thing- and he turned out looking pretty great.  I was expecting an oozing mass of greenish brown, but he came out green with black speckles.  I'll definitely be using that technique in the future and I don't think I'll shy away from mixing glazes in the future.

Who is one person living or dead, famous or not, who you wish owned one of your creations and why?

I wish Oscar Wilde owned one of my Yetis.  Can you imagine flamboyantly-dressed, verbose Oscar Wilde tooling around an exceptionally well decorated flat with a Yeti in his hands?  I can...and it's amazing.

How would you explain how to do what you do to an eight year old?

I play with clay all day and make fun things that hopefully make other people happy.  Man, my job sounds pretty sweet!

What’s your favorite part of the process?

The creation of a finished ceramic piece takes so much time- molding and sculpting the piece; letting it dry; first-firing the piece in the kiln; glazing the piece; glaze firing the piece; and then putting on the finishing touches.  The best part, for sure, is opening the lid of the kiln after the final glaze firing; it's like Christmas morning.  Glazes can be tempermental and you don't always know what the result is going to look like.  Sometimes you're thrilled, sometimes you're horrified...but it's always a surprise.

One random thing you think people should know.

Not to drop a product reference, but I think it's important- Peter Thomas Roth's Complexion Correction Toning Pads will change your life.  I tell 90% of people I know about these- that is how awesome I think they are. 

Ceramic Cat with a Bird Friend

Your shop address/facebook/Twitter/blog/website. Etc.

www.redandmain.etsy.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Main

If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?

Invisibility.  Hands down.  Having the ability to go anywhere you wanted, listen to any conversation, anytime?  Sold.  Where can I sign up?