Leader in the Russian Constructivist movement of the early 20th century, Varvara Stepanova was a true radical, whose long and prolific career spanned many disciplines including painting, photography and design. Yet it was through textile production that she was able to live out her true life’s mission, to bring art out of the gallery space…
Bold Simplicity: The Soviet Textiles of Varvara Stepanova
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do. I’m an architect, but also have been working in pottery, sewing, and knitting in my spare time. I have been pursuing pottery for almost four years. I learned sewing from my parents when I was a child. They ran a clothing manufacturing business, making high…
The outside temperature dipped into the negatives this week in southern Wisconsin. Deep winter is among us. Tucked inside a drafty old farmhouse wearing many layers of wool with a space heater at my feet, I continued sewing my summer wardrobe. On the schedule this week? The MAGDA Pant in a NATURAL Linen. If you…
Zika and Lida Ascher were shape-shifting rulebreakers, who pushed the bounds of British fabric design in daring and unconventional new directions. Arriving in the UK at the outbreak of the Second World War, the young couple successfully redefined the bleak face of post-war British textiles throughout the 1940s with electrifying bursts of colour and life,…
Following on from Part One last weekend, here is Part Two of our Shibori techniques tutorial. Remember to check the Organic Indigo Vat Tutorial to use in combination with these techniques. The first method I will show you is a traditional Japanese technique known as Itajme. This is the name given to a method of…
ASH Linen’s cool, quiet tone became areas of peaceful respite in Edouard Vuillard’s intimate interiors, drenching private spaces in a mysterious and enigmatic light. Leader in the Parisian Intimiste movement of the early 20th century, Vuillard’s paintings focussed almost exclusively on private indoor spaces, painted with soothing colours to convey a quality of quiet isolation…
Don’t you just love it when your garment looks as good on the inside as the outside? There are many terrific sewing techniques that can provide a neat and clean finish to your projects and the flat-felled seams are one of them. A flat-felled seam finish gives sturdy seams and a clean look. Just like…
Russian designer Anna Andreeva made a remarkable contribution to textile history, looking to the future with designs based on radio waves, electricity, algorithms and op art. Much like her predecessors Lyubov Popova and Varvara Stepanova, Andreeva combined the playful, abstract geometry of Russian Constructivism with industrial manufacture, spreading her ideas far and wide for the…
Following on from our recent Organic Indigo Vat Tutorial, today we have a Shibori tutorial for you in two parts. Shibori is the Japanese word for the ancient art of creating patterns through resistance and manipulation. This is usually done by binding, stitching or clamping fabric before dyeing in an Indigo vat. There are many…
LUNAR ROCK linen’s shimmering grey often appeared in American Impressionist Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones’ lively scenes, casting pockets of warm shadow amidst areas of colour and light. One of America’s most celebrated turn-of-the-century painters, Sparhawk-Jones portrayed ordinary urban scenes, from shoppers in department stores to children roller-skating and mothers in the park with wide brushstrokes and sparkling…
If something about pleats reads as old-fashioned or formal in your mind, let our Sara Pleated Pants sewing pattern be the proof they can be anything but. Everything about these pants is as effortlessly chic as it gets. They are relaxed and airy, the sort of pants you’d want to wear all summer long on…
Lucienne Day was one of Britain’s foremost post-war designers, creating dazzling textiles that decorated almost every home across the country throughout the 1950s and beyond. Drawing on the English tradition for plant-based forms including flowers, grasses and seed heads, she went on to transform them into radical, abstracted repeat patterns, symbolising the regrowth of a…
Sand linen’s full bodied saffron yellow was a favourite with French painter Maurice de Vlaminck, setting his paintings alight with warm, iridescent flames of colour. Central to Vlaminck’s practice was the relationship between colours, which could express riotous outbursts of emotion, with his distinctive shade of mustard yellow playing a top note above the rest. Reflecting…
We arrived at the lake on Monday evening around sunset. Snowy pine branches swayed in the wind. “I am home”, I thought. I grabbed my grandma’s old sewing machine from the car, the first item I packed for this winter trip to the cabin. The first to be unpacked, too. This week, I’m working from…
“One has to dream. And one must stand out from the rest.” Armi Ratia Finnish design house Marimekko is world-renowned for its punchy, eye-catching patterns that have adorned everything from printed textiles to clothing, wallpaper, tableware and furniture. Founded by the power couple Viljo and Armi Ratia in the 1950s, the Marimekko brand transformed the…
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