Limited Edition PapergirlCDF T-Shirts

Just to let you know that we have a few of our lovely Papergirl CDF 2011 souvenir t-shirts left!  If you missed out on getting one on the day of the ride, or are someone who submitted art - or indeed anyone who'd like a limited edition t-shirt designed by Steve Coleman of Canary Black Design and screen printed by Sophie Barras of The Printhaus, just email or tweet us and we'll sort it out for you.

Photos of Papergirl Cardiff 2011

Thanks to Your Cardiff (@yourcardiff) @Hallphoto and Sophie Barras of The Printhaus, we have some early photos of the Papergirl Cardiff Ride on Saturday 18th June - take a look here:

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/2011/06/20/papergirl-cardiff-puts-artwork-in-the-hands-of-the-people/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hallphotographic77/5852661823/in/photostream


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilmizmc/sets/72157626868563277/

Also see here for more of their work:

http://sophiebarras.tumblr.com

http://hallphotographic.yolasite.com

http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk

We'd love to see your photos!

Papergirl - a bike's eye view.

It was all going on at The Printhaus as we pepared to set off.  Music, beer, food - a real party atmosphere courtesy of the Barenaked Beer Festival. Everyone got loaded up with several rolls of art, all packaged in newsprint and with a Papergirl stamp on them. After a mercifully short Health and Safety briefing we were ready to hit the road.

It was a great feeling to be out in the city as a large group of cyclists, not out of any political ideal or to try and prove a point, but just to try and have some fun. The people we met and passed seemed happy enough to see us and when we started to give out our pieces they were genuinely pleased. Somewhat non-plussed by the whole affair admittedly, but pleased nevertheless!

For me the greatest thing about the ride was the simple fact of doing something completely different on my bike. I normally get my cycling fun from pushing myself to the limit in races or dodging through the traffic. Papergirl was completely different, genteel by comparison, but so exciting. I felt exhilarated as we gathered at the top of Queen Street and gave ourselves a desrved round of applause. Roll on next year! Jon

We'd love to hear your thoughts about the ride too, and indeed the whole experience. If you'd like to write a post for this blog, please get in touch via e-mail, twitter or facebook. We look forward to hearing from you.

Papergirl - the art of giving art

What a great day we had on Saturday!  There was much excitement at The Printhaus on Saturday morning as the art was rolled up and prepared for the ride, and cyclists arrived to decorate their bikes in readiness.

Around 30 cyclists took part - and the rain cleared up just in time for us to have a sunny and joyful ride through Cardiff and give out art to the unsuspecting public!  We had so many wonderful reactions to the art gifts, and we cannot thank enough all the artists who gave us their work, and all the cyclists who took part in the ride, making this first Welsh Papergirl project a resounding success.

We'd love to hear from you if you had any part in the project, and if you were someone who received some free art on Saturday - comment here on the blog, tweet, contact us on facebook, or email us - we want to know what you thought of it!

We'll be putting up photos very soon.

Thank you all so much, and see you all again next year!

It's Papergirl Day!

It's here at last - today we are going out onto the streets of Cardiff to give away all the amazing free art sent to us!  So a quick reminder - cyclists are leaving The Printhaus in Canton at 2pm to ride through Cardiff with rolls of art, and you could be the lucky recipient of an original piece of artwork.  Don't forget to come out this afternoon and support Papergirl and join in the fun - you could end up with something beautiful to take home!

We'll be finishing near to Cardiff Castle around 3pm, and everyone is welcome to return with us to The Printhaus who are hosting the Artisan Beer Company's Micro Beer Festival today till 9pm.

See you there - and if you are given some art by us, email, tweet or comment on our blog - and send us a picture!

Is your bike prepared for Papergirl?

Don't worry if not, tonight at Cardiff Cycle Workshop you can use the stands and tools to get it all set up. As well as a little TLC, you can also modify it to carry some art or even just decorate it!. Jon, the Workshop Coordinator and one of the Papergirl Cardiff team, will be on hand to answer any mechanical queries and sort any safety issues.

You can see more details on the Cycle Training Wales website.

The Exhibition is now open!

Thank you to everyone who came to our exhibition launch, and for all the publicity that we've had!

Very kindly, The Sprout - the Cardiff young people's website and zine - came to the exhibition and made a super video of the launch, with interviews from some of the artists who have contributed, our designer Steve Coleman (Canary Black Design) and one of our organisers, Laura Howe, member of thinkARK

We're pretty sure that everyone loved the exhibition, and were as surprised and delighted as us at the range and quality of the submissions.  Sophie Barras of The Printhaus organised Papergirl Cardiff t-shirt screen-printing during the evening - and they were selling like hot cakes!  Print and buy your own to wear on the bike ride next Saturday - take a look!

Don't forget the exhibition is open all week Monday 13th-Friday 17th June 11am-2pm and 4pm-7pm

Exhibition Excitement!

After months of planning, and seeking art submissions for our project, we have been overwhelmed and delighted by the number and quality of artworks sent to us, the amount of thought and care that has gone into their preparation, and the generosity of everyone who has donated art.  Thank you so much, everyone!

We have so many beautiful artworks - the Papergirl Team is very envious of those who are going to receive them!! 

At the last count (yes, we are still counting!) almost 70 artists have contributed, both professional and amateur, and we have over 200 individual submissions to exhibit!

We are thrilled with this figure, since it's the first time the project has been run in Cardiff, and Papergirl was a new concept to most people - although some of our contributors had previously sent work to other Papergirl projects around the world.  Our artists are a cosmopolitan lot - being from all over South Wales, London, Manchester, Bristol, and the US..

Our exhibition will be open from Saturday 11th June to Friday 17th June at The Printhaus, 70A Llandaff Road, Canton, Cardiff CF11 9NL.  Come and see the wonderful submissions we have had, and also the great facilities at The Printhaus - we think it'll inspire you to take part next year!

Opening times:

Saturday 11th June    11am - 5pm
Sunday 12th June      11am - 5pm
Monday 13th June-   11am - 2pm and 4pm - 7pm
Friday 17th June   

Beautiful by Design

Everyone who's been onto our blog, Facebook page or followed us on twitter will have seen our beautifully designed, and visually arresting, logo, avatar and posters.

These are all the work of our super-talented designer Steve Coleman, of Canary Black Design, based here in South Wales.

Steve is a member of thinkARK and also a postgraduate student at UWIC, studying for an MA in Communications.  With a background in textile design, he currently works in digital and photographic media.

Here we showcase his submission for Papergirl - we love it!

We'd like to thank Steve for all his hard work for Papergirl Cardiff - often done at short notice - and for making the project instantly recognisable!

Steve has completed commissions for Ubersaint, The Big Chill, Notting Hill Arts Club, and the Welsh DJ Culprit 1, amongst others, and is about to undertake a major new commission for renowned textile designers and manufacturers Colefax and Fowler.

Please do visit his site here and check out his portfolio!  Follow him on twitter @CanaryBlackLtd