i just want to grow potatoes and dream: textiles

Showing posts with label textiles. Show all posts

Saturday, 12 September 2009

Yinka Shonibare - Odette Odile

I went to the Deloitte Ignite event at ROH last weekend, although I really went to see this, and left for Pestival after I saw it and didn't really take in anything else. Nothing else caught my attention. I liked this alot though. It's a play on Odette/Odile in Swan Lake - 2 ballerinas, one black one white, wearing african textile tutus dance and mirror each other on each side of a fancy mirror frame. It's very very beautiful. As I watched it I found myself forgetting these were 2 seperate people...then remembering, and wanting one to cross the invisible line of the "mirror". Like when Dorothy helps Ozma out of the mirror in Return to Oz! Maybe.

Yinka Shonibare does a lot of installation type art using African textiles in European settings, like the ballet, or ballgowns. He makes his point in a very visually attractive way. I like that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/africabeyond/africanarts/news/18050.shtml

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Cath Kidston

Unplanned, I spotted a Cath Kidston shop and as I've never been in one I popped in for a look...too girly pink and floral for my taste but I quite like this elephant print :) and I did get myself a nice bright blue doorstop.

http://www.cathkidston.co.uk

Thursday, 19 February 2009

shadows to blinds...

Now I'm making linen blinds with shadow casters attached behind. Trying to sort out the sustainability of linen...so far I think it's pretty good...apart from the bleaching...but I want it white! Thinking thinking.

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Anke Jakob

Light projections onto fabric, playing with perception and ephemeral decoration.

http://surfaceandmedia.blogspot.com/

Thursday, 2 October 2008

Yuki Atae

While in Japan I saw an exhibition of Yuki Atae's creepy pretty dolls. They don't smile because smiles are fleeting. Because they are made to look real. There was a lovely scene of people on a train. And fantasy creatures feasting on cucumbers. Fragments of story.

Sunday, 28 September 2008

100% Design - Highlights

ZNP Creative - Lots of delicious contrasting. Like these bright smooth wood with natural tree trunk! http://znpcreative.com/

Take a Luxe - http://www.takealuxe.com/

Ulrika Jarl. http://www.ulrikajarl.com/

Freedom of Creation Lamp based on Fibonacci sequence. Pretty! http://freedomofcreation.com/

Pooroni Rhee's graphicy illustrations <3 http://www.pooroni.com/

Kate Goldsworthys Multisheers, decorative entirely polyester textiles - single materials are easier to recycle. http://kategoldsworthy.squarespace.com/

Heather Smith decorates hard materials using the weather :) Metal nails in wood with rusting! http://www.heathersmithcollection.com/

Monday, 26 November 2007

Sampling - Acrylic and Wool

Playing with layering, light, shadow and illustration :) I'm pretty pleased with where my experimentation took me. It's not what I imagined...but I think I like it.

Now I'd like to really push the storytelling aspect.

Josef Frank

I heart Josef Frank's designs - they are so joyful and have a sort of innocence. Bright and beautiful. See more on the Svenskt Tenn website.

E.W.Moore & Son

Joy. I just found this site of vintage wallpaper :D Delicious. I was looking through my old journals of stuff-that-i-like, and found an old elle deco cutting...looked it up and mmm.

Sunday, 25 November 2007

Glee! I just found The Black Rabbit! Mmmmm wool. Mmmmm animals. Mmmm child-like.

Friday, 26 October 2007

Ever and Again - Experimental recycled Textiles

I just caught this exhibition before it finished yesterday at Chelsea College of Art and Design and I'm glad I did! It is the work of TED designers and some guest designers creating new textile products from old ones, giving things new and increased value.

I particularly like:

Rebecca Earley's heat printed shirts, old shirts freshly printed with gardening inspired prints. floral but modern, intended for wearing in the garden, growing your own food.

Emma Neubergs plastic bag/packaging laminated skirts. They are bright, fun, and make a statement by twisting the slogans. It is almost storytelling.

Kathryn Round and Charlotte Mann's work, printing photographs of old clothes on organic fabric, to keep the memory of well loved clothes. I hate getting rid of things so I have piles of useless things. Clothes that don't fit or that have no armpits or something. So I love this idea that I could still wear something that is really too old or doesn't fit. I don't know that this is recyling so much though. Is printing on organic fabric, a photograph of something old not a bit of a tenuous link? I guess it means the actual item can then go to someone who it does fit. Or also, it means the item has served another purpose even though it's part is soon over.

Gary Page's dress that goes through 3 redesigns to freshen it up and lengthen its life. It starts as a plain organic cotton dress. Then it is indigo dyed and ruffled. Then it is printed by Rob Ryan (Yay!) and finally its restyled and sparkled. The owner sends the dress to get redesigned when ever they feel it is time. This is a lovely way to lengthen the life of a product. In a way interactive. After being with a dress through 4 incarnations I can see a person being emotionally attached to the dress and less likely to throw it away.