Les Cercles

Motorcycle Shop Window

Circles are my favorite shape. I hadn't really given it much thought until I looked through my vacation photos from my trip to Paris last summer. There I noticed circle after circle - in fine art, food, graffiti...I'm not sure why I'm so attracted to circles. Maybe it's because they're clean - no sharp corners or messy ends. Maybe it's because they represent calming concepts like eternity, infinity, unity.  Or maybe it's because, as designed, the circle naturally draws me in and narrows my focus to whatever experience or message is being shared inside that circle. The more I think about it though, the more I believe that everything just looks better in a circle.  For whatever reason, I like circles. If you like circles too, I hope you enjoy my Paris pics and I invite you to follow my Circles Board on Pinterest.

Delaunay Painting, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

"Look at the Sky" graffiti

Original art by the owner of our apartment on rue de Clery

Babar Exhibit at Les Arts Decoratifs

Candles at The Church of Saint-Eustace

Jennifer Shorto: Textile Designer

Three things happen to me when I see a textile that I absolutely love. One, I want to own it immediately. Two, I desperately wish that I had designed it. And three, I feel compelled to run to my easel, full of inspiration and a desire to make something just as special. The designs of Jennifer Shorto make me feel all of these things. Based in Paris, Shorto studied Art History at the Louvre Museum and has collected antique textiles for over twenty years. Her eclectic collection and world travels have directly inspired her work as a designer. Explaining her passion for collecting, Shorto says "the thing with old textiles-you can see where things cross over, the migration of people and cultures. They can be a wonderful way to explore history." Shorto's newest line includes The Candy Collection of cushions made in collaboration with a Ghanaian village. The brightly colored pillows utilize the Kente cloth tradition of piecing woven strips of fabric while still feeling fresh and modern. I'm in love!

See more of Shorto's textile designs after the jump.

Fibercopia and Furoshiki

As I've embarked on my self-directed MFA in Textile Design my 'classroom' thus far has mainly been books, museums and the internet. One great resource I've discovered online is Fibercopia, a blog written by designer and textile aficionado Arcadia Smails. The site regularly introduces new designers and independent textile companies while also informing the reader on traditional textile design and history. Yesterday's post did all that at once by featuring "Folded Paper", a new design by Lucinda Newton-Dunn for Furoshiki. The company produces new patterns for "a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth that was frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods. Although possibly dating back as far as the Nara period, the name, meaning 'bath spread', derives from the Edo period practice of using them to bundle clothes while at the sento (public baths). Before becoming associated with public baths, furoshiki was known as hiradzutsumi, or flat folded bundle. Eventually, the furoshiki's usage extended to serve as a means for merchants to transport their wares or to protect and decorate a gift." The "Folded Paper" cloth is available for purchase from Plastic.

photo via Fibercopia

The Girard Collection of International Folk Art

I'm a big fan of the work of textile designer Alexander Girard, so when I found myself within an hour's drive of Santa Fe last month I jumped at the chance to visit the Girard Wing at the Museum of International Folk Art. It is here that a portion of the enormous collection of folk art collected by Girard and his wife Susan is displayed. In a word, it was magical. Turning the corner into the exhibit I felt the same sense of wonder that I did as a 6 year old on the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland. Dolls, toys, textiles, masks, hats, nativities, and more fill every inch of the vast space. And the qualities I so admire in Girard's textile designs - vibrant colors, superb sense of scale, whimsical motifs - all come through in the collection's installation which Girard designed. Whenever I need an infusion of creative inspiration I will return to this special place.

I believe we should preserve this evidence of the past, not as a pattern for sentimental imitation, but as a nourishment for the creative spirit of the present.

- Alexander Girard

Seeing Red @ Tate Modern: London

Post-War British Textiles: LONDON

Apollo (detail) by Lucienne Day

Aquarius by Jacqueline Groag

Variation by Paule Vézelay

My textile tour of London continued with a visit to the Fashion and Textile Museum and their exhibit Designing Women: Post-War British Textiles. It was a total inspiration. The bleak days of World War II era England all but disappeared with the revolutionary new designs produced in 1950s Britain - many by women. Large scale, abstract patterns presented in vivid hues heralded a new day in design and no doubt helped raise the spirits of millions of people who now decorated their homes and adorned their bodies with these colorful textiles. The most prominent designer exhibited was Lucienne Day who made a significant impact on the design world with her 1951 pattern Calyx. Among the other designers included were Jacqueline Groag, Marian Mahler, and Paule Vézelay whose work I particularly admired.

In addition to being introduced to several new (to me) textile designers, I learned a great deal in a small, adjacent exhibit titled "Creating a Printed Textile with Sanderson".  Here, the many steps involved in creating a new textile were illustrated using Claire Hart's design "Hayward", pictured below.  I was particularly fascinated to learn more about the roller printing process having only practiced with screen printing.  With roller printing, the design is etched into large, heavy copper cylinders, or rollers (pictured below).  The cloth will then pass through several rollers, one for each color in the pattern.  While costly, the process allows for great lengths of fabric to be printed in a relatively short amount of time. 

So much inspiration!  I immediately bought a pack of colored pencils to start sketching on the plane.  Visit this museum, and when you do be sure to enjoy a very good cream tea in their café (teapod@FTM), and pop into their small, but lovely museum shop (where I scored an amazing vintage dress decorated with illustrations of the Queen's Coronation for my mum mom.  I'll share it in a future post, it's that fab!)

The Fashion and Textile Museum

83 Bermondsey Street

London

SE1 3XF

T: 020 7407 8664

www.ftmlondon.org

Selvedge Shop: LONDON

Selvedge Magazine has long been a source of inspiration to my work with textiles.  Each issue explores a range of subjects organized around a central theme.  It was the Britannia issue (#40) that taught me about the Queen Street Mill Museum, thought to be the last steam-driven weaving shed in the world (and location for the mill scene in the film The King's Speech).  My dog-eared issue React! (#09) contains the fantastic article "Painterly Patterns" that spurred my interest in early 20th-century artists working in pattern and textile design.

Needless to say, when I was planning my itinerary for my recent trip to London a visit to the Selvedge Shop topped the list.  A delayed flight from NYC meant that I had time to drop my luggage and hop a bus to Highgate with not a minute to spare (they are not open on weekends!).  The shop is small and fronts the editorial offices for the magazine.  Despite its size, the shop is filled with treasures: from a wonderfully curated selection of books and notions to bins of textiles and handmade items like the creatures by artist Tamar Mogendorff pictured above.  I highly recommend a visit.


Selvedge
162 Archway Road
London, N6 5BB
Open:  M-F 9:30 am - 5:30 pm

More pics of this textile-lovers dream shop after the jump.