item one in the cabinet of curiosities

In the original version of Hans Christian Andersen's story, 'The Princess on the Pea' (also titled 'The Princess and the Pea), the single pea that proves the princess is real earns a place in the royal cabinet of curiosities: 'And the pea was placed in the Royal Curiosity Cabinet, where it can still be seen today, as long as no one has taken it.'

In most reprints of the story, the cabinet of curiosities gets dropped from the end in favour of the more conventional ending, 'and so the prince and princess lived happily ever after.' For my adaptation of the story for the exhibition I am sticking to the original ending and telling the tale from the perspective of the little green pea in its home in the ornate cabinet in the Palace Museum.

The pea will introduce us to the other articles in the cabinet, which are all items found in tales by Hans Christian Andersen: the paper castle from 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier,' the tinder box from the story of the same name, the matchbox from the story 'The Little Match Girl,' a jar of sea foam containing the soul of the little mermaid, and the mechanical nightingale (above), a present given to the Chinese Emperor in the story 'The Nightingale', which temporarily supplants the real nightingale in the affections of the Emperor and his court.

Paper quilling seemed like the best way to create a sense of the intricate wind-up components of the artificial nightingale and I've used looser loops of yellow card to make a golden cage.

a small start on a BIG project

A post or two ago I mentioned that I have a big exhibition project on the horizon. Well, I think I've refined the idea enough now to be able to tell you about it. By virtue of being in the right place at the right time, I've been presented with the wonderful (and daunting) opportunity to create this year's pre-Christmas exhibition at Objectspace.

I've decided to produce an exhibition especially for children. For a while now I've noticed that unlike Museums, which tend to offer a range of child friendly exhibitions, like the Kai to Pie exhibition showing now at the Auckland Museum, art galleries aren't as much fun for kids to visit because of the strict no touching rules, the complexity of exhibition concepts, and the height at which art works are displayed. There are some encouraging signs that this is changing though. I'm glad to see that the New Dowse have an exhibition for kids opening next month called Fuzz, Felt and Fur where tactile and textured items from the Museum's textile collection will be available for children to touch, and afterwards they can attend a workshop and make things from felt.

The exhibition I'm designing is called One Brown Box. It's inspired by a great picture book by Antoinette Portis called Not a Box, which tells the story of a little rabbit who uses his vivid imagination to create all kinds of things from a simple cardboard box.

Taking the concept of the brown box as a plain structure with unlimited imaginative potential, I'm going to create a storybook exhibition that combines a number of my primary enthusiasms: storytelling, papercrafts, and kid's picture books.

There will be four narrative components to the exhibition based on my adaptations of classic fairytales, which are told from the perspective of absent, minor and overlooked characters from the original stories:
The Princess and the Pea - the Pea's story
Hansel and Gretel - the Architect's story
Snow White- the Mirror's story
Jack and the Beanstalk- the Baker's story

Each adapted tale will be accompanied by an interactive paper and cardboard tableaux that will incorporate every kind of papercraft technique I know (pop-ups, paper cut-outs, collage, winebox theatres, papier mache), as well as some that I'm just learning, like my first attempt at quilling above. A lovely blog called all things paper will tell you all you need to know about this elegant papercraft.

I'm very excited to reveal that the other important component of the exhibition will be a large cardboard model by Karl Chitham; artist, curator and founder of the Museum of True History . I can't wait to see what Karl will do for the show. It will no doubt be spectacular, like this beauty from his recent exhibition at AUT's St Paul St Gallery in Auckland.

Veneziano - Selvaggi Corte, 2010 (Courtesy of Private Collections and MOTH)

One Brown Box will open at Objectspace on Saturday 6 November, so I have a huge amount of work to do between now and then. I'll be providing progress reports right here...

pin board inspiration (for Lucy)

Lucy Patterson has just written a post about the beautiful array of images and things currently adorning her pinboard. Because I've declared today a guilt-free pyjama day, I thought I'd do a show-and-tell of my own pinboard, so here it is:

Two unattractive plastic sleeves containing cut strips for a set of willow and cherry wallpaper beads and a cut out fabric tui that needs to be sewn up ready to go to its new home with Karl Chitham.

a tiny watercolour of an elephant by my father-in-law (rescued from the basement)

a hot air balloon necklace prototype made from an old clothbound book cover


Two little drawings my sister sent me when she was doing a poetry fellowship in Iowa.

The tiny painted drawing pin is by Whanganui artist Alan Holdaway - I used to have a set of 10, but sadly only this one remains.

A very sweet embroidered bag containing various bits and pieces including a lovely letter I received from writer Jennifer Compton saying how much she enjoyed my very first published short story in Landfall a couple of years ago. I was too shy to write back, so I would like to say thank you Jennifer. Your letter meant a lot to me.

a piece of old wallpaper

a decadent image sent to me by my sis

a tiny card found inside an old book

a colourful postcard by Grant Banbury

a cheerful pull-toy

a cute card decorated with a vintage kid's book illustration sent by Tessa Rain

On top of my pinboard is a plastic fish called Ish who was rescued from a novelty bar of soap and a ballerina who came in an old tin filled with buttons, ric rac and ribbon sent by my sis.

three paintings of wobbly vessels by Wendy Kleustul rescued from my local oppie.

two woodblock numbers found in an antique shop in Thorndon


So that's my eclectic pinboard at the moment. I hope more of you will respond to Lucy's post and let us know what inspires you.

pop-up ephemera

How's this for a novel advertising gimmick. I discovered this spring-loaded matchbox in my father-in-law's basement where all sorts of wondrous ephemera lurks inside cardboard boxes. It has a hologram of an opening and closing eye on the outside, and when you open the box a pop-up advertisement for a sedative flips up. It's a simple but effective piece of pop-up technology using a piece of elastic to activate the perforated label. I'm gathering little boxes so that I can use this technique in other fun and surprising ways.

loose ends

Excuse the absence of crafty activity over the past few weeks. The laborious business of preparing to defend my thesis took priority over the more pleasant activity of felt making. I'm happy to report that the oral examination was a success and after making a few minor corrections to the text, the bound copies can at last be deposited with the University library and that looooooooong chapter of my life will officially be over. Yippppeeeee. The pretty flowers came from my Mum.

I've spent the past week or two tidying up loose ends: finishing off Pania Press editions and posting outstanding orders. I needed to clear the decks because I have a very big exhibition project coming up. I'll tell you all about it very soon...