Legendary, charismatic textile artist Nike Davies-Okundaye has led a live that is as colourful and eventful as her art. Now recognised as one of Nigeria’s foremost textiles artists, she has spent the last five decades successfully invigorating the traditional techniques of batik and adire, merging them with shimmering passages of embroidery and intricate patchworks loaded…
Making a Difference: The Textile Art of Nike Davies-Okundaye
Having started sewing on a very simple Singer machine, I was over the moon when I upgraded to my Pfaff Ambition 630 3.5 years ago. I wrote a comprehensive review of it on my blog after a couple of months of use, but now that it’s been with me for a few years, I would…
I had such old window treatments on this glass door for years and I knew it was within my abilities to do something about it and to do it in a beautiful creative way! This is beginner friendly if you take it slow. If you want to get very complex and creative with this design,…
I should start with a caveat. I think the idea of ‘flattering’ is so steeped in society’s obsession with controlling what women wear, that writing about picking patterns that suit my body type feels like walking a very tricky line. That being said, we cannot deny that certain silhouettes will make us feel wonderful, will…
British-based, self-proclaimed ‘slow-stitcher’ Jessie Cutts is founder of the eccentric textile company Cutts & Sons, for which she produces hand-made, intricate quilts, wall-hangings and fabric-based artworks with a rich and deeply tactile quality. “There’s no mass-production here!” she says. Instead, each fabric piece is carefully crafted from a blend of natural, sustainable fabrics, many of…
Some of us edge into garment sewing from a quilting or crafting habit, or perhaps someone’s child needs a costume. I’ve seen people hang a piece of fabric on themselves and start cutting. I’ve had all of those starts, but none of it stuck until I picked up my first dress pattern. Years down the…
My most favourite old English dessert has to be Sussex Pond. The name conjures up images of a dour looking plate of soupy stodge. Nothing could be further from this image though. Sussex pond is a beautiful dessert made by lining a pudding basin with suet pastry, placing diced butter and demerara sugar inside then…
“The best of these designs are so eye-poppingly gorgeous that it’s hard to know how to begin to account for them. But then, good art can never be fully accounted for, just described…” Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 2002 Brilliantly eccentric and ludicrously inventive, the multi-generational quilts emerging from Boykin, colloquially known as Gee’s Bend,…
Pascal Monteil’s rich, vibrant tapestries are rich with references to stories from all around the world, featuring mystical, fictional characters in colourful, intricately adorned clothes, or taking part in collective, dream-like scenarios. As much as they invite us in to contemplate their hidden symbols and stories, they are also exquisitely made, sometimes taking up to…
As a millennial, I’m in a constant battle with my wardrobe. I’ve branched out a lot in recent years and started incorporating more color and pattern in my closet, but my comfort zone is, without a doubt, neutrals. Not so endearingly, social media has dubbed this “sad beige”. Sad or not, it’s hard sometimes to…
The great American realist Edward Hopper had a remarkable gift for observation, finding strange intrigue in the most unlikely of places. Gas stations, late-night bars and quiet buildings tucked away in the wilderness all take on an enigmatic wonder through his stark, directional lighting, angular compositions and striking accents of colour. BARN RED Linen’s entrancing…
In a world inundated with fast-moving fashion trends and mass-produced textiles, there’s an undeniable allure to what unique things I can find while secondhand shopping, thrifting, even yard sales. Fabric shopping is no different. It’s not just about finding a special piece; it’s about the thrill of finding something one of a kind and ultimately;…
Op artist Bridget Riley is a true icon of British art, whose daring and experimental ‘heat-haze’ patterns impacted a huge range of art movements including Pop Art, Minimalism, and Contemporary Art. But her influence also extended far beyond the art world, crossing over into the realms of graphics, architecture, and perhaps most prominently, fashion and…
I’ve had many sewing machines over the years. A cheap, beginner Brother that I used when I lived in Paris. I didn’t have a table so it would sit with me on the floor, crouched over, a foot out to control the pedals. I didn’t know what a hem was really, I draped and sewed…
When I first got asked if I wanted to test the new FS cotton fabric, it was a big HECK YES from me. This might sound extremely silly, over the top and maybe I’ll lose some sympathy points, but I love having stuff nobody else has (yet). I think I was born with a collector…
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