Ceramic Masters of Icheon

This beautifully shot film of the working process of five Korean ceramics masters is just mesmerizing. The skill! The artistry! Ah. ❤ I could just watch it on loop...


Video by the American Museum of Ceramic Art
via My Modern Met

Yoshimasa Tsuchiya

Shhhhh! Don't scare it away...

*whispers* Aren't these beautiful sculptures by Japanese artist Yoshimasa Tsuchiya just breath taking?

Kirins, unicorns, bakus and fawns of Japanese folklore look so life-like you half expect them to start moving...

With slender limbs and delicate features, they have an ethereal beauty befitting of such mythical beings.

And yet, you sense there is something slightly wild and dangerous too.

What makes them even more amazing to me is that they are formed and carved out of solid blocks of wood!

It would be so wonderful to see these in an exhibition, I could spend hours daydreaming...

You can see more in his online portfolio.

In picture - in the meadow we can build a snowman

ToToRo~~~~ by Studio♥Strawberri

Oooh I want to build a snowman Totoro next time it snows...

Thursday ♥ - Down the Rabbit Hole

Down the Rabbit Hole by Katie Boyd on deviantART

Dissected porcelain

I really like this concept by UK sculptural artist Beccy Ridsdel. Called Art/Craft, she wanted to explore the debate of craft versus art, technique and function versus idea and meaning.

Installed like a surgical lab experiment, the outwardly ordinary pieces of bone china plates and mugs have been dissected to reveal beautifully ornate innards.

Beccy explains that the '... ‘surgeon’ is dissecting the craft object to see what is within' and that '..he finds craft through and through. He tries the experiment again and again, piling up the dissected work, hoping to see something different but it is always the same'.

Her thought was that by '...turning a table full of craft objects into an artwork in its own right, it had a point beyond the technique, beyond the things themselves'.

 

I'd argue though that the dissected pieces themselves also suggest how, at its core, craft has art running through it. Beautiful craft work is, in its own right, an artform. Take any piece of tapestry, hand embroidered wedding gown, hand forged sword...

Survivor

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

I have been waiting to post about this porcelain doll handmade as a tribute to breast cancer fighters by Marina Bychkova of Enchanted Doll.

Titled 'Surviving', visit Marina's gallery to read the story behind this beautiful doll

Hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson, 1861

Willow Tree figurine by Susan Lordi - Hope

Thursday ♥ - Kodoma

Kodoma by designslave on deviantART

Thursday ♥ - Bird

Bird by luminatii on deviantART

Underwater Sculpture

If I ever get the chance, I would love to visit the underwater sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor out in the waters of Grenada in the West Indies and Cancun, off the coast of Mexico.

As part of conservation projects to help preserve precious coral reef, the Mexico based English-Guyanese artist (diving instructor and underwater photographer) carved many groups of statues from specialised cement and had them installed on the sea bed. The intention was to help promote coral growth and marine life on them to try and relieve the pressure from tourism on the natural reefs.

The result is fascinating and beautiful. There are scenes of sole statues sitting at desks or lying on a garden patio and groups of statues en mass or standing in a ring holding hands, all now resplendent in multi-coloured coral. Aquatic life swims past and shifting underwater light adds to the other-worldly effect.

What I love is that the reef systems which have been encouraged to establish on them have turned the sculptures, which are amazing on their own, into living pieces of art. They are literally alive and will, because of that, constantly be changing. Static, yet moving at the same time. It's such an elegant concept.

Simply mesmerising.

To see much more and read about the projects, visit the UnderwaterSculpture site and gallery.

Marina Bychnkova - Enchanted Doll

I'm fascinated with dolls and miniature modeling. Carved marble gods and cast metal giants are amazing yes, but I'm a massive fan of tiny details too.

These beautifully crafted porcelain ball-jointed dolls by Marina Bychkova of Enchanted Doll are a case in point. I fell in love when I first saw them on deviantArt a few years ago.

Not only does she hand mold and paint each porcelain doll, every single element of her dolls is hand made - every wig, beaded dress, elaborate head wear and tiny accessory is hand sewn, set or casted. O_O

She seems to draw a lot of inspiration from fairy tales, which gives me another reason to love her work.

Simply exquisite. Visit Marina's site to see her full gallery and fascinating details on how she makes these pieces of art.

Dolls and photos © Marina Bychkova

Thursday ♥ - Catch a Star

First in my feature of particular pieces by artists I've hearted on my web travels.

Catch a star by photozz on deviantART

Story telling with sand and music

By Kseniya Simonova, the very talented young lady who won Ukraine's Got Talent in 2009. This is her evocative recounting of Ukraine's experience of WWII. It moved the judges and the audience to tears. The first time I watched this, I cried too. You will be able to understand the story she's telling without needing to know the history or the language as there are no words, just the music and the amazing way she animates the sand. The emotions portrayed are very powerful.