Coral Scarf

 

New work now available at the Artful Home

Coral Scarf   in Aztec (pictured), Harlequin, & Gold Sands

©2011 Jenne Giles, Harlequin Feltworks

New Fringe Scarves for Art in the Pearl

 

New Fringe Scarves in 13 colors for Art in the Pearl, Portland, over Labor Day Weekend!

Getting back in the Saddle

Stone Scarves (2008) by Jenne Giles/Harlequin Feltworks

photo by M. Clement

Well, we are back in the Bay and brushing some of the road dust off.  Our Easter trip to visit Texas was great: not only did we get to spend important time with family, but enjoyed the time we spent on the highways and byways.  Many beautiful wildflowers, funny hotels, odd experiences and encounters.

I think of the roadtrip as a quintessentially American experience what with the vast expanses of open land, the car culture and, up until now, the cheap gas.  At $5 a gallon, it is not quite the budget vacation option anymore.  I’m glad to have embarked on many mad-cap trips in my twenties, as sitting that long in one position is not quite as easy as it once was either!

Now we are back home, back on a healthy diet, and surveying the road ahead for Spring/Summer.  I am excited to get some new projects started and to spend more time in the studio experimenting & exploring.  Summertime always has its own sweet rhythm.

Some blips & bleeps:

An interesting article about how “talentism” could replace “capitalism”

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a intimate, sweet movie about falling in love with your work/craft

Man, Woman, Wild is an awesome survival show.  Similar to Survivorman or Dual Survival.  Let me count the ways I love Netflix Streaming….

Getting ready….

Sunset Rose Scarf by Jenne Giles, Harlequin Feltworks

(for the record, this is not by Judit Pocs)

One week to go to CraftBoston!  It’s getting down to the wire…..

Artisans in Art

Oat Tendril Scarf 2010

Good article on Craft in the Arts in NYTimes/Int’l Herald Tribune:

A Return to the Artisan in the Art World

By ALICE PFEIFFER; Published: December 2, 2011

PARIS — “Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons; there is nothing more depressing for a young artist,” said Bianca Argimon, a student at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris who favors traditional techniques when working with ceramics, engravings and pyrography over what she views as ultraconceptual, increasingly dematerialized art. “Most of us can’t afford — nor approve of — having an entire factory of workers.”

Artisanal techniques, once deemed the opposite of cool, are making their way back into art fairs and galleries, particularly in Europe. Dedicated spaces and university programs are contributing to the renewed recognition of these trades — albeit with modern twists and messages — while also providing young artists with marketable skills. As a result, the line between gallerists and craftsmen, once so clearly delineated, is increasingly being blurred.

Read the full article at this link

Decisions, Decisions

Rose Flamenco Sleeve 2010

I am working on my upcoming article for FilzFun Magazine.  Though it has been a difficult process of choosing images, the bright side is that I have gotten the chance to revisit some of the original disks of photoshoots from the past few years.  There I discovered many lovely images that I had originally passed over.

This shoot was a particularly amazing one: the model was spectacular and we really had an all-star team, all of which shows in the final quality of the images.  These photos depict garments made of my Rose Scarves.  It was the hairstylist (who is a multi-talented and dimensional artist), Mil U Ranon, who suggested that we go in this direction.  I used just about every safety pin I had on hand to layer the scarves to create these stunning ensembles.  Moja Ma’at took these images and Tamara Marie did the make-up.

Alas, these do not fit into the body of images I will use for the article, but at least I can post them here where we can enjoy them.

Rose Dress 2010

Felt in Fashion Article, SF Chronicle

Sangria Coral Scarf  by Jenne Giles, Harlequin Feltworks

available at the DeYoung Museum of Art

There is a beautifully written article about felt in fashion that came out over the weekend.  I am delighted to report that Harlequin Feltworks receives a mention. Read the full article here.

Felt in Fashion on Runways and in Interiors

by Sylvia Rubin

An excerpt:

Since then, “felt has definitely gone more mainstream, and you see the aesthetic of felt everywhere,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Felt has a unique appeal as an industrial material, one that is both sleek and steely gray, yet soft and warm to the touch. The intrinsic bulkiness of felt happens to work well with this season’s sculptural forms and that fact that it’s 100 percent wool means it takes shape exceedingly well.”

Designers, usually on the lookout for new textiles and technology, have instead gone back to one of the world’s oldest fabrics, around since the Neolithic Age. Wherever there were sheep and goats, there was felt. Making it by hand required no looms and no special equipment; the craft still thrives in places such as Mongolia, Iran and Turkey, where artisans create felt by walking on rolled wet wool until the fibers have shrunk and bonded together, then beating it by hand. (If you’ve ever absentmindedly tossed a wool sweater into the washing machine and dryer, you’ve made a kind of felt the easy way.)

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/10/LVQ61LH2P4.DTL#ixzz1dsobkMNF

New Work Available

Coral Scarves now available at the Artful Home

Limited edition Signature Wrap now available at the Artful Home

©2011 Jenne Giles, Harlequin Feltworks

The Mona Scarf

The Mona Scarf pictured in Hyacinth by artist, Jenne Giles

Now available in 4 colorways at the Artful Home

The Mona Scarf in Merlot, Autumn & Juniper

Oldies but Goodies

Here are our first Harlequin Feltwork images.  As I am going through early posts, it is surprising not to find them there (perhaps since we had them for the main website at the time and wanted to keep the blog and site distinct).  These are the ones that had complex contractual specs on them.  Unbeknownst to me when we put the shoot together, the model had been the runner-up on the second season of America’s Next Top Model, which brought its own complicated magic to the experience.

Still, so lovely!  We took these in June 2007 and they are named after artists I admired.  It’s a trip down memory lane…

Bueys Scarf 2007

Goldsworthy Scarf 2007

Goldsworthy Shawl 2007

Hundertwasser Scarf 2007

Hundertwasser Shawl 2007

Klee Shawl 2007

 O’Keefe Rose Scarf 2007