ART DECO

Been researching the 1920’s for background and inspiration for a work for the Margaret Oppen Prize – a competition open to members of the Embroiderers’ Guild NSW Inc.  The theme is ‘The Roaring 20s’. 

When the theme was announced my mind immediately jumped to women’s costume and the Chrysler Building in New York.  Picture books were the first thing I looked at when I when to the library and I came home with a glorious tome called Art Deco – The Golden Age of Graphic Art & Illustration by Michael Robinson & Rosalind Ormiston (Flame Tree Publishing).

Since then I have done a little reading and thought I would share a bit of what of I learnt and do a sort of a book review at the same time J.

Over all Art Deco gives a gives a good but brief introduction to the influences of the period and talks about the development of the Art Deco movement in Britain, Europe and America.   It introduces novices like myself to artists, designers and craftsmen of the period.  There is enough information and more than enough images to spike my curiosity.  I will go on and investigate further.

What did I learn from this book?

·         Art Deco was a term first used in the 1960’s  

·         It covers the period between the First and Second World Wars

·         Its heyday depends on which continent you are in

·         That the Art Deco movement was influenced by or drew  upon or was the confluence of a number of artistic styles over time including;

o    oriental influences of Art Nouveau,

o   the success of the fine art poster like that created by Toulouse-Lautrec,

o    industrial changes effecting graph art printing

o   Work by cubist and futurist artists like George Braque, Roal Dufy & Pablo Picasso

o   Interest in graphics and typography leading to new fonts and borders

o   The Ballet Russe

o   And a lot of other things too such as hard defined lines and lots of bold colour. 

It is clear that there was an emphasis on what was regarded as good design, promotion of craftsmanship and it was applied across the board to fine art, graphic art, fashion and textiles, furnishings, consumer goods and architecture.

The book is chock full of enticing images.  It is a glorious visual feast and has sparked some ideas  for the competition which I will go on and play with.

On an art deco vein - I was at the Enmore Theatre not so long ago and it has some wonderful art deco inspiration plastered on its walls which invite exploration too.

Playing with Clay

I have been learning to play with clay and practising making faces at Sydney Community College.  I am keen to learn to make my own faces to incorporate into my own fibre art. The course has a focus on mould making.   As is the norm, one term is not enough for me to grasp even the basics so I will be back for another term.

To date I have learnt some basic concepts about working with clay to make a bust.  The first lesson I was taught was to build using tiny pieces of clay to build the form/shape I want and not to smooth the clay but just keep adding.  It is SO hard not to smooth the clay.  I now understand that when I smooth the clay I push the clay around and change my form somewhere else but still it is hard to be disciplined and remember this part of my lesson.

The class has students who have returned after doing one or more terms and it is wonderful to see what they are doing.  I had to keep reminding myself why I was there and not get distracted by other exciting ideas

It is funny how things come together.  I have been experimenting with a number of different media but find I keep coming back to fibre and want to incorporate other media into it.  Lately I have been concentrating on crazy patchwork and fabric collages with a view to incorporating faces into them.   To date I have been using commercial moulds or using the last of some faces made at a workshop with Pearl Moon a few years ago.

In the class I am working on a half face which I can hang on the wall.   If all goes to plan I will create a headdress to go with it.   Still thinking that idea through though.    J

Bees & Synchronicity

I have been thinking about bees for some time as I have had an idea sitting in the back of my head that I want to put into/onto cloth. And, I have started drawing bees and thinking about how I can morph the drawing into a child bee (or  a bee child).

 Last Tuesday I went to Lateral Stitchers.   As a design and jump off exercise a member  put up the idea 'round and round'.  This was brainstormed and lots of words were put forward to reflect round and round. The idea is to create small fibre work which reflects this theme.

This is where the synchronicity bits fits in.  As I have been thinking on 'round and round' and I thought about bees dancing directions to a pollen/nectar find.

Mr Google helped me find this lovely video with some amazing close up photography of bees by Bill Moyers, an American journalist and public commentator:  click here for a look.  Bill is also a social commentator and has a few salient points to make about what people have done to the world, the effect on bees and the follow on effect it has on us.

Children's Workshops & Public Art - Let me Take a Leaf Out of your Book

Most kids seem to take to stitching like a duck to water.  Wendy and I have run a couple of workshops for children (and adults) to involving them in art project involving the Guild and the City of Canada Bay.  This  links with the embroidered letters that Guild members have been doing.

Tree of Knowledge - letters stitched by members of
the Embroiderers' Guild NSW

This aspect of the  Public Art project involves encouraging members  our community to stitch something which reflects something they have read.   Their stitched " leaf"  will be applied to a fabric covered tree form (think of a conical shape like a Christmas Tree) and live at Concord Library

I took a photo of the table set up at for the very first kids workshop but after that was way too busy to take any happy snaps.

I came home tired and happy.  The participants enjoyed themselves.

I am about to create a new page containing more information about how to go about making a leaf for those that have an inkling to have a go themselves.  I will post it shortly.

In the interim email me if you would like instructions in pdf format.

Big Horizons

I spent a few days in the Wimmera in country Victoria a couple of weeks ago. 

I felt the city lift from shoulders as I drive north from Melbourne.  The landscape flattens and the horizons grow larger and lower.  The grain silos stand high in the sky and the roads are long and straight.  My formative years were spent with horizons and vistas such as this and I feel renewed whenever I am in flat open country.

There are a lot of period houses in  Birchip .  (the town I stayed at) .  The gum trees in the street still had flowers on them and I couldn’t resist taking photos of them.  The camera in my mobile phone makes this so very easy to do.  (I am a late comer to grasping this aspect of phone technology and still cling to my camera – albeit a digital one)

I was delighted to get the opportunity to get up close and personal to the gum blossoms as I am still playing with ideas which have come to mind after reading the poem “Pruning Flowering Gums’ by Lesbia Hartford.

 One night soon I will play with some Makins Clay and see what I can do to make a blossom  or two J.

Seed of an Idea - an outdoor fibre tree.

A close up of  motifs

Add cthe tree form I had to wotk with can be clearly seen

Inside looking  out.  It is interesting how different views   give a different look - light from outside drains the colour and makes coverage look sparse.  

I was (and still am) involved in a project at our local Library in a joint project between the Embroiderers' Guild NSW and the City of Canada Bay (my council area) in the creation of 4 tree installations.  The Council created 4 tree forms and sought expressions of interest to fibre artists to create a fibre installation to cover the the forms - one pf which was to live on a first floor balcony.

These are photos of the tree I made to live outside -  it has a western aspect which was challenging - the strong Aussie sun is a cruel mistress when it comes to colour.  The motifs are from  a repurposed table cloth and treated with a water based fabric hardener which is weatherproof.  The colours selected reflect colours used internally.  I used aluminimum wire which is a wonderfully sogft and a breeze to bend.

Thanks to Paverpol Australia for their sponsorship and support in this part of the project.

Hussif Crazy Patchwork Challenge

I have taken up Sharon Boggin's challenge to make a crazy patched hussif for myself. Sharon does exquisite work and is an extremely generous stitcher.  I have enjoyed visiting her blog for a number of years - check it out and see what I mean.

A hussif is a sewing roll in which sewing requisites are stored.   I plan to make a book rather than a roll with a soft front and a stiffened back.

I went with an orange theme as my daughter has been working on a major project for her design course at TAFE and there are many bright scraps around.  I didn't factor in what the other colours would do when I patched them all together but I will keep adding more thread, stitches and whatnot and see what comes of it.  I am enjoying just picking up and adding a line here and there.

  

I will post some  more in about a week and a bit when I have added more stitches and hopefully taken a photo with truer colours.






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