News / custom paper models
The Imperial Hotel
Every town in Ireland has its own special atmosphere - Cork is so different to Dublin, and in turn different to Galway, Limerick, Sligo etc. The Imperial Hotel is as essential to the feel of Cork as is the Shandon Tower, UCC, The English Market, McCurtain Street....
Again, I tried to illustrate some of the history associated with the hotel while making the model. The front facade is very much the present day with, however, some old fashioned visitors - a hint towards its history. As you turn the model, you'll find Sir Thomas Deane (who originally designed the building in 1813) looking out of one of the top floor windows - down upon a horse-drawn coach.For the rear of the building I drew a scene of Franz Liszt giving his famous piano recital at the hotel in 1843.
Charles Dickens, also a famous visitor, is busy writing down thoughts, while Michael Collins stands by his iconic armoured car: the "Sliabh na mBan". On the western gable I placed an old map of Cork.
It is a relatively easy model to make: simply join the central block and attach the wings to it. The roof then fits onto it after the decorative facia is turned up to meet the facade.
The "Tiny Imperial Hotel" model kit is available at the hotel itself - so please visit soon!
The Spike Island Challenge!
It's been such a busy few months that I have only now come around to appreciate all the projects I've done this year already... March the 10th 2018 seems like a long time ago. On that bleak Saturday afternoon, Fionn and I, took the ferry from Cobh to Spike Island. As we approached the island, the melancholy, eerie mood, which was to stay with us during the whole visit, overcame us.
How was I ever going to create a TinyIreland model of this? The star shaped fort was hardly visible from the waterside - it is set into the island surrounded by a deep trench - and yet, it is its most remarkable feature. My initial idea was to somehow project the ruins and landscape around the fort onto its walls. So, I began by making drawings...
The views from the island of the harbour all around where breathtaking - beautiful and interesting. I fostered ideas of working this into the model as well...
It took us about 40 minutes to walk around the whole outside of the fort. We then entered through the impressive entry archway. This also needed to be featured on the model, I decided. But how could I accommodate the huge fort as well as its impressive interior buildings and architecture? If I made the whole thing to scale, the fort would be huge and the buildings absolutely tiny... and all this was to fit on an A5 card!!!!
I love the patterns the buildings form - like playing cards folded out to line the interior shape of the fort...
After trying out various ideas, I also realized that the inward slant of the fort walls were important - they could not be vertical - it just didn't look right. This made the layout of the artwork much more complicated. It had to be arranged in a curved pattern:
This formed the exterior of the fort on the base shown. But I also needed the interior. I decided to place that on the reverse side of the card, which posed the challenge of alignment during printing.
And this is what it looks like when assembled!
A tiny,tiny Lismore Castle
The first impression I got of Lismore Castle was that it had been added to over a long time - it just seems too big and complex to have been thought up all at once!
Apparently the earliest remaining part of the castle is a round tower, which dates back to the 13th century. It changed hands many times in its history and has been lovingly and extensively restored by its successive owners.
For me, the challenge was to capture the unique charm of the castle - of both its exterior and its inner courtyard, and engineer it into a kit which would fit on an A5 greeting card!
I began by drawing the circumference, taking extra care to get all the levels right. I realised that my model would have to include parts of the gardens and park in order to make it look right. So, each aspect of the model also has depth, not just facades all on the same plane.
Similarly, for the interior courtyard, the level of the ground was a challenge. Really, it should be elevated from the exterior base level, but this would have made the model quite difficult to assemble. So I decided to again include some of the yard on each facade. This actually works quite well, giving it more depth.
I used the roofs to join the courtyard to the exterior facade of the castle. I avoided making these too exact - this gives a lot of play for the person assembling. So, even if you're not a perfectionist, you'll still be able to make a great looking castle!
Finally, I decided to print the interior of the card a purplish grey because some of the surfaces were visible from both sides. White just didn't look right!
The impressions and ideas which went into the designing of Tiny Glengarriff
The gables and rear walls of buildings are often not visible or even ugly - for me they form a tiny canvas to paint my impressions of the town upon them. What is it I love most about Glengarriff? Well, walking through the forest down to the Blue Pool is a must at every visit. Taking a ferry out to Garinish island is also a memorable outing. I also love the outcrops of rocks here and there - particularly at the north end of the Blue Loo - the pub seems to be built right into the rock face.
There is a feeling that Glengarriff is the gateway to a world of adventure: the mountains, the rugged Beara peninsula, the tunnels to Kenmare, the lakes of Killarney. We leave the civilised part of West Cork behind us and head out into the wild... this is why I drew that signpost on the gable of The Maple Leaf...
Each page in my "Build your own Tiny Glengarriff" kit reveals exciting details and impressions - the essence of what inspired me.
Fascination with the familiar in miniature
Recently, I made a series of paper models for a wedding: 18 models of Dingle and Annascaul pubs. Each table had a pub on it. I cut out all window panes and inserted light to make them come alive. The feedback I got from wedding guests was that, not only were the models beautiful, but the most fascinating thing was that they were familiar places in miniature. There is something magic about seeing a place we are familiar with in miniature - something that brings us right back to those childhood experiences we had with dollshouses and miniature railway layouts...
I once visited an amazing Ship in a Bottle Museum in Holland: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bottle-ship-museum , where the fascination with the miniature is taken to the extreme. After months of very detailed work and preparation, the tiny ship model is finally ready to insert into the bottle. Once inside, the masts and sails are pulled into the upright position using carefully prepared strings.
My models are not as elaborate as that. I paint my facades/ gables etc as big as I want to before scanning them all into my computer where I process them into models. Thanks to modern technology, I can work in large format and the computer shrinks it down to miniature for me.
This allows me to work at ease, exactly at the size I like. Also, I can easily insert drawings of impressions and ideas I gather about the building or town.
I begin by drawing and painting on paper, but continue to create in the computer. The most exciting bit is, of course, when the model is finally printed out and I assemble a miniature 3D version of my artwork. It's magic!
Whenever I return to see the "real" versions of the buildings I have made, I feel strangely excited - I feel a very special bond between me and the building - as if we somehow know each other....
