big fish little fish _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ _ _ _ shaky home for the night under Elephant & Castle subway _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _/ _ _ _
The following cardboard related memories from being a wean still pertinently corrugate in my thoughts today…
- An apple ‘crate like’ card board box was my boat
- The Fyfe banana cardboard box housed my beano collection
- Clarkes shoe boxes became open top apartments that allowed my 2 inch high plasticine people to mingle & network
- Stuffing as much cotton wool into my father’s empty match box as I could, plopping a blob of red sauce & mushing it in, preceded only by making an untidy and impatient hole in the back to squash my finger through. All executed with a mischievous glee that I innocently held in abundance as a child …
natalie doris: oooohhh wonna see a dead finger? yeah?!!
“shuffly card board box sound”
natalie doris’ mother*: oh heck!!!
natalie doris: tee hee hee!!.. ere sis!!! you wonna see a dead finger?!
natalie doris’ sis: Aye!
“shuffly card board box sound”
natalie doris: woooarrrrhhh. tee hee hee!! MUMMY! – we’re goin’ out now…yeah i’m gonna knock on mrs wright’s door to show her my dead finger, tee hee hee!!!
(*please note it was natalie doris’ mother that just moments before showed natalie doris the step by step way of how to make a dead finger…)
yup cardboard boxes made homes for all sorts of unusual thingimajigs… and I have probably only touched upon the disposed wonderment these (often crumpled and gnawed containers) exerted.
Its sad, I never see kids make dead fingers anymore… maybe cos less parents smoke and have match boxes lying around? I would love it if a child came round and knocked on my door and said ‘hiya, wonna see a dead finger?’ but things like that don’t happen anymore … the love of cardboard is still there with smaller kids for sure, but when do they have nothing else to play with apart from cardboard? By the gappy teeth age (8yrs old) all is lost as spare time= playstation 2’s and grand theft 4’s.
Playing with cardboard is essentially a ridiculous concept and 8yr olds now just cant be seen as ridiculous…
…perhaps I shouldn’t say this but my very first cardboard experience (even though I was too young to remember) was my ‘first drawer’ of baby clothes – it was actually a cardboard box decorated with silks and frills…times were hard in the ghetto** y’know and I had an extremely creative and ingenious mother who made everything beautiful…I wish she had taken a picture of this box but sadly she never. I properly nuzzle down in imagination as to how it looked on the occasions my mum decides to repeat the story of how she got everything ready before I decided to make an appearance
**albeit not as ghetto as this
Cardboard box and life eh? PERSONAL stuff. Personal I discover to Andy Warhol too. During the last 13 years of his life, Andy kept a cardboard box beside his desk at all times, filling it up with things that cluttered his workspace. Once filled he sealed it,archived it and turned it into a piece of art. read more here
Oh ok OK!.. nuff of me nattering on about where I draw cardboard inspiration from… you want to peak at the cardboard design goodies I have hoisted from internet…you wanna see cardboard like you never saw cardboard before. Top 10 time…
- Dutch design peeps (HUH) again lead the way in shedding light on cardboard
- marvellous cardboard tea and cake bar in East London (where else?)
- for those that fancy an upmarket night on a park bench? All in the safety of yer own home…nobody battering you awake in the middle of the night to steal that £5.63 its taken you 4 days to gather..
- Miss Julia, au francaise j’taime your cardboard furniture click on mobilier link, then installation link to see!
- i’m bored of cardboard… ok perhaps swig some liquid cardboard through your eye , may perk ya up?
- i’m still bored nat, i need blood!! ok, what about going out on a eco killing spree and bringing back cardboard safari?
- there is a ton of cardboard furniture out there to choose from, tho I think the soft paper collection by molo design based in vancouver exceeds all (tho the miss julia collection is dear to my heart!)
- IF I SEE ANOTHER EMPTY LOO ROLL SITTING ON THE FLOOR BESIDE THE TOILET, I SWEAR…FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY CANT YOU JUST PUT IT IN THE BIN?!…um cos i’m making this.
- y’know my limited ‘dead finger’ imagination as a child never took me to making a flying cardboard carpet… I love these eastern silk screen prints, could quite possibly be the coolest thing I have found in this whole blog piece…
- Nothing is an ideas company (in yes the Netherlands! Of course the blooming Netherlands…I should start calling this the ‘Dutch blog’ the filthy amount of dutch design I highlight) Alas Nothing commissioned an office from the said ‘nothing’ type material to amazing never seen before results . And they ask their visitors to have a wee scribble on the furniture. Oh you school teacher bawlbags, if only you had THE VISION in our cloaked classrooms…we may have grown up slightly more at ease with ourselves and less stoked…
Alas I can only try and remedy my current life’s study/work space…I am presently making designs to build my own desk over the next couple of months, and have decided that all my files and folders visible in the desk vicinity will be cardboard. (Haven’t went as far as cardboard desk but who knows?) At the mo, I’m excited enough to be purchasing brown cardboard archive boxes to be shelved tidily above my desk space. Dearly tempted to make neat perforations in the front, yes, I am a HUAAge fan of MeBox and am unashamed of the blatant unoriginality in my perforated DIY archive box quest.
There is only one exception to the cardboard box rule for me…the cardboard box I truthfully distaste is the one you get in the post asking you to build it and then put all your spondulas in it. I have 1 filled to the brim on my desk, but I’m darned if I can be arsed to send all those 2ps to Africa. So alas I have a constant crappy shaped and laden box with a pic of an unfortunate child with big sad eyes constantly looking at me as I google restaurants and the like…cant throw the thing out cos its for Africa like… I just wish there were better ways to help those people than them obligatory & tasteless trinkets. Actually I just remembered a better way… in 1985 my mate from school Emily watched Live Aid. The next morning she got out her half eaten cardboard box of cornflakes, sealed the top up with sticky tape, wrote ‘to afrika” on the front and crushed it into her local postbox. Oh to be THAT postman. Bliss
To put it simply and conclude, everyone should be allowed unashamedly to explore cardboard, ideally starting at a very young age. Kids & cardboard merge together very well.
Well almost the same thing in place called Japan…
ND
Filed under: Things to make and do
What’s cooler than a cucumber? A cucumber snapped in a polaroid picture. (Now I’m not talking about the family album of a certain type of retailer in Soho…) (more…)
Filed under: Things to make and do
I sort of miss tape cassettes, do you? I fondly remember how I used to listen to the top 40 when I was 11, with one hand poised on the rec and play button waiting to hear my favorite tunes come on. That was usually a 3 hour job, and I used to have to listen to some trash before I got to hear my fave songs. I also tape recorded songs off the radio during the week, but I always ended missing the beginning of them as a lot of radio DJ’s never really introduced the songs, or if they did they never gave you enough time to leave your homework and run to the tape player located at the other corner of the room. The top 40 always gave you a sentence before each song which was time enough, and the reason I subjected myself to it every week.
But we are no longer constrained to that anymore, are we? (more…)
Filed under: Things to make and do
We have already attended our first Halloween party and have been left feeling a little flat over this holiday period. Let’s face it, the reason why Halloween for adults is pretty crap is that we can no longer go trick or treating (unless we horribly pretend to be some child’s parents or even worse, one of us pretends to have one of those disabilities that gives you the mind of a 7 yr old.)
So to avoid getting arrested or even lynched (and quite rightfully too!), we have discovered pumpkin pulping parties. (more…)
Filed under: Things to make and do
If you are a deeply committed latte drinker why not jazz your morning wake up call, up a notch with some coffee art. With cute bunnies and butterflies admiring you from the froth, we are stumped to find anything else that will take the edge off the harsh caffeine hit we put ourselves through daily. Make and do!
Doris & Natalie
Filed under: Things to make and do
Ah the Reader’s Digest Family Book of Things to Make and Do, 1st edition published in 1977. It makes me want to make and do all over the place, so in turn I pay homage to you on this blog! Unfortunately I never grew up with this book by my bed side. Rather it was a golden find my dear old mum discovered a few years ago in ‘la boutique’ aka charity shop. This really is a wowser of a book, from basic principles of working with paper or card, to acrylic work, silk screen printing, and some mighty fine instructions on how to make a dovetail joint. The pictures in this book are retro kitsch at its best and I certainly feel the art work and design ideas in it have stood the test of time. Here are a few; the pack away table-skittles board, the long tailed snake kite, candle powered boats, wobblies (you know the little wobbly people shaped like eggs that you used to play in primary school) , a storage rack for LP’s, a go kart, and instructions on how to make your own magic kit! Due to copyright issues, I am not allowed to take photos of some of these pictures in the book to share with you, which is a real shame as they would have brightened up this blog piece… So where can one grab a copy of this weighty orange feast of a book? Well if you haven’t got time to scout the charity shops, may I suggest visiting the bookgallery or the trusty amazon where you can purchase it between £21-£25 . Also, something as retro as a mobile library bus may have it on its shelves. Understandably, my household copy ain’t for sale.
Right I’m off to make a 70’s style doll house,
Doris
Filed under: Things to make and do
Valerie Singleton was the longest serving female presenter of Blue Peter (until Konnie Huq knocked her off …her BP spot that is!)
So what has Valerie been up to in her retirement? Peeps, watch and learn. Christmas is only round the corner it seems for dear Valerie so she has decided to serve a stint with/do some work for Ladybird books. In her escapades in trying to earn enough money to buy Christmas gifts for John Noakes and Peter Purves, she is enlightening us on how to make a snowman using a spud, a jam jar and some cotton wool.
That’s my Christmas presents sorted for this year.
Filed under: Things to make and do
Some of my rather nice friends actually surprised me in the Summer of 2007 and really liked the Transformer movie blockbuster. I had reservations that it would be like Jurassic park 2 or something, so to this day I still haven’t seen it. However, I think my Transformer needs have just been met in this video! If you consider smoking, having too much sex and playing with matches are all bad for you, think again.
So was this film made by an art/design student looking to make it big on utube? NO! It was made by some random guy called Jimmy Lee Kalimantan from Jakarta who actually races bikes professionally. It seems his computer broke and as he had to wait 2 weeks for his new one, he did this to prevent boredom. We can’t think of a better ambassador than him to inspire people to make and do.
BTW we discovered Jimmy Lee has a blog, where we find out this guy is actually quite funny (but for those who are sensitive -watch out for the bad language). We love this particular story which seems to reflect a typical day in his life.
Natalie & Doris
