Creative Inertia

I find it funny how, in my life, creativity always comes as an answer to a question. A gangly eleven year-old, I started writing fiction for a school assignment. That was the question. What can you do in more than four pages that is good enough to get you the grade you want, but also good enough to make you proud? I started designing clothes when I was thirteen, as an answer to the question how can you dress your characters in a way that's half Final Fantasy half real world? I don't really know about the question that made me take up photography, but I'm sure it must have been there somewhere.

And then a while ago, I decided I would make butterfly lockets. Why? Because I saw a grasshopper wing locket I loved, found it too expensive, and refused to be beaten.

So this is my first batch of what I hope will be a long, long range of insect lockets. Just butterflies at the moment, because grasshoppers are harder to work with and I don't want to try them until I'm comfortable with what I'm doing.

Consider these for sale as of now (except the light green one with the small butterfly, that one's being held), and if you're interested, feel free to email me at architects.decay@gmail.com

Now off to go take pictures of trees. I'm late.
xx

Butterfly Rescue

There must be something about the fragility of butterflies - trust me, you don't really know until you've tried to rehydrate and spread one you've just found dead on the floor - that makes people want to protect and fix them.

A few days ago, during one of the many many hours I waste on Tumblr every week, I found the work of Lionel Sabatté. He calls this series Réparation de Papillon, and believe it or not, these tiny masterpieces are made out real butterfly wings and... well, nails and dead skin. Definitely not the materials I would choose to employ should I become a sculptor, but I can't deny that the effect is beyond stunning - like tiny litte wicked fairies.

But the reason I started this post with such a general claim was... well, Anne Ten Donkelaar had a similar idea, and upon finding the works above, I couldn't help but remember hers.

I had my own collection of damaged butterflies, so I decided to repair each one differently according to their needs. So in a way, I now have my own workplace with butterflies and give the butterflies a second life. I design body parts and give the insects new names, names that reveal something about their recovery. For example the The 'Blauw spinner' looked like it had died the moment it hatched from its cocoon. This lead me to me make the body from a twig wrapped with blue thread. A few threads are still hanging loose , almost as though the butterfly is slowly unwinding and breaking free from its cocoon.

I like how two people have taken such different approaches to a similar idea. Sabatté's work is organic and straight out of a fairytale - his butterflies look real, or very close to something you could find fluttering around your garden. Donkelaar's pieces, on the other hand, are very clean and conceptual - the fact that these butterflies have received human intervention is definitely not meant to be overlooked.

And really, I don't think I'll ever get over that wing made out of string and pins - it goes to prove that there's geometry (and order!) in nature, even though sometimes we forget.

xx

Contents Extremely Imaginative

NaNoWriMo has arrived! As we speak, I'm a little behind on my self-imposed goal of 75k words, but still on target for the 50k, so no panic. I'll write later today, somewhere between finishing The Lovely Bones and editing a short story.

Aaaaaand these pictures were taken last Saturday, during our famous Kick-Off Party - you know, when we occupy a whole room in this townhouse-turned-tea-house in the so-called arts district and let our fingers run wild. This year was our fourth, and like the third and the second, it gave me a newfound appreciation for this challenge, and the people I've met through it. It's easy to think of writing as a lonely endeavour, but if you surround yourself with the right people, it's surprisingly easy to strike a balance between alone and together. Using headphones, mostly.

These are my poetic words for today, and I'll leave you with them since I'm not feeling too good - insomnia plus back pain plus a never-ending to-do list can do this to a person. Have a lovely week, everyone, and don't forget the NaNo motto.

If all else fails... add ninjas.
xx