monthly monster

Eisenauer is back with her monthly monster feature.

Exactly one year ago, I moved in Berlin. Living there, meeting new people and situations, really expanded my imaginary and creative process.

I went there for the first time for a little trip, to live the city and attend the festival Pictoplasma 

Pictoplasma is basically a characters festival. It touches very different fields: illustration, motion, handmade...the selection criteria is not the media but the figure behind the tecnique. It’s a wonderful key to investigate on the imaginary of artists and designers, that usually are the most talented of the moment!

When I moved there last year, I had a backpack and two pictoplasma tickets, for me and my boyfriend.

There was a workshop with Joshua Ben Longo, called “the biggest felt monster ever”.

I don’t know if it was the biggest ever, but it was huge! Loads of people were working on it, and the result was amazing.

Joshua Ben Longo is a total genius, his lecture really impressed me. He studied Industrial design at the Pratt Institute and had very good chances to work as an industrial designer but he gave up very quickly and started sewing. He just can’t do without, and then that became his work. His creatures are very special because most of them haven’t eyes, but the big part’s got teeth!

Pictoplasma is a very polyedric event, and it’s very tied to the handmade scene: last year there was an exhibition about EtsyDE and some of the best shops in Germany and abroad participated. This year Etsy itself is a conference speaker: Dana Zimmerling a talented illustration that I had the pleasure to meet in Berlin, is invited to speak about her work and how Etsy helped her business. Etsy is also and official sponsor of the event, just to get an idea.

But the speaker I want to mention is the person who probably inspired me more on keeping sewing monsters: this year Pictoplasma invited Felt Mistress.

From Pictoplasma website:

Felt Mistress AKA Louise Evans is a UK based stitcher who creates one-of-a-kind bespoke felt creatures.

Originally trained in fashion design and millinery, in 1994 Louise started collaborating with her partner, illustrator and toy designer Jonathan Edwards, bringing many of the skills learnt through years of work as a couture dress maker to the world of character design.

Meanwhile Felt Mistress has crafted hundreds and hundreds of unique soft sculptures, featured in countless exhibitions worldwide, and collaborated with a vast variety of artists including Pete Fowler, Ben Newman, Jon Knox and Jon Burgerman.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feltmistress/5389656881/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feltmistress/8285132895/in/photostream

FEASTER EASTER

Since is almost easter time, as I previously said, I tried to challenge myself on doing something related to this festivity. I always liked the textures of easter eggs, like the ones I painted when I was a child, so I bought this very versatile fabric with dots and lines. Depending on the cut, you can have different combinations of pois, solid colors and shades. Say hi to the easter monsters!

www.eisenauer.tumblr.com
www.etsy.com/shop/peutfeutre