Monthly Archives: May 2016

A History of American Snow Globes

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Now and then in our travels on the internet, we find interesting documents about snow globes.

Bonus: this document, a Masters thesis, is about the history of snow globes, and includes a paragraph or so about Camryn Forrest Designs. We’re honored to be included.

A BIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN SNOW GLOBE: FROM MEMORY TO MASS PRODUCTION, FROM SOUVENIR TO SIGN, by Anne Hilker

Here’s an excerpt from the thesis:

 “Camryn Forrest, a self-described snow globe “artist,” uses the globe’s original theme of delight and intrigue: working in a genre called “steampunk,” she encases in her globes fantasy objects appearing to be powered by steam and built with ironclad soldered parts.

Doubling back both to nostalgia for an early industrialized, rather than technological, ethos, as well as to the Victorian origins of the globe, the tableaux inside contain machines and figures that have no real – world counterparts, past or present. When the tiny shapes of human figures do appear, their function is to give relative scale to the gigantic machines: they are featureless mannequins, posed in positions that defy gravity …”

 

To read the rest of Hilker’s work, follow the link.

https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/27478/HILKERTHESIS5.23.pdf

“Point of View” an Escher-inspired snow globe, design and images copyright (2012, 2016) Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado, USA.

Geodesic Dome/Dome

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It’s an intriguing shape, the geodesic dome. Simply, interlocking straight lines are used to create polygons, those polygons in turn become a curved hemisphere shape, like half of a soccer ball or a jungle gym.

Credit for the geodesic dome in architecture goes to R. Buckminister Fuller: “a light, domelike structure developed by R. Buckminster Fuller to combine the properties of the tetrahedron and the sphere and consisting essentially of a grid of compression or tension members lying upon or parallel to great circles running in three directions in any given area, the typical form being the projection upon a sphere of an icosahedron, the triangular faces of which are filled with a symmetrical triangular, hexagonal, or quadrangular grid.”

Woah, that’s a lot of words for a half an orange. But another meaning of dome is slang for the shape of the human head. Which got us thinking: what if you put a geodesic dome on your dome?

 

One of a kind clay sculpture with metallic finish, brass and aluminum embellishment to create geodesic dome. Snow globe and sculpture images and design are copyright (c) 2016 Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado USA.

 

Citation: geodesic dome. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved May 16, 2016 from Dictionary.com website

Black Sails

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Have you ever heard the saying, “that ship has sailed?”
I planned to take a series of fabulous photos of our newest airship snow globe when we got back to Colorado after showing at the spring One of a Kind show in Chicago, but …

that ship has sailed. It was purchased and is off on a new adventure, somewhere in Illinois.

Here are a few snaps we took during the making of “Black Sails” that may inspire us to make another someday.

 

“Black Sails” – one of a kind glitter snow globe, with tiny airship over a sailing ship with sails made of black cloth. When shaken the globe glitters with darker glitter, reminiscent of thunder and lightning. Hand-painted base with metallic patina effect and brass rivets. Design and images are copyright (c) 2016 Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado, USA.