Cotton Color doll house

The (closed) Club Little House swap produced some delightful hand made doll house miniatures. See the Flickr group photo pool here, or a charming photoset with a china doll gravely inspecting the offerings here. A delicious shabby chic modern doll house from Japan has a gallery, Cotton Color here. Make sure you click on each picture to see several more.

Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House being packed up in the Lutyens drawing room where it had been being built for two years, in preparation for its move to Windsor Castle. The entire facade rises so the house can be viewed.

If you want to take a visit to the really grand end of town, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House was seen as a celebration of English craft and skill, particularly after so many people (and thus their skills) were lost in the Great War. It took years to assemble, featured the work of hundreds of the famous and the unknown, and remains an immensely popular attraction at Windsor Castle. Noted architect Lutyens insisted on things that worked (the taps in every bathroom, working lifts/elevators - and a gramaphone that involved the work of 70 people). Read an illustrated article here.

While historical dolls’ houses seem to be the most popular among miniaturists, it is the ones that record their ‘present day’, whether a wealthy upper class English house of the 1920s (Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House) or those which may result from the Little House swap which hold historical fascination as documents of their time and the ways in which people lived. The late Faith Eaton, a noted dolls’ house collector and historian from Britain, played as a child in the 1940s with a house which featured tape on the windows, a doll dressed as an air raid warden and accessories including a home-made gas mask (this one, Church Hill House, adapted from a commercially made house, is illustrated in her book, The ultimate dolls’ house book - see below).

The Historic Houses Trust of NSW curated an exhibition at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney of Australian dolls’ houses in 2000. They found little that was grand, and much that showed everyday inventiveness and the creative reuse of humble materials such as butter boxes. There was a book of the exhibition, Dolls’ Houses in Australia 1870-1950 (available here), and there are a few images here.

Photograph of Frida Kahlo with Red “Rebozo”. The rebozo is a traditional Mexican shawl that is long enough to wrap around a woman’s body, with a little extra (about 4-5 feet).
Vicky Cowal explains the history of this shawl:

“The rebozo has a history that goes back many centuries and is a wonderful example of what the meeting of cultures can produce. In the days before the conquest, both men and women used a kind of simple shawl, a lienzo, both for warmth and for carrying bundles. It was woven in backstrap looms from maguey and henequen fibers and there are many examples of them in various codices. Soon after the Spaniards arrived, they insisted that the Mexican women wear a head covering for entering the churches. Out of this necessity combined with the Spaniards’ imported weaving skills came the rebozo (the word comes from the verb rebozar, meaning to cover up), a multi-purpose covering initially woven of just cotton and then later on also of silk and wool, and still to this day a symbol of mexicanidad worn proudly by Mexican women of all social standings.”

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Fotografía de Frida Kahlo con un rebozo rojo. El rebozo es un mantón tradicional mexicano, bastante largo, que las mujeres usan para abrigarse alrededor del cuerpo.

Vicky Cowal explica la historia de este chal: “El rebozo tiene una historia de siglos y es un maravilloso ejemplo de mestizaje de culturas. Antes de la conquista, tanto los hombres como las mujeres usaron una especie de mantón simple, un lienzo, tanto para el calor como para llevar bultos. Fue tejido en telares de cintura y fibras henequen- hay muchos ejemplos de ellos en varios códices-. Con la conquista española,las costumbres cambian e insistieron en que las mujeres mexicanas llevasen cubierta la cabeza para entrar en las iglesias. De esta necesidad, combinada con las habilidades del tejido importado por los españoles ,vino el rebozo (la palabra viene del verbo rebozar, queriendo decir cubrir), una cubierta al principio tejida de algodón y más tarde también de seda y lana. Hoy en día es un símbolo llevado con orgullo por las mujeres mexicanas de todas las categorías sociales”

How to weave a rebozo. The rebozos are traditionally woven by men and it is a laborious and complicated process and takes years of practice to get it right.

A variety of fibers are used, including silk, rayon, and cotton.The warp on a backstrap loom is stretched between a support and the weaver’s body. A very interesting web about how to make a backstrap woven shawls is the school of Santa María.

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Cómo se tejen los rebozos. El rebozo tradicionalmente es tejido por hombres; un proceso laborioso y complicado que lleva años de práctica para llegar a hacerlo correctamente.

Desde hace tiempo, los hacen con el telar de cintura con hilos finos de algodón, seda, y artisela. En el telar de cintura la urdimbre se estira entre un respaldo y el cuerpo de la tejedora. Muy interesante el link de la escuela Santa María donde describe cómo se fabrica un rebozo.

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El “rebozo” is so versatile and was/is commonly used to carry babies on mother’s back, like a cool-weather wrap, knapsack, sash, elegant shawl… But it´s more than a shawl, it´s an expression of Mexican history, culture and art.

Este chal es muy versátil y puede ser usado como portador de bebés, abrigo, fajín, prenda elagante… Pero lo que realmente simboloza es la expresión de lo más profundo de la cultura, el arte y la historia mexicana.

Quilt from Patchwork Lives, larger image here.
Travelling west in American in the nineteenth century, you may never have seen again those you left behind in the east.

Quilt from Patchwork Lives, larger image here.
Signature quilts and album quilts were tangible mementoes, often collaborative works.

Quilt from the IQSC, larger image here.
The Patchwork Lives exhibit not only contains an enticing assortment of historic quilts, it also shows how they document social change over a seventy year period.

Quilt from the IQSC, larger image here.

If you’re interested in historic quilts, the International Quilt Study Center has a free quilt-of-the-month email drawing on its extensive collection. Sign up here, or view the archives here.

More on signature quilts here and here.

Our quilting sisters in Gee’s Bend have had images of their quilts captured on US postage stamps. You can buy them on the US Postal Service website. This is poetic justice to me - women of color in one of the most economically depressed areas of our country get their craft on postage stamps. Best news I’ve heard all day.

a daily, mundane, banal object, which we all seem
to posses, though we rarely look at. the ‘silent
servants’….. an object so basic yet so useful,
that has the quality of serving many functions in
addition to it’s original one.

quote from design boom ‘clothes peg iconography’

I am fascinated with clothes pegs, all the wonderful things you can make from them, clothes pin / peg dolls are so adorable and so versatile. List of resources and ideas here.

This interest in clothes pegs has been re-ignited by my discovery of this exhibition, from the collections of yoav ziv and
gad charny, curated jointly with yaacov kaufman, found through art for housewives, at design boom.

one piece plastic versions of the original wooden pegs

variations on a theme -’gypsy’ peg, classical turned wood peg, and two current versions - ‘back to nature’ and a peg with a hinge and a tension element made from recycled bicycle tube.

Imagine going to an academic conference about something you were actually interested in? The biennial symposium at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska (right smack in the middle of the country for those of you who aren’t familiar with US geography) will take place in March 1-3, 2007. The deadline to submit an abstract for a paper is Tuesday, August 15 via email, fax or mail. We’re not talking high-school term paper here, we’re talking a chance to research and write about something really interesting related to quilts. Even if you don’t have an interest in presenting a paper, you might consider going.

I was invited to speak at this conference two years ago on creative collaboration and will be submitting an abstract again, this time on the role of quilting as a tool for rehabilitation in prisons around the world. It’s a fascinating group of people and a chance to learn about interesting current and historical research that people you’ve never heard of are doing. And although you can expect cold, snowy weather in Nebraska in March, you can also expect to see (about 45 mins away) HUGE flocks of 5-6 ft. tall Sand Hill Cranes resting in the farm fields along their migratory routes back north, marking the coming of spring.

What can you make from sewing supplies including tape, 10 yards of fabric, four balls of white cotton sewing thread, a ball each of black, red and blue thread, black wool, 24 hanks of coloured thread, a thimble, 100 needles, threads, pins, scissors and two pounds of patchwork pieces (or almost ten metres of fabric)?

If you’re a nineteenth century convict woman being transported to Australia?

Elizabeth Fry and other Quaker women provided these supplies, and in 1841 on the ship Rajah, this quilt was made. It includes embroidery, patchwork and applique, and is, according to its inscription, a proof that they [convicts] have not neglected the ladies kind admonitions of being industrious.

Now part of the textile collection at the National Gallery of Australia and one of Australia’s most important historical textiles, it is only on display intermittently due to its fragility. Its value lies not only in its survival as art, but what it tells us of the times from which it came, the women who contributed to its making and the textiles and technology of those days.

Read more here, including a zoomable image of the quilt, or take the chance if you’re in Canberra this week to attend one of the viewings (9-13 August 2006).

The Canberra Quilters’ annual show is on this weekend in Canberra as well - always an inspiring and varied collection of quilts. Canberra Quilters celebrate their 30th year in 2006 - they are one of the most long-established quilt groups in Australia.

Rajah image from the National Gallery of Australia site.

I knew last spring that I wanted to plan a small surprise party for my wonderful husband and partner Bill’s 40th birthday. The whole invitation thing was a little intimidating because he teaches graphic design at Dominican University and I knew I would be inviting his very-talented colleagues from the art department.

Then I read a fascinating article in the Chicago Tribune about using vintage stamps. Here in the US you can use most any stamp printed in the last century as long as the total postage on all of the stamps adds up to the current letter rate. For example, our current rate is $.39 for the first ounce, so any combination of stamps that add up to $.39 can be put on an envelope and mailed.

Given that Bill was born in 1965, I decided to use a collection of stamps from the 60s that reflected his interests of travel, art, education and his love of our national park system. I played with several compositions of them on the envelope very carefully before I licked (they are that old) them so the overall layout didn’t leave awkward spaces.

Vintage stamps are available through www.askphil.org, www.stamps.org and www.stamplink.com. For anyone living in or visiting Chicago, I got mine in the basement stamp booth at Marshall Field’s on State Street. FYI, I got the giant green circle sticker, which I thought worked nicely with the edge of the stamps, at the Paper Source.

I don’t know what regulations are in other countries governing the use of vintage stamps but call your local postmaster for details.

By the way, he was really surprised.

the other day, kari-bombari (also here) posted a thrifted quilt she was completely stunned by. an incredible mystery… who had made this quilt? what did it mean? she wrote:

“seeing this shocked me
where was this done?
who embroidered it?”

in flickr, others are attempting to understand the meaning (see more comments). éireann (oh bara) recently posted a link which explained this work is by hmong refugees, and it details the escape from the khmer rouge in excruciating detail.

(detail please see the original)

when i first saw it, i pulled my boyfriend over to see this jaw-dropping image, literally with my hand over my mouth. he instantly recognized the AK-47, a model of a gun not used by european/US forces… though we didn’t know the story the detail and accuracy is amazing. to think of the other horrific details depicted in these textiles is just simply dumbfounding.

the story about this lost-and-found work folds in on itself… it was discarded to be bought… as karin said, “I couldn’t just leave this at the jumble sale. “… it was not passed from generation to the next in the hmong tradition. however here we find it, and we can learn more about their amazing history, as it has been captured in the quilt.
it’s really stunning and effective as it was meant to be.

it’s actually kind of amazing, exactly how effective an ‘readable’ this non-verbal narrative is… clever lutterlagkage (also here) figured out it is a story to be read from upper left to lower right, in four lines, detailing an escape across water:

“It is like a story and you are supposed to read it from right to left, don’t you think? So that makes it a four line tale about a horrible incident that happens to a village. Their village is attacked and they escape. They cross the river and end up in another country - the soldiers’ uniforms are different.”

More about the Hmong tradition…

Hmong Textile tradition
“Though they left their homelands behind when they emigrated to America, the Hmong people have preserved their cultural traditions through the making of pa ndau or “flower cloth.” This type of appliqué, adorned with embroidery, originated with the creation of ceremonial clothing for major life events. Celebrations of births, weddings, and even death required specially made cloth created by the woman of the house.”

Read more about the Hmong Tragedy

“The Asian Hmong culture is agrarian, like many cultures in Indochina, with religious beliefs based in animism (including the use of shamans for guidance, healing, and other ceremonies). Hmong culture places a great deal of emphasis on relationships between relatives and members of clans, with respect for elders and strong families. Remembering ancestors and traditional ways is important, and many efforts are made to preserve traditional ways and to keep the memory of the accomplishments and suffering of ancestors. Elaborate Hmong quilts or “flower cloths” (bandao or “paj ntaub” in Hmong) are one example of Hmong art that conveys stories from the past.

Hmong refugees in the U.S. struggle with our unusual ways, though the rising generation of youth have melted in well with American culture, even at the risk of losing touch with their heritage. For the older generation, adopting the new ways has been painful. The language is a great barrier to the elderly, many of whom have had no schooling and had no reading skills prior to coming to the U.S. Simple things like going to a store or walking through town can be terrifying experiences for the elderly. “

Indeed, there is more to the story of their lost history… Hmong people fought for the US forces with little or no recognition for their role in the Lao war, read an excerpt from “forgotten soldiers“.

Just completely stunning. Thank you to Karin for buying this piece, and not shirking away from its plain request that we simply look at it and attempt to learn from it.

There is an undoubted and growing love of Japanese crafts and style in the western online crafts community. The history of this relationship in design and crafts extends into the past, but surprisingly not that far. I’m currently reading a good basic survey of Japanese Art by Joan Stanley-Baker, refreshing my memory of my Asian art history studies.

Before the 1860’s Japan was, for most purposes, closed to outside influence. Though Portuguese and Dutch traders were allowed on the island, they were kept in tightly controlled areas, like the port of Nagasaki. And no Japanese citizen was allowed to leave the country. The US forced Japan to open for trade in 1854, and after this began the Meiji Restoration, which sparked a huge influx of western culture into Japan… and likewise, a flow of Japanese culture to the outside. (more here).
Recently, I’ve been reading more crafts history and a particular exhibition seems to be the source of some Japanese-influenced crafts, and I was surprised. I always thought those decadent Crazy quilts were made in odd-shaped pieces due to a simple reduce-reuse-recycle approach towards the precious velvets and silks which are often used. In this article on the history of crazy quilts at the Caron website, the writer explains that it was influenced from a Japanese glazing technique called ‘crazing’, which had an all-over broken finish. (Crazy quilted Kimono from 1890)

“The influence of Japan on crazy work was both direct and indirect, The Japanese aesthetic is very different from the Western one: asymmetry is preferred to symmetry; a central perspective from a fixed viewpoint, a basic concept in Western art, is absent in Eastern art. Broken planes and the separation of planes by a strong diagonal, as well as objects occurring across a field of vision are all uniquely [Asian]“

As well as this “traditional Japanese motifs like storks, owls, and other birds, as well as dragonflies, insects, spider webs, butterflies, flowers and fans (both folding and panel shaped) began appearing everywhere.”

It was specifically during the Centennial Exposition of 1876 that brought about these big trends in decorative design.

“In 1876, an English designer bought a shipment of Japanese objects for Tiffany’s in New York City. That same year Japan’s showing at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition fostered a vogue for all things Japanese. Artists and designers were inspired by the simplicity of Japanese wares and drew on them to create an increasingly influential cult of beauty in every day objects. Innovative designs and a variety of colors, eventually introduced into the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework, broadened the local organization’s appeal and resulted in a larger clientele. The maker’s mark, a “D” in the flax wheel, is incorporated into the center of the design.” (From Memorial Hall Museum)

Resource for historical research

The dragonfly embroidery is from 1905-1915, and it looks very modern to me. It is because this specific era of Asian influence was a huge part in bringing about the modern aesthetic that we are familiar with now.

The image above was from the Digital Collection at the Memorial Hall Museum. There are ‘over 2000 images’ of textiles, toys, furniture. And the archive allows you to ‘zoom in’, and when the original images are in high resolution, you can see some great detail. Excellent resource!

It’s great to see something well-loved. I love the idea that objects have secret lives we somehow project on them, and over time their history becomes apparent physically. The object becomes a record, and is filled with ‘meaning’ and magic. As we make things, we can also imagine how (hopefully) usage will mark them.

[Designers] look at how things age… how things are used… how things break. Ultimately trying to fathom how the patina of everyday existence builds upon the objects in our lives. Somehow, this ’social life’ of objects, their wear and tear, breaths life into things that designers only half complete.
From thinking about things.

This is my friend Sinéad, who has her cotton bunny, crocheted by her neighbor. As the evening wears on, she is known to drape it over her neck, and bring it to her nose to smell it, because it smells particularly wonderful. Thanks for letting me post it here, Sínead.

It’s great to think, if you make something by hand, that it could be so treasured as to bear the marks of being held for so long. It flaunts long-wearing in the face of mass-production and consumption. It bears thinking about how our lives and our environs are made meaningless in many ways by a throw-away attitude towards materials and resources. If you’ve been lucky to have the Velveteen Rabbit in your childhood, you can appreciate this quote:

From: The Velveteen Principles | News & Reviews
The Velveteen Rabbit is Margery Williams’ clever and aphoristic nursery story about a toy stuffed rabbit who was suddenly thrust into a world populated by an apparently well-to-do child’s numerous and varied toys. In the 1920’s world of material excess, this book provided popular appeal as it discouraged getting too tied up in a mechanistic, mass produced world and favored instead using one’s unique life experiences to discover the treasure of individuality, meaning and purpose. The Velveteen Rabbit, at great risk to himself, helps the boy endure scarlet fever and discover the value of his life, but is then ordered thrown onto the trash pile by a germophobic physician (the Humanists never have liked technology much!). Just as he is to be consumed by flames, he discovers he is real, and makes a choice to live.

Oh I also found the Velveteen Rabbit story online. Ok, this quote about ‘becoming real’ might make me sob. The skin horse explains:

“”You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Of course, there was no reason to throw the velveteen rabbit on the pyre! “With children, items like well-loved stuffed animals that can’t be easily laundered can be tumbled in a hot dryer for ten to fifteen minutes to kill the bugs.” From What’s that bug.

I think it’s interesting that a site like Instructables.com doesn’t mention the word ‘fluxus’ in any article. And the only mention of ‘Flux’ is in reference to soldering materials. It’s not like anyone who didn’t study art should know about Fluxus artists. Arguably, they were not that influential outside the artworld, and not that influential during their time. It was only later that Fluxus gained recognition. Arthur Danto, a US art-critic writes about how he had first heard about Fluxus only in 1984.

It came to mind that maybe we were missing some tricks by not digging a bit into even recent art history. I’m not entirely sure how much we ‘owe’ it to the fluxus movement, but I do feel they were working with ideas which are becoming more prevalent today. And their work is an inspiring reference, and good brain-food. Check out this ‘George Maciunas, «Fluxkit», 1964 © George Maciunas- shown on Media Art Net . If you’re into swaps, and mutliples, and mail art you’ll dig fluxus work.

DIY art: Arbitrary gaps between low and high art

The first thing I saw at instructables was LED Throwies linked from Make Magazine. “A way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood”. I was reminded of conceptual art, and instructions like those at “Do it at E-flux“… I think the only difference between the two sites is their intended audience, and distribution. (See e-flux’s list of art-establishment links like Art Forum, Frieze, Parkett).

This is not paint-by-numbers. Instructions as art was a theme amongst Fluxus conceptual artists. Sometimes these instructions produced physical objects, sometimes they were actions you could perform along or events you could organize with a group. You made the art ‘happen’, it explored the relationship between artists/maker/audience. And for that it is really interesting, especially as makers ourselves… and as we promote others to create their world around them.

Fluxus artists like Joseph Beuys believed everyone was an artist. They explored art of daily life and life as art, and bridged the arbitrary gaps between what was ‘art’ and ‘not art’. They reinterpreted the objects around them; they repurposed. They organized creative ‘happenings’ with ambiguous meanings and purpose. Sound familiar?

It’s like the premonitions of a fluxus world are coming to life. Repurposing, and reinterpreting, spontaneous ‘guerrilla’ creativity… And discovering the meaning and politics of making objects. Some of these ideas are nearly going mainstream (at least in the US) with magazines like Make and Readymade.

The many postcard swaps, ATC (artist trading cards), the multiples at Nervousness, 1000 journals travelling the world, instructions on how to be a guerilla artist…

This thread at Nervousness “ documents a Never Ending RAOK (Random act of kindness). It was started in 2003, and is still going strong at 171 pages as of today. Fluxus artist George Maciunas a Lithuanian artist who produced art through the mail, might have enjoyed this technology very much. He would be proud.

I think that because these things are outside of the mainstream art-establishment, this would have appealed very much to fluxus artists like Joseph Beuys.

Fluxus art may have looked ephemeral; mail art, multiples, printed instructions… They did not focus on the finery of fine art, and perhaps their work may not appeal to the craftsperson inside of you. It might appeal to the dreamer in you, and the one who is trying to bridge the gap between life and art.

‘Stillness’ in Kent, built 1934, architect Gilbert Booth. Yours for £1,295,000*

I was delighted to read that the V&A is organising the first major exhibition devoted to Modernism. Entitled Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939, it will open on 6 April 2006 .

I used to detest the stark, cubic white houses I saw dotted around England and associated them with a spartan, unrealistic, over-hygienic philosophy of design and living. All that white exterior paint and masses of windows with thin, metal frames seemed to be the classic cleaning nightmare.

But these days I’ve become intrigued by the thinking behind the movement which put such strangely un-English houses in unlikely locations. I’ve come to admire the bravery and ruthlessness required to build, maintain and even live in one of these white boxes. I’m now also bowled over by the public buildings created by these ground-breaking architects and designers, such as the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea.

There’s still an element of repulsion in this attraction. I dislike the thought-control which lurks round the edges of 1930s Modernism, and the fact that it was created by, and for, a small coterie of well-off intellectuals whith some very strange ideas. Nevertheless, I’d jump at the chance to live in one of the finer Modernist houses to see if it really would change my way of life. Or whether I’d crack under the pressure of window-cleaning.

As with any major design movement, the Modernists held firm views about what was on show on the inside as well. There was a brief flourish of Modernist textile design with some wonderful fabrics and rugs in particular by designers such as Eileen Gray and George F Ainscow plus iconic furniture by Alvar Aalto. But what struck me when reading in last Sunday’s Observer about the exhibition was the view that ‘objects should at least be made to look like machines, or made by machines, even if they were actually the product of laborious handcraft’.

Now this is a complex inversion of the William Morris/Arts & Crafts thinking. My first reaction was horror. Why on earth would anyone want to hide the fact that something is handmade? The whole crafting & blogging community appears surely to be devoted to a celebration of the obviously handmade. And then I thought about the perfectionists amongst us. The hand-embroiderers whose amazing skills make their work look as if it’s been done by a machine. The quilters who cannot bear to have any faulty joins or crappy corners. The knitters whose intarsia work doesn’t fall apart to reveal gaping holes and twisted yarns. Don’t their creations deserve as much praise as the deliberately (or accidentally) naive pieces made by crafters with a different understanding of the meaning of handmade?

So I’ll go to the exhibition with an open mind, try to work out what’s machine-made and what’s hand-made and be grateful that we can make so many choices. Because it’s the being told how you must do things that’s wrong with any quasi-fascist design movement, not the fact that a handmade piece may look as if it’s been done by machine. That’s a personal decision and, as such, should be treated with respect.

*if you want to daydream about buying a house like this, take a look at themodernhouse.co.uk