News

Tiny 3Olympia Theatre

My tiny model of the 3Olympia Theatre has been revamped to reflect recent changes to the building...

It's interesting how quickly our towns and cities are changing, but how minute, subtle details of the buildings remind us of their past. 

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Build your own tiny Fastnet Film Centre

You may not be able to come to Schull for the Fastnet Fim Festival this year...(I believe it will be virtual like so many things right now), but you can build your very own paper model of the Fastnet Film Centre

fastnet film centre

The Fastnet Film Centre is now in the old AIB bank building in Schull. It was built around 1935 using the well crafted, cornish stones,
which came from the dismantled Church of Ireland church on Cape Clear.
The solid stonework created the sense of permanence and security which the banks hoped to inspire...

In 2012, AIB closed its branch in Schull, leaving the building ready for a new purpose... In 2016, Judith and William Bollinger purchased the building to provide a home for the Fastnet Film Festival, which takes place every year in Schull. Short films from all over the world are screened, and industry professionals are invited to share their knowledge.

 I have tried to illustrate a little of this history on the model: I imagined what it must have been like, when the people of Schull built this building...

building the schull bank
What would they have said if they knew then that one day people would be coming from all over the world to see movies in this building?
people watching movies at the fastnet film centre
and eccentric looking individuals making movies all around Schull?
fastnet film festival
To build your own tiny Fastnet Film Centre, please order the kit - I will send it out to you on the very same day as you order. Score all edges to be folded using a ruler and something pointy like an empty biro or very hard pencil. Then cut out all parts and prefold where necessary.
Finally, use glue to assemble your model. You can mount the base on a piece of wood or mounting board.

For an extra special effect, try cutting out some of the windowpanes before assembling the model - then cut a hole into the base to allow you to put a small lamp or LED lights.
model of fastnet film centre
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Beautiful Ballydehob

In tune with my last blogpost, I've started some drawings of Ballydehob in the format of concertina art books. I'm loving the possibilities with wonky perspectives; the whole thing looks completely different when folded and displayed in zigzag. I also like the idea of showing things from different angles and aspects often hidden or forgotten.

Budds and Rosies Concertina Art Book

I'm going to experiment with colour next - even though I'm quite addicted to pen and ink at the moment!

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Beautiful Ballydehob

In tune with my last blogpost, I've started some drawings of Ballydehob in the format of concertina art books. I'm loving the possibilities with wonky perspectives; the whole thing looks completely different when folded and displayed in zigzag. I also like the idea of showing things from different angles and aspects often hidden or forgotten.

Budds and Rosies Concertina Art Book

I'm going to experiment with colour next - even though I'm quite addicted to pen and ink at the moment!

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Happy New Year!

As always at this time of year, I set about doing new work - to use the "quiet" time of January and February to explore new ways of doing things, new ideas. 

I've been interested for a while in Leporello sketchbooks - often called concertina sketchbooks. I made a few of these for friends and family as Christmas gifts. Why do they excite me so much? Well, I love the idea of just carrying on a panorama - on and on, as if you're going on a walk, but I also love picture books. A concertina book offers the opportunity to create a continuous picturebook. Rather than telling a story, it takes you for a walk, a chance to imagine,ruminate and observe.

This is one of the books I made recently:forest concertina sketchbook

It is an imaginative composition of my daily forest walk.

I began to imagine doing something like this for my familiar townscapes - like Ballydehob, for example. Rather than placing head-on facades beside each other, I'd like to explore walking through the town, with the perspective constantly shifting as we move. Even as I'm writing this, I'm getting more ideas - so this  recent drawing already seems too strict and tight to me:

concertina sketchbook ballydehob

You can imagine how this would take you through the whole town, shifting perspectives all along - and then folds up into a beautiful little book...

I suspect the key to the idea may lie in actually getting out and doing my drawings on the street - but I'm finding it quite cold and hardy (and mainly wet) at the moment, so I'm working off photographs. But the information they reveal is quite limited. I shall keep working!

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Tiny Crawford Art Gallery

I began making drawings of Crawford Art Gallery last year, and only during spring 2019 did I put my head around making this model.I learned that it was originally built in 1724. Back then, Emmet PLace was a waterway known as King's Dock. The building was a custom house. In 1880, it was extended by Arthur Hill for William Horatio Crawford.The modern extension was designed by Erick Van Egeraat in 2002. I love the little tower in the middle, and the garden all around.

Crawford front gatefence detailconed roofcrawford facade

 

 

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Trying to go plastic free!

It just shows that bad decisions at the beginning sometimes take a long time to iron out. Initially all my A4 packs where in plastic sleeves. This made them shiny and showed off their bright colours. But I soon lost sleep over the though that I'm sending out thousands of plastic bags every year. I came up with a recycled, die-cut folder, printed at Cityprint in Cork. The kits are now 220gsm cards inserted into these folders, with a picture of the relevant models peeking out of the front frame. I hope you like them!

Recycled card packaging

The A5 kit greeting cards, are in PLA biodegradeable cellobags.

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A new "Tiny Schull" with quirky illustrations

My last post was in January (yikes, where has the time gone!), about my desire to learn to draw. I tried to do drawings of my surroundings, or my imagination every day. Of course, as soon as things got busy for the summer, I found it very difficult to continue this practice. But I did come out with a series of nice drawings of Schull, my next town here in West Cork. I worked these illustrations into my new model kit: Tiny Schull

The old graveyard, Schull

Schull Regatta

Fastnet Rock

Long Island Beacon

Jewellers at work in Enibas

As always, I worked these illustrations onto my models. This, I feel, gives my models an added gifty feel. They are like three dimensional postcards, and they put the chosen buildings into the context of the surrounding landscape and history. Please take some time to look at the finished sheets below to see how my illustrations work on the buildings:

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Learning to draw

Follow me on my drawing adventure for 2019. I want to improve my drawing skills - find new ways...one day at a time.
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Tiny Hotel Meyrick - The Christmas Edition!

This commission was especially challenging and a lot of fun - as I find the Christmas theme quite a tricky one. Normally I rely on the ambient light around the model to illuminate it - but creating a model which had Christmas lights all over it and lights on inside the building as well was challenging.

The front entrance of the hotel shows a festive wedding party:

I liked the idea of the front of the hotel being brightly decorated, while the sides and rear are in night-time darkness, full of the mysterious atmosphere of Christmas. Using the railway station theme (which was always so closely linked with the history of the hotel - it used to be "The Railway Hotel"), I drew in the Polar Express:

Beside it, just behind a huge Christmas tree, is a festive afternoon tea party - another seasonal treat which takes place at the hotel.

The right and left wing show the festivities on Eyre Square, and the hotel's famous gingerbread house...

 

And this is what the model looks like :

To get your own Tiny Hotel Meyrick kit Christmas Edition, visit the hotel asap!

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