Find the Elephant Re-visited

Re-did my final piece for the "Find the Elephant" project I did at the start of the year. Much happier with how this looks.

A Thousand Fearful Wrecks

Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks,
A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon,
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea;
Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes
Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,
As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.

Richard III - Shakespeare

Painted this picture in response to the line "Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks, A thousand me that fishes gnaw'd upon". Used watercolours then added to the picture in Photoshop.

Took some pictures of the nest in a tree in my garden

Magpie's Nest

When researching images of magpies, I found an image of a birds nest made from wire hangers and different scraps of metal (above). It turned out that it was made by an Australian magpie. This gave me the idea of trying to replicate it.

I brought 20 wired hangers that I bent and fit together.

It looked a bit bear with just the wire, so I added some twigs, weaving it into the wire.

I added different shiny materials - buttons, fabric, beads, money - to show that its a magpie's nest.

Really nice shadows!

Reuse Renew Recycle

I decided to change the slogan to "Reuse Renew Recycle" as it didn't make much sense before.

Tried different colour variations.

Then decided to see what it would look like without the material background, so cut the letters out on photoshop.

Don't Collect - Recycle

I wanted to create some typography to go alongside the magpie and loved the idea of using buttons and different shiny materials to link in with the magpie.

I decided to say "Don't Collect - Recycle" to again link in with the magpie collecting things.

Environment Magpie

For my Environment project I have chosen to look into recycling and a new way of advertising it. I first found this image by Future Perfect on a blog that contained loads of environmental pictures.

I really liked how it was made completely from buttons. I knew that I wanted to try and do something similar to this.

Also found this artist Kathryn Spence who makes birds from bits of fabric, stuffed toys and other found material like litter. Although a bit creepy I really like some of them.

This gave me the idea of making a Magpie, as they notoriously collect things so it seemed a good place to start.

I wanted to try and created a magpie in a similar way to Kathryn Spence.

First started off with a wire frame then stuffed it with newspaper to hold the shape.

Then cover it in newspaper - paper-mache style.

I cut up little squares of fabric to stick on to the bird.