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There isn't much I need to say about these 1950s inspired prints by Nottingham based designer, Eloise Renouf (not a very Nottinghamshire sounding name I grant you). Stunning patterns, sumptuous colour choices. Bloody good prices. The only difficulty is, I want all of them. Do visit her Etsy shop for a fine variety of beautiful designs.
Continue reading "Eloise Renouf: 1950s style leaf and flower prints" »
I'm an avid obsessive follower of Selvedge Magazine. Absolutely one of the best magazines about textiles you could hope to find.
If you've never come across it, it's a beautiful thing to hold, printed in matt recycled thick paper so it feels like a small catalogue. It prides itself on image-led articles so of course the design is stunning and it's a visual feast to behold.
Covering textiles in fashion, fine art, interiors, travel and shopping, a single copy can take you round the world and back through hidden and lost routes; wind you slowly back to local and family heritages throughout the country; showcase the newest in textile designers; and bring new textile related films, books and exhibitions to your attention.
Don't take my word for it, if you want to scour it for yourself I have a 20 page sample copy to giveaway, including features on Scandinavian textile designer Maria Aström; global embroidery collector and writer Sheila Paine; fashion designer Liaqat Rasul; and the traditional woollen blankets of Hudson Bay.
How to enter:
There are three ways to enter the giveaway (feel free to enter 3 times by doing all of them!):
1. Leave a comment below
2. Mention this post / giveaway on your blog (then comment or email me, sally-dot-fort-at-yahoo-dot-co-uk with a link to let me know)
3. Tweet a link on your twitter stream and include me @sallyent so I can see your tweet (don't just retweet as that won't show up in my @ stream due to the silly changes twitter made a while back - you'll have to actually type @sallyent in the tweet yourself)
**Deadline: Midnight (UK time) 15th May 2011**
And that's it. I'm happy to post the publication anywhere in the world. And I'll let everyone know who won and also if I find any more amazing blogs through the process, I might well share some of those too.
Some of you may remember me doing a research project a few years ago called UK DIY, which spawned its own blog and a programme of exhibitions, projects and events.
Since I researched the DIY / subversive / counter culture - call it what you will - craft scene in the UK in 2006 I've been promising to share the report I wrote. It's now available over on my work blog for all to read.
To give you a flavour the contents page reads as follows... Defining DIY :: A Potted History :: Textiles :: Gender Stories :: Inclusivity & Anti-elitism :: Anti-consumerism & The Individual :: Political Crafting :: Interdisciplinary Content :: Street Crafting :: Sharing, Authorship and Currency :: Art & Anti-Art :: Entrepreneurialism :: Quality :: Exhibition & Project Potential :: Options and Recommendations
The UK DIY blog has been quiet for the past year or more but I think that's fine. It started something amazing, and now other projects, networks, blogs and more have sprung up all over the country in ways that suit the times and spaces they populate. I don't think it would be either possible or necessary to try and document it all in one place anymore, there are so many other good blogs covering the variety of activity in so many ways and that's such a good thing.
So I'm pretty much letting UK DIY go, putting it to bed, or rather taking the seed that it was and bedding it back in the soil to see what else grows from it. I already have lots of ideas that I know came as a result of that work, and I think there will be many more in the very near future...
While you read this, I'll be at an extraordinary event in London. Connecting Craft and the Community is a two day workshop based at The Women's Library.
Before I go on, I should say, if you've never been to the Women's Library, it is well worth a little trek off the beaten path to this hidden gem in the hustle and bustle of East London. They have a beautifully and poignantly curated exhibition and events programme; every time I've been I've seen something truly unique, compelling, always stunning, sometimes disturbing, and at times humorous. The current exhibition, which I look forward to soaking up is Hand Made Tales: Women and Domestic Craft "...focusing on the role domestic crafts play in many women’s experiences. The exhibition will allow visitors to explore and learn the stories of crafts and the women involved in them through personal tales and fun interactive projects."
So... Connecting Craft and the Community is a project which aims to create a network of people interested in craft in all sorts of ways, but which has a particular emphasis on participation, community, and all that is wrapped up in what has emerged from what was a minority craft culture (of the DIY, subversive, counter culture ilk) but these days has become much more mainstream.
What is post craft? Where are we in time if craft is the past? You know, I have no idea, I really don't. But at last I can share my excitement about finding out. I've been bursting with excitement about this for weeks and now I can blurt it out to the world!
I will be chairing a panel discussion at this year's Future Everything festival eyeing up the future of craft in a DIY-hack-break-down-the-walls-of-the-institution type chat with some fellow craft / future / hack heads.
The conference organiser introduces the topic thus:
"In an increasingly post-digital world, there is a move towards a pre-industrial landscape. Eased by global connectivity, cottage industries are sprouting up everywhere. People are creating their own products, services, and art. They are rediscovering the satisfaction of creating a tangible product, the process of making, the lessons from making by hand."
Now I know much of that is true (though are we in a post-digital world already? heck where does the time go?) and it echoes much of what I discovered in my UK DIY craft research a few years ago. So I'm thrilled to have been asked to be part of the panel. (I suspect I'll come away ever more confused of course, shh don't tell anyone ok?)
*That picture up there, by the way, is from Datadecs, one of the projects of one of the other panel members, interaction designer Andy Huntington. Do have a look at his website, he does some very cool stuff turning data into beautiful and fun things
There was a woman*. She made small, perfectly formed, rather fiddly, stuffed dachshunds. Many of them. Many many of them. So many she couldn't bear to make another one in the end. But every last one was sent off around the world, to a new life, collecting rather an impressive stash of airmiles between them.
One such dachshund hauled itself in a small boat across a small sea to a green, lush, occassionally troubled land called Norn Irn. It nuzzled into the cosy abode of two colourful artists, who submitted a photo of their little sausage-dog shaped pride and joy to a spectacular place over the Norn Irn border called The Ark, in the fair city of Dublin. A wonderful sounding place calling itself a cultural centre for children. The dachshund was extremely pleased with itself...
