Americana Cushion...

So it was my pal Nickie's birthday the other week, so I made her a cushion inspired by some of the things she loves, mainly MCR and Americana!
I used some stars and stripes fabric I had lying around for a while and hunted down for some patches, but none were to be found, so decided to make my own patches from scarps of other fabric I had.
I would tell you how here, but then we decided to put it in Sugar Paper #8 (yes we're working on it already). So here are some snaps....
Speaking of inspiration and Americana, check out the lovely tribute Nickie wrote for Ryan Dunn on her blog.

Magda Archer: Crazy Mad

So I just treated me sen to a trip down to the Cornerhouse to see the Magda Archer Crazy Mad exhibition.
I was already quite excited from the sneak peeks I had seen, but you need to see it up close and personal!

I headed to town and got a call off my pal Nickie asking what I was up to, I said going to an exhibition, come on down, so we met up and brave the stuffy Cornerhouse in this stupid heat.

We we greeted by what can only be described as my idea of heaven, a complete comfort zone, a room full of stuff, visual stimuli to blow your mind. A room, made out as a replica of her studio.
There's probably two kinds of people in this world, those who don't bother with possessions that much and have very minimal homes and those that think every space needs to be filled, no matter how big or small. I am the latter. So imagine my delight when I enter a room that has more tat* than mine!

I've been telling people for years that it isn't clutter what I have, it's art, PROOF!

So after we ohhhed and awwwed at all the brightly coloured, mostly plastic amazing things, we opened the secret door to be greeted by a collection of paintings, and what can only be described as the world's best lamp collection (featuring light up bambis, shrooms, cats and more).

Not to dismiss the paintings. The paintings are equally as amazing, with the saccharine colour palette and nostalgic imagery mixed with popular culture (some of my favourite things there) I dare anyone not to smile at the sight of these works.

As I always say, I don't want to ruin it too much for anyone going to see it, plus I'm not the best at 'reviewing' stuff.

But I urge everyone to take it look, it runs until early August.

*all the amazing ornaments a lot of people think is rubbish, from plastic toys to snowglobes to adorable animal ceramics!

Naka Nickie

Quite often, we take things for granted, I know I do. One thing I defiantly take for granted is the amazing talent of my pal Nickie McGowan.
Oh here she goes banging on about how awesome and talented her friends are, but if they weren't my friends I'd still be banging on about it, but they are so there!
Nickie is an amazing photographer, something I found out not long after I started getting to know her, a few years down the line and I just had to remind myself and everyone how great she is. You see these days I just take it as a given she will take an amazing photo and why would I ever need to take a camera anywhere(despite studying photography for a year and half i am beyond rubbish at taking photos)when Nickie will take a whole load of amazing shots.

But she's not just there to capture all the fun times we have, she's there to capture everything else. A rare talent, she manages to capture people in their natural state, whether they're striking beautiful, quietly awe inspiring, deathly serious or proper cheeky. With her camera and a brick wall Nickie can create the best images ever. Check her out, she's dead good!

We love paper art.....

Here at Sugar Paper we are a big fan of paper art. I myself am no good at paper crafts (I'm one of those weird folk that doesn't really like touching paper) Kandy is a dab hand at origami and we both have the potential to be serial scrapbookers! If only we could cut out in a straight line.....

We try and feature different paper crafts in the zine, because we do love most crafts. We are also big art fans, anything that is a treat visually, we're going to like, let's be honest. So when we see great art drawn from amazing craftsmanship, then we squee with delight, here are a select few making me want to get over my weird paper fear!

Nikki McClure:

Nikki has been making paper cut art long before Rob Ryan's work was emblazoned on everything and then Urban Outfitter's ripped it off, way before that. She is a dab hand with an X-acto knife, she as done a load of work with two of my favourite labels, K records and Kill Rock Stars and played a part in the Riot Grrrl movement.
If that wasn't enough just a look at her intricate paper cuts will win you over, each work tells a huge story and something you can get lost in for a long time.
and my favourite part, she's self taught, swoon!

Lindsey Way:Lindsey may be best known for her work as bassist in band Mindless Self Indulgence, but prior to that she went to art school. Come full circle and she's back producing art.
Her recent work featured 13 dioramas entitled Hush. All worked in the medium of paper.
The collection, to me, looks like a party, a joyous farewell, a celebration of life pre-death, or life after death into life (reborn they call that, sounds a little religious though!!).
Whatever Hush is about or how you interpret it, one thing you can't deny is that, upon viewing, a smile creeps across your face that you just can't shift.

Emily Winfield:
I have spoken about Emily Winfield on the blog before in the form of Black Apple. Both Kandy and I are HUGE fans of Emily's work, in every medium! And OK, she is predominately a painter (but stitches and illustrates amongst other things, too!) but she gets into this blog for one reason, her recent book The Black Apple's Paperdoll Primer.
Kandy bought me the book for Christmas just gone and I LOVE it! I've always been a paper doll fan, so seeing Emily's amazing paintings transformed into paper dolls, with their own characteristics is a treat, especially as the book also comes with backdrops she has painted! Then there is the make your own paper doll at the back (with a good selection of hair colours and skin tines might I add). It's all inspiring stuff, just look at this video somebody made using the book......

Be nice to me, I gave blood today....

Yes, I finally manged to give blood (I tried to do this in time for our last issue) , I held off getting a tattoo, got back to my old weight and got a job where I get proper days off!
Inspired by Bunny's regular blood donating blog updates and my own realisation that I hadn't any proper reason for never giving blood before, I booked myself in.
I managed to get a morning appointment, which I always prefer, got myself down there, drank more fluids in ten minutes then I do in a whole day and got myself ready for the blood giving.
The nurse said I had good veins (I do I have MASSIVE veins) and I was lying down giving, as two others were midway through theirs. Then we all finished at the same time!
People who know me know I'm pretty quick at doing most things, turns out I'm even quick at giving blood, I took less then five minutes.
I then sat myself down and went for the orange cordial and the mint Club, wish I had gone for the packet of biscuits, I love those biscuits in little bags!
I'm also pretty sure the lady that took my blood used to be a dinner lady at my school and friends with my mum, I'll ask her next time....
So for the rest of the day, everyone has to be nice to me!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is a lovely place for a day out, there's so much to see and beautiful grounds to just have a walk around in if you've looked at art for a bit too long! I went last week and despite the pouring rain and gale force winds had a lovely time as always...

There were some good exhibitions on but the things that caught my eye were in the gift shop, typical I know but it just re-inforces my theory that 'the gift shop is a major highlight of any day-trip' .

The first things that I gravitated towards were these lovely framed heads by Victoria Whincup, a mixture of cute girl and deer... drwaing and textiles...I'm instantly in love!

Click the photo to see more of Victoria's work in her shop!

Wandering aimlessly round the shop, past the mounds of Rob Ryan stuff, some yellow and pink caught my eye...upon closer inspection it's a beautifully detailed image with mushrooms, woodland and a fantastic creature. I instantly thought 'wonderland' and picked it up, the image is by NY based illustrator and artist Aya Kakeda. She not only draws but also does some really sweet work with a needle and thread, click the picture to check out her website.

Hope you like these ladies' work as much as I do, if you get a chance to go to YSP I highly recoomend it...but you might want to wait 'til October as there will be an exhibiton by Manchester based artist Rachel Goodyear whose work is amazing and like nothing else out there!

Flesh And Bone exhibition

On Thursday evening Kandy and (and other cool folk we know) headed to Manchester's Common for the preview of David Baileys Flesh And Bone exhibition.
David Bailey is super illustrator and all round good egg who has done a shit load of awesome work and runs Manchester's #1 zine emporium Good Grief!
Flesh And Bone is weekly comic strip.
It was super busy on Thursday, and with all Common exhibitions, the art literally adorns the walls, so we didn't get to see it all properly, we returned the next day in hope to see more, but it was the start of Bank Holiday weekend, so still busy! We did bag (HA BAG!) ourselves a Flesh And Bone tote though!
The exhibition runs until the end of September, so go visit, it's laugh out loud, not the kind where people go 'oh that's funny', but the kind where you start reading, then start pissing your pants, then can't even get to the last frame in the strip as your eyes have filled up with those laughter tears. It's also quite pleasing on the eye, just visually like, GO NOW!