Red Thread Studio: Slow Cloth, New Cloth, Art Cloth

Musical Interlude and Fabric Vegetables

Music is important in my life, though I don't have a gift for it myself. I've put in my petition for a beautiful singing voice in my next life. In this life, though, I can enjoy and support the musical gifts of others and let their music inform my art. One of my best jobs ever -- in terms of content, if not pay -- was working for e-town in its early days, where I got to meet some of my musical heroes. Here's what's on my musical radar right now:

• I saw a young singer-songwriter named Anais Mitchell at a house concert here in Boulder, and I'm completely smitten with her songs. She's a true artist and frighteningly talented, also hardworking and charming. If you have the chance to see her live, take it, and you'll be able to tell somebody about it when she's really famous. To keep this on-topic, she has a poignant song about wearing a dress her grandmother made and the generational seismic shift, called I Wear Your Dress -- here are the lyrics:

This is just to tell you that I wear your dress sometimes
The one you made with gold brocade and the empire waistline
You fitted to your figure when it looked just like my own
That was Jersey in the fifties, and the women stayed at home

So you laid your paper pattern on the table in between
The silverware and napkins and the Harper's magazines
From a slow suburban season that is nothing but a dream
To your granddaughter

This is just to tell you that I wear your dress sometimes
I wear it down to the bar in town and dance around all night
Talking and joking, swearing and smoking like any stranger in a crowd
And nobody stares, nobody cares to tell me I'm not allowed
I am allowed

And my body, by the letter of the law, is still my own
When I lay down in the darkness, unburdened and alone
With the liberty you've given like the clothing you've outgrown
To your granddaughter

• Not on-topic, but I'm going to tell you anyway: for those of you who remember Delaney & Bonnie ("Only You Know and I Know"), Bonnie Bramlett has a brand-new CD out, and my dear friend and gifted artist  Steve Conn wrote the title song. It's called Beautiful, and it's a gorgeous, sad song -- I like 'em that way -- about one of those deeply intimate, painful moments in a relationship when your soul is laid bare.

Okay, back to textile art and craft and my attention-deficient Internet wandering. I was looking at designer Lena Corwin's blog this morning because I'm interested in her forthcoming book, Printing By Hand. That led me to these wonderful recycled fabric scallions and other vegetables by Sian Keegan. I have a total weak spot for whimsical fabric fruits and vegetables, and for fabric with food prints too -- I even bought a Japanese craft book a few months ago just for the endearing fabric pears on the cover. So maybe this is just the day to get an errand or two done, put in some time with work, and then crank up the stereo and make a pear.

Slow Cloth: The Quality of Expression

When I started this blog, I had a big general intention to make my lifelong passion for textile art, craft and design a more central focus in my life, and to connect with others doing all kinds of work with textiles and fiber. So far, so good. I also had several specific areas I wanted to explore. One of these was my somewhat fuzzy idea about Slow Cloth, as I called it -- an authentic approach and relationship to textile art, craft, fashion and design. I've made some headway here, and articulated ten qualities or characteristics of my Slow Cloth philosophy.  This post is the first in a series exploring those qualities in depth, starting with no. 10 -- expression -- as we work our way up to joy in the process, that magical experience that keeps us committed to art and craft. This is my way of finding meaning and connection in the things I make and do, identifying it as a lifelong pursuit, an adventurous, graceful, creative, healing, spiritual, artistic path.

Slow Cloth is Expressive of Individuals, Communities or Cultures.

Textiles have been with us for thousands of years, and in that time, cultures have developed their own vocabulary and style to express and communicate values and meaning. These systems can be incredibly rich and nuanced. In the height of the geisha era in Japan, it's said that anyone could "read" a kimono -- the pattern on the fabric, the colors, the way it was worn -- and glean an incredible amount of information. Everything meant something. The textile arts were a way of telling stories and communicating that was unique to the culture. Yet even those not fluent in the language could appreciate the sheer art, beauty and character of the objects and the ways they were worn and used.

The idea of individual expression through textiles or art is more recent, from a historical perspective, but gives us unlimited capacity for freedom, imagination and creativity. We no longer have to be anonymous, as so many artisans and craftspeople have been through the ages, using the language of the collective in their designs -- we can create our own languages and symbols.

The Slow Cloth approach doesn't put a high value on efficiency or making everything identical. The hand of the maker wants to be seen and be evident, whether the maker is an individual or a community or a culture, or all three.

In our time, cultures influence each other and are interwoven. We have the great luxury of being able to see and share textiles from all over the world, in an instant. I love the idea of honoring and using cultural traditions while interpreting them in contemporary ways that feel right for today, and that's what I see so many wonderful textile artists and designers doing. Art and craft are not static -- they are living energies that need new practitioners to keep them alive, new contributions to the DNA. There is value in preserving the knowledge and techniques that give us a foundation for the new.

For those of us who are modern nomads who have moved around a lot, who feel an affinity with many groups and yet don't identify too much with any one, that in itself is something to express. Some artists and designers ultimately want to "go home" and work with the communities where they began, like Natalie Chanin. Others travel far to learn and experience the crafts of lives very different from their own.

To think about: what is your work expressive of? What traditions do you work with or respond to, which communities, which cultural influences? What inspires you? How do you speak with cloth, color, stitching -- and what do you want to say?

Photo: © Tran Thi Hoa / World Bank

Arte Y Pico Award and Blog Love

The lovely Arlee at DesignJournal blog has selected me for an Arte Y Pico award for creativity, design, interesting material and contributing to the blogging community. This is just so nice -- thank you, Arlee. I appreciate it so much.

There are 5 rules attached to this award and they are :

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.
4) The Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award (blogger in Uruguay).
5) To show these rules.

So now it's my turn to pass this award along to five other bloggers. You may know these already, but if not do visit.

1. Sara at The Fabric of Meditation. First of all, I'm in awe of anyone who can blog so well in two languages. Second, her work is always a wonderful surprise.
2. Harmony's The Journey is the Prize blog about organic fabrics and the world of sustainable textiles. Harmony is a highly creative fabric designer, great businessperson, and all-over nice person who walks her talk very gracefully.
3. Dijanne's Musings of a Textile Itinerant never, ever fails to inspire and move me. She'll probably get this award many times over. Dijanne truly works from the heart and makes you feel like a close friend, though she has many thousands of readers.
4. Deidre's Abstractions blog -- as noted here, I've been a fan of Deidre's paintings on quilted surfaces for a long time, and now her blog is a chance to learn more about her thinking and process.
5. Pilar's Deux Frontieres blog is a brilliant journal of culture, art, textiles, design and life in Paris. Ahhhh. In some of my favorite alternate universes I'm living in Paris or London or another great capital of culture and society, but not today, at least not in this dimension of reality -- so I'm thankful for the blogs that take me there.

In other blog news: As I've mentioned, I write posts for EcoSalon.com. EcoSalon has been picked up by the blog aggregator Alltop.com, so I've spent some time using Alltop. They have pages for the top blogs in many topics, including green news and products, fashion, design, art, books, and a new page for crafts where both In A Minute Ago and Spirit Cloth are featured.

Finally, I've added an abbreviated version of my 10 Qualities of Slow Cloth to the sidebar. As promised, I'll begin my series of posts expanding on this list next week.

Pattern Recognition

Sometimes I feel so reckless and wild
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
I gave nobody life
I am nobody's wife
And I seem to be nobody's daughter
So red is the color that I love the best
It's your Indian skin and the badge on my chest
The heat of my pride
The lips of a bride
The heart of the truth
And the flag of youth
And the blood that is thicker than water
I was born to be telling this story
I am finally telling this story
I will always be telling this story.     -- shawn colvin, the story

Nice to see you again here in cyberspace! I have been a very recalcitrant blogger. I got seriously derailed in the last couple of weeks, in part because of dental issues that aren't going away quickly. Like Acey at SparklingLotusLand, dental situations bring up a lot of early-life issues for me (and I have some doozies) and they never happen at the right time.

I'm also a bit stalled in my efforts to restructure my life since losing my job in late August. It's been some time now, and I have excellent freelance projects, but it's not quite where I want or need to be. I don't know what the answer is, and hesitate to talk about it too much, but part of what I'm doing here is exploring ideas for ways that I can finally make a living, contribute to the world, and use my skills in something that involves textiles, after spending nearly 15 years mostly working in the organic foods industry and somewhat cut off from my creative self.

 

 

I have a lot of expertise and passion for the principles of the organic foods movement, but sadly it has felt like a dry well for me for quite some time, though it has given me a grounding in issues very relevant to sustainable textiles and apparel. I've had a lot of false starts with art and textiles, so now it is past time to get serious, and I am ready and eager to find work that I really love, whether editorial, entrepreneurial, communicating, designing, getting an advanced degree and teaching, other, or all of the above. There really is no going back. (And if you are interested, my resume is linked in the sidebar.) So -- path forward -- dare I say clear eyes, full heart, can't lose, for my fellow Friday Night Lights fans.

Readers, when it comes to creating, how do you find focus? I love art quilts, bead embroidery, painting, garment sewing, and more -- I love to make beautiful and meaningful things. Art quilter Lisa Call says to affirm that there is enough time, but do you think it's more important to follow one muse, or work with a broad range of techniques? Is that the difference between the artist and the hobbyist -- the ability to leave a hundred shiny objects behind and focus on one path? For me the danger has always been doing nothing when presented with too many possibilities and choices; at the same time everything feels connected and enticing. In some ways this relates to the fantastic comment threads on Craft 2.0 and Slow Cloth -- I appreciate the stimulating discussion so much, and thank all of you who commented.

Many of us are surely torn between making art that would properly be shown in a gallery and doing things with more practical, and even marketable, applications. Lately I've found myself surfing through sites of artisan fabrics, many hand-printed, primarily for interiors. Textile print design is a whole area of specialization all its own, considered a decorative art, and a rich and world-enhancing one. Prints and patterns can have so much charm, or whimsy, or sophistication, or tribal expression. Enjoy these links, and come back soon for more ideas, thoughts, and updates on work and projects.

• Galbraith & Paul in Philadelphia creates beautiful, modern hand-printed textiles. I've taken note of them before and was reminded of them at Fibercopia. This is called Spring Garden:
                                              

• Bird Textile is an Australian company focused on sustainability. It's not letting me pick up an image, but visit their cool site.

• My friend Harmony at Harmony Art creates beautiful designs on organic cotton and has a great blog; she's interested in working more with quilters and artists, and is speaking at the sold-out SAQA/SDA Breaking New Ground conference in April in Philadelphia. You can buy her fabrics by the yard at Near Sea Naturals.  Visit her site -- I'm having no luck with images today.

Slow Cloth Inspiration, February 1

I was doing a Google search for khadi -- the homespun cotton that Ghandi wore and promoted -- and came across the wonderful Fibercopia blog. Author Arcadia is an interior designer; she has an incredible eye for beautiful and interesting textiles from all over the world, and a ton of knowledge.

Rowland and Chinami Ricketts are masters of natural dyeing and traditional techniques at RickettsIndigo. Visit their site full of stunning work -- you will not be able to navigate away (but do -- come back here!). I'm in love with this piece:

Untitled Obi Yardage, 2002, indigo and charcoal dyed hemp kibira, paste resist

and saw echoes of it the next day at the Denver Art Museum's show of Color Field paintings.

Back to interiors, John Robshaw Textiles is a commercial enterprise very much in the Slow Cloth spirit. From the Web site, here is the mission statement:

Our mission is to create original, handcrafted textiles from around the world. John Robshaw Textiles employs traditional printing, dying and weaving techniques, while reinterpreting them in ways that respect the integrity of the method to create original textiles. Every textile represents a story, a drawing of an adventure in a far–off place–from Yogakarta to Rajasthan, Bolivia to Vietnam. Arriving at textiles from painting and printmaking, I am interested in the mistakes, overlapping prints and the miss-registrations of woodblocks that record the human hand.

I'm guessing that these very beautiful pillows and bedding are out of my price range for now, but the spirit of this artistry and design is contagious. I found him through VivaTerra, where you can buy some of these objects.

The incredible multimedia and quilt artist Deidre Adams has started a blog; I'm very inspired by her technique of quilting, then painting the quilted surface.

Finally, for today at least, I'm enchanted by the sustainably-produced fabrics at Bird Textile --  "Australia's first climate neutral business."  If you love textile design and are interested in what's being done in environmentally friendlier fibers, take a look.

With the new year off to a strange start, I have not yet finished my Take It Further textile art challenge piece for January -- I don't think I'm alone, but I'm not very happy about my unfinished projects. Time to work harder and smarter.