Manierettes

Wow it's been a very long time since my last post and a lot of things happened here during that time. We've made some important life changing decisions - we bought a house (which was much more complicated then I thought) and we're moving again in October. So all the creative stuff had to take the back sit. I did manege to make some figurines that I wanted to make ever since I first uploaded my portfolio site and got a bunch of e-mail showing interest in my version of "Jack in the box".
So here it is, my "Maniera in a box" figurines collection.

Starting with the "Flower Manierettes", featuring my five favorite flowers:

Waterlily:


Poppy:


Pansy:


Hydrangea:


and Dandelion:


You can find them at Etsy.

I did think of you along the way and took picture of the work process, here's a few:

Heads waiting to be painted:


So are the hands:


Water lilies freshly painted:


Poppies coming out of a polkadot fabric:


Pansy's & Hydrangea's parts siting in a bowl, waiting to be put together:


More Manierettes are in the making, manifesting more of my favorite things like fairy tales, carnival freaks and even my favorite patterns (dots and stripes). So stay tuned, maybe one of my favorite maniera (maner, style) is yours too.

Buttons Buttons Buttons

Good news everyone...
Prickie (unique button badges) are manufacturing 12 button badges featuring the tiniest details from my sets:
Pick your favorites or get'em all :)


I just got my set, and let me tell you - the print quality is superb!!! (I was a bit worried about that).


Plus they come in a neat black case!


Hope you like them.

Archaeological Findings

I'm back from a wonderful visit to Israel, where I tried to spend as much time as I could in my old room, going through all my stuff and snuggling Meshi (my cat) every few seconds. She just loves the sound of a drawer opening... revealing a whole new world to sleep in :)

And here's what I found...

My first animation attempts. Made more then six years ago, using an old Amiga:




Some Old Line Tests on Vimeo

Here is the first animation set I made. I't the biggest I ever built. It's base was almost as big as a double bed:


And here are some frames from the short stop-motion it was made for (all the puppets are made from an oil-based modeling clay, that I'll never ever use again!):


I'm so happy about the next find (which Gilad found on his father computer - His father took these pictures - Thank you Yossi :) I didn't know we had these...
It's "Cluttered" being displayed at the "Bezalel Graduate Exhibition" in Jerusalem:


Many people came :)


If you've been to my portfolio site, You've probably seen the sets I've made for the documentary film - "My Dream House".
Well... The photos you see on my site are frames from the movie itself, and here are some photos taken at the filming of the sets:





O, about the music I used for the animatic seen on my last post. It's from the "Benny & Joon" soundtrack. A sweet movie with a wonderful soundtrack.

My next post will feature something new...

The Problem With Cluttered

I find it a bit difficult to write about Cluttered. I've neglected this project for a very long time.

So... What is Cluttered?
It's a short animated movie describing the semi-surrealistic journey of a husband, straggling to adjust to his wife's metamorphosis from a little woman to a very big one (with an unexpected twist at the end) the entire story is expressed with actions, not a single word is being said.
You can see the sets on my site and as for the characters: I had my mind set on making the puppets out of foamed latex, which was much too expensive to Import from the US (I was living in Israel at the time). After letting go of the latex dream I had a vision of making an oil paint on glass character animation, which would be composite on to shots of the miniature sets. But one of my professors got me to give up on the idea. So I decided to put the entire character issue aside an move on to work on the story, by making the animatic with illustrated characters on photos of the sets.
Here's a little peek:



Cluttered Animatic - Avocado Night Creme on Vimeo

And Another one (longer :)



Cluttered Animatic - Pink Powder Puff on Vimeo

And some more frames:


As I mentioned on the comments of my previous post I was working on "Cluttered" for more than two years non stop. After making the 5 minutes animatic, I came to a point that I felt Cluttered wasn't as good as I imagined it to be. and I've completely abandon it and moved on to other projects. I plan to finish it some day... some day...

I wanted to let you know that I won't be posting for a while, since I'm going home to the holy land for three weeks, look who's waiting for me there:


Her name is Meshi (Silk in Hebrew).

I'll be back with a long post and photos of some of my earlier works...
Take care.

DVD

I thought I'll share with you my latest creation, my portfolio DVD, that I've unleashed upon the world...
The opening sequence is actually a scene from Cluttered in reverse and a few other minor alterations made with Gilad's help.



My DvD Main Menu on Vimeo
The main menu and Cluttered menu:


And finally the box (I wanted the box to be more special... well... maybe for my next portfolio):

See under: Maniera

maniera in Italian and manière in French: Manner, style.

When used as a term in art criticism: certain stylistic characteristics that are recurring in the artists work, sometimes up to a point that these characteristics consume the work and divert the attention from the work's main subject.

This criticism was directed at my work all trough my Art-School courses, at first I straggled with the critic and tried to get read of this unnecessary maniera thing. which made me miserable and unhappy with my work. I realized I don't want to give up all those little extra detail I like to dwell in. I came to accept the critic. Instead of scrunching every time I heard the word "Maniera" directed at my work I embraced it and took it to be a good critic from my point of view.

My maniera is like a big old luggage that I carry with me in to all my projects. Its filled with my childhood memories, my dreams and life experiences.
Have a look... I'll spot some of them in my work:


1. When I was little I used to pick a few long stem flowers from an open field near my home and bring them to my mom. She'd put them in a big fancy vase as if they were the most wonderful big bouquet. There's a bitter sweet and yet funny feeling to that image of a few stringy flowers in a big vase, I like it.

I've Lived in a lot of crummy apartments as a student and got a lot of inspiration from all of them...

2. At my first apartment I shared with my boyfriend (husband now) we had a storage space problem, so we adopted the solution of the former tenants. we went to Ikea and got ourselves a super slim cabinet that barely fitted in the non-working shower space (don't worry there was a working bathtub as well), at just the right height to fit under the shower head.

3. In almost every apartment I've lived in, there are evidence of plumbing repair. They (the repair guys) never seem to be able to find the exact tiles for replacing the ones they broke to make the fix. The funniest attempt I've seen was that they were able to find the exact pattern of the tiles but in different colors, hee hee.

4. In my husband's first student apartment, he and his roommate had a kitchen space problem. so they placed the microwave on top of the fridge, which unlike the one I made was a very big one. I needed a chair to use the microwave. In the kitchen I made I've decided to add the top kitchen cupboards that lean on the microwave that's on the fridge, which is starting to "crack" under the pressure.

5. Another feature of that apartment was an unbelievably narrow and long toilets: you opened the door and you had to walk more then a few steps to reach the toilet sit. There wasn't a lock on the door. In case someone tried to get in while you're there... stopping the opening door isn't within the reach of your hands or feet!

ComingSoon

ComingSoon
Originally uploaded by maniera.

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