10/06/2014

Inspired By... The Grand Budapest Hotel




It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be a movie (link)an item (link)a designer (link), a painting (link) or a music style (link). Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month.


This month we sort of went back to our roots and took inspiration from a movie. We both went to see "Grand Budapest Hotel". The plot was a kind of Christie style murder mystery with a Looney Tunes twist.  It stated to be a comedy, but not in the mass movie way. This piece requires a little something from you but also gives much. 

The key element is an old painting "Boy with apple" and the will about it, so the scene is set for an old English murder mystery, but the telling is quite different. Although there is the main character and his sidekick using their "little grey cells", the style is hardly anything to do with Poirot or Miss Marple. 

The start of the story showed a onion style thing - layer upon a layer. A girl reading a story of the writer telling and describing how a third person was telling him the story. I loved the idea of the layers and how they subtly unfolded in the beginning but to me the end was too abrupt. I was hoping the same subtle transition between layers in the end, too.

Like the title of the movie suggests, it's partly set in a hotel. To me the hotel stood for old grandeur and sophistication, old ways and old civilization. A bit outdated, a bit dusty on the corners in the way the world rolls today, a bit of a relic. The movie also shows the class differences, but doesn't dwell on the matter. There were also an abundance of other great, grand buildings in the movie and the sets were amazing with never ending hallways, old wood and luscious carpets. Although I must say that the very first inspiring, visually intriguing thing came almost in the beginning of the movie - a statue of the author with dozens and dozens of locks attached to it. Another really appealing thing were the cakes that Gustave H really liked and which were baked by a girl named Agatha! My mouth just watered while watching them being prepared and served! 

What struck me the most that there was so little info about the teller of the story compared to all the other characters. The main character of the story isn't the one telling it, a writer of the novel "Grand Budapest Hotel" but instead the concierge of the hotel Gustave H. The viewer doesn't learn much from the writer himself, but instead about the character of his novel.  

The colors of the film were a bit dusty, like a bit faded and had patina in them. I also remember many of the scenes with snow - kind of thick coat of  dust setting on top of the world. 

As the end credits started rolling I knew what I was going to do. The era reminded me of the product I read about some time ago and what was really hip in it's own time. When the technique to take and print photos evolved, the "carte de visite" became all the rage. People collected them and treasured their own. They were calling cards, but on the other side they had the photo of the person. So I wanted to make these kinds of cards and transformed the idea into ATCs. 

I chose to go with the four main characters in the movie: the painting/the will, Gustave H., Zero and Agatha. Below you can see the individual cards - but hey, if you can't wait any longer to see what Marsha has made, click here and visit her blog!


Even though I stated earlier that the main character is Gustave H, it's the painting "Boy with apple" that sets all the events going and affects all the other characters. So when I was thinking which kind of set of ATCs to make this was a must. 

As you may notice, there's one similar layer in every card. It's a beige colored piece of card stock which I stamped with a script stamp to resemble the will so crucial to the events. This card also has the apple as the symbol to the painting. I also doodled the white lace-like corners to the card to resemble of the collar the boy in the painting had. 

Every card also has old photos in them. The human character cards have two each and this one has just one. Under the top most red layer and the apple there's a picture of an old lady. To me she was the original owner of the painting, Madame D.


This card is Gustave H., the legendary concierge of the hotel. He's being idolized and showed superior in the way he makes sure that the guests really enjoy their stay. 

I wanted use purple, the color of the hotel in his card as well as in Zero's. As there's many sides to the man I also wanted to use another color and light blue seemed appropriate. To me that reflects his soft side, his femininity and his love for poetry and perfume. The key in the card comes from a secret society in the movie called "The Society of Crossed Keys". 


If the viewer of the movie is left almost no info about the author of the novel, the case with Zero isn't that much better. You get more info about him but as he's the sidekick, the apprentice of the master, he's not as visible or "in-your-face" persona than Gustave H. His card also has the "will" layer but also another layer of scribbles. That's to represent his fortune later on like the little four clover. The color scheme also has the purple in it, but I added dark brown in to the mix also. 

This card, like all of them, has many medias in it. I used mists, pencil, glazes and pens in creating the cards. To Gustave I also used embossing and to Agatha pearl maker. All of the cards also have a word sticker in them - from the limited amount of words I had in it I chose the most appropriate to each card. The painting states "Noted", Gustave "Fullest", Zero both "0" and "Seize The Day" and Agatha "Plans".


Agatha's card is in a way very different from the others as the color scheme is lighter. She's a different kind of character as well but the main reason for the colors in her card are the cakes she made. The color scheme is taken of the little cakes Gustave loved and Agatha baked - minty green and pink. The dark brown comes from the Zero's card as a combining element. 

So, there they are! All the four cards and a whole lot of thoughts that went through my mind when thinking about them and how to use the inspiration to a craft. If you didn't click to visit Marsha earlier, now you have another change! Let's go and have a look! Click click!

Thank you so much if you had the stamina to read the whole post! Like all my ATCs these are ready to be swapped or just donated to anyone who wishes to have one! I'll let Marsha have the first call if she wants one and then rest are free to be reserved! 

Materials: 7 Dots Studio, Tattered Angels, Wow! Embossing Powders, Ranger, My Mind's Eye, Prima Marketing

8 comments:

Ella Swan said...

Great job!! I watched the movie recently & really enjoyed it but my family thought it was a bit strange!! Which it was, but still cool! And you have represented it perfectly!!

Ulla said...

Nice cards! Having seen the movie, i must say that you´ve captured its spirit really well!

corinne de france MARCH said...

magnifiques cartes, mais je n'ai pas pu voir ce film ! quand j'ai voulu le voir avec ma fille, c'était trop tard ,il ne passait plus au cinéma :-(

Mummukka said...

Aivan upeita taas ja mielenkiintoinen haaste.

Riikka Kovasin said...

Thank you Helen :") Yes, it was a bit peculiar :D

Riikka Kovasin said...

Thank you Ulla! :")

Riikka Kovasin said...

Merci March!

Riikka Kovasin said...

Kiitokset :") Näihin saa toki mielellään myös osallistua muutkin!

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