Toy girl

I took theses pictures with Wang Lin  an amazing photographer assisted by his excellent colleague from the mA photography at London College of Communication Patty Tseng who master perfectly all photographic tolls.  I  show him my toys necklaces and he immediately created a whole universe for each of them with a particular atmosphere. It was a great creative collaboration because the craziness of the jewels allow Wang to experiment different photographic effects, involving lightening, silk fabric and fan , misted glass and crazy make up. 

We had also an amazing make up artist So-Mi Jang, who go from really light and  natural make up to this disturbing colourful creature! 

This photo shoot pushed me to carry my researches about pieces of art involving toys and I got some new inspiration for my jewels from design and sculptures. 

http://bananalin.tumblr.com/

What I noticed about artists using toys in theirs pieces of art,  that they always says from "unwanted" toys but the simple fact of saying "unwanted" makes them "wanted". Actually, from my experience, it's really hard to find "unwanted toys", toys are this  "that obscure objet of desire", at the end of the day,  it's really hard to find toys in big quantity, you always have to buy them, even if you can find for quite cheap from charity shops. So I guess, it's not really about recycling toys (that applied for me to waste or rubbish) but give them a new life. Because people find it really hard to get rid of them, sometimes i'm asking to my friend to give me their old toys or barbie but even if they are on box on a closed closet, they are really emotional bout it  "you know, this was my favourite toys, i used to play hours with them". 

It's by looking to toy box of his children that Robert Bradford had the idea of creating sculptures with toys and unwanted wolly-toys, by seeing heap of multicoloured toys that was piled up in kids room. 

http://www.robertbradford.co.uk/

Serial recycling artist Hiroshi Fuji brings his eco-friendly art to 3331 Arts Chiyoda where he created a large-scale installation using over 50,000 old toys leftover from his toy exchange program. Based on specifications like size and color, Fuji created dinosaurs, flying birds, mountains and walk-ways, filling the entire main gallery with colorful remnants of our childhood.

Exhibition view of Hiroshi Fuji "Where have all these toys come from?" at 3331 Arts Chiyoda

Enormous number of toys are separated by types and color to create this amazing scenery. It is a dream land for kids and also for adults. Fuji created dinosaurs and birds by combining these toys and they were placed lively in this dream space. Without his idea, those toys could have already lost their lives as a waste material.

Exhibition view of Hiroshi Fuji "Where have all these toys come from?" at 3331 Arts Chiyoda

 "I am pretty much moved by the power of number and continuity." say the artist and I guess it's the power of number and accumulation that make that piece of work effective and affective.

Collecting and managing 50,000 toys must not be an easy task. It is not a job required by anybody (of course) and just patience may be required. But going through all of it, Fuji gave us a great experience.

Trawling for materials quickly became an obsession, with Mc Elhinney’s limited budget, natural eye and vivid imagination ensuring he spotted the perfect finds to bring to life his early designs. Plastic toys became the designer’s chosen medium. 

Telling a story with each manipulation, Mc Elhinney meticulously gloss-painted and fused together each figure in a six weeks process, creating the first in his series of ‘Toy’ frames and lamp bases.

What do monkeys, pick-axes, chanterelle mushrooms and cherry blossoms have in common? They are all the basis for some eye-opening lighting. Too often we tend to think of lighting as purely functional, forgetting that it can take a wide variety of forms. John Niero's Monkey Around chandelier riffs on the childhood barrel monkeys that some of us may have enjoyed; Matthias Ries is inspired by Eiger North and woodland fungus; and Shige Hasegawa uses the traditional cherry blossom motif in up-to-date lighting. 

http://www.justnotnormal.us/

Lego trip

New lego stuff....

By Quentin Qui

The lego necklace matches perfectly with the "Comme des Garçons" clutch bag! 

By Quentin Qui

This jacket could be wear by boy or girl…so let me introduce you the lego version of tomboy! Lego suit for women! 

If I worked in a office, I think this is the outfit i would like to wear everyday...

but i'm not sure I will work on a office one day...

I love jeans short, it's the best think you can wear in summer,  it's a really good basic…but maybe a bit too basic for me… so i decided to stitch colourful lego bricks on mine (after making a hole in them). 

Small details make big differences! 

You can change the colours of the brick to create infinite combinations which multiplies possibilities according to your outfit! 

My friend Martina Kao  is studying fashion design at LCF, London college of fashion, i'm wearing the dress and the coat she designed and made by herself witch match perfectly with my lego necklace! (or is it the lego necklace witch  match perfectly with the clothes?!) 

A perfect sunny/grey day at Tuffnel Park, so good to see a bit of green when you are spending your whole time in a city and tree in this park have amazing shapes, you feel like in Harry Potter forest. 

My lego necklaces are doing the cover of the new French magazine Bizart magazine, fashion and art magazine. 

Read Bizart Magazine 

HERE

facebook page of the magazine: HERE

The interview about my creations and my crazy stuff: 

making of of the magazine shooting:

The lady in Pink

Pictures by Viola Balodis 

I made this costume of the creepy dolls which is narrating the story of the Lady in pink, that Ioanna wrote and sing, she created this character of this old lady who wants to stay young by drinking a magic potion. 

Click here to here The lady in pink song! 

Ioanna's Facebook page to listen her other songs

We got our inspiration from porcelain dolls but Ioanna didn't want to be the perfect nice neat one but creepy and a bit dirty, more like broken dolls. 

So I used a lot of torn lace on a shabby dress with faded pink colours.  I stitched little porcelain dolls (which actually christmas decorations!). We added  the necklace with barbie hands with dolls. So it's like a "mise en abîme", a dolls wearing dolls part, like little reflection of herself. 

Ioanna wanted a big  collar in order to  add stiffness to the character, so I made this structure with corset fabric halfway between victorian collar, and control head collar for dog which add something really over the top to the creepy doll. 

We also played on the asymmetrically of the dress by using the same lace tutu I used for my dead bride dress.

Lyrics: 

In a drawer i found a book
i thought to myself 'ill take a look'
yellow pages faded ink
before id time even to think
behind my back the lady in pink

the lady in pink was my old neighbour

in her food she adds no flavour

can't use salt because she's sick

instead she has pastilles to lick

Disfigured face Disfigured bones

her prime was rather full of thrones

thrones ancient thrones made out of gold

with leather handles ivory mold

they kept her warm, kept out the cold

but didn't manage to withhold..

…the dark dark darkness

the dark dark darkness of her soul

In her drawer i found the book

i had the glimpse i had the look

hieroglyphics - I'm not egyptian

behind the symbols a prescription

Long list of drugs with no description

I lost my nerve i lost my diction

a déjà vu, a prémonition 

a burning mask refused submission

she'd soon soon soon be dead x4

she'll cut her thread

Was it my fault was it my ignition..

unspoken hatred due to omission

She offered tea but t' was too late 

Her clock was ticking, almost eight

Tick Tock..

Pictures by Viola Balodis

We were influenced by Tim Walker photo shoots for his fantasy universes and its mechanical poetry 

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011.

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011.

Photo by Tim Walker from the “Mechanical Dolls” editorial, Vogue Italia, 2011. 

LIKE A DOLL: LINDSEY WIXSON BY TIM WALKER FOR VOGUE ITALIA JANUARY 2012”

LIKE A DOLL: LINDSEY WIXSON BY TIM WALKER FOR VOGUE ITALIA JANUARY 2012”

shooting of the video lady in pink video clip in the green screen 

In front AND behind the camera

Green & pink: the good match? 

making off

Another influence, Morton Bartlett, an American photographer  who devoted much of his spare time to creating and photographing a series of intricately carved lifelike plaster dolls. 

He never formally exhibited his work, though a small circle of friends and acquaintances was aware of its existence. 

I discovered the work of Bodan Litnianski and its Gardens of Shells in Agnès Varda documentary "The Gleaners and I" (2000) and i was really fascinated by this outside the norm character.

He would haunt the region and collect thrown away materials, like puppets, toys, all kinds of scrap... He arranged these objets trouvés into very colourful columns he erected in his front garden (all done very solidly, Litnianski knowing about masonry....).

A century of fixing toys: Haunting look inside the doll hospital that comes with its own cemetery for figures beyond repair

Centenary Spare doll's parts sit waiting to be used for repair at Sydney's Original Doll Hospital which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year

With hundreds of plastic legs, arms, and heads stacked high in boxes, it looks like a haunting resting place for hundreds of unwanted dolls discarded by girls who no longer want to play with them.

But although Sydney's Famous Original Doll Hospital does have a cemetery for doll parts that are beyond repair, many of the toy parts littering the workshop are waiting to be given a new lease of life.

Spare parts: Hundreds of spare dolls' arms and legs are kept in boxes at the hospital's workshop in Bexley, Sydney

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281335/A-century-fixing-toys-Haunting-look-inside-doll-hospital-comes-cemetery-figures-repair.html#ixzz2MiD9ePij