Take a look at the pic above. Just a pile of scrap. Or is it?
With creativity/art/entrepreneurship comes an extraordinary gift: The ability to see potential in the seemingly mundane. Or is it the other way around? This is probably one of those, “What came first, the egg or the chicken?”-situations… Do we become creatives/artists/entrepreneurs because we are able find beauty in unexpected places, or are we pushed to do this - developing and honing a skill - only once we become creatives/artists/entrepreneurs?
Either way, I love working with scrap wood. I think of it as a “live” substrate. Let me explain what I mean: When working on canvas or paper, the artist brings the substrate to life by adding their medium of choice. But with wood, I find that even before I add paint, it already seems alive! There is already so much character and beauty that vastly contributes to the final artwork.
For me, it’s the symbiosis between the soul of the wood and the soul of the artist, that makes painting on wood so special.
It’s no wonder then that together with my carpenter hubby, Alex, we keep broadening our ‘upcycled’ wooden sculpture range, which was born during lockdown with the creation of our amazing Wooden Animal Masks.
In June, we introduced you to Twinka, our 2.5m tall wooden giraffe sculpture (below). For the past few months, we’ve been working on creating a family for her: Giraffes that are equally as awesome, but fit for a normal-sized home (or even hobbit-sized!).
I’m suuuuper pleased to introduce our two new additions: Our Twinka Bust has all the beauty of the original, but since she’s just only a head-and-bit-of-neck, she can be displayed on a table surface. Just like the original, her eyes are truly striking! They are hand-made using recycled glass bottles by Chantal Hurley from Ten Green Bottles. Even Twinka’s eyelashes are made from recycled materials — Alex crafts them using old nails that come from the same pallets used to craft her body.
Twinki, as in mini Twinka (thanks for the adorable name, Mom!) is a scaled-down version of our original sculpture. Let me tell you, this one took a looooot of thinking (and tea!). We really wanted to maintain the same charm, whimsy and detail that we managed with Twinka, but at just a fraction of her momma's enormous size (Twinki is only about a meter tall) this was really, really challenging! Imagine Alex cutting teensy tiny little pieces of wood on a table saw! Uuugh, I can't watch......
I am beyond proud of what we came up with. Twinki is turn-your-head-sideways-and-“aaaaaw”-cute, really cleverly constructed and just like her big Mama, even has a heart (hidden in a secret drawer that holds the sky, no less)!
And if you're not in the Cape (or even in the country!) — all three our giraffe sculptures can be disassembled for easy shipping. We worked our little buts off to figure out this crazy-cool feat of engineering!
If you’re in the Cape Town surrounds, make sure to visit the gorgeous Spier Craft Art Market in Stellenbosch - at the moment, our giraffe’s are exclusively on display here, surrounded by a curated selection of ingenious and breathtakingly beautiful products created by some of the best artists and crafters that South Africa has to offer!
So, what's next for our herd of giraffes, you may ask? Well, we're hoping to add a medium Twinka (Twinko???) to the range next. Something sized in between Twinka and Twinki. Average human-height so that one can stare right into her beautiful eyes! ;)
In the meantime, enjoy some behind-the-scenes action from the creation process, as well as the glamour shots of our giraffe herd on Spier Wine Farm:
Our first Twinka bust on display at the Spier Craft Art Market!
I cannot imagine a more beautiful setting for our giraffes!
Look at that eye!!! Recycled glass, by Chantal from Ten Green Bottles (look for her on Instagram) and recycled nails from the same pallets used to make the giraffes.
