a new bench

We like fruit and we like sitting down, so really it was only a matter of time before we got ourselves a bench modelled on a banana.

It wasn't something we could create ourselves though, so luckily help came in the form of builder and wood carver extraordinaire Neil Melville Rae.

The banana is one of a number of fruit sculptures that Neil's been working on which were submitted to last year's Arundel Gallery Trail as an exhibition called "The Temple of the Strange Fruit".

The wood used for the sculptures came from a 200 year old oak tree which was sourced locally to Neil in West Sussex. The tree had been dead for some time and was in a dangerous condition, so it was carefully felled and put to good use.

 

Here's the model for the banana sculpture.

And here it is being made.

It took a few strapping men to carry it in.

And now it sits pride of place in the chill out.

this and that - a week in the life of the creative team

This week has been big. We've heard about a chimp in a hot tub, met a celebrity, experienced a natural phenomenon, been wooed and had a lookalike revelation.

1st up: Dan got Tansy some flowers for her birthday, but, worried this would cause anarchy and jealous rifts in the team, placated us with a rose each. Although a week in creative corner in a latte cup has taken its toll.

Next up a celebrity talking "extra naked". At the 1st Brains for Breakfast Louis Theroux enilightened us with Nietzsche quotes, shocked us with poo-throwing stories, spiced our day up with Chippendale based philosophies and wowed us with a pretty marvelous talk. (All before 10am) 

3rd: Dan undid his diet. He ate all this pizza. Alone. No one else had any. At all. Not even one slice. Well except these two, who got in there quick.

 

All we got was this tiny mushroom. Which we had to share. Kinda undid all that flower buying.

Just one more thing before we go...

Designers Seb and Lewis?

Or is it Frodo and Samwise?

Over and out. Have a great weekend one and all. 

 

a little something in the post

Emails are great. They're super fast, no trees are harmed in their making and they merrily congregate in your inbox while you're on holiday, cheerfully greeting you on your first day back in a way that makes you instantly forget you've been away.

But as much as we appreciate the merits of emails, we also think that the pleasure of getting a little something in the post takes some beating. Which is why this project really caught our eye. It's called Snail Mail My Email, and it's a month long art project seeking to bring back appreciation for the art of letter writing by letting participants submit emails which are handwritten on paper, tucked into an envelope, and posted to a recipient of your choice.

So if you want to let a special someone know what they mean to you, that you like their new hairdo or that you're sorry for borrowing their top 10 years ago, staining it with tomato ketchup and hiding it back in their wardrobe, then all you have to do is drop them an email message of no more than 100 words and make sure you remember to include the address you want it to go to. Be quick though, the project ends on August 15th.

And if you're a bit handy with a felt tip pen and have five minutes to spare, you could of course just do it yourself. 

loo rolls

If we asked you to name as many creative uses for a used toilet roll it would take a good few hours of brain power before any of us came up with these beauties.



Parisian based artist-illustrator Anastasia Elias creates these intricate paper cuts from a bunch of old loo rolls. We salute your creative paper cutting, scalpel wielding prowess.

a little film about little films

On a very rainy Saturday four weeks ago, we held a little workshop here at Fruit Towers to launch our mini movies competition.  Ben Wheatley- film director, very funny chap, and the maker of our superhero ad- spent the day with us, talking about his own experience, sharing top tips, and helping our film makers' make their own little mini movies on the day.

This is our little video about the day- thanks to Mark and Dan for all the time they put into making this for us: 

To find out how you could get your work on TV, and win £5000, take a peak here here.

art corner

 
When set a project to create an Andy Warhol-style picture, 14 year old Isabel chose to use innocent for her inspiration.  The finished piece is above and I'm sure you'll all agree, it's an A* all round.  Thanks to her Dad for sending it in. 

a musical odyssey

I went off to the D&AD new blood show last night for a bit of creative inspiration from the next generation of young creative go-getters. It was great to see some of the students working on self initiated briefs for innocent (unfortunately I didn't have a camera so can't share their work with you). But here is my own highlight of the show by the very talented Eleanor Stewart from Glasgow School of Art. Well worth a watch.

Ye-ha.

dingle dangle

 

 If you're still stuck for Christmas presents we've just spotted these miniature sized innocent kids drinks ear rings on ebay. Very original.

Note: Although we can't vouch for the legitimacy of external websites and sellers, the maker of these ear rings (mr walker) has sold 27 items on ebay and has 100% positive feeback, which makes him a pretty safe bet in our book.

mystery bottle art

We love a mystery. We love a bit of art too. And we like bottles, of course. So what could be better than some mystery bottle art?

Thanks to Emma for pointing these out.