Jean-Charles Worth. 'Chamois.' Light taupe skirt suit with embroidery. One of 381 designs drawn by S.P. for the House of Worth, Summer 1922.
Love this unusual enhanced shoulder design by French costume designer Alexandra Konwinski.
Barbara Keal works as an artist sharing a studio with her furniture making husband. Barbara'a head pieces are made from local sheep and alpaca wool and she tries to include all of the fibers, the coarse and fine so there is no wastage.
Barbara Keal works as an artist sharing a studio with her furniture making husband. Barbara'a head pieces are made from local sheep and alpaca wool and she tries to include all of the fibers, the coarse and fine so there is no wastage.
Yiqing Yin studied at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, having left her home country of China aged four clothing and fashion for Yiqing Yin is home, and as such her designs exploring concepts such as a second skin or armour. These images are from her SS2014 ready to wear collection. "Returning to my clothes, was like living once more within my body and my emotions; I was at home." Yiqing Yin.
Alot of Marian Schoettles works in the last decade have featured charts or maps this is her Storm Structure cartography dress made from rayon challais with the storm lines mapped in a continuous stitched line.
In case you missed part 1 you can find it here. Porto was a wonderful place for spotting amazing illustrations around the city. They appear in many different formats. Some are painted directly onto…
This is Harriet Popham's narrative dress celebrating the relationship between her mother and father in letters and photographs, transfered, embroidered and embelished simply stunning work.
Are ya'll familiar with the Japanese holiday called Children's Day? I think sometimes my students are convinced that everyday is Children's Day which is why nearly every night is Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day for this art teacher. But I digress. The real Children's Day is celebrated in Japan on the 5th day of May which, in case you didn't know, is the 5th month. It's a day set aside to respect children's personalities and to celebrate their happiness. Which, seriously, that part should be everyday in an art room, don't you think? On this day, all children fly a carp kite called a koinobori on a flag pole, along with the koinobori of those in their family. The father's koinobori is usually at the top, followed by the mother with the children's kites, from oldest to youngest, flown below. I had big visions of flying the kids' koinobori outside of our school for the occasion and for our upcoming art show (which is in 10 days, people! Not that I'm freaking out at all). However, we had some pretty Big, Bad and Ugly weather at the start of last week that lead me to believe that keeping these lovelies inside would be a better bet. The last time I hung something in these windows, it was a pretty big hit so I thought I'd do it again with our koinobori. Along with a sign, of course. Otherwise everyone just thought they were super cool fish kites. Which they are but there's also a super cool story behind them as well. So just how did my friends in First Grade Land create these awesome koinobori? Dude, it was so super easy and, like, the World's Fastest Art Project (which for me is a total rarity). Here's a list of the supplies we used: Roylco's Japanese Carp Wind Sock Kit For about $8, you can get your kitten mittens on a set of 24 die-cut fish with tag board strips that get glued into the mouths (if you look at the orange fish above, you'll see the tag board propping open the mouth.) Sharpies. This is optional. I had the kids use these to add details that they wanted to remain permanent. Watercolor Paint. Boy, talk about an End-of-the-School-Year-We-Are-Almost-Outta-Supplies Limited Palette, ya'll. But, we're artists, kids! We can make do! Or something like that. A Spray Bottle Full of Water. Yarn. Hole Punch. How the lesson went down: My kids have been learning about Asia, with an emphasis on Japan, all year. In fact, we'd just finished off this sushi lesson not long ago and had just completed making a ceramic koi fish. I needed a short and quick tie-in lesson while our clay projects dried and fired. These koinobori were just the perfect thing. After chatting about Children's Day, the kids were given a tray of warm and cold colored Sharpie markers. We chatted about the parts of a fish (fins, gills, scales, tail, etc.) and how we might emphasize those with either warm or cool colored Sharpies. That took up our first 30 minute session. For the next 30 minute session, we reviewed correct use of water color paint (which obviously doesn't include cleaning the tray, ew!). I also told the kids that they were again to use warm or cool colors but that they didn't have to stick with the same color family as they used last art class. Once the kids had collected their supplies (a paint brush and two ziplock bags -- the two things I forgot to mention in that above supply list, doh!), they were to raise their hand and I came over and squirted their fish with water. Because the paper is made from the same stuff as coffee filters, a wee spritz of water really helps the water color paint to spread out. The kids thought that was pretty rad. Once the kids had painted their entire fish, they were given the option of splatter painting. I don't think a single kid opted out of that one. To dry, the kids gingerly carried their zip locked fish to the floor. The reason I kept the bags on the bottom was that I found that the color will often run off the paper and on to the surface that it is sitting on. However, if the paper is allowed to "sit in it's own juices" so to speak, it dries much more vibrant. Now, normally, I woulda had the kids add the tag board and attempt to tie the string. But I was in a bit of a time crunch. So I set aside about 15 minutes every afternoon to hot glue the tag board at the top, hot glue it into a tube, hole punch the top and add the yarn. By the end of the week, I had all of my classes finished. To hang, I bent a paper clip so that it looked like some sort of scary prison shank and stuck it into the foamy ceiling tie. I added the top fish to that paper clip. Then I hole punched the bottom of that fish and added a bent paper clip to that hole where I attached the second fish. If I'm not making any sense it's because I'm deep into that aforementioned Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day and I simply cannot be held accountable for my incoherentness. I managed to get 'em all up and ready for Monday, May 5th on Friday. I can't wait for the kids (and the grown kids) to see them and celebrate all things children -- especially during our standardized testing week! Until next time, enjoy Children's Day! Or Grape-Flavored Grown-Up Drink Day. Your choice.
Images from Maiko Takeda's 'Atmospheric Reentry' Maiko's masters show in millinery at the Royal College of Art. Maiko has had her pieces worn by Bjork, and they are especially fantastic when highlighted by stage lighting.
An exploration of paper and cardboard in homage to Issey Miyake by French artist Billie Mertens.
Faux collar by Cece Merkle / Plume.
pattern Animal embroidery 2019 - Winter flower 2019 - Red SARASA 2018 - Garden 2018 - Flower pattern 2017 - 著書「WOOL STITCH」より 2014 - 著書「２色で楽しむ刺繍生活」より 2014 - butterfly 2013 - Crab 2013 - Flower...
Birds fly not into our mouths ready roasted.
We were going to take an August vacation from our monthly product/technique demonstrations and play-time, but due to demand we are repeating July’s popular program! Above, the July session of How Do I...Create Stitch Meditations: we had a full house! At the top of this post are the amazing pieces created by students that night. Join us Thursday evening, August 10, 2017 to create your own: using WonderFil Specialty Threads (all supplies provided), participants learn the approach originated by my dear friend Liz Kettle of Textile Evolution. Previous sewing or embroidery experience isn’t necessary, so if you are local, please plan to join us. Inspired by Liz, I have also become addicted to this practice. I have posted many on the Artistic Artifacts Facebook page, and wanted to share some of my recent creations in this post. Visit Liz’s website gallery to see her own beautiful examples. Liz has also put together a 17 minute video she hopes inspires others to begin their own stitch practice: learn more. Above, I was inspired by a bit left over from a batik panel by the artist Rusli. In our 2015 post Thoughts on the Health Benefits of Creativity, Liz shared that managing stress can be difficult for her, and that “The best medicine I have found is what I call Stitch Meditations. I tried for years to do ‘real’ meditation. It just never took and I always felt like I was doing it wrong. But, I knew I needed a stress reducer that was simple and didn’t take much time to do. I love both machine and hand stitching and I find both very relaxing. However the tactile nature of hand stitch won over and I started creating simple small collages using only hand stitch. These meditations are really important to my mental health not only because I slow down and enjoy the meditation, but they give me a sense of connection to my art on a daily basis…even when life has me otherwise occupied.” Liz creates her stitch meditations in the morning, but after experimenting, I have found that stitching in the evening after work is what best works for me. It’s a calming, restful way to end the day. I make a point of traveling with a small stash of supplies so I can create in my hotel room each evening. In addition to Liz, in terms of inspiration I also have to thank Ruth Chandler, author of Modern Hand Stitching ... she has taught so many of us how to add a creative, freeform spin on hand-stitching! I can’t count how many times I have recommended her book to my customers: it is an invaluable addition to any stitcher’s library. Above, this small corner of a hand-dyed handkerchief really spoke to me. Proof that you don’t have to work large! I’m thinking it might fill the blank corner of the long work pictured above it. Now that Artistic Artifacts is a WonderFil Specialty Threads boutique I have relished learning about the different weights and properties of their threads... perfect for hand stitching as well as using in your sewing machine! If you are one of those people find themselves saving scraps of fabric and lengths of thread because they’re just too pretty to throw away, you have the makings of the perfect stitch meditation stash! Part of the technique is not to fall into the trap of agonizing over your choices. Quickly choose a few pieces, whether color-coordinated or completely contrasting, and get to work. Below, a larger completed piece created by Suzanne Langsdorf, who just gifted it to Sharon McDonagh of Artistic Artifacts. At last month’s session, Sharon kept picking out fabrics and fibers and walking around to participants to tempt them to start another piece. Suzanne took one of her handfuls and added to it, ultimately creating this gorgeous fiber art. Below, a detail photograph. Such amazing color and texture!
Alot of Marian Schoettles works in the last decade have featured charts or maps this is her Storm Structure cartography dress made from rayon challais with the storm lines mapped in a continuous stitched line.
