01 Living room

Ulla Norup Milbrath {Northern California, US}

‘I wanted to make a fantasy living room, as if one were living in the midst of a forest. I have always wanted to have the luxuries of daily living, but also the fantasy of living in a fairy-tale. It was really fun to find items like furniture and accessories that would coordinate with the background that I picked and look ‘nature-like’ but still be habitable by humans. I added animals here and there as accessories and as living creatures, one wonders ‘which is which’???‘
* I love the fairy-tale and fantasy element in Ulla’s nature-inspired room, something that is reflected in the way she lives her life.

The Crust Station House

It’s been almost a year since dreaming of a collaborated art project with blog friends. For many of the participants, the idea of a Paper Dolls House was abstract and questions had to be answered (even the paper sizes was a concern, it was uncharted territory).
With a team of house-builders contributing from all parts of Europe, US, Israel and Australia, our international group has in the space of the project run – started new jobs, embarked on courses and even emigrated to new countries. It was exciting to work with such a diverse range of people, friends who hasn’t met in real life, on a house that truly deserves the title ‘The House that Friendship Built.‘
My childhood creation was being given a new lease of life through a group of ladies / inner interior-design talents and artists willing to take on the challenge.
{Cover-art by A Fanciful Twist, more on Vanessa later}

Travelling Journals

Uschi of Papierwelt, Germany is calling for participants for an exciting travelling journals project after being inspired by Rediscover your Creativity (12 people each start a journal using any medium to create something about their part of the world, the way they live, the art they do, the things they like etc. After one month, this journal should travel to the next participant, and so on returning to the author after 1 year -check her blog for details).

Inspiration: Journals As Inspiration, Find Yourself Through Art | decor8
Wreck this journal | keri smith
Flickr groups: journals and letters, moleskinerie
anna wolf, kolby kirk

The Paper Crane Project

Eshu of abstract the day launched The Paper Crane Project, where she is undertaking the mammoth task of folding 1000 paper cranes for sending off to 1000 people. The original idea behind the paper cranes can be found here. Every recipient takes a picture of their crane which will eventually be compiled in an installation (contact her by email if you would like a crane).

In the spirit of the project, rebeccamissing (George), has generously offered a set of 5 original Polaroids for auction. The proceeds of this auction will be donated to the cost of postage and supplies for the paper crane project. The Polaroids will be released one at a time. The first Polaroid is available online now, bidding will take place in the comments section of the picture’s page on George’s flickr photostream. Each Polaroid is online for 5 days for bidding and bidding for the final ends on April 15th.

Project unveiling

The idea for this project began last year after I posted about the paper dolls house I made while still at school. Since we are all interior design magazine lovers, I hope this collaborated project can bring blog friends closer by creating a platform for people to be able to ‘visit’ each other literally at their {homes} rooms! How exciting is that?

When I saw this on Lisa Solomon’s home sneak peek at Design Sponge, “I dream of someone asking me to help them put a space together from scratch“., it just made me smile.

PROJECT:
This project is opened to all Crust Station readers, but I have to limit the number of participants to 12 (after all, I do not have the planning permission to build a mansion)! The idea is for everyone to contribute a room (in 2D on an A3 piece of paper) to the house (using collage, drawings/paintings etc), keeping one copy for their own and send out copies to the other participants where the final thing would end up in a book format. Rooms will be drawn from a hat to keep it fair
(all questions and details via MMVII Project category tab above).

There is no rush for the project and building work can begin at a leisurely pace, I am at hand for any questions in between. Work should be completed by 31st July 2007.
The project is now fully subscribed and ready to go, see MMVII Project for the list of participants!

Inspiring Projects

I’ve been meaning to post about the various projects around blogland for some time, I love Projects, and I’m amazed by people’s creativity, imagination and ideas that are a constant source of food for the soul.

♥ The amazing idea behind 3191: stephanie and mav – a year of mornings
♥ Documentary Project: shari and lisaS ~
each week a word is chosen and interpreted in any visual means
♥ Photographs & Prints project ~ port2port press: 1 Idea, 5 Photographs, 1 Letterpress Print
♥ Paper Quilt Project: run by dawbis – paper packets sent to participants to create a collage with an aim to auction to charity end of the year
♥ Visual Collaborative diptych (word based): a week long collaboration by eshu and jen
♥ Simply Breakfast: the art of breakfast by jen of Simply Photo
♥ Behind the Picture: shash -take a photo and note everything else going on at that time
♥ Friday Flickr Fix:creature comforts -one image made up of the juxtaposition of two or more flickr friends images

** If you have missed some of these projects, search the archives, I assure you that it’ll be worth-it.
Crust Station project is coming beginning of next week, I know some of you have been waiting since Dec last year, sorry!

21-Day Challenge

Rhonna Farrer {dreamy} runs a continuous project 21 Day Challenge based on the theory that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. The concept of using art and commitment is a great idea and could be life-changing (images taken from ArtsyMama’s challenge on Mindfulness).

100 details in 100 days

On 21 June 06, SharonB from Australia began a project ‘100 details in 100 days’ on her blog ‘in a minute ago‘ in which each day she posts a detail of her crazy quilting and talk about how it was done. With a passion for textiles and an interest in how people use technology in their daily lives, she creates amazing embellished embroideries and provide details of stitching and process.

DIY Twin Challenge

Crafter’s #9 challenge was to craft a doll that is a replica of yourself and shows who you are and your style. (The final vote count: (first) Tiniest Ysolda, (second) Inner Spring, (third) 30 Year Retrospective 2-D Me! The story behind ‘Inner Spring’ is especially moving-low self esteem made the challenge difficult for olenka realising that she still have a hurdle to get over, the doll expressing not only how she look but also how she felt and the hopes and dreams for the future-being able to ‘blossom’.

Just Annax

Fantastic mixed media art by Anna Barrow, and her lovely journals

also see The 1000 Journals Project
an ongoing, collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels