Itty Bitty Art Committee

Micro residency for Sophie

2010-06-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a tiny two day reisdency to make a girl happy!

After exhibiting and helping out with Test Space Leeds I started a little two day residency at the 42 New Briggate shop.

I was given just the single word of BURN as the theme.

It was a really busy environment, with people coming in and out of the shop and on the first day an exhibition was being hung around the gallery as I worked. So it was a bit of a test to get anything done, especcialy when my attention span is short darn short in the first place.

Check out my little work space nestled inside the gallery.

I first played around with burning some silk and paper, lining the edges with wax so the flame was concentrated into a space. (I'll add those pictures when I retrive my little silky bits from the shop itself

After a while of dilly dallying I thought of using our little interplanetory exhibition as a bit of an influence.

These are ten little zines filled with water colours of comets burnin' through space. They're called 'Solar Flare' and where on sale at the last Test Space craft fair at Crash Records in Leeds city centre.

It was an awesome itty bitty experience and digits crossed I get to do another one soon before I go back to college starting third year.

Over and out.

Houston, We Have An Exhibition!

2010-06-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here's an update, and a whole lot of images (!), on how our exhibition went at the window of 42 New Briggate with Test Space Leeds from the 7th to the 9th of June - it's a planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Me cleaning and preparing the window we displayed in - had to clear a previous artist's window mural.

Sophie hanging some of the planets - there's still a lot more to hang! (First two photos from the Test Space Leeds facebook photo album).

Some of the materials used... Some of the planets were surprisingly heavy even when they only made from polythene, so we had to use stronger and thicker wires to hold them.

Me with my big one! - check out http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/2010/06/houston-we-have-exhibition.html to see some of the planets I made, Sophie's are there too!

Here's our planetarium completed from the inside of 42 New Briggate, we've even hung the LED lights but they are not that visible as it's still daylight outside, it would be effective at night!

and outside...

Since the room is dark in the background it makes it easier to see the planets, we had to cut some from the wires and move them forward to more visible areas.

Here's another photo when it was a bit darker, around 8:45pm!

If you look closely you can see some of the LED lights -there's 5 of them altogether. They looked really good when they were spinning around as it made the lights flicker.... almost like an intergalactic disco! The lights should have lasted for a good couple of days until the exhibition needed to be taken down for the next batch of artists!

If we were to explain what our exhibition was about: it is our own playful concept of a solar system in a galaxy far, far away , inspired by heaps of sci-fi movies, books and games. It is a light-hearted and personal version, compared to the seriousness of the reality space. However, we have looked at many hubble telescope images which inspired us with the colours found in space, but took it a step further by experimenting with vivid colours, textures... creating imaginative gas giants to planets containing 'life'. It is kitsch, bold and out of this world... it is our planetarium on an itty bitty scale!

Check out the Sputnik!

It was a wonderful experience to exhibit at 42 New Briggate, thanks to the Test Space Leeds guys! We hope to get this itty bitty planetarium exhibited in various locations in the future!

...

Summer Fete!

2010-06-04T06:33:00.000-07:00

We had another lovely time at the Faversham with the Marvellous Tea Dance Company for the Summer Fete, although the weather wasn't quite summery! However that didn't stop the fun and games that the Fete had to offer, which I had a few goes myself. It brings back childhood memories of summer fairs with the school and village. Good times!

Have a look at our winnings!

Sophie won a little musical box in the shape of a chalet with watermill and all, and a little gypsy looking doll whose eyes fliker when to tilt her in various directions. I won a round gold-coloured frame with a (painted?) floral coaster inside and a COCONUT!

Which I will be opening soon to drink some lovely coconut juice and make some coconut cakes!

It was all fun at the fair!

Our First External Exhibition!

2010-05-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

Sophie and me (Bev) have been busy bees with the upcoming exhibition we have with Test Space Leeds, where we will be featuring galactic goodness at 42 New Briggate (near the Grand Theatre)! Here's the leaflet of the event:

And here's the space we will be working on - We'll be setting it up in the day time so people can have a peek at what we are doing!

And finally onto our productive painting and experimenting so far!

(Apologies for my grubby window!)

We created those textures with these acrylic mediums we bought - they're great for planet texture! Also used fake grass for model making - typically seen on model railways when creating the landscape. We've so far completed painting the small spheres!

Also look at these... Melted Planets!

Really different, huh? Also here's one of my concepts for the planets which reminds me of the melted spheres we made. The rest of my planetary concepts will be at: http://i-sketch-things.blogspot.com/

Hope you like what we've done so far! We're looking forward to our first exhibition outside uni!

...

Nuggets of Wisdom!

2010-05-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Do you remember our post on Pearls of Wisdom? Well these are Gold Nuggets of Wisdom that will be available in our art vending machine very sooon (as well as our original Pearls of Wisdom!) All they need is little fortunes attatched to them and off they go to you lucky ones :D

We still have origami cranes in our machine, so come nab one for 20p at our next upcoming show at The Faversham (in Leeds Uni) on the 29th May for the Summer Fete (with The Marvellous Tea Dance Company), for summer fun!

...

Our Proposed Idea For 42 New Briggate Window!

2010-05-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here's our idea planned for the window space.... and this was the email/proposal we sent:

"Itty Bitty Art Committee to Neil, over!

Houston, we have an exhibition!

We're proposing to turn the window space into an itty bitty planetarium. Planets, comets and satellites suspended in front of a starry painted back drop. Each planet will have all its geography illustrated onto it, include hidden faces and the odd interplanetary outpost.

We'd like to suspend a constellation of approximately twenty galactic objects and have a little stand to place a bowl of business comets (three dimensional business cards).

Could we have the dimensions of the window space? When would you like this to be exhibited? Any other questions or comments please e-mail or call us.

Roger, over and out!"

The Itty Bitty Art Committee

'Tea Cups & Tassels' Event!

2010-05-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello there! Just updating on our latest event which was held at Found by Create, the vintage clothes shop in the St. John's centre, Leeds. This event was in collaboration with The Marvellous Tea Dance Company, who notified us about the event the day before, but we were happy to participate! Here's the flyer for the event...

People who wanted to attend the event were also asked to donate a piece of clothing - I donated my cream batwing 80's dress (probably the most vintage dress I had!), and the money is donated to charity. The shop was full of vintage clothes and bunting, and outside the shop The Marvellous Tea Dance Company held a tea party. All was wonderful!

Here is the table we were given to set out our art and craft work for the event - on a vintage sewing table with a singer sewing machine! We were limited for room, but we made the most of it!

I just love the designs on the singer sewing machine! Here are some of the new works featured at the event. They will also be available at future events!

These are Sophie's beautiful, hand crafted lucky charms! Each delicate letter contains a lucky charm which has been sealed with gold wax for a special someone, or for some luck for own self!

Here are some magnets that I made from my gocco prints. I'll be making more handmade magnets, pin badges and some rings... so keep a look out!

We will notify on twitter (IttyBittyArt) of any upcoming events we will be attending!

See you soon!

Castlemania!

2010-04-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

[Bev]

Now that I am back from my break in the Yorkshire Dales, I've decided to get cracking on with some Gocco printing! After seeing Sophie's cute prints of a little satellite hovering through sparkling space, I've decided to do... Castles!!

The original drawing was done on an A6 grid paper provided with the Gocco, but I decided to photocopy it on plain paper as I was a bit confused whether my pen had a carbon based ink (as this was my first time using my Gocco). It is recommended that carbon ink pens or pencils should be used to draw the initial image. Printer ink and some laser printers also work.

Bulbs screwed in the lid section which is then placed in the slot above the Gocco printer.

The lid is then pressed down and the bulbs flash... the bulbs can only be used once.

Castle!

My image from the paper is burned onto the mesh screen by the heat of the bulbs.
Mesh screens can only be used once.

I inked the image with selected colours!

...and away I print!

I printed on various types of materials: postcards, gift cards, sweet paper bags, cardboard, thin brown paper... I didn't have the time to get some plain tote bags from craftwise, but I will print on some in my next batch of prints!

I also did the print on Shrink Plastic! See the results:

Result!

I might turn these little castles into magnets or brooches... The whole process of creating these prints turned out better than I expected, they are not 100% perfect which makes them individual in their own way. Some of these prints may be available at future events where the Itty Bitty Art Committee will be attending!

See you soon!

Engraving adventures

2010-04-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

Every girl wants a power rotary tool for her birthday...

I'm busy experimenting with my new toy now so I shall post when I have something to show.

Holy Gocco Batman

2010-04-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

A ONE and a TWO and a THREE and FOOOAR!

I have been given a chance to have a play with a Gocco machine before mine arrives from Japan. It's a great chance really to get to know how they work without having to worry about wasting precious materials (that are as well as being rare are ungodly expensive to buy, ship and get through customs).
So I drew out my little design with a high carbon pen and burnt it onto a screen using the inbuilt light box and have had a little play with printing on a few different things; Canvas tote bag, folded paper cranes, tissue paper, metallic effect paper, luggage tags, light weight paper and gift cards.

If you want one of the ten gift cards I made I'll be happy to post it to you for the small price of a postcard in return :)

Lost and NOT Found!

2010-03-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

[Bev]

It has been well over two weeks and it seems like both of our teeny tiny postal experiments have been lost in the postal service, or in the bottom of the postman's bag, forever!

So we don't recommend sending these tiny letters through the post by themselves, make sure you put them inside a larger envelope. We are very happy that these itty bitty letters are enjoyed by many, and we thank everyone who has bought one! There shall be more at the next event, and remember, we can personalise them too!

It was an exciting experiment to do and it's a shame it failed... (and I really put my hopes up to find it in my postbox...)

Itty Bitty Locker Exhibition...

2010-03-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Sophie and I (Bev) are going to carry out our own little locker exhibition at in our course studio at Leeds College of Art! There are a few unused lockers, but so far we have started to coat the insides of two of them with white paint.

As you can see, the lockers are tall, deep and quite dark. We may need to install some lights inside to illuminate it! At the moment we are planning to exhibit our own work inside - ranging from two-dimensional and three-dimensional artworks. We are also considering in exhibiting artwork outside Itty Bitty Art Committee, which has to follow a specific theme that we set (generally small art), but we are still discussing about it!

Our aim is to get this locker project up and running after the Easter holidays, so we hope everyone has an enjoyable Easter!

Gold

2010-03-18T17:31:00.001-07:00

I (Sophie) have been having a little mooch around Manchester and it's great China town for a bit of product inspiration and in between sticky buns I grabbed some fortune cookies which lead me to have a go at making some one for myself.

On a previous crafting occasion I had a little play around with some jewellery making experiments with two little brass rings, Shrinkies and a little bit of gold pen. The plastic shrinks down by supposedly three times which makes accuracy on a small scale fantastically easy without the huge of dirty great big magnifying glass, awesome no?

These two rings where put up for sale at The International Artists Book fair

This Video is 8 shades of awesome

Itty Bitty Postal Experiment!

2010-03-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

We have decided to experiment if the itty bitty letters can survive through the postal system! Sophie has sent one to me and I (Bev) have sent one to her address. We have used a second class stamp for both letters, so it could take about three to five days to get delivered!

Sophie has written one to me!

..and I have written one to Sophie!

The letters are so small that the stamp covers half the letter (as you can see)! We just hope that the postman has good eyesight to read the tiny address! However we did put the post code and number of the address the largest in the text which is the most important details.

Goodbye teeny tiny letters!

We just hope that they are not left forgotten in the bottom of the postal sack because they are so small! We'll update the blog if they have survived!

We look forward to seeing our experiments in our post boxes soon!

Retro + Vintage Fair @ The Faversham!

2010-03-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday 13th March, Sophie and me (Bev) brought our itty bitty work and vending machine to the Retro + Vintage Fair, hosted by Bad Sneakers. Our stall was located in the conservatory of the Faversham, next to the delicious refreshments provided by The Marvellous Tea Dance Co., there were also plenty of vintage clothing, accessories and jewellery to satisfy anyones vintage needs! Here's the wee stall we were given!

tea party!

At this event we were selling (Sophie's) itty bitty letters with sweet and rude/humorous messages inside, as well as mother's day letters and ones that can be customised by Sophie! My magnets, pin badges and rings were also available, expect most of my rings were at the International Artists' Book Fair.

The Mother's Day letters went down well as last minute cards, but there were plenty of requests for personalised letters!

The vending machine filled with lucky paper cranes was also at the event! The Marvellous Tea Dance Co. offered to take our machine to Harrogate to an event they would be featured at. That was a generous offer made by them.... our itty bitty vending machine is on tour!

Before Urbis was lost...

2010-03-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

IT WAS CHUFFIN' FABULOUS!

Says I (Sophie)

Like quite a lot of cool kids that have been lucky enough to get to visit The Urbis in Manchester more than one time, I'm really going to miss it. Seeing as there is a group of ass hats somewhere that think a football museum would be an on the whole more worthwhile experience than this literal slice of lovely.

This beaut is The Tiny Travelling Treasury by The Ultimate Holding Company, you are given instructions by way of lucky cat...

and with that you explore the city with the aim of bringing back your hoard to display in the cabinet of wonders.

At every installation I see where the viewer is told to contribute train tickets always seem to be in total abundance, I may start creating dirigible tickets instead.

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't contribute.

scruffy yet effective.

The scale of the whole thing was great but it was a bit of a shame to see that some of the draws where a bit bare, I think with a lot of care, attention and the right sort of contributers over time it would have been really great.

whosits and whatsits.

inspecting more whosits and whatsits.

After delving a bit deeper into The Ultimate Holding Company I found that they do all sorts of fantastic cross disciplinary collaborative business, go check it out...

http://www.uhc.org.uk/index.php

After first finding out about Yoko Ono's 'take a piece of sky' I have coveted a little piece of sky but then again I have always have a soft spot of installations (irrespective of the works standing be it high or low art) where you can contribute or snaffle away a little piece of the work to keep for your own.

'Take a piece of sky': a Yoko Ono installation at the Baltic Centre. Photograph: Colin Davison

And finally... an installation of piles of luggage free for anyone to add their own personal tags to at The Manchester City Gallery, sadly I cannot recall who created it and Google is being no help either but I remember contributing to one of the tags years upon years ago, I don't remember what I wrote for the life of me..

End.

The International Artists' Book Fair

2010-03-12T08:24:00.000-08:00

Today and tomorrow (Saturday 13th March) is the International Artists' Book Fair which is held at The Parkinson Tower (main hall area), Leeds University. Our Itty Bitty Art Committee work is featured along with many other artists' work from our Art & Design (Interdisciplinary) course - 1st, 2nd & 3rd years, as well as artists from Furniture. It is quite amazing how much artists' books were made and how much of it could fit on one table!

(the vending machine along with Sophie's itty bitty letters, my magnets and shrinkie rings)

So far from what I have experienced at the International Artists' Book Fair (which was literally two hours as I was helping at our stall and also having a peek around) is that there are plenty of stalls to keep anyone busy, and the place is crammed full of people! (Which is obviously good!)

Itty Bitty Art Committee will once again be featured at another event tomorrow (Saturday 13th March) at the Faversham, while the International Artists' Book Fair is still on... However, we will have both works at each event but the vending machine will be at Faversham (where us two will be!)

Here's the flyer...

Oh, and here's another event with The Marvellous Tea Dance Co. on Saturday May 29th! We are very much likely to be there!

See you then!

Itty Bitty Art Committee

X

Itty Bitty Stuff

2010-03-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the bits and bobs which will be available for sale at the International Artists' Book Fair, Leeds, as well as other events.

[Beverly Cottrell's work]

White and Red Roses - North and South... the War of the Roses theme, an itty bit of English history!

Shrinkie rings and pin badges inspired by Victorian broaches and other jewellery. Here's a personal broach I have...

My concertina zine inside a shadow box the size of a doll house frame - approximately 3cm x 4.5cm, depicting illustrations of different types of heirlooms...

Three handmade itty bitty magnets in packets with playful illustrations of heirlooms...

Plenty of stuff I made for previous events and events coming up!

Thanks for taking a peek!

'The Marvellous Vintage Affair' was absolutely marvellous!

2010-03-08T16:27:00.001-08:00

On Saturday 6th March we exhibited and sold some of our work at the 'The Marvellous Vintage Affair' event by The Marvellous Tea Dance Co. at Faversham, Leeds University! It was crammed with tea, cake (!), crafts stalls, vintage clothes stalls, live bands, swing dancing and rockabilly dresses galore!

Here's the wee table we were offered for the event which is covered in vintage styled fabric. It was a bit dim in the corner so we were given a tea light and holder to create a bit of mood lighting, and we were conveniently next to the cash machine so we were never short of any cash.

[Sophie in action setting out many teeny tiny handmade letters. Some playful illustrations by me (Bev) in the form of badges, pins, magnets and rings!]

[Tiny handmade letters! Each row has different messages inside them, for example: You there! (outside) There's a party in my pants and you're invited! (inside)]

There are plenty more ideas for the tiny letters, so please keep a look out for them in future art and craft fairs we will be attending. Also there was some demand for the badges, pins and magnets, which were mainly illustrative teeth and moustaches!

At the main room with the stage was where the live band was located, as well as swing dancing lessons, burlesque peepshow, Dr Sketchy's Anti Art Class and a craft workshop where Sophie and me took turns in making our own bunting! It was a yard of ribbon for £1 and you could sew as many (vintage fabric )bunting flags as you can fit on with a hand operated Singer sewing machine. It was very exciting!

[Sophie!]

[Bev!]

**The Marvellous Tea Dance Company may put on another vintage craft fair on around May, so keep a look out! The Itty Bitty Art Committee are most likely to be there!**

I.B.A.C @ The Loft Leeds!

2010-02-28T15:07:00.000-08:00

We attended the 'Contemporary Arts Market and Creative Business Showcase' @The Loft, Leeds, by Artsmix* and Business Link. Here's the little flyer promoting the event:

It was pretty much a day and a bit to get our itty bitty products ready to be featured and sold at this event, also we were extremely lucky to get a space here in such short notice and also, for free! The lovely lady named Amy, who was curating the event, was happy to feature us and hopefully keep in contact for future events!

The Loft is quite a fancy creative events venue near Leeds Bus Station and on a road next to Co-op. At the Arts Market there were approximately 15 stalls set up featuring works from jewellery to furniture, as well as glittery cookies and spa products! It was also a nice event to mingle and befriend with other artists and designers.

-serious business!-

-itty bitty art open for business! (look! teeny tiny table!)-

-victory flag-waving!-

The little flags are our business cards with our blogger address on! We also had 'Itty Bitty Office Supplies' in tiny handmade takeaway boxes with tiny stationary for your office needs! These are the items we had at our stall but there will be more to come, especially for the International Artists' Book Fair, Leeds (Friday 12th & Saturday 13th)!!

The event ran from 12.00pm to 4.00pm and we managed to get a few of our products sold, the most favoured was, of course, the vending machine! People enjoyed twisting the dial on the machine which popped out a capsule with a lovingly handcrafted crane. In our near future projects we hope to fill the capsules with all types of goodies...

To keep us fuelled through the event, a delightful company called 'The Marvellous Tea Dance Company' supplied tea served in delicate, decorated china tea cups and a range of delicious cakes topped with glitter! This chocolate guinness cake was lush!

On top of all what happened that day, we've also been invited to another gig at Faversham on Saturday 6th March! Here's the flyer!

The event will be crammed with vintage crafts and stuff, as well as craft workshops, swing dance classes, live burlesque peepshow, miss vintage competition and plenty of nomming on tea and cake! We hope to see you there!!

Beverly and Sophie outside The Loft in the bitter cold (brrrr!)

Good news everyone!

2010-02-26T09:13:00.000-08:00

You are now reading this post in my voice!

The cool cats at Artsmix are hosting 'Artsmix and business link' this coming Sunday (28th) and I have to say we are pretty exicited about it.

We shall be having our vending machine selling its first limited batch of goodies. as well as mini zines on toothpicks and finally boxes of Itty Bitty Art Committee stationary!

Pictures of our little whos its and whatsits will be up soon enough!

squweeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Capsulated Cranes!

2010-02-25T13:28:00.000-08:00

Cranes, cranes and plenty of them! Look! Oh, and there are plenty more to come...

These colourful cranes have been patiently made by Sophie, as I can recall she said she made at least 800 (or more) of these beauties (a meaning of good luck)! Origami is not really my best of areas (Beverly) but I'm willing to attempt the templates that Sophie provided in a previous post, and also to test my patience!

Relating to our topic on heirlooms and trinketry... origami could be said to be a 'heirloom' as it is a tradition of paper-folding, where the knowledge and skill has been passed through generations. An heirloom is something that has been passed through generations to reflect on our histories or treasuring something sentimental within a family.

There's even teeny tiny origami swallows, parrots and cranes!

This is all exciting! We are planning to fill this vending machine with origami creatures which will then be installed in a particular area around Leeds College of Art. Hopefully the library if we can get permission.

It's 20p per capsule, so grab your origami bird which has been made with LOVE!

Grab Yer Pearls of Wisdom!

2010-02-25T13:01:00.000-08:00

So far this week we have been formulating and creating tiny goodies to put inside the capsules of our sweet/toy vending machine. We are planning to do at least up to 4 or 5 varieties of products to vend. Sophie came up with a wonderful idea of creating 'Pearls of Wisdom' where inside each capsule is a small handmade 'pearl' along with quotations of wisdom... almost like fortune cookies!

Unfortunately they look almost like something bunnies commonly leave on the fields of the countryside... but this is until they are placed in the kiln and covered in a coloured coating and, finally, glazed. Each 'pearl' would then be attached to a quotation full of wisdom by a string of some sort. At the moment they are probably sitting on a shelf in ceramics waiting to be cooked, or hopefully baking away in the kiln. This process is likely to be completed by next week!

Gocco Time!

2010-02-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

I'm (Beverly) really considering in getting a Gocco at some point soon! Just been browsing on ebay for any great deals and it's a bonus if they are in great condition. It's a minature screen printing kit!

The little bits and bobs that make the screen printing tick, such as the bulbs, screens and inks are becoming a bit harder to find or the prices are a little pricey... but I can see it's worth it by some creations I've seen from other artists using the Gocco.

gocco print by Inkdesigner

gocco print by peskimo

gocco print by magic jelly

Here is a great video on how the process of screen printing on a Gocco works by Etsy Labs! After watching their video the process of Gocco printing was much simpler than I thought! Thanks Etsy Labs!

However the Gocco seems to be on it's way out, unless it could be saved by a business willing to create more Gocco and supplies (Me wish!)...

Here's an interesting site: http://www.savegocco.com/what-is-gocco/ It's all about Gocco and campaigning to save Gocco! Oh, and there's an interesting and highly amusing Japanese advert of the Gocco at the bottom of the webpage... it features puppies using the printing machine! A must see!

Paper chasing

2010-02-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

Papierkrieg from Makaio Tisu on Vimeo.

Lovely to see the art of paper crafting and folding used in different formats. The patience and skill taken creating the animations really pays off. I do like the idea of creating a narrative around the paper crafting but the simplicity of colour in Jen Stark's work is really beautiful, the sculptural elements of her work are anything but simple but just as beautiful, take a look...

"Streaming Gradient" by Jen Stark from Jen Stark on Vimeo.

Fashion and furniture designers have so often taken from the Japanese art of paper folding.

Shrouding the body with sculptural fabric or wood.

catwalk from autumn-winter collection ‘07 of DIOR | sputnik table by Buro Vormkrijgers

Hidden in my (Sophie) draw at home I have about 400 paper cranes that I lovingly folded as part of a project (that funnily enough I never finished) to create 1000 paper cranes for good luck so as of now

OPERATION BIG BIRD

is a go! I shall try and finish folding all those cursed little squares into lovely little birdies as a product to sell in our vending machine.

BIG BIRD HAS FLOWN THE NEST! I REPEAT BIG BIRD HAS FLOWN THE NEXT! OVER!

origami

2010-02-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

We've Got It!

2010-02-04T18:50:00.000-08:00

(Sophie presenting vending machine on Skype)

Here is the wonderful vending machine that has arrived today along with a large sack of balls to be filled with our tiny art creations! Watch this itty bitty space...

New acquisitions

2010-02-03T05:54:00.000-08:00

We have been having a little think about what teeny tiny vessles to sell some of our prospective art work/trinketry and what sprung to our minds was a sweetie vending machine.

Hark back to the days of begging for 20ps from your folks to get a meagre amount of sweeties!

Oh yes! We are going to create a wee vending machine full of goodies for sale at THE INTERNATIOAL BOOK FAIR LEEDS!

Our new vending machine shall be arriving on Friday (hurrah!)

Isn't it a beaut!

Now what do we fill it with?

The Henry Moore Institute Offers Us a Lift!

2010-01-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Today we braved through the snow and slushy ice to visit The Henry Moore Institute to enquire whether they had a tiny space where we could exhibit the artwork created by our Itty Bitty Art Committee.

http://www.henry-moore-fdn.co.uk/hmi/

A friendly fellow called Bruce, who works as a security guard at the gallery showed us two lifts to hold our exhibition. One was a lift for the disabled and the other was a teeny tiny lift, which apparently was meant to hold six people...

The guy behind the reception desk said he could get us permission to exhibit in this lift if we send him an email and he would forward it on to the manager. It would be great to get this space... so we better start cracking!

Here's Some Inspirational Videos

2010-01-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

HOPE FARMERS - LIVE ART COLLABORATION - MAGIC from The Glue Network on Vimeo.

"Glue Network, Jedidiah, and Flexfit collaborated with Artist's: Kelli Murray, Tommii Lim, J Shea, Serge Gay, Blaine Fontana, and Joshua Clay to create a live art mural at MAGIC. The mural was called HOPE FARMERS and sold to the CEO of Kangol. A large percentage of the money raised will go to the Las Vegas Chapter of StandUp For Kids"

Wind from UPPERCASE gallery on Vimeo.

"A polaroid photo developing on a windy summer's day."

Library House from Multistory on Vimeo.

"Multistory asked 200 children what they wanted to see and do in their new library. They wrote and drew their answers on tiny cardboard houses."

I enjoyed the first video of the live art collaboration. It is interesting how the artists can work comfortably together to create a grand final mural, what also caught my attention was how one artist painted an image and another artists expanded from it, but keeping the same theme in mind.

I hope to combine myself in these types of projects - it would be an educational, creative and fun experience!

Two Dimensional Barcode!

2010-01-07T12:43:00.000-08:00

Oooh! There is a way in which you can keep updated with the Itty Bitty Art Committee Blog on the move... It's the Two-Dimensional Barcode! It's becoming widely used to access direct links to web pages via your mobile phone by scanning the barcode with your phone!

It is done by taking a photo of the barcode with the camera on your phone, however you need the application to make the whole process work! I downloaded the application for my BlackBerry Curve 8520 from www.scan life.com and it's FREE! Also creating your own barcodes to link to your own blogs and websites can be created free, but an account needs to be set up which is quick and simple.

This is how the process of scanning the two-dimensional barcode works...

* First download the ScanLife application to your phone from www.scanlife.com. Click on the tab 'Download' and you will go through a short process of selecting your phone type and receive download instructions.

You will need to visit the given web link through your mobile internet to download the application. Once downloaded the application should appear installed on your phone, either in your Applications or Downloads. Mine was under downloads. Click on the icon to access and you'll come up with this loading screen.

*This is the next screen that will appear giving you six options to choose from. 'Scan', 'Settings', 'History', 'Share ScanLife', 'Help' and 'About'.

Choose 'Scan' to get cracking with the barcode scanning!

*The screen will then appear as you are taking a photo. Hold up your phone to the barcode, making sure you have the barcode at the centre of the photo. Also make sure the barcode is about over an inch wide - just like the my photo.

All you need to do is take the photo!

*Your phone will then process the image from the data in the teeny barcode! Sometimes your phone may fail to recognise the image. My phone did this a lot on my first tries but that was because I wasn't taking the image of the barcode correctly. Just keep retrying! Some people said that it is beneficial to have a phone with auto-focusing. My phone doesn't have auto-focusing and it works fine.

*This loading screen should appear and a delightful tune should play once you are successful! Your phone should now be connecting to the internet and directing you to your desired link!

TA-DAAA!

Now you can surf our Itty Bitty Art blog which will look all Itty Bitty on your phone!

The Incredible Gum Painting Man!

2010-01-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

thisislocallondon.co.uk

After another evening session of browsing the internet I came across a street artist who I remember seeing several years ago in the high street of Barnet, Greater London. It's the chewing gum painter man! Well, his name is actually Ben Wilson and he was a Barnet resident but his teeny chewing gum works are all over London. So far I've only seen the ones in Barnet. At first I thought they were colourful stickers... well at least it brightens up the grey concrete of London!

Ink & Mess: marielouiseplum.blogspot.com

"I'm just going to keep going and see how far I get," said Mr Wilson, who started his quest at the Hadley end of High Street, Barnet. "I use acrylic paint and varnish, then I've got a little burner to dry it. I've done different pictures cups of tea, elephants, flowers I do requests as well. Often I just draw whatever takes me on that day." Ben Wilson, Painting a Gum Trail, 2004, thisislocallondon.co.uk

Flickr Images: flickr.com

His chewing gum paintings grab your attention, and because they are so small and on the ground you have to bend over to look at them, making the people following behind you stumble into you - I have to admit that has happened to me a couple of times! The gum paintings feature images of people, places (where the gum is painted), animals, local facilities and landmarks. You could even request a piece of gum to be painted for you and he will print your name, that's only if you were lucky to meet him! He is recognised as a local legend in Barnet, everyone that I met in Barnet know of him...

"‘I know a lot of the shopkeepers, road sweepers and local police. As I walk down the street, every few steps I think of a picture I have to do for someone. I have all this in my head, which make me feel closer to the place and the people.’ He hopes his work will encourage in others an awareness of their surroundings and give children a sense of connection with their local environment – something he believes fewer people have these days." Art On Chewing Gum, 2006, rawvision.com

He was known to the local police who accepted his unique street artwork. They even requested him to paint gum that featured their emblems!

Another Flickr Image: On the streets of Muswell Hill.

T.S.G. stands for Tactile Support Group. ie. The Police also make requests. Cool!

"I'm not defacing the pavement, it is more sensitive than that. I don't want to get in people's faces I'm not a graffiti artist. You get so many reactions from people, their reactions are so different, but rarely are they negative."Ben Wilson, Painting a Gum Trail, 2004, thisislocallondon.co.uk

However there has been information that Ben Wilson was apparently arrested for his street gum paintings. This is information from Flickr from people who seem to know Mr. Wilson that was posted 32 months ago. They claimed that his paints and kit were confiscated from him and he was released from custody. One comment said...

"..he has done pics for some police before now that have happened upon him in other parts of town so it's not like the Establishment is all jobsworth, it's just sad that some patrolling officers can't see that Ben is Added Value to a community and not a vandal or a threat."

If this news is true it is very unfortunate. He has been doing these gum paintings since 1998 and he made it clear to the authorities of what he was doing, and he also got the community of London involved, which I think is a great achievement! His works are colourful and a joy to see, he is certainly a great value to the community. I hope he's out there with his acrylic paints and blow torch creating more awesome gum paintings!

"We'll see," he said. "I'm just going to keep drawing and see where the momentum takes me." Ben Wilson, 2004.

I've been a Stumblin'

2010-01-04T16:13:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love Stumble!

I've been on the hunt for some inspiration and have come across so I've had a leetle bundle of leetle design and art goodies!

Teeny tiny design innovation. Business cards look a wee bit better when they're 3D

From Troyka advertising agency

Hello Mr. teeny tiny book ring.

From Ana Cardim

A wonderful little service from Leaf cutter design

Founded in the San Francisco Bay area The World's Smallest Postal Service sends out teeny tiny letters and cards for a mere $8

Glorious don't you agree?

And of course an obligitory mention of these chaps

Slinkachu, Installation and photography work from the London based artist that has recently gained a fair few more fans with the release of a book an a series of exhibitions (which are sadly, mainly in London).

More inspiration will be spilling onto here soon. I (Sophie) may be off too Manchester city art gallery to have a look around a surrealist exhibition I've been wanting to see for a while. I also had a look on The Urbis's website and didn't really find anything that really caught my eye but I'll have an explore anyway, extra art can't hurt.

After again having a nosey around the Manchester Gallery site I found this The Mini Art Club and started getting very excited with images of Synadoche New York style exhibitions only visible with magnifiers. Sadly the mini was in regards to the artists, children (not 'little people') very tempted to still go along...

Wonder if they'd let me in if I said I was pregnant.

Hangers for Art!

2010-01-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have just been doing a bit of browsing on the internet when I came across this unique way of hanging artwork and photographs...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/theartistscloset

"This Itty Bitty Hanger is so sweet! It measures almost 7" wide and 3 1/4" high from the bottom of the tag to the top of the hanger. . It has a centre portion with label. The finish is a antique speckled brown. It has two clips on it for hanging your ATC, photos or whatever inspires you."

I think it's quite a nice idea, especially with the Itty Bitty Art committee collaborative project if the space is in a locker with a rail! Their vintage style has a lot of appeal to it... they cost $3.25 USD and there is only one in stock!! They are also selling a dozen of these beauties for $35.50 USD.

Esty is an interesting site where people sell their crafts in their little online shops. You can find unique items from jewellery to clothes! Have a look: http://www.etsy.com/

Some ideas from Bev...

2010-01-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

Some spaces which could be considered for the itty bitty art gallery:

lift
locker
(both Sophie's ideas!)
cabinet
shed
book shelf
a cove - in a wall, in a desk...

apartmenttherapy.com

csnsupply.com

Back at my home down South my house is full of plants that my mum places on the window sills, and cactuses which she also places there for a deterrent (it seems to work, but results in me getting prickled by the damn cactuses whenever I open the window). A deep set window can be made into an exhibition space. The window sill could display three dimensional works and paintings could be hung... plus it is a small space! People usually hang artwork on a wall, but how about a window? What effect does it make?

About the desks with the coves... I had these desks in the library at my secondary school for private study. A small space like this could easily accommodate a few little artworks. It looks very personal and there is enough space for two people to look into the cove, and there is only one angle you can view the exhibition. The surrounding walls block out all other distractions which focuses the attention to what goes on in that cove! I have to admit I quite like the desk for it's privacy, but they are quite a rare find!

There could be plenty more spaces out there, so if you have any wonderful ideas, feel free to let us know!

Itty Bitty Art Committee Up and Running!

2009-12-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hi there! We are the Itty Bitty Art Committee!

Our idea is to create an itty bitty gallery in an unusual itty bitty space...

So watch this space for marvellous collaborative creations!