Picking your way through the minefield of which fabrics are kinder to the planet, there is a lot of confusion around cotton. As consumers and makers we tend to think cotton is one of the most humble, natural and biodegradable fabrics on the market. It comes from the natural world – we can all picture…
Category Archives: TEXTILES
The warm yellow hue of Zenith linen recalls the radiant, sun-baked wheat fields of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, where golden sunlight shimmers across the canvas and burns a hole in the sky. Yellow was a color of great personal significance to van Gogh, particularly towards the end of his life, when he flooded his…
Getting dressed in the morning, buying clothes in store or textiles for the home, the questions on our minds, as consumers and makers, are usually along the lines of: does it fit me? Do I like the style and colour? Is it easy to wash? As the world is waking up to the hidden cost…
Biodegradable sequins that actually shine; a knitted belt made entirely from seaweed; a pair of shoes made from an Amazonian leaf; leather made from apple peel and endless applications for pineapple leaves and other waste products from the food industry that would otherwise end up as compost or going straight into landfill. The material world…
There is a sparkling lightness of touch associated with Raoul Dufy’s practice, one that defines the joi de vivre of the Parisian Belle Epoque era he was raised in. One of his most popular quotations, “my eyes were made to erase all that is ugly,” reveals his inclination towards the decorative and beautiful, or the…
In this new series, we will explore three revolutionary artists who have crossed over from the art world into textiles and fashion, delving into the obstacles they faced and what led them to pursue commercial ventures. Art and fashion: two distinct industries, yet their divide is more porous today than ever. Many of today’s contemporary artists…
Many of our artisan embroiderers started their design life out doing something completely different and then found themselves in embroidery, almost by accident. This is no more true than for Evelin Kasikov who, after completing a Fine Art graphics BA at the Estonian Academy of Art, worked as a graphic designer in advertising for ten…
The next of our artisan embroiderers is Aimee Betts, who describes herself as a “˜Creator of Adornments’. Aimee combines more modern processes, such as industrial sewing and digital embroidery with the more traditional hand-sewn approach to create contemporary embellishment pieces. Her work spans fashion, interior design and visual art and includes modern crafted accessories, jewelry,…
Sydney-based sisters’ Maricor and Maricar Manalo‘ describe themselves as “˜Makers of Things assorted’. They’re designers, illustrators and animators by trade, but in recent years have gathered somewhat of a cult following due to their incredible embroidery skills. ‘ Their hand-stitched typographic works are playful and geometric as well as bursting with color, and have earned MaricorMaricar commercial and…
The first of our embroiderers is Emily Jo Gibbs,’ a British artist specializing in hand-stitched textiles. A member of the 62 Group, she became internationally known for her exquisite luxury handbags, but has recently found more artistic acclaim for her embroidered portraits. Her unique ability to bring objects and drawings to life with embroidery means…
Similar to our exploration of the Bohemian Modern trend, we’ve noticed a revival of artisan craftsmanship across the western world. Young people are stepping away from technology and learning a more traditional craft – be it woodwork, beer brewing or knitting – and turning that craft into a business. The last few decades have seen…
When people ask me about craftivism,* I love to talk to them about what’s happening now and who’s doing what here in the present. However, I also try and remember to make the point that craftivism is nothing new, as like with The AIDS Memorial Quilt, which I mentioned last week, many amazing craftivism projects…
After donation and beautification, notification is the third tenet of Craftivism.* Compared to the other two tenets, notification tends to garner the most discussion. Unsurprisingly, it is also the one most likely to hit people with the biggest punch, as it features a juxtaposition between the “soft” world of craft and the “hard” world of…
This post is the 3rd in a series about craftivism. If you missed the previous posts, you might want to check out the Introduction and Part I. The second tenet of craftivism is beautification, or making your surroundings more beautiful by using your craft skills. As yarn bombing is what people think of first when…
A finger puppet from Craft Hope’s project with Country Woman magazine Last week on the blog, I wrote an introduction to craftivism, an international creative movement that I started in 2003. As I noted last week, within craftivism, I created three different tenets to help illustrate whether something falls under that umbrella:’ 1) donation (creating items…
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