sculpture

Ignacio Canales Aracil is a Spanish sculptor who makes extraordinary delicate structures from real pressed flowers and plants. The flowers are held together without the use of any glue but once dried, sprayed with a matt varnish to protect them from moisture. His works... Read More →

With more of us shopping online, cardboard packaging is fast becoming one of the most ubiquitous materials we discard on a daily basis. Elevated from its humble status, this post explores how artists have been able to exploit its creative potential in unexpected ways, through the... Read More →

Collect is an annual international contemporary art fair held by the Crafts Council, now its 14th year. It brings together 40 galleries from around the world to London’s Saatchi Gallery. The display of beautiful objects was a feast for the eyes. Several works demonstrated... Read More →

The concept of plastic bottle art initially evoked flashbacks of Blue Peter’s Here’s one I made earlier. It’s hard to believe that something as ubiquitous as a used plastic bottle could ever be turned into a thing of beauty. There has been recent media attention... Read More →

When used bicycle parts get a second life as something beautiful, the term ‘upcycling’ couldn’t be more apt. Although an advocate of all things eco, I am one of the few Londoners that doesn’t do cycling – in fact, you couldn’t pay me to get on a Boris Bike. But... Read More →

As well as being a natural, durable and highly recyclable material, little can compete with the magic that glass can offer visually. Glass-blowing as an art form dates back as far as 1st-century BC during the establishment Roman Empire. See how these contemporary artists have... Read More →

If you think reclaimed wood only has a chance at second life, either as furniture or floorboards, think again. More and more creatives are coming up with fresh and exciting way to reuse unwanted offcuts. Negating the need for canvas or clay, these artists prefer working with... Read More →

Ilaria Bianchi is a furniture and product designer from Pisa, Italy. She studied Industrial Design in Turin, and after winning a scholarship moved to Stockholm where she did work experience in the studio of Fredrik Paulsen. Relishing Paulsen’s vibrant, crafty approach, she... Read More →

Imagine the patience required to create such intricate carvings as this? Recollecting the tedium of sharpening pencils in art classes, only for the lead to inevitably break off would be enough to put me off. Yet for Bosnian artist Jasenko Đorđević, carving his sculptures made... Read More →

Last weekend, the chilly capital was aglow with dazzling light installations, projections and sculptures by various artists for 2016’s Lumiere festival by Artichoke. Among the 30 installations at Lumiere London was a piece called Litre of Light by Mick Stephenson, located... Read More →

Mike Stilkey creates captivating paintings on discarded books using acrylics, inks, coloured pencil and lacquer. Almost Tim Burton-esque, the distinctive style of the Los Angeles artist features depictions of melancholic characters ‘inhabiting ambiguous spaces and... Read More →

These incredible animal sculptures by Marc Sparfel have a primitive aesthetic achieved through the reuse and reconfiguration of found furniture. Sparfel grew up in Brittany, north-west France surrounded by countryside and animals. After graduating from school, he studied commerce... Read More →

Every year, American modern furniture store Design Within Reach launches the DWR Champagne Chair Contest™. This is a competition to design a miniature chair using only the foil, label, cage and cork of no more than two champagne bottles. This year’s winners were... Read More →

Czech artist Veronika Richterová is an aficionado when it comes to the upcycled plastic bottle. Using heat and various methods of technological processing, she has created curious translucent ephemeral sculptures, lighting and installation from recycled plastic PET bottles. Her... Read More →

Taking the pencil as symbolic of creativity, art and craft, Amalgamated is a project by Finnish artist Tuomas Markunpoika which examines the pencil as a mass produced tool that serves an individual purpose. These vases are created by gluing one facet of a pencil to another,... Read More →

After months of anticipation, Upcyclist’s first book ‘Upcyclist: Reclaimed and Remade Furniture Lighting and Interiors‘ is finally hot off the press and released in the UK today! Together with Prestel Publishing and the extremely talented designer Paul Sloman of... Read More →

Dan Rawlings creates intricate artwork from pieces of scrap metal. His imagery is inspired by the fresh mindset of childhood, the fractal beauty of nature and our interaction with it. Typical scenes depicted include figures building a treehouse or walking amongst nature. Rawlings... Read More →

Jeremy Mayer is a California based artist with no formal art training. Mayer disassembles typewriters and puts them back together to create anatomically correct human figures and animals without any glueing or welding. After disassembly he puts all the parts in to categories and... Read More →

Lisa Hoke‘s fascinating sculptures and installations are made from discarded paper and card, paper cups and household goods. Combined, the sprawling clusters of waste looks like blooming flowers and organic formations, highlighting the beauty in the colourful consumer... Read More →

Alexander Korzer-Robinson is a UK based artist who creates beautiful book sculptures using cut out images from old encyclopaedias and books. His work contains narratives that try to explore and deconstruct nostalgia, creating what he describes as our ‘inner... Read More →

Japanese artist Yuken Teruya carves miniature trees from discarded shopping bags.  The trees are part of a series called Notice – Forest.   Tacked to the wall, the inside of the Cartier, Tiffany & Co and McDonalds bags become shadow boxes, revealing intricate diorama... Read More →

A while ago we featured the work of Nottingham artist Donya Coward who makes work of art from Victorian antique embroideries, fabrics and haberdashery and vintage Nottingham and French laces.  We couldn’t resist sharing these adorable freestanding Jack Russell Terriers.  As... Read More →

I’ve been meaning to blog about awesome London art collective Robots>>>> ever since I saw their work ‘Everything is Beautiful When You Don’t Look Down’. It formed part of the Festival of the World last year and featured two imposing figures... Read More →

Robots made from dolls are not usually my thing. In fact, it’s the kind of upcycling that gives me nightmares. However, there is something strangely endearing about these characters by Andrea Petrachi, first spotted on This is Colossal. The Italian artist uses old razors,... Read More →

The work of Ron van der Ende is exceptional not only for it’s awesome play of perspective but because all his bas-relief sculptures are made entirely from salvaged materials.  The Dutch artist doesn’t just paint with the materials, he will use one type of material to... Read More →

The intricacy of this work is exceptional.  Remarkably, these atmospheric landscapes are sculpted from old books.  The series named Biblios is by multi-disciplinary artist Guy Laramee who says of his work, “So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes.... Read More →

These beautiful creations are by Korean artist Lee Jae-Hyo. A simple idea, brilliantly executed, the giant spheres are crafted using assembled logs and stainless steel nails.  The perfectly smooth finish of each piece is immediately satisfying on the eye and it’s incredible... Read More →

I recently saw this piece ‘Miaudulation de fritance ‘(1962) by Arman in the Centre Pompidou.  The French born American artist began working as an abstract painter before using the brushes he painted with in the painting itself.  Thereafter, many of his works combined... Read More →

‘Without breakers there are no makers’ is the doctrine of mosiac artist Cleo Mussi.  Her fascinating work is born out of a ‘maverick approach to making’, exploring a variety of themes through the medium of reclaimed broken ceramics.  The chosen ceramic... Read More →

Still en vacance à Paris (now covered in a blanket of snow) I came across the intriguing work of Richard Stankiewicz in the Centre Pompidou.   The artist is an American sculptor who began creating work in the 1940s whilst in the US navy.  His assemblage sculpture is made of... Read More →

You wouldn’t imagine a humble set of Crayolas would easily cross over into the realm conceptual art.  Pete Goldlust subverts the crayon’s association with child’s play to explore themes to do with human nature, action and psychology.  Each crayon is a hand... Read More →

These charming creatures are all made from broken electronics and machine parts, mobile phones and salvaged scraps, cleverly put together by Rhode Island artist Ann P. Smith whose work has been exhibited across the United States.  Her portfolio includes goats, birds, jellyfish,... Read More →

Peter Trevelyan creates fragile sculptures from mechanical pencil lead.  These three-dimensional architectural webs are the artist’s investigation into the role of drawing.  He says, “A drawing is a plan, a preliminary visualisation of something to be undertaken in... Read More →

This weekend I visited the wonderful Anthropologie store in west London.  The shop not only sells some beautiful products made from reclaimed materials but boasts some incredible installations around the shop.  From an organic sculpture made from painted corrugated cardboard that... Read More →

These beautiful driftwood sculptures are by artist Deborah Butterfield who specialises in sculptures of horses made from found materials.  She began her career working with scrap metal and cast bronze in the early 1980s whereby wood was used initially for prototypes to see how... Read More →

Sculpture made from scrap has been done many times, but the work of Sayaka Ganz certainly stands out from the crowd.  The way in which she captures an animal’s movement and gesture is truly remarkable.  Born in Japan and now living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the artist’s... Read More →

You wouldn’t let the Andrex puppy into this art gallery. Trans-layers I and Trans-layers II are beautiful art installations made from the humble toilet roll by Hamburg based Turkish artist  Sakir Gökcebag, with surprisingly majestic results. Gökcebag frequently uses... Read More →

Hedonism(y) Trojaner is a sculpture by Germany-based artist Babis Panagiotidis, a modern day Trojan horse made from recycled computer keys and cables. Just like the Trojan horse in Greek mythology, the sculpture reminds us that technology is something which appears to have... Read More →

This beautiful family of elephants made of a recycled wood was a sculpture built at De Panne beach in Oostende, Belgium by South African Andries Botha in 2010. It’s called ‘You can buy my heart and my soul’ and forms part of a project where he built 20 elephants... Read More →

This amazing sculpture was built by the incredibly talented Gábor Miklós Szőke out of reclaimed timber as part of the Hello Wood art camp in Hungary. 200 architects, designers and makers made projects for eight different Hungarian communities based on the socio-economic concerns... Read More →

Another highlight of the Shoreditch Design Triangle was Momosan Shop which is directly linked to Rupert Blanchard‘s studio. This is a small space curated by Momoko Mizutani who sources objects from both Japan and the UK which reference her own experience of living in two... Read More →

Trash People by artist H A Schult have made their way to virtually every corner of the globe. A representation of our wasteful society, Schult’s army of sculptures are made entirely from crushed cans and electronic waste.  They began their journey in 1996 from a Roman... Read More →

Idiom is a spiralling tower of books housed in Prague’s Municipal Library by Slovakian artist Matej Kren.  The tower is made of hundreds of books that are stacked ‘Jenga’ style up to the ceiling.  A tear in the tower allows you to peer inside where a mirror... Read More →

Just as everyone starts thinking about taking down their Christmas decorations, the Traffic Light tree would ordinarily have gone on to twinkle all year round.  As of last month, the tree by French sculptor Pierre Vivant is sadly no more, having been removed for road... Read More →

Ever find yourself wondering what to do with those useless wire coat hangers you get from the dry cleaners?  Scottish sculptor David Mach puts them to extremely good use by creating incredible giant sculptures out of them.  Other ‘found art’ objects used in his work... Read More →

These bird sculptures by Laurel Roth are made from fake fingernails, hair clips, nail polish, false eyelashes, and jewellery.  The artist’s work highlights choices involved in biological processes unique to humankind and in this case the birds have borrowed ‘human... Read More →

I first saw the work of Scottish artist Lee Borthwick at Tent London this year and thought her stuff was incredible. She makes stunning sculptures from bits of scrap wood and other materials such as laser cut mirror pieces.  With in an education in Textiles and Surface Design... Read More →

Brian Mock from Portland, Oregon makes art crafted from found and recycled materials.  His collection includes fish, robots, cars, ‘human-ish’ sculptures and my personal favourite – the dogs.  Here he manages to capture their natural poise perfectly, using just... Read More →

Welcome to the imaginarium of Anya Keeley.  This Hereford artist has from a young age collected found objects and ephemera, enticed by the patina that comes only from age and wear.  Incorporating wire work and collaged books and magazines, objects are assembled into whimsical... Read More →

This weekend I saw the the Power of Making at the V&A – an exhibition of 100 exquisitely crafted objects by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world.  Here I was introduced to the exceptional work of Yong Ho Ji, a Korean artist who uses layers of shredded... Read More →

Some works of art are simply breathtaking and these driftwood equestrian sculptures certainly belong in that category.  The genius behind them is Heather Jansch from Devon, UK.  Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and beginning her career as an equestrian painter, she captures the... Read More →

This is ‘Cheetah’ by Andrew Chase from Salt Lake City, Utah.  This beautiful, fully articulated cheetah weighs about 23kg and is constructed out of electrical conduit, auto transmission parts, 20-gauge steel and random parts found in an industrial salvage yard. ... Read More →

It’s a fine feat to turn books into sculpture, but artist Thomas Allen takes this one step further, with fascinating results. He cuts people and things out of old pulp fiction novels, kids books and anatomy textbooks and reassembles them into a scene. He then photographs... Read More →