Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
Design
July 10, 2014

Giant Wooden Maze Reveals Visual Clarity at Its Center

Visitors to the National Building Museum in Washington DC can prepare to get lost. In a maze, that is. The Danish architecture firm BIG, lead by architect Bjarke Ingels, recently installed a giant concave wooden maze inside of the Museum's Great Hall. It's appropriately called BIG Maze and is 18 square meters that's built using Baltic Birch plywood. BIG developed the installation's form by combining different styles of mazes throughout history.

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Houses
June 30, 2014

Architect’s Impressive Tree House Design Built by Scout Troops

Tree house designer Baumraum has done it again. This time, the architects created a meeting place for a scout group near Wolfsburg, Germany. That doesn't mean that they built the elevated structure, though. It was actually constructed by the troop of young people on the Almke Campsite, which undoubtedly gave them the opportunity to learn valuable skills.

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Art
June 13, 2014

3D Wire Bird Sculptures Look Incredibly Like 2D Drawings

UK-based artist Celia Smith uses wire as a way to form her delicate-yet-energetic sculptures of birds. She gathers and twists the thin coils into wings, beaks, and flight patterns, crafting individual portraits of fowl as well as entire flocks. At first glance, their gestural, dynamic contours take on the appearance of a spontaneous pen sketch rather than a three-dimensional object.

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Art
June 3, 2014

Incredible Man-Made Tunnels Formed with Wires & Repurposed Wood

Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira's incredible installation titled Transarquitetnica invites you to go on a fantastical journey through a cavernous interior. The recently-completed work is his largest to date, and he has successfully created a fully-immersive environment inside of a large, root-like system. Upon entering, you can follow multiple paths that lead you throughout the sculpture while you're completely surrounded by repurposed wood pieces that are tacked together and resemble bark on a tree.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.