I am pretty excited to reveal what I’ve been working on the last two months but there are just one or two details to finalise… I’ve been clocking 15 hour days (and weekends – sorry kids) to create our new website  so I haven’t been as present as I would like here. Mea culpa!

What I can divulge is that I am working with a really wonderful and gifted collaborator and starting May 2015 and after many requests we will be offering intimate gatherings and retreats in Provence.

We have created an itinerary of activities including:

• Guiding you through our favourite French flea markets;
• Visits to our favourite artists ateliers including potters, textile artists, weavers, painters, photographers, printmakers and collectors;
• Access to exclusive antique textile & brocante sales;
• Beautifully styled and thoughtful gatherings including a luxury picnic, a secret (surprise) dinner event, a farm to table dining experience and a chic cocktail dinatoire under the stars.

….and plenty of time in between to become inspired anew & connect—with others, yourself, and the world around you.

If this sounds like something you would like to know more about then you can sign up for news on our website.

Porcelain. It seems my inspiration this week echoes the pureness of the landscape around me, everything blanketed in snow, clean, blinding, beautiful.

First up, this video of Sergei Polunin’s improvised dance to “Take Me To Church” by Hozier (directed by David LaChapelle) just blew me away, it is incredibly beautiful – wow!

I also loved the beautiful floral detailing on the Alexander McQueen SS15 collection,  the collection borrowed from the attire of geishas and samurai warriors, obviously reinvented in a typical McQueen way to allow traditions and history to mix and combine with sensual, erotic and disturbing moods pointing towards the horror in beauty/beauty in horror dichotomy.

The McQueen team also drew on inspiration from Victorian Floral Still Life for the Alexander McQueen Pre-SS15 Menswear

I read so much about Weiwei’s Alcatraz exhibition, there was so much beauty in this exhibition but I found these images of his ‘blossom’ series the most moving.

Marc Quinn Etymology of Desire, 2010. Alexander McQueen SS15 show

Ai Weiwei’s used porcelain in his “Blossom” pieces which he displayed in the hospital ward of Golden Gate National Recreation Area’s Alcatraz Island. Weiwei placed these beautiful and delicate porcelain blossoms in the sinks, toilet and bathtubs inside each cell.

“The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.”
— Ai Weiwei

Ama means literally “women of the sea” or “people of the sea.”

I just adore these beautiful, strong, women.

I discovered this series from photographer Iwase Yoshiyuki (born in 1904 in Onjuku in eastern Japan) he documented a 2000 year old tradition that has sadly disappeared since the 1960s, the female Ama divers of the Iwawada coast (from villages (Kohaduki, Oohaduki, Futamata, Konado, Tajiri, Koura and Nagahama). The women would dive three times a day, and Yoshiuki has so beautifully captured their daily rituals, the dives, the eating to fuel their physically draining work and the communal aspect of warming themselves by the fire.
These women would earn enormous salaries ” often making more a few week season than the men of the village made in a year”, as the work required “long, cold dives, up to four minutes of hard underwater work on a single lungful of air.”

I find these images hynotic and seductive. These women are powerful, they are a tribe, they are more than capable, they are free.

Strength, friendship, community and happiness.

An Ama collapses with tiredness still smiles after a days hard work

You can view more of this wonderful series here

I don’t know why it took me so long to get into Instagram but now that I am, it has opened up this entire world of creativity, collectors and artists.  I get such a kick when I find a ribbon without documentation and now know enough to take a stab at the epoque and ribbon maker. It has been a wonderful journey of discovery – and yet there is so much that I don’t know and I can’t wait to learn and grow. Isn’t that what makes life interesting?

I discovered this weeks Les Petits Bonheurs muse, Brenda Colling, on a particularly dreamy textile voyage on instagram, her incredible range and diversity of antique textiles is truly inspiring. I couldn’t help feeling a kinship with Brenda, someone who cherishes craftmanship, design & colour.

I think for people like Brenda and I – it is not just the warp and weft that draws us in but the whispers of stories woven into these threads, stories of a tribe, be it the tenturiers of Burkina Faso or passementiers of Saint Etienne. The essence of these people is to be found amongst the fibers and by holding them in our hands, we can be a part of it – even for just a moment.

Brenda is not simply a collector and dealer of antique textiles, she is an accomplished artist who creates beautiful paper sculptural work and I am so happy that she allowed us a glimpse into her world, her creativity and collection.

Enjoy!

 “Whether the tradition is 50 or 500 years ago, these textiles have stories to tell, silently woven, appliquéd or embroidered into the fibers.”

“To begin my history, I will start with my grandmother, pictured below, with some samples of her work.

She was an expert needlewoman (English smocking), and my mentor.  Every year, right after Christmas she would begin making smocked dresses for her granddaughters. There were many of us.  It would take the year to complete them.  She would sit in her rocking chair sewing, and I would sit in another rocking chair, watching and absorbing her techniques. I have cherished these pieces, as they represent the beginnings of my collection. Dowry textiles still existed when I was a child.  My mother had a trunk full of handmade quilts when she married. We used them daily, until they disintegrated.  Later, when I  Ieft home, she bought handmade Mennonite quilts for my use.

Acquiring vintage textiles was a random activity when I began.  Friends would give me their old lace collections. Others would scour their attics for textiles untouched in decades.   From there, becoming a textile artist was a natural development.  There was an abundance of scrap material, and clothing that could be cut and recycled into art.”

“Pictured below is one of my favourite sources for fabric.  It is the Garage Antique Market in New York City, which closed a few months ago.  Many of the vendors can now be found at an outdoor market nearby.  As you noticed, my collecting interests are diverse.  The indigos from Burkina Faso are a perennial favourite.  There is a worldwide passion for indigo, that never abates.  African indigos are a sizable part of my holdings. I would love to share more pictures, but they would take up a lot of space.  Occasionally, there is a piece that I don’t want to part with, such as the Dida weavings.  The tradition has disappeared, and the pieces are quite rare.”

“Occasionally, there is a piece that I don’t want to part with, such as the Dida weavings.  The tradition has disappeared, and the pieces are quite rare.”

“The first magnificent textiles I saw were Ching Dynasty robes on exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum. They were truly breathtaking for their opulence of embroidery and colours.  Below is a garment I purchased much later.  Though not an imperial piece, it does have exquisite gold couching, in the dragons, buddhist symbols and ideograms. My interests have evolved since then.  The textiles and adornment from Africa inspire me most.”

This wonderful fabric “is Adire from Nigeria.  The design is created using a cassava resist paste.  This tradition still exists, though it is diminishing.”

“African textiles continue to be my main interest today.  The vitality of design never ceases to inspire me.”

Pictured here is an antique Hausa robe.

“It is made of hand woven cotton strips.  They are sewn together, by hand.  The embroidery is done in wild silk.”

Above is my piece exhibited in a doll show.   Antique African fabrics and beads are combined in this doll headdress.

 

Above – Photograph of Brenda Colling, wrapped in one of her designs.

 

“Pictured above is a corner of my studio.  Some of my treasures are stored in these baskets. I have a live/work studio.  The front room is where i work and store materials. But the whole apartment is full on occasion:  if I am doing 30’ draperies for example. I am happiest when I am working on a project.  This could anywhere in my home where there light and space are suitable.”

 This is the bodice detail of an indigo dress from Palestine.  A favorite of Brenda Colling

“I have many collections:  African indigo, aso oke, strip weaving, kuba, Miao. There are many pieces that I am willing to share.  Many can be seen on my blog, brendacolling.wordpress.com or website,  www.brendacolling.com

Every piece that I acquire is something that I love and cherish. When I go out sourcing, it is with an open mind.  One never knows what will be out there.

Below is an embroidered, batik Miao apron.  Another beauty in Brendas collection.

Just on foot of the beautiful images from Raf Simon’s Christian Dior show featuring our familys haute couture grosgrain ribbons, I discovered this wonderful film which gives us a delicious glimpse into the making of one dress, “Look #53″. I loved discovering the haute couture ateliers, from the dyers (teinturiers) to the ateliers Gérard Lognon (plissers des tissus)

Enjoy

Wow I am just swelling with pride for our family ribbon company. Suzy Menkes just wrote a wonderful review of his show which featured ribbons from Julien Faure.

Suzi Menkes writes “…As the models walked down the scaffolding ramp set, you could tell that each stripe, each decoration –  were works of art.”

Here are some close ups that were not in the Suzy Menkes feature – they show in detail how beautiful the ribbon detailing is on the dresses and skirts. wow wow wow, still beaming about this!

Just love the romance of this era of film-making, oh to have a time machine to travel back to the Rome of Piero Tosi, Visconti’s Costumier.

andiamo….

I’ve gotten myself bogged down into web developing and designing a new website for my new business, The French Muse, so I am conscious that I’ve been less present here and on instagram. I can’t wait to unroll my new project for you, it is really really exciting!

Meanwhile, it’s not all CSS coding, sometimes a photograph or a video catches me and distracts me from the must-do work, one such video was this gem, The Rescued Film project, on recovering 31 rolls of undeveloped film from WWII , all moments in time captured forever by a WWII soldier.

I love how they describe what drives them to preserve these images:

“Every image in The Rescued Film Project at some point, was special for someone.  Each frame captured, reflects a moment that was intended to be remembered.  The picture was taken, the roll was finished, wound up, and for reasons we can only speculate, was never developed.  These moments never made it into photo albums, or framed neatly on walls.  We believe that these images deserve to be seen, so that the photographer’s personal experiences can be shared.  Forever marking their existence in history.

Film is an organic material that degrades over time.  We are committed to rescuing as many images as possible, before they’re all gone.”

Frissons = french for when the hairs on your arm stand on end

enjoy!

I think you know how much I love glimpsing inside creative spaces, where do they make, how do they make, what do they surround themselves with for inspiration, is their desk as messy as mine? yes – it’s fine so I’m not outside the norm kind of thing.

So when my friend Kathleen Hackett forwarded me this great New York Magazine feature on her husbands, Stephen Antonsons new studio in NYC – I did a little jig. It is a beautiful space to make in and it is no wonder he is creating such great work within. His instagram gallery is astoundingly gorgeous – check it out here.

…But among the slideslow I found this gem which made my heart go pud-dum, a slice of wall that they chose not to paint over becomes a beautiful landscape painting!

“We painted the entire new space white,” Antonson says. “Kathleen suggested we save a sliver of the original wall finish. We chose to keep this area because it looked like a horizon — a seascape with a cloud overhead. I asked my 8-year-old son, James, to draw a ship, which we taped to the wall.”

And then a few hours later – I came across this beauty on the Christina Fluegges (Greige) instagram gallery and I had this huge longing for the ocean, the smell of salt in the air, going to bed at night with crunchy volumised salty hair, biting into tayto crisp and cheddar cheese sandwiches on the beach. Provence is beautiful – but I’d do anything to spend a day in Donegal right now.

A selection of images from Claires beautiful Paris instagram gallery

 “I have walked through many lives, some of them my own.”

This line from the poet Stanley Kunitz resonates for me each time I reach into one of my collections.

I grew up in San Francisco. I studied art history and design at the University of California in Berkeley and traveled a lot in my younger days. My father worked for an airline and family members were allowed to travel anywhere on the world-wide routes on a stand-by basis. I went around the world at least twice, stopping in Europe, India, Nepal, Japan, Hong Kong and China. I lived in Paris for 17 years and during that time traveled to Guatemala, Columbia, Mexico, Turkey,  Tunisia, Morocco, Afghanistan, Egypt and the French Antilles. My accumulations reflect those interests…textiles, books, antiques, postcards, ephemera, songs, vases, ceramics, plants, yarn…

My husband and I have made our home in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 28 years now.  Together we have raised five children in a blended family. They are now all grown, and my husband and I are retired. We spend time in Paris at least once or twice a year.”

Ruth: When are you happiest?

“I am an artist and a maker. I am happiest when I work with my hands, be it drawing, collage, knitting, gardening, cooking, floristry, sewing. I have several art tables and this is part of my favorite one. It is in the kitchen, my favorite room in the house. Like Maira Kalman who I greatly admire, I feel life is better with snacks. I love a cup of tea nearby.”

“Here are the front and back of a cover for a classical music mix I just made for a very close friend of mine.”

Ruth: Do you have a favorite source for your materials?

“Art magazines, museum publications and promotional materials for art exhibits are probably my favorites. Friends and family have also given me interesting paper and even vintage ephemera. Corey Amaro has kindly gifted me French material from her Tongue in Cheek brocante. I love the vintage treasures you sent me recently!”

Ruth: Do you have other collections you would be willing to share?

“From a month-long trip to Afghanistan in the ’70’s before the Soviet war in 1979 and long before the present one began in 2001, I have some much treasured objects. They are eloquent of the beautiful places I visited and the deeply hospitable people I crossed paths with. I cannot pick these up without great sadness over these devastating decades of war. These small intricately worked purses are from the ancient covered market that once existed in Mazar-I-Sharif, none more than 4 inches in length by 3 inches in width. Have I saved these items from destruction? It is a minor comfort to think so.”

“”More currently I have been collecting small vases…from brocante, thrift stores, sidewalk sales, gifts, potters’ studios. I love flowers and have done arrangements for a number of weddings of friends and acquaintances. I started out looking for small containers to put the less than perfect or broken flowers in. At this point, I have a growing population of small vases and here are just some of them.”

Ruth: Is there anything you cannot part with?

“Well, eventually one parts with everything and at this stage of my life, I try to be more modest in my collecting. I have many things from France, both old and new. Here is one thing I have always really enjoyed: My “Plan de Paris A Vol d’Oiseau” dated 1959. It is a 5ft by 8ft map of the kind that used to hang in the Paris subways. I can see every street and building. Life before GPS. Here is a small corner of my map.”