The World's Largest Crochet Sculpture & Crochetdermy by Shauna Richardson.

above: Shauna Richardson stands by her Lionheart project, the world's largest crochet sculpture

Artist Shauna Richardson turns game hunters into knit wits with her mounted animal heads and animal statues made of hand crocheted knits. Taking the old tradition of taxidermy and giving it a politically correct and artful spin, she creates life-sized and oversized sculptures that blend craft, realism and collecting.

I will first share with you her Crochetdermy mounted heads and animal sculptures, followed by her Lionheart project, featuring the world's largest crochet sculpture.

Crochetdermy





















The Lionheart Project

In 2009 Shauna won ‘Artists taking the lead’ part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad with the ‘Lionheart Project’.



For two years she has been creating the largest single-handed crochet sculpture in the world, three giant lions.






The finished piece will be housed in this mobile glass taxidermy style truck case and tour throughout 2012:

The building of the glass case:



Tour Dates
Shauna Richardson’s ‘Lionheart Project’ has announced its UK tour, which will see three giant crocheted lions travelling the country in a 16 metre long illuminated glass case (shown above). Starting on 1 May 2012 at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, the three giant lions will tour the East Midlands before arriving at the Natural History Museum in London in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Harking back to a travelling menagerie show, the lions will also visit venues in Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northampton and Nottingham, calling in at events such as SO Festival and Twycross Zoo. The lions will reach out to an estimated audience of over half a million visitors across all venues, with countless more sightings when they take to the road.
Learn more about the Lionheart Project.

About the artist:



Shauna Richardson’s background is in conceptual art. The unique body of work she terms ‘Crochetdermy’ evolved out of the exploration of the theory that ‘Anything can be art’. She uses crochet to sculpt realistic life-size animals – uncanny taxidermy-like forms. Crochetdermy combines themes such as objects, collecting, craft and realism and experiments with accessibility and audience. Richardson has received much critical acclaim. Her work is receiving worldwide media coverage and selling into collections across the globe.

Despite the enormity of the Olympic Lionheart project in the last six months Shauna has managed to fit in a very unofficial portrait of Prince Harry commissioned by the Guardian Weekend Magazine, and winning ‘Best Sculpture’ and the ‘Overall Gold Award’ at Art of Giving held at the Saatchi Gallery.

She will is presently exhibiting the life-size brown bear (shown below) in ‘The Power of Making’ at the V&A – Sept 2011 – Jan 2012.




images courtesy of the artist. Additional lionheart project images courtesy of Inspire LeicesterShire

Crochetdermy pieces are created to commission. Selected works on her site are available for purchase.

Shauna Richardson

No Red Pins Needed. Scratch-Off Map, in 2 Sizes, Reveals Your Travels.

Scratch Map is a large, high quality wall map which features a gold top foil layer. Why? So you can scratch off all the places you’ve visited to reveal a whole new world below, featuring vibrant color and geographical detail.




Full Size Scratch Off Wall Map:

This 81.9 x 58.2 cm world map is based on the idea of the scratch card so you just scratch off the places you've been and bright colours will be revealed underneath. Scratch Map also includes facts about certain countries and cities. Fun for all the family.

Measures: Length 81.9 cm, Width 58.2 cm, Height 0.2 cm
Weight: 0.3 kg
Material: cardboard; paper
Attributes: 100% recyclable

Travel Edition Scratch-Off Map:



The Travel Edition Scratch Map also has some hip tips on it. For example, did you know that Bulgarians shake their heads from side to side to mean 'yes' and nod up and down to say 'no'? Did you know that cutting down a cactus in America carries a twenty five year prison sentence? Perhaps think twice about bringing home a prickly present for someone. One of the other quirks the map has is sections where you can jot down the music you listened to, the best friend you made and the top 10 highlights. In short, the Scratch Map Travel Edition is brilliant.

Out of tube: 42 x 29.7cm
In tube: 5 x 13.5cm

Below are links to buy the full size, the travel size, the new US version and the UK version.

Davide Oppizzi Designs Futuristic Bathroom Series for Graff - The Ametis Collection.

GRAFF collaborated with Swiss designer Davide Oppizzi of DCube to design their new AMETIS collection (so new, it's not yet on their website) as well as their trade show booth for the unveiling at the Cersaie show.

The decision to use DCube design, a Geneva‐based company that primarily specializes in the luxury watch industry and in lighting for prestigious fashion brands, was determined by GRAFF’s aim to combine the luxury world with the bathroom sector.


above: Designer Davide Oppizzi of DCube

Thanks to the close partnership with Davide Oppizzi it was possible for GRAFF and DCube to develop the collection AMETIS, a series which distinguishes itself for its elegance and unique shape. In this collection the light becomes part of the product; by changing the faucet into an architectural element and the light into an interior design component (the LED lights change based on the water's temperature)..

The introduction of GRAFF's new collections aims to go beyond the interior design borders in order to face new technological challenges with products that widen the functions and designs offered to the consumer.

The Ametis Collection:








Ametis: a symbol of the fusion between the universe above and the oceans below, is a futuristic ode to high design in the bathroom. Drawing inspiration from experiences that combine the density of water and its colors, the movement of waves, and the experience of exquisite Japanese writing, produced with only a brush gesture – this new collection designed by Davide Oppizzi for GRAFF transforms water, such a precious matter, into a hymn to purity, one that enables you to move closer to the expression of the soul. Every object of the Ametis collection derives from the idea that life is a cycle. Water coming out of the faucet is an inexorable source, by flowing down it becomes inexorably intimate and goes beyond any obstacle.







Ametis is a simple object; at the same time sought‐after – the continuous line of the shower column never stops, the lighting system lightens the faucet features, the solid shapes and dynamic elements melt together harmonically. Made from a hollowed brass bar, which ensures durability, AMETIS is equipped with an electronic system with a coloured ring which changes from red to blue and vice versa depending on changes in the water temperatures.



The shower column in particular, containing many high‐tech engineering features, integrates a chromo therapy system with RGB LED lighting within the ring, that gives a completely new dimension to the column, thanks to the indirect lighting – still a little used concept in bathroom design.



“Fluid and sensuous, AMETIS guides the water through the gentle curves of the faucet, providing a visual representation of the idea that life is a cycle” says Davide. I love the faucet design for it’s sculptural quality and the very appropriate use of highly polished chrome that emphasizes the faucet’s shadow play.


The Graff Booth at Cersaie:
GRAFF's booth at Cersaie was just over 200 square meters (or over 2k square feet), and was the result of a collaboration between GRAFF and DCube Design. DCube Design's creativity emphasized the aesthetic and innovative contents of this American company whose brand image is one of luxury and precise engineering in the field of luxury bath and kitchen fixtures.




Davide Oppizzi, the designer who founded DCube Design, described the booth project as follows: “We thought about a space having a strong visual impact, being rich in colors, lights and surrounded by a number of the luxury fixtures presented by GRAFF. The booth is a mixture of best‐selling products and new items, which, when seen from different angles – conveys intense emotions.” Oppizzi continued, “On the stage we have multimedia contents and an atmosphere dominated by indirect light: the new lighting concept which emphasizes the technological elements featured by GRAFF`s collections.”
images and info courtesy of GRAFF and Archiproducts

GRAFF

A Different Kind of Valentine. Pop Culture Heart Art Collages by Paris Artist Eric Liot.

Paris based artist Éric Liot combines items archetypal of our consumer based society with objects and fragments from pop culture. Pieces of film, advertisements, toys, comics and anime are assembled or collaged to ultimately represent a colorful, decadent society, delusional in its mad self-celebration. These hearts are only a small portion of the artist's work.

Three Women and A Man, 2011:

Catch Me, 2011:


Pink Lady, 2011:


Cupidon Is A Killer, 2010:


Le piège, 2010:

Liot initially mills out the forms he needs, like wooden puzzle pieces, then he pastes poster fragments onto them, creating from them actual objects in ready-made style or just painting them with acrylic colors. The results are Liot's characteristic collages, which, while somewhat critical of consumerism, first and foremost seduce the observer with their charm and amalgamation of interesting contemporary pictures. (source: Galerie Raphael 12)

A large heart-shaped piece for the December 2010 show at Laurent Strouk in progress:


Completed piece:


And as shown at Gallerie Laurent Strouk:




Artist's Bio :

above photo by Marie Laborde for Galerie Laurent Strouk

Éric Liot was born the 25th of April 1964 in Caen (France). After school, he begins to study architecture, first in the Normandy, then in Paris, at the "Université de la Villette". But he soon realizes that he feels no call at being an architect or even a student. He is weighed down by the narrowness of the academic education as well as by the cold and total anonymity of the Parisian big city jungle. He feels attracted by the faraway and undertakes important travels to Latin America, East and Central Africa as well as Asia. Each time when he comes back to Paris, the decision to be an artist seems clearer. He gives up university and works as a free lance designing posters and furniture. Little by little he realizes that his objects are more and more aesthetical and original, but less functional. The interiorization of this coincides with the real beginning of Liot?s artistic career. First exhibitions soon follow and so the public success. Many solo exhibitions, fair participations, catalogs and articles relate Liot's quick upcoming. Now he has won fame on the Parisian art scene and begins to make a name of himself also abroad, out of the French metropolis. (courtesy of Galerie Raphael 12)

Video of Liot in his studio by Director/ Cameraman Victor Lazaro



Buy Eric Liot Books and catalogues here

At present Liot is showing his work at the Fabien Castanier Gallery through March 4th, 2012 in Drill Baby Drill, a show with Michael Kalish.

Happy Valentine's Day