Water is a Human Right

Take back the tap!

Watch streaming through Netflix

Shibori

I saw these great step-by-step instructions on Shibori Dying on another WordPress Blog:

Click here to visit

By Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Happy Turkey Day!

I roasted some turkey legs last night-YUm!  So we’ve touched our thanksgiving basics:

mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy and pumpkin bread with cheese cream icing!!

Now off to North Beach for some lasagna like Mama used to make on Thanksgiving.

Palace Yurt by Janice Arnold

Just the other day, I met a lovely lady named Janet Crane at the yearly Artwear show.  We got to talking about the Fashioning Felt Show at the Cooper Hewitt and she later sent me these exquisite photographs that capture the rich detail of Janice Arnold’s Palace Yurt piece.  What lightness of being!  Wish I could have seen it in person-but it is a rare photograph that can transport you to places you have never been

all photos ©2009 Janet Crane

Sprucing up the Atelier

I just got finished cleaning up our Etsy shop for the Feather Felt Earrings.  Whew!

Hopefully this will make it easier to order from, though it seems like there are still some possible improvements that could be made.  These are definitely some very cool earrings and I fear my marketing is falling short of conveying that.

Any suggestions?

The Craftsman by Richard Sennett

I’ve got a little bit of birthday cash leftover and think that I’ll take it down to the local book store to pick up Richard Sennett’s book The Craftsman.

Here are some reviews and excerpts:

Yale University Press:

Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than “skilled manual labor,” Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman’s work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our most distinguished public intellectuals explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world.

The New York Times Book Review:

… Sennett’s book gathers case after case in which we see how the work of the hand can inform the work of the mind. Moreover, it is through his insistence that thought arises in relation to craft that Sennett comes to one of his more intriguing interventions, a reimagining of the Enlightenment in terms not of ideas but of how craftsmen learned to work.

“The hand is the window on to the mind,” Immanuel Kant wrote, and Sennett asks that we not pass through that window until we have adequately studied the hand. For Sennett the emblematic Enlightenment publication was Diderot’s “Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Crafts.” In 35 volumes, this great work told its readers how to keep bees, make cider or wooden shoes, cure tobacco, prepare hemp, build a windmill, grind wheat, or — in the case that Sennett expands upon — make paper as it was then produced at the great L’Anglée factory south of Paris. The Enlightenment as pictured by Diderot arose from the conversation between craftsmen and all the stuff — the wood, the gold, the papermaking rags — that met their hands. The material world speaks back to us constantly, by its resistance, by its ambiguity, by the way it changes as circumstances change, and the enlightened are those able to enter into this dialogue and, by so doing, come to develop an “intelligent hand.”

I heart the Artful Home

“Boy with Bird” by Ed Byers

When shopping for Holiday items, you need look no further than the spectacular selection of artisan gifts featured on the Artful Home.

I have worked with this wonderful organization for more than a year and can attest to the outstanding experience one has with shopping with them.  Not only do they offer catalogues which feature exceptional items, it’s simply the best of the best in what is available in the world of contemporary crafts and exquisite wearable items such as jewelry and accessories.  Their extensive website is perhaps the best selection of artisan crafts on the web and their eye for unique and quality items is unsurpassed.  Over time, I have really grown to appreciate the humor and joie de vivre behind the selection.

Their customer service is tops: tremendously friendly and able to assist in all aspects of finding the perfect item.  I have always found it a joy to interact with them over the telephone, making the whole experience heart-warming and special.

If you do not already receive their catalogue, you are missing out on one of the best things out there!  Sign up here.

Or browse the extensive galleries online here.  You will be glad that you did!

We feature many of our most exceptional pieces exclusively on their site, which you can visit here.

“Fiery Denim Rose Scarf” exclusively at The Artful Home

Dream Classes

Lisa Klakulak teaching in her studio

I am a self-taught feltmaker, meaning that I spent years in the trenches making terrible felt and then crawled up on the dry land of real feltmaking.  There is something to be said for learning something from scratch on your own: you learn how to teach yourself and how to learn from direct experience, you gain a unique insight into a medium maybe picking up on certain things that become “eureka moments,”  you learn self-reliance and are constantly on the look out for evolving your craft without the influence of strong personalities like teachers often have.  In this way, I feel like an explorer of new lands, able to find new personal worlds and a unique voice/vision.

That being said, teaching yourself can be a very slooooow process and there are times that I dreamed of how much fun it would be to hit the fast lane and pick up the tricks of the trade in a felting class from professionals!  There are 2 people in particular at the top of my dream list of taking classes: Lisa Klakulak and Chad Alice Hagen.

Lisa Klakulak offers a tremendous range of feltmaking classes through the Cloth Fiber Studios in her hometown of Asheville, NC.  She might even be traveling to a city near you since she teaches all over the country.  I really appreciate her investigation into specific feltmaking techniques and the clarity of the classes that she offers: each course tailored to a specific aspect of the craft ranging anywhere from felting with 2D and 3D forms to natural dying techniques.  You can read from the full menu of exciting classes here.

Chad Alice Hagen v. Felted Wiener Dog

I think I would definitely qualify as a Chad Alice Hagen fan, willing to camp outside her classroom for tickets to the show!  Not only has she written some fabulous must-have books on feltmaking, she also teaches classes around the country and in her hometown of Asheville, NC.  Her sparkling wit and intelligence will not doubt leave you with a life-long sense of the magic of the medium.

So….after years of doing it the hard way, these would be my dream classes and dream teachers.  Funnily enough, both hale from Asheville, which makes me wonder if there might be a new Pilchuck School brewing there?  Something to do for feltmaking what Chihuley and Pilchuck did for glass?  If there is, my bags are packed!!

Feather Scarves

Our new Feather Scarves seen here in a tropical color assortment!

I love these new pieces…they have such great movement and are so playful!!

Art vs. Design

Olafur Eliasson One-Way Colour Tunnel, 2007

I found this really interesting article on art vs design, pointing out how they overlap and differ.

Here is an excerpt:

Perhaps the most fundamental difference between art and design that we can all agree on is their purposes.

Typically, the process of creating a work of art starts with nothing, a blank canvas. A work of art stems from a view or opinion or feeling that the artist holds within him or herself.

They create the art to share that feeling with others, to allow the viewers to relate to it, learn from it or be inspired by it.

The most renowned (and successful) works of art today are those that establish the strongest emotional bond between the artist and their audience.

By contrast, when a designer sets out to create a new piece, they almost always have a fixed starting point, whether a message, an image, an idea or an action.

The designer’s job isn’t to invent something new, but to communicate something that already exists, for a purpose.

That purpose is almost always to motivate the audience to do something: buy a product, use a service, visit a location, learn certain information. The most successful designs are those that most effectively communicate their message and motivate their consumers to carry out a task.

Here is the full text.

Also found this cool blog of contemporary art in Portland which I think makes a good little brain walk.