Om on the Range

oops  - I wrote this last Friday but forgot to take it out of draft mode. Here it is . .

Yes, I'm still basking in the afterglow of last night's phenomenal Obama speech. Today feels like it should be a holiday, but of course the real holiday will be November 5, when we send Bush back to Crawford. By the way, Obama supports this legislation that allows artists to take a tax deduction for the full market value of works they donate to educational institutions and nonprofit organization. 

I've finished the beaded center medallion for the piece for my yoga space -- here it is with some of the fabric I have for the backing, which will be pieced, stitched and shisha-ed:

I wanted those pure, bright colors of India and fortunately have some on hand. The magenta silk was sent to me a few years ago from Malaysia, from the man who introduced me to the power of yoga and gave me the means to do it as a daily, lifelong practice. 

Everybody's talking about The Textile Blog, and for good reason. This blog is a terrific, serious exploration of textile design and history. This is NOT your interchangeable design-craft blog with the latest cute fabric with polka dots or birds and a commentary that goes something like, "Oooooh!! I Love this! Don't you Love Love Love this?!!!!" without any explanation of what it is that they Love! about it. There's nothing wrong with those blogs, but there's no there there -- no opportunity to train the eye to recognize good design, or understand the context of the design or the textile. If you just want to look at cute patterns by the latest Amy Butler wannabe -- and sure, sometimes we all do -- this is not the site you want to bookmark, but if you want to advance your textile vocabulary and challenge your eye for beauty and pattern, then it definitely is. 

I've happily joined Rayela's FiberFocus Ning site, though I have to admit I'm not great with keeping up with the Ning community activity. Despite that, Rayela's Fiber Focus blog is a fantastic resource; we share a lot of the same instincts about textiles, culture and sustainability, and I'd love to write for her blog sometime. 

For some inspirational fine artisan clothing and accessories, visit Asiatica.  These are understated, elegant, gorgeous pieces, many made with vintage Japanese silks. 

Finally, I got a lovely e-mail from Jane Dunnewold, whom you may know as the author of Complex Cloth and other books. If you haven't visited her Web site for ArtCloth Studios, go see. It's full of great writing and fascinating ideas, tutorials, resources . . . Jane is a true Slow Cloth artist with a deep reverence for both textile traditions and modern aesthetics; her success is much deserved, and I'm very glad that she visited this blog and honored that she found interesting ideas here. I've got her Finding Your Own Visual Language on my wish list. 

I know there is a lot in this post (I've been collecting links all week) -- thanks for reading all the way through. Have a great weekend and look to the future.

Comments

[Helene H]

What a beautiful embroidered OM, I love it ! The colours are unusual but really attractive.

Am also terribly excited by the Textile Blog, thanks for the link.

[Lainie]

Thanks Heather! No worries about the duplicate comments -- somehow Typepad does that.
I love (LOVE LOVE LOVE?) silk too -- there is something so magical about it. My dance teacher specializes in veil dancing and she often talks about how silk veils really have a life of their own -- you can't control them, you have to be "one with the veil."

[Heather]

Oh, and yes, I love the silks for your project. When I went to China all I bought were metres and metres of silk!

[Heather]

Oh I really like Jane Dunnewold - I will definitely check out all these links. Thanks for expanding my textiles world (and for the well-put rant about Amy Butler wannabes). Shall I say I LOVE LOVE LOVE the rant?

[Lainie]

Thank you Angela, and thank you Jude -- I know I was a little grumpy about the gushy textile design sites -- though my grumpiness is more about the bad writing than the fabrics, which of course I love too. The Textile Blog is definitely a wonderful find in a class of its own, though.

[jude]

the beaded piece has inner AND outer glow.
thanks for the focus on a little textile talk with out the i love in it. a bit of good balance.

[Angela Raincatcher]

There is a really beautiful beaded piece. Brilliant colors.