We had another productive weekend this week working on our pieces for the fairytale exhibition next month. We didn’t get all the work done that we’d have liked to as we were awaiting the delivery of some materials but we still made good progress. Two of our characters, Little Red and Joringel were adorned with nice full heads of raven black hair as you can see above.

Here are some more snippets from the collaborative creatures I’m working on at the moment with Layla Holzer. I thin you’ll agree that the nightingale painted up by Layla is a real thing of beauty. That particular piece will form a part of the puppet that illustrates the Grimm’s Jorinda and Joringel story.

These are some images of the body parts I stitched together over the weekend as part of a collborative project I’m working on with the magical illustrator Layla Holzer.

The final puppets will take a puppet-like form constructed from a range of materials. These Louise Bourgeois-esque body parts have been constructed from pink towelling and silicon baby bottle teats for our Rapunzel figure.

As previously mentioned on this blog I’ve recently started working on some collaborative sculptures with the wonderful illustrator Layla Holzer. The work is being prepared for a an exhibition of fairy tale inspired works that are to be exhibited at St Donat’s Art Centre next month.

We’ve chosen to work with three stories by the Brothers Grimm which are Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and the lesser known Jorinda and Joringel. We’re working on puppet like sculptures that will encapsulate elements of the fairy tales and the themes that these stories explore. The fur lined vessel pictured above is a piece we’ve been working on for Little Red Riding Hood’s puppet.

ProjectCardiff will consist of a series of portraits of those people who make a valuable contribution to the life and soul of Wales’ capital city.

This inaugural chapter of ProjectCardiff will focus upon those individuals who are making a positive contribution to the creative cultural life of Wales’ capital city. These individuals may be involved in some way with artistic, creative, design or cultural endeavours: people who help to shape, influence & make a difference in Cardiff through their talent, enthusiasm and hard work.

ProjectCardiff invites the community of Cardiff to participate in this project by nominating their own creative and inspirational heroes. Help us identify these individuals whether they be artists, activists, architects, bloggers, crafters, designers, developers, entrepreneurs, film makers, organisers, promoters, performers, imaginators…

What is it about these individuals that impresses most?
How are they making a difference?

ProjectCardiff seeks to unearth the interesting and inspiring stories of Cardiff’s inhabitants and draw people’s attention to the city’s vibrant energy and abundance of talent.

ProjectCardiff is not intended to be a popularity contest and as such individuals will not be selected based upon the number of nominations they receive. Nominations for neophytes to the creative and cultural industries will be considered with equal merit to those received for long established creative entrepreneurs who have brought a multitude of activities, events and other projects to the city.

A selection panel will be convened later this year to assess the nominations received along with those names canvassed from conversations with the lovely people who dwell in this energetic young city following which individuals will be invited to sit for a portrait by the talented photographer Lann Niziblian.

Do please visit www.projectcardiff.com to make a contribution to this project and nominate a Cardiffian who has inspired you recently.

This last week I commenced work on a new collaborative project with the wonderfully talented fairy tale illustrator Layla Holzer in preparation for a rather exciting exhibition next month.

The work is in it’s very infancy as you can see from the papier-mâché cocoons pictured above. There’s rather a lot of work to be done in a relatively short space of time so I’m not going to give to much about the project just yet but you might find a clue in my previous post. I can assure you that the work will be delightfully dark and magical and you can expect plenty of updates on here though as the work progresses.

In the mean time you might like to go check out some of Layla’s work at www.laylaholzer.co.uk.

Now, there was once a maiden who was called Jorinda, who was fairer than all other girls. She and a handsome youth named Joringel had promised to marry each other. They were still in the days of betrothal, and their greatest happiness was being together. One day in order that they might be able to talk together in quiet they went for a walk in the forest. “Take care,” said Joringel, “that you do not go too near the castle.”

It was a beautiful evening; the sun shone brightly between the trunks of the trees into the dark green of the forest, and the turtle-doves sang mournfully upon the young boughs of the birch-trees.

Jorinda wept now and then: she sat down in the sunshine and was sorrowful. Joringel was sorrowful too; they were as sad as if they were about to die. Then they looked around them, and were quite at a loss, for they did not know by which way they should go home. The sun was still half above the mountain and half set.

Joringel looked through the bushes, and saw the old walls of the castle close at hand. He was horror-stricken and filled with deadly fear. Jorinda was singing,

“My little bird, with the necklace red,
Sings sorrow, sorrow, sorrow,
He sings that the dove must soon be dead,
Sings sorrow, sor — jug, jug, jug.”

Joringel looked for Jorinda. She was changed into a nightingale, and sang, “jug, jug, jug.” A screech-owl with glowing eyes flew three times round about her, and three times cried, “to-whoo, to-whoo, to-whoo!”

Joringel could not move: he stood there like a stone, and could neither weep nor speak, nor move hand or foot.

The sun had now set. The owl flew into the thicket, and directly afterwards there came out of it a crooked old woman, yellow and lean, with large red eyes and a hooked nose, the point of which reached to her chin. She muttered to herself, caught the nightingale, and took it away in her hand.

Joringel could neither speak nor move from the spot; the nightingale was gone. At last the woman came back, and said in a hollow voice, “Greet thee, Zachiel. If the moon shines on the cage, Zachiel, let him loose at once.” Then Joringel was freed. He fell on his knees before the woman and begged that she would give him back his Jorinda, but she said that he should never have her again, and went away. He called, he wept, he lamented, but all in vain,”Ah, what is to become of me?”

Joringel went away, and at last came to a strange village; there he kept sheep for a long time. He often walked round and round the castle, but not too near to it. At last he dreamt one night that he found a blood-red flower, in the middle of which was a beautiful large pearl; that he picked the flower and went with it to the castle, and that everything he touched with the flower was freed from enchantment; he also dreamt that by means of it he recovered his Jorinda.

In the morning, when he awoke, he began to seek over hill and dale if he could find such a flower. He sought until the ninth day, and then, early in the morning, he found the blood-red flower. In the middle of it there was a large dew-drop, as big as the finest pearl.

Day and night he journeyed with this flower to the castle. When he was within a hundred paces of it he was not held fast, but walked on to the door. Joringel was full of joy; he touched the door with the flower, and it sprang open. He walked in through the courtyard, and listened for the sound of the birds. At last he heard it. He went on and found the room from whence it came, and there the witch was feeding the birds in the seven thousand cages.

When she saw Joringel she was angry, very angry, and scolded and spat poison and gall at him, but she could not come within two paces of him. He did not take any notice of her, but went and looked at the cages with the birds; but there were many hundred nightingales, how was he to find his Jorinda again?

Just then he saw the old woman quietly take away a cage with a bird in it, and go towards the door.

Swiftly he sprang towards her, touched the cage with the flower, and also the old woman. She could now no longer bewitch any one; and Jorinda was standing there, clasping him round the neck, and she was as beautiful as ever!

I finished the second of my unicorn tapestries this morning. It’s being a labour of love but it’s now finally complete. The work has been created using split stitches with white and sliver DMC embroidery threads on a black cotton-linen mix fabric. It measures approximately 297 × 420mm.

This is the reverse of the work displaying my oh so tidy stitches. I’ll share the full frontal images of the finished work in days to come once it’s been framed. You can view pictures of the first of these works in my gallery here.

My other unicorn embroideries can be seen on www.unicorn-porn.com.

I found this work by American artist Stacey Page on Twitter last week. I’ve seen embroidery onto old photographs done a few times but I think this is the most exciting results I’ve come across combining stitch and photographs. She has taken the photographs into a completely different realm. It feels a little like Stacy is unveiling the secret and fantastical lives of the stern faces that are captured in these old photographs. What could have, should have, might have been perhaps.

You can see more of Stacey’s work on her website >> www.staceypage.com