Saks Fifth Avenue asked Marian Bantjes to draw them some snowflakes, which were translated into a series of jewelry. Some of the drawings were translated into fairly gaudy pieces, but there are some really nice ones in the mix, especially the red enamel piece by Roberto Coin. Love it! Warning – the jewelry isn’t priced for the faint of heart…

Top: a pendant by Chopard for $77,200.
Middle: pendant by Marco Bicego for $27,230 and a red enamel necklace by Roberto Coin for $12,500.
Bottom: pendant by Graff, $38,000.

Yowza!

Anna and I ventured over to Chelsea Market yesterday to watch IFC’s Rooftop Films – Animated Shorts. The opener was a great film called Revolution of the Crabs by Arthur de Pins. The film won tons of awards since 2004 and is absolutely worth watching.

From IFC:
Revolution of the Crabs is a cute and witty animated short from France about a race of shellfish that have collectively internalized the concept of being trapped in a shell that dooms them to walk forever in the same direction. They are the Pachygrapsus Marmoratus, commonly known as ‘depressed crabs.’

Sean and I are actually on our way to the airport for a rather exciting and last minute trip to Chicago – we’ll tell you all about it on Monday! And thanks to Blogger’s auto-publishing capability, I’ve post-dated a few posts for you while we’re gone. So – more on the trip later. For now – Chris Crites! Chris paints on paper bags rather than on the traditional white piece of paper and has drawn an extensive collection of mug shots (though he also has other work). The artist’s statement:

Years ago I saw a book of black and white crime photographs from the past. I found it amazing. The characters and crime scenes looked like surreal glimpses into the history of human interaction. Much more intriguing for me were the mug shots. Portraits of people who had just been caught. Despair, frustration, anger – so many expressions could be read on the faces. Each one of these images has a story. Often times I have no idea what the real story is, but it’s hard not to make one up. One of the reasons I paint them is to bring out another possible story, for people to look at and think about. The majority of the images I base my paintings on are from the 1890′s through 1950′s.

Originally I began using charcoal and white conté crayon on paper bag. The way the wrinkles, folds and texture added to the piece really appealed to me. In 1999 I painted my first 4 mug shots in acrylic on paper bag with a limited palette of 5 colors each. Paper bag has been my main substrate ever since. Brightly colored acrylics have a different effect on the brown bag than on a typical white backing.

I try to bring new life to these practically discarded portraits of criminal and human history. Using an everyday, disposable item as the surface gives new life to the bag as well. It is my hope to get people thinking about the past, their present, and how we all affect both.

Via The Strange Attractor.

Two very exciting things happening recently…The very awesome Jean of Notcot listed us in this month’s issue of Lucky Magazine as one of her favorite design blogs, alongside two of our favorites – Designboom and the Wooster Collective. Huge thanks to Jean and Lucky Magazine for the mention!

Also, Peer, a limited-edition book, collaborative art coloring book curated by Renee Garner of Wolfie and the Sneak just came out, and we have an illustration in it! Renee asked 25 artists to contribute: Kate Bingaman-Burt, Will Bryant, Lisa Congdon, Stephanie DosReis, Camilla Engman, Jessica Gonacha, Frances Hawthorne, Abbey Hendrickson, Jennifer Judd-McGee, Sandra Juto, Kelly Lynn Jones, One Good Bumblebee, Puloverchito, Selflesh, Groundwork, Jen Ray, Justin Richel, Julia Rothman, Model Citizen, Heather Smith Jones, Lisa Solomon, Sub-Studio, Something’s Hiding in Here, Oh My Cavalier! and Wolfie and the Sneak. Each artist drew a self-portrait for the book, and Renee labored hard to put it all together. After you have contributed to the artwork with your beautiful coloring skills, each print is easily removed for framing. Also, when you’re finished coloring in the prints, you can upload your masterpieces to the Peer flickr group.

Jordan Crane is a super talented illustrator and screen printer in LA. His use of color is amazing. I’m showing a few of his books here, but he also has prints and t-shirts available at his website, with originals coming soon.

Lovely work by Yasmine of A Print a Day. I’m always amazed by the impact colors have on a drawing.

Came across Stefan Glerum’s work on One Strange Morning. I really love the drafted quality of his illustrations and the intensity of the pencil lines. These are from a series of drawings Stefan did on the obsessive nature of crate digging (or record collecting for those of us not in the know).

Beautiful illustration work by Rubens LP. I love the colors and the fluid lines.

The image above by Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild recently won an honorable mention in illustration for the National Geographic Best Science Images of 2008. The chapters of the bible populate the bottom bar and the 63,000+ cross-references arc between the chapters to make a beautiful map of the interconnections within the text.

I love these illustrations by Jose Ortiz – love the detail in the birds, which remind me a little of Frerk Muller’s work.

Via Notcot.