In amongst the wild forests and fjords near the Nordic town of Rissa lies a small, hidden community: the Fosen Folk School. Part of Norway’s wider ‘folk high school’ pedagogy, the school takes an alternative approach to education, focussing on the development of practical, handcrafted skills for life rather than tests and grades. From tiny…
Learning to Survive: Norway’s Fosen Folk School
When I sat down recently to make the Nico bias cut dress, I realized just how ironic it was that I was sewing with white linen: it was Labor Day. I, like everyone else, am familiar with the age-old rule that tells us not to wear white after Labor Day, but I wasn’t sure where…
Last year I decided to prepare for a launch of a children’s line of clothing and this little jacket was the first piece I designed. As a huge fan and loyal customer of Fabrics-store, I had so many scrap pieces of linen and I didn’t want to waste a bit. This Terra linen played a…
Exactly a year ago I posted my first Instagram video about anxiety. I was finishing a summer in Greece and I wanted to tell the truth behind the bright, happy pictures and my ‘super fun’ sewathon to get my capsule wardrobe ready. I hadn’t shown the sloppy insides of rushed makes or the struggle with…
Makes enough to coat fish for 6, plus extra for sandwiches the next day This is a quintessential Parsi fish dish, favoured at weddings and other special occasions – and for good reason. Imagine, if you will, a succulent chunk of firm, white fish, coated in a paste of ground coconut, fresh coriander leaves and…
Bauhaus textile artist and weaver Otti Berger was one of the greatest innovators of her generation, producing a dazzling array of complex and intricate fabrics that have inspired generations since. During her time as a student and later a teacher with the legendary German Bauhaus school she was endlessly inventive, experimenting wildly with weaving methods…
Pioneering modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe made a series of radical breakthroughs during the early to mid-20th century, taking seemingly ordinary, everyday subjects and investing them with a newfound wonder. Of all the subjects she painted, it is her flowers that have received the most critical acclaim; fleshy, bold, and daringly direct, they broke away from…
I think most of have been on the hunt for the perfect pleated trousers…or at least it seems that way when scrolling my Instagram feed. There is an abundance of patterns out there right now and the fact is, pants are just hard. I am not going to lie, I’ve bought 3-4 (maybe more!) high…
A self-proclaimed ‘late developer,’ fibre artist Claire Zeisler hit her stride during the early 1960s when she was nearly 60 years old, taking the United States art world by storm. Along with her contemporaries Lenore Tawney and Sheila Hicks, Zeisler became an outspoken, radical pioneer in the Fibre Art movement, taking the historical tradition of…
Last summer, I had the incredible opportunity to take part in a weaving workshop, taught by Deborah Livingston-Lowe, of Upper Canada Weaving – a kind-hearted, and passionate weaver. This was my very first experience weaving. After my initial pass through the loom, I was hooked! My two times great-grandfather worked as a ‘tenter’ in Scotland….
Sewing, to me, is not just about creating a piece of clothing; it’s about telling a story, diving into a creative, dopamine head space, and ultimately sharing a piece of my personality with the world. I have always viewed “dressing” as an expression of self and sewing allows me to take that even further. My…
I used to have a jumpsuit in this lovely color and I really liked it but over time the seams wore out because it was pull-on over the hips with no zipper. A jumpsuit was actually one of my original designs for myself and my daughters when I started Ma Ma Osa so many years…
American artist Sanford Biggers has an incredibly diverse and eclectic practice encompassing a vast range of media, including film/video, sculpture, installation, music and performance. But his eclectic textile art is one of the most celebrated aspects of his oeuvre, in which he stitches together a vast array of fabric swatches into brilliantly bright, daringly experimental…
After living in the Southern part of the United States for the last six years, my husband and I packed up all of our belongings and drove over two-thousand miles across country to Portland, Oregon. To say this move was a long time coming is a bit of an understatement; we’d been looking for a…
In Vincent van Gogh’s late paintings, pale blues like Sky became a primary feature, documenting his own intimate, expressive response to the landscapes of Saint-Remy and Auvers. His landscapes convey the wonder he felt at the swirling, iridescent blue light opening out above and all around him, which he painted in sparkling, luminescent shades of…
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