monsters of the villa diodati Mary Shelley's Monstrous Dreams (Villa Diodati, Switzerland) (LimitedProduct Details A limited edition print taken from an original paper cut collage by Amanda White, exclusively made for The Shop Floor Project. Giclee printed on paper stock: Aquarelle Rag 310gsm (The finest quality, archival, acid free paper. Aquarelle Rag is a beautifully textured paper, similar to that of traditional watercolour. It's natural white tone highlights the colour intensity of different pigments, including blacks.) Printed in England

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THE HOUSE MUSEUM

In Mary Shelley's Monstrous Dreams (Villa Diodati, Switzerland) Amanda White has created an electric piece inspired by the house on Lake Geneva which, infamously, was the backdrop to a gathering of English Romantics including Byron, Shelley and Mary Shelley in 1816. A creative cocktail of thunderstorms, laudanum, alcohol and overheated imaginations resulted in Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein.

The figures are based on illustrations in the original edition of the novel and they sit within this magical, atmospheric scene which explodes with details.  The sky, illuminating the sea, looks like slithers of cut precious stones and minerals, in the garden every leaf of the rhodeneran is carefully placed, and the marble around the columns is ingeniously created using paper printed with swirling William Blake angels - a clever reference to the fact that Blake had illustrated work by Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary Shelley’s mother).

THE STORY 

This new collection includes eight large-scale paper cut collages which, like a doll's house, invite you to peer into and explore - with a temptation to move the figures and play!

Paper-cut artist Amanda White is celebrated for her intricate collages of historical houses that once belonged to writers and artists. Originally trained as a theatre designer, Amanda carries this love of stage sets into her collaged worlds, each one appearing as though the curtains have just opened and a scene is unfolding.

A chance encounter with a pile of vintage Vogue magazines, found on the street, led Amanda to start working with the paper-cut technique. What else is an artist and theatre designer to do when confronted with such bounty? The rest is history and Amanda has now been working with paper-cut collages for many years. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Spain and New York with pieces held in many private collections around the world and in institutions such as the Rutherston Collection, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Hogg Robinson Group. 

Amanda begins each new work with a deep dive into the subject, sketching compositions, researching the history and stories about the house and the people who visited. This research informs all of the details and materials that Amanda will gather before she starts her incredibly detailed paper cuts. 

Now using a multitude of different papers, collected over the years from old magazines (the National Geographic being a favourite), Amanda also uses old prints, posters, drawings - anything and everything is collected, cut up and carefully filed into categories and subjects including ‘masonry’ and ‘sky’ so they are easily ready for use when inspiration strikes. 

As a member of the Association of British Naive Artists it is no surprise that Amanda White’s influences are deeply folk art orientated. Asked for a list of inspiration, Amanda sent a list that reads as a love letter to that very specific English aesthetic: “I have a love of Staffordshire pottery, old textiles and plates, gardens, broadsheet woodcuts, William Blake, Alfred Wallis, Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, the Romantic movement, browsing in books, mooching in museums, Sussex, old buildings, cats, the sea”.