August 2008

Yasmine’s favorite children’s books: Edmund Dulac

Please welcome back Yasmine, Maquette readers.
What a beautiful post. I am obsessed with Dulac now. I’ve always loved mermaids. -Sam

I collect a lot of children’s books, many of which are
old and have purchased from antique stores and flea
markets. And one of my most coveted children’s books
illustrators is Edmund Dulac. His work is absolutely
GORGEOUS. I once had a Little Mermaid book illustrated
by Dulac when I was a child. And I wish I still had it
in my possession.

Other illustrated stories:

You can see more here.

Abbey Goes Design Scouting for Write-on pencils

Hi everyone, please welcome Abby the design scout! On her guest post she’ll point out (get it?) some customizable pencils. I can think of a few things I’d like to have my pencils say to me, “put down the cupcake” for one.

-Sam

Here’s Abbey:

I was thinking about getting custom ones with funny sayings for all my friends like “foodie” or “wino” or
“baby mama” or “big boss”.  You get the picture.  I’m trying to bring back the pencil!

Write-on-pencils

Oh, they’re back Abbey!

Peter Callesen: Paper Cuts

I’m amazed by the work of Peter Callesen. I never fully understand how he created these sculptures with paper. I wish he’d make a video of the whole process sped up. These are truly incredible and painstakingly detailed. In a way they remind me of renaissance marble sculptures. Back then one wrong clink of the chisel and the nose is gone. You can’t glue it back. With paper sculpture of course the paper is delicate and so fine, it must be even more precarious. The tiniest rip and the whole piece is ruined. Peter’s hands must be steady as a surgeon’s. I love this work. Take a gander at his site to see lots more and to read about Peter.

Brandbird designer lampshades from Lamp-in-a-box (Jules is guest blogging)

Please give a hearty welcome to Jules of Brandbird guest blogging here on Maquette today. Lucky me! Lucky you!

Hello, I’m Jules from Brand Bird and this is my very first blog post–Woohoo! A great big thank you to Samantha who I met this past May at Surtex after seeing her work on Design*Sponge.

I’m a great lover of fashion illustration and was immediately drawn to her work. I’ve been in the design biz for 20 years (OUCH!), but only recently decided to follow my passion for fashion and all things retail by diving into the deep end of the surface pattern pool. Much to my delight I have found the pattern crowd to be warm, welcoming and very encouraging. A few months and four trade shows later I am thrilled to say that you can find my patterns on bags at very hip Freddy & Ma and lamp shades for Lamp-In-A-Box.

Thanks again to Sam for letting me share my work.

Jessica Gonacha’s favorite artists

Please welcome the lovely &  talented Jessica Gonacha. This post is truly eye candy!-xo-Sam

Hi! My name is Jess Gonacha– for those of you who don’t know me, I’m an artist in Atlanta, Georgia, and I’m so excited that Samantha asked me to do a guest post on her blog! Thanks, Samantha. 🙂

So, I thought I’d share a couple of different things with you: first, some recent favorites of mine– 6 artists that are SO inspiring I can hardly believe it. And second, some of my own work! Lately I’ve been obsessed with designing patterns, and since Samantha also designs patterns, i thought it would be fun to share some pattern love. 🙂

Favorites:

1. The Great

2. Sandra Juto

3. Leslie Clerc

4. John Solimine (spike press)

5. Yasmine of ‘a print a day’ (Sam here…annotating….I just think it’s too cute that my guest bloggers admire each other! ok, back to Jess)

6. Burcuokay

And here is some of my own work (7-11) and links to me online:

Etsy

Blog

Website

Thanks again to Samantha for asking me to write this post!