Showing posts with label awesome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label awesome. Show all posts

Monday, October 26, 2009

Josh Simpson - Glass Master!

An entire planet encased in glass...

I'm a big fan of glasswork and one of my favorite glass artists is Josh Simpson. I first discovered his work in the giftshop of the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston (a favorite hangout for me back in undergrad, since BU students get in free!) when I saw some of his large and small planets for sale. Most of his work tends to be these planets. Some are metallic, some inhabited, some potentially inhabited (look for signs of "buildings" on the land masses or "spaceships" in the planet's atmosphere, which is the clear glass surrounding the planet) and they come in varying sizes. My husband bought me a large planet for my birthday last year and I absolutely love it!

He does more than just planets, though, including vases, plates, glass "baskets" and collaborations! My favorite item he has for sale is one of his collaborations with Joyce Roessler. It's a portal into an underwater scene, and you know how much I looooove glass underwater scenes!

I looooooove it! The fish, the anemones, the iridescent trail left by a guppy swimming by, the rocky exterior! Fabulous!

The exterior of the portal is beautifully craggy and dark, highlighting the bright scene within!

And here's a close up of the fish! Divine, no? *Sigh. It's works like this that make me wish that I could do glasswork. So beautiful! So this is on my wishlist of things to buy (once I have over $6000 of disposable income. So yeah, that's probably not going to happen anytime soon). Maybe it's a good thing that I don't own it, since I already spend a little time almost every day looking into my Simpson planet (there's always something new to discover inside it. "Is that a road? An island retreat? Is that an alien boat crossing an alien sea?"). I imagine that I'd spend hours at a time looking into this, getting lost in the glass depths, remembering that I can't breathe underwater!!! *cough, choke, cough!
All photos taken from Josh Simpson's amazing website!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Sophie and Michael Create on Etsy

Are you looking for that perfect custom dog tag for yourself or your beloved pet? Perhaps want to purchase yourself a piece of original art that won't break your bank (I'm talking under $20, or often under $10!)? Looking to support and encourage young artists? Look no further than

Sophie & Michael Create! An Etsy shop featuring art made by Sophie (age 8) and Michael (age 7), where "1/2 of our money goes into savings for our future and the other half we spend how we want to (which is usually spent on Ugly Dolls or Pokemon)."

I purchased two items from them: a fancy "Man in the Moon" necklace made by Michael
Note the star cut-out. Very artistic, no?
And me wearing it. I feel so avant-garde! :)

and a set of custom identification tags for our kitten, Cupcake, made by Sophie (and maybe Michael too? I got three tags for the price of one, so there may have been multiple artists involved)!
The three beautiful tags!
And a really dark photo (sorry) of Cupcake wearing one!

They have other jewelry available for sale, as well as many affordable art pieces!

Little Canvas Art Storm in Space (a collaborative piece with direction mostly by Michael)

Junk Mail Art by Sophie (made out of, if you couldn't guess by the title, junk mail!)

Or an original Dove and Sun necklace (the pendant is hand-drawn on shrink plastic)!

Probably the best part of the whole purchasing experience was the convo I got from Sophie (dictated to her mom) after I purchased the items. What a friendly gesture to get a personal convo from an artist!

So if you're in the market for any of these things, and don't want to end up with moths coming out of your wallet (that's just in cartoons, right?), consider making a purchase from Sophie & Michael's Etsy shop!