Sew2Speak » Other creative stuff

Long night of the museums

Ruth — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 17:21:10 +0000

Yesterday Frankfurt put on a really neat event for Sqeze’s birthday It started at 7 p.m. and went on until 2 a.m. In fact it is an annual event and just happened to fall on the 24th April this year. 47 museums in and around Frankfurt open up their doors and put on special events all for the price of 13€ a nose. As we had never been before and have been meaning to visit some of the other museums in Frankfurt before we move on to warmer climes, we decided to go. Apart from being able to visit the museums themselves, some of the museums had live bands and music and dancing.

We only visited 3 of the museums before getting tired feet and exhibit overload. We went to the museum of applied art where we saw some amazingly old and beautiful wooden cupboards and chests of drawers, including this 18th century example, where the tumbling blocks marquetry caught my eye.

Next stop was the museum of world cultures which is quite small, but also has an impressive collection of objects including some wonderful textiles. Unfortunately it was too dark to get any good photos of those, but these neat masks in the education department did photograph well.

And in case you were wondering what they are made of, here’s the answer:

Kitchen sieves!

Final stop was the museum of communication where there was a live band playing with people dancing. There was an interesting exhibition of faked digital images, some of which were really very good. It was very popular though and quite crowded. In fact we even had to queue up to leave the museum!

We’ve had the first warm weekend of the year, so it was quite pleasant walking around Frankfurt at night. Considering that fact that we had frost 3 nights in a row in the week it was quite a change.

It’s been quite a week of culture, because on Wednesday evening we went on a guided tour around the Uwe Lausen exhibition too. You can’t help wondering whether he would be much better known if he had lived a bit longer than 31 years.

Wangechi Mutu

Ruth — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:38:30 +0000

Wangechi Mutu has been named the Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year for 2010. She is Kenyan born, but now lives and works in New York. Her work is mostly collages made from a variety of media, including conventional fashion and lifestyle glossies, pornography, and automobile and motorcycle magazines. Her main motif revolves around the female body. The works draw a fine line between horror and fascination. I find them extremely interesting.

There is an interesting article in the ArtMag from the Deutsche Bank. You can also see some of her artwork on the same page. You can listen to a short video of her talking about her work here.

More of her work is shown on the Saatchi Gallery website. Included are some quite provoking collages on found medical illustration paper.

And finally if that hasn’t been enough here is her homepage on ArtNet.

Quilty as charged

Ruth — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:23:50 +0000

Sorry about the title – it’s a bit naff imho, but that is what the Guardian chose to title the gallery of photos showing the work of inmates in Her Majesty’s Prisons. You can see the finished quilt ‘Wandsworth Quilt’ made by inmates at HMP Wandsworth that was produced on commission for the V&A Exhibition Quilts 1700-2010 as I posted about last December. I know I keep returning to this topic, but it caught my imagination somehow.

In the gallery there was a link to the website of Fine Cell Work. It is certainly worth a visit. There is some very fine needlework displayed there. If you are looking for a gift for someone who appreciates handwork you might well find one there. The testimonials are positive. I have to admit to being tempted by the needlepoint and tapestry kits. There are some lovely designs.

Alexander McQueen’s last collection

Ruth — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:21:42 +0000

I have to admit that I wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about when McQueen’s death last month hit the headlines. He wasn’t actually on my radar, although I wasn’t completely unaware of him. A little research showed that he certainly designed some wonderful fashions.

But when I saw this gallery of images on the Guardian website this afternoon, then I realised that a giant in the industry had left us. His final collection is was truly amazing. Read more on the Guardian website here.

More books

Ruth — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:19:37 +0000

Can’t seem to stop buying more books. These are my latest two purchases. I already have one book by Jennie Rayment about creating texture by various folding techniques. After finding the table of contents and some of the photos on a web site I decided that there was enough new stuff in this book to make it worth buying another. These techniques use up a lot of fabric, but certainly add plenty of textural interest.

Sneaky Amazon of course recommended more books to buy and I couldn’t resist this one by Claire Schaeffer. When I’ve finished by C&G course I am hoping to find time to do some more dressmaking. I’ve taken 2 tailoring classes in the past so not all of the techniques in this book are new to me, but it is an excellent guide to couture sewing techniques and there are plenty of new tips and techniques to justify the purchase. You also get an interesting glimpse into the workings of the ateliers of the Haute Couture.

And finally if Haute Couture and tailoring interest you, you might like to take a look at the English Cut blog by bespoke savile row tailor Thomas Mahon. Not one of my regular reads, but one I return to at infrequent intervals.

Lui Bolin

Ruth — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:33:25 +0000

I was browsing the Guardian newspaper website and came across this set of truly amazing images.

Entitled Hiding in the City the artworks show the Chinese artist Lui Bolin camouflaged against city locations in China and the UK. I really had to look quite hard to find him in the final image of the series.

Playing with ideas

Ruth — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:00:00 +0000

I’ve been doing some design sketches and experimenting with ideas for my final assessment piece for my C&Gs.

Marie, my tutor, had this to say about Reflections

This is the standard of work you have been aiming for, now you have reached a level that you can build on to become the practitioner you hoped that you would become, many congratulations. You have a style here that suits your personality and I agree with your comments on finding your own creative voice.

and

Now you can start to think about the quilt, you have set yourself a very high standard, I would love to see you push your boundaries even further, you have proved yourself capable of far more than we have seen previously.

So I have to raise the bar for my final piece. My current thoughts revolve around:
- hexagons
- metamorphosis
- colour to black and white

I found a useful resource on the web, where you can produce you own graph paper using various shapes. I used it to make my triangle graph paper for sketching.

Art Dolls DVD

Ruth — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:24:07 +0000

Having made my one dolly I got quite interested in the idea of making more. I’m a bit of a collector/gatherer of ideas and not one of those who can work in a series for years on end perfecting one theme. So of course I started looking for more information on doll making. My C&G tutor Marie makes art dolls and I remembered reading that she was inspired by Akira Blount. So when I found this DVD by Akira on her website I decided to order it.

I’ve watched it all the way through once and then dipped into parts again. It is well worth the money I paid for it. Each chapter starts with a sequence where Akira talks about her own doll-making and then you move into the tutorial part, which is really well filmed so that you can see exactly what it going on. There are lots of good tips in there, like using hemostats (artery clamps) for getting stuffing into awkward places. And you get to see lots of the wonderful dolls that she makes.

Paper journal finished too

Ruth — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:09:39 +0000

Today I really did do everything that has to be done to get my submission for the CHF Award into the post. I was even able to leave my studio in the cellar and sit in the garden to put the finishing touches to my blog on paper. I’ve felt uncomfortable all the time with the idea that I had to produce a sketchbook aka workbook aka journal. I only began to feel happy with the idea after Linda wrote to me to say that my blog was really like a sketchbook. Since then I have been blogging on paper.

Mine will probably be the most verbose sketchbook that they have ever received, but I am expecting the judges to read every word After all, all the stuff I would usually have written here for you to read, has been committed to paper. Sorry you’ve missed it. It makes for an interesting read – even if I do say so myself.

An interesting artist

Ruth — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:30:59 +0000

My niece Katie suggested I might like to look at the work of the artist Claire Coles. I hadn’t heard of her, but liked what I saw on her website.

You would think that she was working in fabric if you didn’t know it was wallpaper.