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

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

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.”

  

This past weekend we were invited to lunch in my friend Joannas house, I double, triple checked – “are you sure you don’t prefer that we leave the kids at home with a babysitter?”, surtout pas – Joanna insisted the more the merrier. I hadn’t seen Joanna since this past summer when she showed me around the old cave / garage adjoining her home, that she was planning on transforming into her studio and showroom.

It was a ruin, albeit a very beautiful 13th Century ruin with great bones but if you had handed this space to me I wouldn’t have known where to begin.

On Saturday, we stepped through the door of her new studio and it took our breath away.

Such beauty, everywhere.

Incredible high vaulted ceilings, Joannas beautiful hand printed textiles offsetting the rugged stone walls – my heart swelled up with admiration. It is one thing to be creative and quite another to have such incredible vision and see it through to make this type of a space.

I am just so excited for Joanna and all the making that will happen here. It’s the kind of place you just need to sit in for 5 minutes and feel energised.

Her art and creative spirit is in everything

Joanna has created all of the textiles used in the space including these wonderful black on linen, hand printed textiles that you see above on the cushions and upholstery.

One of my favourite blogs is that of illustrator Kris Atomic,  and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw the gorgeous photographs she took backstage at Fyodor Golan for SS15.

I can’t quite say these would fit into my current ‘mother-of-two-living-in-a-sleepy-hilltop-village-in-Provence’ wardrobe but their beautiful sculptural elements, textures and pop colours just cheer me up and I had to share.

Les Petits Bonheurs series is back for 2015 and appropriately this weeks artist, Christine Kelly of ‘Gentlework‘, is someone who I discovered thanks to Johanna Flanagan of The Pale Rook who I interviewed in November. What a wonderful gift it has been to meet so many wonderful makers, you are truly inspiring me.

I completly lost track of time the morning I stumbled into Christines blog, each image more beautiful than the next. Her handstitched treasures whisper to you, they soothe and comfort.

One image in particular touched me deeply, a photograph of antique jewel boxes inside which, Christine has hand stitched words of hope, “let go”; “have hope”, “courage dear heart”. She describes making “a collection of tiny tokens, to be called upon in times of need, slipped into a pocket, closing fingers around them, a comfort“.

I feel Christines work on a very personal level, it moves and nourishes me and right now, with events of recent days her work and stitched words have taken on a special importance.

I am so grateful to Christine for opening up her creative process and home here for Les Petits Bonheurs and know that you will enjoy discovering her work.

“I’ve always loved vintage textiles and I suppose I’ve been collecting for about 20 years or so. I use them because I prefer them to ‘new’ fabrics. I like the fact that they have a narrative, they are often soft or faded from years of washing and handling or there may be a stain, a mend or a tear which hints at their former use. The use of these materials in my work, especially in more personal pieces, means that their story and my story become intertwined.”

“I can get very attached to little scraps of fabric, even little plain pieces that may not seem very precious. I can’t remember the first piece of vintage textile that I fell in love with, and I get new favourites all the time, but one piece in particular is a small piece of broderie anglaise lace picked up at a Paris flea market, it’s old and hand worked with tiny pintucks along the bottom. It’s humble and stained and nothing special, but it has a little mend on it and it’s those tiny stitches that melt my heart….thinking how much it must have meant to someone for them to mend it with such care. I’ve used it in a piece of work, but it’s one I’m going to keep…”

“I pick up vintage pieces from all sorts of places, but mainly local antique fairs, some of the stall holders know me now! I don’t buy online much as I like to see and handle things.

When I buy vintage materials I don’t buy expensive or precious items, or anything too perfect. I’m often more attracted to something that’s a bit tatty or worn, also that way I don’t feel bad about cutting them up and re-using them.”

“My work is characterised by it’s subtle colour palette and that’s what I’m drawn to when looking for materials to use. I like the gentle variations in tone that vintage linens and lace provide and exploit this in my work by patching together differing shades. I also like to use old mending threads to embroider with rather than modern embroidery silks as I prefer their soft and subtle colours. I especially look for interesting edges or details on textiles or bits of embroidery and lace with motifs that I can cut out and use for appliqué. I don’t set out to look for materials with a particular project in mind, rather I like things to just find me….”

“In my workroom I’m surrounded by the materials I use and new acquisitions are kept out on display for some time before they are used, to be considered and to provoke thought. Seeing materials side by side often inspires me and happy accidents can happen through a combination of untidiness and serendipity.”

“My favourite place to be is at my desk in my workroom, surrounded by all the things that inspire me and looking out onto trees, fields, sky and birds. I’m at my happiest when quietly hand stitching, listening to the radio or gentle music. In the past I worked predominantly with machine embroidery but now, stitching by hand has taken over. I find hand stitching more tactile and immediate, it also fits well with the vintage materials I use which have often been handled and hand stitched themselves over many hours, many years ago. The other thing about stitching by hand is that it can be very calming and meditative. I find stitching a great comfort in times of stress and some of the work I’ve made has been in direct response to difficult times in my life.”

Do you have an absolute favourite material that you love working with?

 “I love using vintage buttons, especially really tiny mother of pearl ones that are quite hard to come by, but some of my favourite items to use have been some vintage bone buttons and some beautiful buff coloured heavy French linen, which is lovely to stitch into.”

What is your background and how did you find your way as a textile artist?

 “I don’t have a formal education in textiles, I’ve taught myself and learned along the way over the years. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t making things. I used to regret not having studied art or textiles, feeling that it put me at a disadvantage, but I don’t anymore. A lot of my work is very personal and draws on my experience of life and I don’t think I’d be making the work I do now without having been on a personal and creative journey.”

“I’d always shoehorned my creativity around work but in 2005, myself and my husband took a ‘year out’ from full time work to concentrate on our creative selves, after the sale of a home and a business and a long period of stress. It was during this year, and having this time to devote to my art that marked a turning point in the work I was making, when lots of different elements came together, my ideas and experience, the vintage fabrics and ephemera I’d been collecting for so long and all of the creative skills I’d learned over the years. We rented a house in a rural location, the first time I’d experienced living in the countryside, something which was to have a profound effect on my work and my creative process. The house was called Trevethoe House and inspired a piece of work of the same name.”

Who inspires you?

“Like most creative people, inspiration comes from everything and everywhere. The influence of nature is something that permeates a lot of my work. I live just next to woods and fields where I walk my dog each day and it’s often when I’m out walking that ideas come to me.”

“There is also a connection for me between the peace and calm of experiencing nature and the contemplative aspect of slow hand stitching, the two seem to go hand in hand and this is reflected in my work. Inspiration often comes from the vintage textiles I find (a little detail may spark off an idea of where I want a piece of work to go) but mostly my work stems from personal experiences and my inner landscape, thoughts and emotional states. You asked whether I get creative block, and the answer is I don’t really. Quite the opposite, in terms of ideas I have a backlog of things I’m longing to make. Of course, sometimes, it’s harder to work at something than at other times, if you don’t feel so great or things aren’t really flowing or working out as you had planned them in your head. At times like this I try to just go with it and if all else fails, have a break, do something else and come back to it.”

Is there anything that you can not imagine parting with?

“There are lots of things that are special to me but they are just things at the end of the day. I would struggle to part with some of my work, though. Stitching a piece of work by hand over many hours results in a real connection to the piece you are working on, often making a piece very difficult or impossible to part with (or to put a price on). Also, much of my work is inspired by my feelings and experiences, like a journal really, they contain a part of me, so it would be very hard to let them go.”

I find your work so moving, especially the hope tokens in antique boxes and the fabric tokens where you have woven beautiful comforting words on inside. I understand that you create these not for sale but as personal talismans – could you talk about these pieces and their meaning for you?

“The use of stitched text plays quite a big role in my work. I keep a little notebook of words, phrases and quotes that are meaningful to me. I’m interested in the power of words, to comfort and inspire and remind us of things which are important. This is something I’ve explored in the form of portable little fabric tokens to act as reminders and tiny boxed stitcheries that can be kept in a pocket and looked at in times of need. I’ve made these pieces for myself over time in response to various emotional states, the act of making them is reassuring in itself and then you have them as a keepsake. I’d been reluctant to share personal items like this on my blog in the past, but when I did, particularly in the case of the fabric tokens, the response was overwhelming. I think people really connected with them, after all we all have difficult feelings to deal with from time to time, I just tend to deal with mine through stitch.”

How do you sell your work?

“I sell my work mainly at fairs, exhibitions and at workshops I teach and occasionally to people who contact me directly. Generally, I prefer not to work to commission, which people find unusual. I have tried in the past but I find it stressful and it makes me feel constrained, and this takes some of the enjoyment out of creating and means I can’t really put my heart into it. My work means so much to me that I wouldn’t be happy to sell a piece that didn’t have my heart and soul in it.”

Please visit her wonderful blog here  to view more of her work.