Everything Designed By Humans - KiwiPulse // Evolution of Art

Jennifer Maestre: Colorful Pencil Sculptures

Written on January 25, 2008 by KiwiPulse - Posted in Art, Sculpture

You probably know this long and thin wood cylinder object that we use as writing or drawing instrument which we called the pencil. Surprisingly, pencils can be used to create colorful sculptures taking various forms. Today, I fall in love with an artist’s work of unique and exquisite unusual fine art made with pencils. Her name is Jennifer Maestre and she uses pencils as the medium to create her sculptures. Jennifer has always been involved in some kind of creative projects in her life. In her early 30’s, she went to Mass College of Art where she majored in Glass Art. As her career progresses, Jennifer invented the art of pencil sculptures. They don’t teach such type of art in school!

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In order to create the pencil sculptures, hundreds of pencils are cut into 1-inch sections. Then they are drilled with a hole in each section so that they resemble beads. Next they are sharpen and sew together using the peyote stitch technique. Jennifer expressed that the pencil sculptures present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experience. To her, there is a true fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures; vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.

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The inspiration for her work came from animals, plants, Ernst Haeckel, Odilon Redon, mythology and other art. One piece of sculptures for her will sometimes give ideas to the next piece of work. Sometimes mistakes can lead to a new whole different direction. It all started with one idea as Jennifer summarized below:

“It all comes from one idea I had for a box with a secret compartment that would contain a pearl. The box would be shaped like a sea urchin, made of silver. In order to open the box and reveal the secret compartment, you’d have to pull on one of the urchin’s spines. The idea was of something beautiful, sculptural, but that you wouldn’t necessarily want to touch, and that also held a secret treasure.”

You can see more of her work on JenniferMaestre.com. I hope you will enjoy her sculptures as much as I do! :mrgreen:

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35 Responses so far
  1. James Mann on January 26th, 2008 at 7:14 am

    That has to be the coolest art I have ever seen. Very impressive.

    James Mann’s last blog post..Social Networking With Blogging Zoom

  2. Jessica on January 26th, 2008 at 8:42 am

    that’s so beyond! So beautiful :smile:
    Jessica’s last blog post..A Wonderful Little Tool

  3. Dining Room Table on January 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am

    This is fantastic. Really unbelievable how she has created something so beautiful with the common pencils.Thank you for showing this to us.

  4. Diane on January 26th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    I’m just imagining how long it must take to make each of these, they are quite surreal somehow.

    Diane’s last blog post..A Night at the Movies

  5. Novice Writer on January 26th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Are they really pencils??? That is just a fantastic piece of art!!

    Novice Writer’s last blog post..Happy Republic Day!

  6. Bedroom Furniture on January 27th, 2008 at 12:39 am

    Very innovative but i am not sure i want that lying around my house, imagine the injuries to curious little hands!

  7. Beth on January 27th, 2008 at 2:11 am

    Beautiful! Thanks for the thorough article about it too! I have “shared” it as well as linked to this through my site. I think it’s just incredible.

    Beth’s last blog post..Sculpture from pencils by Jennifer Maestre

  8. cyberpunk on January 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    they’re awesome!

    cyberpunk’s last blog post..Heath Ledger is Dead

  9. casper911ca on February 15th, 2008 at 11:26 pm

    They looks so organic.

  10. ishmot on February 15th, 2008 at 11:52 pm

    some people just have way to damn much time on their hands. Do something useful for hell sakes!

  11. TheMrs on February 16th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    That is unbelievable. I’m interested in seeing exactly how they are sewn together. You said she used a peyote stitch? Interesting, as you can’t see anything resembling any sort of threading holding these pencil nubs together.

    TheMrs’s last blog post..Whoopsie! Bread and coffee anyone?

  12. lisa on February 16th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

    :shock: cool art work how did you do that and you must have a lot of time on your hands

  13. sharpy on February 19th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    theres always one…:) but can’t complain, they’re as pointless as the mona lisa and as time wasting as life

    i LOVE them, yet another way to be creative with pencils:D

  14. Dan from Boston on April 27th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

    Wow, these are real works of art. I’d imagine some people would pay a lot for any one of these. Jennifer Maestre is a genius. Cool story!

  15. Dr Sheep and the Aardvark » Archive » 02/13/2008 on September 2nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    [...] some weird links?  Okay then. Shopping Carts, Photoshopped Images, Weird Pencil Sculptures, Living in a Garbage Truck, Nails and Toothpick Art and Freezing on the Spot. [...]

  16. Connie on October 6th, 2008 at 7:41 am

    Now I have another reason to love colored pencils! Beautifully fascinating designs.

  17. liam on October 14th, 2008 at 4:06 am

    awsome
    wwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  18. Yousuck on November 15th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

    :D wow

  19. Jage on December 2nd, 2008 at 5:02 am

    how many days he need to make it ? owesome art

  20. brandi on December 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    This is a very cool page of cool looking pencils. Different shapes and they all look like they take a long time to make. Very cool. Awesome.

  21. Brandi on December 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    thats what said, very cool

  22. Brandi on December 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Yeah they are beautiful and look like they took forever to make.

  23. Brandi on December 8th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    thats true, the figures she has made are fantstic and a couple of them look like sea creatures

  24. ravi on February 4th, 2009 at 4:34 am

    What innovative way to creat art people use pencils to create art you have you done just that great stuff

  25. rocky 1 on February 26th, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    These are absolutely Awesome pieces of art. I wish I would have thought of this, but I will definately introduce the idea of using pencils to create art in my art class. Art doest have to be useful to be art, and I wouldnt let children touch this as someone above noticed that it could cause injury. Would you let a child play with a Picasso, a Ming vase or an antique Navajo blanket?

  26. Ruth on March 21st, 2009 at 2:47 am

    Innovative and exciting art. You want to reach out and touch it..

  27. someone pretty and gorgeous on March 25th, 2009 at 6:29 pm

    did she sharpen all those pencils?
    coz if she did woah!!!!!!!!!!!111

  28. amanda on April 10th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    I LOVE YOUR CREATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart:

  29. Savannah on April 17th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I lov eyour creative sculptures i’m jelous of your tallent :wub:

  30. X-Suma-X on April 26th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    Wow this is amazing art workk!!! :cheerful:
    How long did it take you toi do that!!??
    Wow much of been a veryyyyyyyy long time!!!
    Good Jobb!!! =] <3 x :kissing:

  31. khizra on May 13th, 2009 at 7:34 am

    :wub: superb wow

  32. Jotanisha on May 14th, 2009 at 8:57 am

    wot the flip i jus tpyed so much re…see yaar

  33. athira on May 20th, 2009 at 4:08 am

    great creations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cheerful: :shocked: :

  34. Cynthia on May 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am

    that is so cool they look so inturresting :cheerful:

  35. thadeus on June 7th, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    i like this art and i am a artes to :biggrin:

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