On the 4th Day of Christmas...

...this blogger gave to thee...

...four fancy fish...

...three granulations...

...two bits of wood...

...and a calendar made of tea.

For the 4th day of Christmas, I am having a long lie, watching an ice skating movie with Michelle Trachtenberg*, having a cup of coffee and finishing another post from the long list of drafts I've furnished with images, videos and links, but no actual text.

In some respects though, this particular post doesn't need me to write about it, as I wouldn't do it justice, instead, I would like you to watch this video of artist Riusuke Fukahori working on his beautiful and intricate series, "Goldfish Salvation".

'A Cup Of Flower' (Rice Measure, Casting Resin & Acrylic Paint)

Painted on fine layers of resin using acrylic and confined within existing vessels, these hyper-realistic goldfish where inspired by the artists pet goldfish, who, while struggling with his artistic identity, became an integral part of his future.

 'Muses' (Sushi Basin, Casting Resin & Acrylic Paint)

 When you first look at Fukahori's work, it would be easy to believe that these were photographs of real fish.

'Goldfish Sake: Shinokaze'' (Japanese Cyprus Sake Cup, Casting Resin & Acrylic Paint)

They are intricately painted, each layer finely brushed onto a dried pool of resin, adding depth and tone to the emerging goldfish, mimicking the translucent, iridescent nature of fish fins and scales. If you have every owned fish, you can understand the delicacy which Fukahori has managed to capture.

'Karemoni' 2013 (Ceramic Bowl, Casting Resin & Acrylic Paint)

Fukahori's keeps goldfish in tanks and bowls around his studio, studying their form and movement closely, so his work never need rely on photographs to recreate the underwater creatures. They are committed to memory and preserved in resin.

His goldfish are his muse.

Every artist is looking for one of those. I certainly still am.

Link | Riuske Fukahori - Official Website
Link | Riusuke Fukahori Paints Three Dimensional Goldfish Embedded in Layers of Resin via This Is Colossal 
Link | Goldfish Salvation Project by Riusuke Fukahori via Abduzeedo Design Inspiration
Link | Riusuke Fukahori Intricately Paints Swimming Goldfish in Resin via Design Boom
Link | Riusuke Fukahori: Goldfish Salvation at ICN Gallery via Design Boom
Link | Breathtaking 3D Goldfish Paintings by R. Fukahori via Bored Panda
Link | Goldfish Salvation via Atsuko & Joe

Merry Christmas! Part five tomorrow...

*I loved roller blading when I was younger (and thinner), I would have loved to try ice skating, so I am unashamed that every time this Ice Princess comes on, I watch it and wish I had never gained weight and gotten too embarrassed to blade.

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Listening: Last Christmas - The xx

At the bottom of everything...

...lies a paper reef, surrounded by paper fish.

*designed, handmade and fitted by Elizabeth, Emily & Louise Boyd.

It's been a few months since we put in our last window display at work. Up until last weekend it had been filled with a rainbow paper chain curtain, but on Saturday and Sunday Louise, Mum and installed our paper reef. Something which Mum has been wanting us to do since we took over the windows a couple of years ago. It also ties in with my dads current obsession with marine tanks, so it's nice to do something they both love.

It has taken us about 3 weeks (not full days, since I work in the mornings) 2 days to install, approximately 1,800 cocktail sticks and 2,400 cotton buds, plus a couple pads of tracing paper, half a dozen newspapers, a couple of hundred cupcake cases and as many toilet rolls as I could collect over the past few months. I've looked like a lunatic when heading to the till at the local supermarket.

Though I do love it myself. It's the first window we'd done in ages which I have really enjoyed making and the obsession which comes with a time limit didn't actually make me go completely mental. Plus, one of the things I really love about it is that it looks as good from the inside as from the outside, which is why it took us an extra day and generally never happens!

There are a few more photos on my Flickr Stream, and I will be uploaded more once I've tweaked one end of display where a stand for sunnies had to go and thus needed to be left clearer so there wouldn't be a massive collapse. Anyway, apart from trying to make strawberry jam (raspberry jam and elderflower cordial were made on Tuesday), that's my plan for my day off. Get the window finished, oh and not wear makeup or brush my hair or think about looking 'smart'...love a day when you don't have to do that!
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Listening: Medicine - Daughter

Monday Mood Board: Sunshine & Rain

Row 1:

Freshly Squeezed {15/52} by Sarah Ann Wright (via Pinterest),

Clouds Will Clear by Mike Bailey-Gates

Row 2:

Untitled by Stacey Van Berkel Haines via Dress, Design & Decor

Row 3:

Thunderstorm near Ais-Ais, Namibia by Paul Perton,

Rain Cloud Decal from Love Mae

Rain = inability to hang out washing = less washing = less folding = happy.

Except...we've had a moth problem at home...so there's extra washing to do and I have to clear out my wardrobe. Which isn't going to be fun. It lives in the spare room (no room in my room) and I haven't been able to get into it in a while. And I mean literally, there's been too much stuff in front of it for the doors to open!

Luckily there's nothing I wear a lot in there, but I do hope my nice - though rarely ever worn - dresses & winter coats are okay. I will be gutted if they're moth ridden!

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Listening: Bonnie Somerville - Winding Road

Tapi Tap

Tapi by Dreamfarm is a curiously simple little design. Just a little rubber funnel to slip over the end of your tap, which turns it into something incredibly useful - a drinking fountain.

It's that dilemma, how do you have a drink out of the tap without getting a glass, without cupping your hands and impersonating a cat and without that awful hunched over moment where you try and get a drink straight from the tap, without letting your hair get wet or water boarding yourself?

Okay, so most of us manage it. We occasionally get water everywhere, soak our hair or clothes or get it up our noses, but generally we've worked out how to get around these issues. But who doesn't love a gadget which solves simple problems?

For something which resembles a cut of balloon or a little rubber udder, it's clever. All you need to do is pinch the base of the Tapi and the water explodes from an alternate hole at the top. Thus transformation from traditional tap to drinking fountain has happened. It's dishwasher safe, fits most straight spout taps and is made of water safe rubber which doesn't change the taste or colour of your water. So if it's coming out brown it's your water...don't drink it!

What's really good to see with Dreamfarm is that they use strictly reusable packaging and for every product sold they'll plant a tree to help towards offsetting CO2 production and replacing any materials they have to use. Which is nice.

Link - Dreamfarm

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Listening: Tim Minchin - Canvas Bags

V&A Dundee

In February 2009 I attended the V&A at Dundee: Making it Happen conference.

About two years before that we'd been party to Jack McConnell's announcement that it was in the pipe line - we'd spent the Friday before gutting the busy workshop of all signs of work in order to make a good impression of a working studio (ha-bloody-ha) and on the following Monday stood in line at 8.30 in the morning to shake first ministers hand. I'll leave it at that but there was a bit of stushy kicked up about it at the time.

Anyway, fast forward to 2009 and the conference kicked off and we had lectures on the way it would change the city. The lecture was interesting and informative and I genuinely enjoyed sitting and listening about the possibilities the V&A could bring to the city economically, socially and artistically. Including the unveiling of the Riverside redesign from the spaghetti junction you see on the left to the slicker and more amiable waterfront on the right.

Anyone who's driven around the waterfront on a regular basis or has seen someone go up the off ramp for the Tay Bridge will understand why this new design is ten million times better that the current design. The reconnection of the city to the river is also of great value, it is one of the city's greatest assets and there are limited ways to reach it from the city directly. If you must walk it, head to Duncan of Jordanstone and go down Roseangle towards the Railway Bridge, you're less likely to get hit by a car that way.

Now fast forward to today, when they finally revealed the six competing designs for the V&A:

Design by Snøhetta with Gareth Hoskins Architects, a team with architects from Canada, Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.

Designed by Edinburgh based architects Sutherland Hussey.

Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.

Designed by design firm Rex.

Designed by Vienna architect Delugan Meiss.

Designed by US based architect Stephen Holl.

Personally I like the first design by Snøhetta, as it blends in with the landscape as opposed to dominating it, however I might also be being swayed by the fact that it's ever so slightly glittery looking. Frankly they're all interesting designs and I'm really intrigued in seeing which will be chosen. It will be a dominating building whichever they decide on, so here's hoping they choose wisely.

If you'd like to see the models, plans etc there is an exhibition of the proposed designs at Abertay University from the 29th of September until the 4th of November.

via

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Listening: Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay - Take 1