UK Edition: Lost Things With mrYen

mrYen

Story by mrYen

Published on Mar 19, 2010 in Shop

When Jonathan Chapman of mrYen contacted me about his contribution to this outstanding stop-motion film, I leapt at the chance to share it with you. It’s a heartening example of what can be achieved through Etsy. As an international community, we can make creative connections over vast distances to great effect.

Jonathan is a papercut artist and graphic designer working in Leeds, UK. Using nothing but paper, a scalpel and inspiration he creates typographic and illustrative designs that focus on both details and simplicity. You can visit the mrYen blog here and the mrYen website here.

It seemed too good to be true when Etsy seller handsomepanda, a.k.a Angela Kohler, asked me to contribute to her film project. Even more so once I learned about the people involved: Alison Sudol from A Fine Frenzy, who not only stars in the film, but also wrote a piece of music specifically for it, the producers Gallant & Keen, and last but by no means least the writers and directors Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths of ithyle.com, who recently made a stop-motion advert for Amazon.

Angela found my shop through Etsy and felt the style of my papercuts would fit the theme of her film — an homage to Alice in Wonderland, in which a girl falls through a hole made of paper and finds herself in a strange kingdom. The girl prefers this new world to real life and decides to stay there. This was the connection to me, as my papercuts have always leaned towards the curious, with fairytales and Alice in Wonderland being a focus of my work.

Photos from mrYen on Flickr

Angela described what she wanted for the film and we worked out the details very easily using Etsy Conversations (a.k.a. “Convos” — Etsy’s internal messaging system). I attached photos of mock papercuts and we then worked together to create something suitable, discussing the possibilities and changes that needed to be made.

Screenshots courtesy of Ithyle Griffiths and Angela Kohler

The whales in the sea scene, the wings on the teacups and the final piece of text in a frame that says “Fin” are all my work. This was a great project to work on — I loved the experimentation with paper it afforded me, plus I had the opportunity to speak with Angela, even if it was only by Convo.

I played around with my designs to create a papercut whale that looked like it could move its tail and body, then made them in different sizes to suit the stop-motion aspect of the film so that the whale appears to move closer to and further away from Alison.

I’m so amazed that something like this could be organised through Etsy and I never thought that my creations from Leeds would be used in a short film in Los Angeles! To me, that is what makes Etsy so special — more than just a place to find and sell beautiful items, it’s a community where people help each other out and the end result is often such great stuff.

Thanks to Jonathan for sharing his behind-the-scenes experience working on this wonderful short film. Check out some of his papercuts in the Seller’s Items and his Etsy picks in the Related Items below.

UKers — involved in an interesting project? Don’t be shy now, send AmityUK a Convo!

Browse Items Tagged “Alice in Wonderland” on Etsy | Watch More Videos on Etsy | UK Edition

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