Grafika Collaboration. Part 4.

Here we bring you our final 3 participants in the Grafika X Collaboration. We just wanted to say that we were overwhelmed by the response and loved each and every submission. It was really interesting to see the diversity in pieces especially as everyone was sent the same materials. 


Jonathan Chapman - www.mr-yen.com

Karin Soderquist - www.karinsoderquist.com

The first thing that struck me when I looked at the wrapping paper collection was how beautiful the patterns and colours where. I wanted to create something that showcased that and I decided to make some bunting out of it.

I put the bunting on the wall and a couple of dogs and a cat came and had a party!

Deborah Moon - http://moonko.co.uk/#/deborah-moon/4550076365

What a wonderful surprise it was to recieve such wonderful paper in the post,  

bright & colorful like the pictures in a story book, which got me thinking 

'Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all'. —Hans Christian Andersen

The work is inspired by 'Stories' fairytales from childhood.  Lands full of
stars, mountains & cities.  Story telling is part of growing up & learning, finding ones voice, daydreaming.
As an adult we forget, stop believing in magical worlds, dragons & enchanted
tales.  Life becomes a little less make-believe, where miracles and magic become
a little lost in the humdrum of life.  Sleeping beauties & prince charmings become locked away in some dusty part of
our minds.

I wanted to create a landscape,  very simple, childlike (rough round the edges,
bold patterns which the paper reflects)  set a scene for a story where we create
the spoken & unspoken tale.

The animations are not clean or polished,  like the spoken word, childlike.  The
piece was created to be changed, moved around.... like stories, different
chapters, beginnings & endings.

Grafika Collaboration. Part 3.

This week we bring you three more great pieces from three very talented artists. 

Lou Taylor - www.lou-taylor.co.uk 
I really loved the colours and the patterns of the wrapping paper and enjoyed clashing them against each other. I've recently become slightly obsessed with the work of Christopher Marley and his book Pheromone where he creates incredible patterns using beetles and butterflies. I also love the Booth Museum with it's row upon row of wooden display cases, so it was fun to create something that felt a bit more graphic and modern.

Hollie McManus. www.holliemcmanus.co.uk.
I have used my normal collage style to create some animals and an illustration incorporating them.

Some of the papers reminded me of patterns that are found on animals fur/skin, for example the yellow and grey half circles reminded me of a giraffe.

Rebecca Emery. www.onesugarplease.co.uk
I re-use and recycle through my design work and craft by cutting collected pieces of paper and card to form graphic shapes and letters. 

I decided to use the bright geometric patterned Grafika wrapping paper in the same way, to make the paper literally describe itself as a piece of guerrilla art on a white painted wall.

Grafika Collaboration. Part 2.

This week we bring you three more pieces by some of the talented artists who participated in our Grafika Collaboration. 


Hannah Ashwell - www.bymi.co.uk
The neon pinks and oranges inspired me to head back to my childhood in the eighties and I experimented with various foldings to create abstract shapes using differently folded and textured squares. In the end, a miss spent youth also provided the genesis for the basic unit: the fortune teller that predicted your future husband or career depending on the number of times it was opened and closed. Immediately this 4 pointed spike with a square silhouette suggested pixels and from there I arranged the squares to create those icons from the past Space Invaders.

Lucy Driscoll - www.lucydriscoll.com
I love the bold shapes & colours of the Grafika paper, & have turned them into abstract landscapes with the help of an 80s Blue Peter Annual!  I had great fun making them!

Ben Everett -  www.beneverett.wordpress.com
Since college I have been fascinated by the way animals live and the insides of their secret homes and multiple maze tunnels. I wanted to create a retro home for the unpleased looking rabbit, I love the expression on his face and thought he looked rather miffed off about something. He is a character that somes up people of today (he has a whole pile of carrots infront of him, yet is still unsatified and wants more from life)

Grafika Collaboration.

To celebrate the release of our new Grafika gift wraps we reached out to a collective of artists and illustrators who use collage, origami and paper craft in their work. We sent participants a selection of our Grafika papers. There was no specific brief, we just left it to their imaginations. The response was amazing and we will be posting all the pieces over the next couple of weeks, so keep watching..... 

Sophie Wainwright - www.sophiewainwright.co.uk

Paperdermy Pheasant

"When I was sent 1973's paper I knew the bold and colourful patterns would make some amazing plumage. I jumped at the chance to create a creature completely from scratch, using just the coloured paper..

This friendly chappy has only ever been sighted once in the wild. Unfortunately his bright feathers made him an easy target for predators and he is now said to be just a creature of folklore."

Naomi Elliott - www.naomielliott.co.uk

"When I first got the paper the yellow and grey one jumped out at me straight away! It just reminded me of lots of umbrellas all crowded together on the streets so that was my starting point. What I really like about rainy days is how there are lots of umbrellas everywhere when it starts to rain and then how it disperses into just a few. I decided to make an explosion of umbrellas coming out of of the pattern and being blown across the sky. I didn't want to restrict this by being on paper so I decided I needed a much bigger space to play with and my very bare wall fitted the bill nicely. It was quite hard to have to cut up the paper at first as it is so lovely! After creating the stream of umbrellas, I added a little character who is watching rather bemusedly at the explosion. 

It was a really fun project to do! It gave me a great chance to use slightly more graphic shapes and bolder colours than I usual would. It was also nice to brighten up the wall above my desk!"

Mary Iverson - www.iversonart.com
"I really enjoyed doodling all over the paper and decided to keep with the theme of Valentine's Day and used my character Pandora as the springboard. I collaged together stickers of Pandora, googly eyes, and bling."

You can view the entire Grafika range on our shop HERE