jessica trafford: circles.

Heredity and preservation through successive generations are the concepts that inhabit Jessica Trafford’s Circles. This twelve-set of spheres was created from crops of photographs taken by the artist’s blood relatives. Preserved as daguerreotypes, the circles capture a questionable sentimentality - highlighting the similarities of familial vision while acknowledging an ultimate ambiguity. Like looking at a family photo album through binoculars.

There’s a certain moody nostalgia brooding through this and most of her other work, and I like it. 

Check out her website here.

wearable planter.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based Wearable Planter crew use 3-D printing to make these obscenely likeable portable perennials for your lapel, decolletage or bicycle frame. So you'll never be caught out without a herbal nibble!

So stupid-cute, I can't even handle it. Enjoy their website here.

egg art.

So today is Easter and all that jazz, and I thought how better to ring it in than with a little showcase of the joyfully quixotic world of egg artistry. It's a pastime that dates most famously back to 19th century House of Fabergé  in Russia, but who can say how long mankind has been diddling with it's hard-boileds? Probably forever.

Modern practitioners range from the humorous...

 (see more here)

To the unbelievably intricate...

 (70-year old Slovenian artist Franc Grom has been drilling into shells for 18 years - see more here)

To the deliriously kitsch and opulent....

 (Fahra Sayeed is a "pioneer in promoting egg art in India". See more here)

 There's even an International Egg Art Guild, whose archive of annual "egg artisan" exhibitions I would highly recommend. 

And of course there's The Big Egg Hunt (presented by the fabulous Fabergé, naturally) going on all round London town as we speak.

The point being - there is just so much bloomin' egg art out there which goes far beyond the usual Easter fare. Seems like we'll never be satisfied just to scramble 'em - so go get crackin' (apologies) and revel in the knowledge that to be human is to turn food into art, but never to consider it unnecessary.

guy laramee.

Guy Laramee makes sculptures out of books. Crazy sculptures. They're executed with simple tools, things you might use to carve a bit of wood, or a bar of soap. Probably a healthy dose of patience, too. Apparently you can even open them, once they're done. I was well impressed with Guy's maniacal enthusiasm for the medium and followed him up, which lead to an interview on behalf of It's Nice That. Turns out Guy is one hell of a guy. Oh dear - person, I mean. No really, he's really great.

Read the full piece here.

maurizio anzeri.

It's been two years since I first saw Mr. Anzeri's very bizzare, very likable work. Actually perhaps not entirely likeable, did show this to someone the other day who I believe was thoroughly creeped out. Little children, sewn up heads, I get it.

Well for some reason this stuff's still on my radar and each time I come back to it I like it more. Amazing isn't it, the way a few lines can change the whole character of a face - surreal, broody, vengeful, forlorn, obscure.

 In case you are unsure, each of Maurizio's found-photographs are stitched directly onto with thread. Needlepoint certainly isn't the most masculine of crafts, but I find him all the more affable for just that reason. I imagine him in a thimble. Nay, an Italian thimble! Classy.

He's also recently completed a collaborative effort with Dazed and Confused magazine (not too shabby).  Frankly it's just great. Scroll down and enjoy.