A compendium of cardboard craft works powered by cardboard tubes, bricks and… shale
In our previous piece, we looked at the fact you could buy 200 cardboard rolls from eBay. This post has inspired us enough to look at some more fascinating uses of cardboard packaging. Such as the repurposing of cardboard rolls for massive 3D works to dramatic effect. You have got to admire the craft and ingenuity of the model makers and artists we have featured.
1. A life-size elephant – made from cardboard tubes
In 2015, Spanish creative agency Nituniyo created a life-size elephant for the Fallas festival in Valencia. Instead of saluting their craft and preserving it in aspic or a glass case, revellers were encouraged to interact with the elephant. Made with 6,000 cardboard tubes, they were given some coloured paper and wrote down their dreams.
During March 2015’s Fallas festival, the cardboard elephant was filled with the coloured paper, turning the otherwise drab elephant into an explosion of colour. Then, after so many days of perfecting their craft, the cardboard sculpture was burnt, as per the festival’s tradition.
2. How a speedway fan recreated an iconic lost stadium
Iconic: the life-size form of the lamented Hyde Road Stadium, Belle Vue, now immortalised in cardboard. Photographed in 1963 by Chris Tomlinson. (Creative Commons License – Attribution-Share Alike).
The Belle Vue Aces are the UK’s – possibly the world’s most famous – speedway team. For people of a certain age, it conjures up memories of the zoo and its amusement park, which backed onto the stadium on Hyde Road. With the iconic stadium demolished in 1987, its loss was a black day for speedway fans around the world. Somewhere in Ashton-under-Lyne, Aces fan Dennis Scott has created a cardboard model.
His painstaking model includes the actual shale from the Hyde Road stadium. Six feet in length, every stand, track, even the electric barrier and perimeter lighting, are built to scale. The nature of his craft has to be admired; 600 hours work with the stands made of cardboard, and the use of umbrella parts for the track lighting. His model occupies the kitchen table of his home.
3. Cardboard bricks
For our third exemplars of cardboard-powered craft works, we look at Edo’s cardboard bricks. If you’re familiar with Duplo, Lego’s bricks for young children, Edo’s bricks have taken a step further. They are life-size interlocking bricks. Lego-style bricks that are the size of your typical Accrington house brick. The company has begun a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
As seen on their website, we see the Edo bricks being used for a model house (designed for make-believe play). Or as a life-size sports car. They come in plain (known as Havana but to us, a bog-standard cardboard colour) and coloured varieties. We think they could be a boon in nurseries and playgroups. If you wish to back their Kickstarter campaign, click here.
Romiley Board Mill, 22 September 2016.
Add comment