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:: April 30, 2008 Takashi Iwasaki
Collages by Takashi Iwasaki, via Martin Klasch. I get so much quilt inspiration from collage art. Iawsaki's embroidery, "Abbies", and paintings are incredible. posted by in Inspiration :: Comments (2) :: link :: February 1, 2008 Cute
How cute is this? Terrycloth Sunsuit by Kate Quinn Organics, on sale at Snazzy Tots. It might be fun to try sewing something like this. And imagining Otto wearing this, over at the KQO site, nearly makes me faint. Thanks to Melissa for tipping me off to Kate Quinn Organics in this post a while back. posted by in Baby , Inspiration :: Comments (5) :: link :: December 15, 2006 Inspiration: Squidbillies' Ben Prisk
First off, thank you all SO MUCH for all the kind baby wishes!
Have you ever seen Squidbillies on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim? If so you might not see past the trifecta of raunchiess, offensiveness, and hilarity to the gorgeous background art by Ben Prisk. Mr. Prisk has three blogs, one dedicated to his art in general, one to his photos, and one just to his Squidbillies work. The characters on the cartoon are ugly (yet irresistible) and an episode rarely goes by without some violent bloodshed, but there in the background you've got these beautiful hand-painted landscapes, crazy retro trees and flowers, and art brut buildings and contraptions. Mr. Prisk even makes foul truck-stop bathrooms pleasant to look at:
It somehow fits in with the characters too, rather than being some ironic juxtaposition. OK now I will stop trying to pretend I can talk about art and show you more images.
P.S. There are many episodes and clips of Squidbillies on Youtube, so no excuse if you don't have cable. posted by in Inspiration :: Comments (1) :: link :: February 7, 2006 Dan Goodsell
Then there's the overwhelming Tick Tock Toys, his "cavalcade of images and ideas" including vintage food packaging, cereal premiums, cartoon characters, theme parkiana, and found photos. I get so much inspiration from this stuff. They truly don't make em like they used to.
Then came the book Krazy Kid's Food from Taschen which he co-authored with Steve Roden. I have bought three copies for keeping and giving, I love it so much.
And finally, of recent vintage is his blog and Flickr site.
You have probably come across The Imaginary World site in your internet adventures before, but I wanted to encourage a re-visit as Mr. Goodsell's virtual museum and artput continues to expand and inspire. Thanks to him for the permission to post the images you see here today. -- posted by in Inspiration :: Comments (6) :: link :: August 25, 2005 Camper Twins
I might be the last person in the world to know about these. Camper Twins! A pair of shoes, each different but matching one another. They remind me of that Cosby Show episode where Denise's boyfriend wears two different socks and uses it as a jumping-off point to engage Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable in a chat about challenging society's arbitrary rules. posted by in Inspiration :: Comments (9) :: link :: November 20, 2004 Popular Craft
"Unlike outsiders and brut artists, crafters demonstrate how creative ideas spread through the culture and are adapted by individuals of relatively ordinary talent. These efforts enrich the visual landscape even when they don't attain higher aesthetic elevations. The most talented craft artists can turn the inauspiciously unoriginal and accessible into something even greater. This is real artistic power." The Art of Popular Craft at Interesting Ideas posted by in Inspiration , Textile Arts :: link :: October 17, 2004 Wee Wonderfuls and Craftlog
Time is at a premium now that school is back in session (back? It's almost midterms. sheesh). It was rumored that this year would be easier than the last, but so far it's just as time-consuming and energy-sucking. I'm at an off-campus placement doing real-world speech pathology for three days a week. It's in a rehab hospital, so the patients are around two-three weeks post-brain surgery/brain injury/stroke, which is very interesting but also very challenging. Anyway, between this and full-time school plus T.A.ing plus more clinical responsibilities at school, I have zero time for crafts. Although last night, to distract me from the worst movie ever (The Day After Tomorrow) I finally finished a simple garter stitch Homespun scarf that I've been plugging away at since ... early this summer. Sad.
So I live vicariously through others who are more talented than myself. I'd like to think that if I had time I'd be a powerful combination of Wee Wonderfuls and Craftlog. Wee Wonderfuls seems to have some amazing completed project to show off every single day, and when she doesn't she shares her fabulous tastes in 60s-70s children's illustration. Craftlog has also been on an illustration and art link kick lately (all of them awe-inspiring), and likewise has the craft productivity to put you and I to shame. One of my remaining comforts is to look online regularly at fabric, which brings me to a link via WW: Cotton Bow Wow, a Japanese outfit that apparently does not ship to the U.S. but hopefully is a sign of future domestic fabric trends. I'm not so into the Asian prints (not that I'd refuse them or anything), but dig these Tequila Sisters, and this mono-mono line.
Yum! OK, one more link from Wee Wonderfuls: Pashupatina necklaces, which makes me want to 1. order a necklace 2. get into beads, which I have never up till now been inspired to do. And back to the insufficiencies of this site: I log in pretty much every day to fight comment spam, so the least I could do is say hello. It might be exclusively fabric links for the time being, so hang with me. posted by in Inspiration , Other Weblogs :: link :: September 17, 2004 Lisa Solomon
Lisa Solomon: art from textiles and embroidery posted by in Inspiration , Textile Arts :: link :: August 9, 2004 Wonderland-Q
Cute, simple embroidered bags at Wonderland-Q -- the embroidery is based on drawings by Suzy Coady, whose work can be seen at Girly Handwriting. posted by in Inspiration , Needlework , Purses and Bags , Shops :: link :: July 17, 2004 Valerie Goodwin
Map/architectural quilts by Valerie Goodwin posted by in Inspiration , Quilting , Textile Arts :: link :: June 30, 2004 Bikini & Stitch
Cool Japanese Cross-Stitching with pixelly origins. (Via Sublime Stitching). Speaking of, have you ever seen the cross-stitched Photoshop Tools Palette? posted by in Inspiration , Needlework :: link :: June 11, 2004 Quilts to Aspire to
Stack & Slash quilt instructions. It's like Stack & Whack, but "far less sophisticated." Within that same site's gallery, there are some quilts (stack & slash & otherwise) to behold. For example:
I love the idea of making a maze and using existing motifs on the fabric to tell a story.
Wow. That's all I have to say about that one. And finally, an image I found just looking for "quilt" in the Google image search. It's a map of Poweshiek County, Iowa:
posted by in Inspiration , Quilting :: link :: May 28, 2004 Gee's Bend and Me
My urge to take up quilting had its origins in general textile lust. I went to the University of Texas fine arts library to hunt for this book (more on Lucienne Day later) and thought I'd browse the shelves for quilting books to see if I found anything inspiring. I have to agree with Brandy Agerbeck's assessment of the current quilting tradition: it's way too anal for me. I would add that it's hard to get inspired when so much of fabric you see is hokey as all get-out. I don't mean to denigrate any quilting, because I know how much skill and patience goes into it, I just mean that most of the mainstream fabrics and quilt designs are not my thing. Then again, I suspect that I just may not have developed the taste that is actually well worth developing, and that I lack the skills to see individual fabrics as part of a bigger design. Back at the library, the big hardcover book Gee's Bend: The Women and Their Quilts was sticking out. I picked it up and flipped through it. My thoughts were, OK, yes!, this is what quilting is all about. Gee's Bend quilts have gotten a lot of attention in the art world and most crafters know and love the tradition. But if you haven't heard of them, here are some links: Quilts of Gee's Bend official site Some Gee's Bend quilts look simple, and though their creators used improvisation under the constraints of whatever fabrics happened to be available at the time, there's a mountain of knowledge and experience that went into them, not to mention the un-reproduceable aspects of the women's lives and circumstances. I figured this out as I attempted my first quilt project, which was going to be an improvised Chinese coins quilt with unevenly cut strips. But improvising on my first attempt was probably not the best idea. The patchwork for that style shouldn't be a big deal, but you know, I just don't have the expertise to step outside of right angles yet. Not only that, I didn't understand how to combine different colors and prints, and it showed. They didn't work in the traditional OR rule-flouting way. I never even got to the actual quilting part! This is all to say that I wish there was a quilting version of Knitty or Stitch 'n Bitch, to give people who are interested in quilting but are put off by the aforementioned anality and hokiness an enticing entryway into the tradition. In my mind, it would involve articles about Gee's-Bendian design principles, Denyse Schmidt worship, and quilt patterns that won't make my bed look like Frank Bielec threw up on it. Maybe I'll start it. Right ... with my proven history of keeping websites current. That's why I'm putting the idea out there. For free! Take it and run! Teach me the ways of the quilter! posted by in Inspiration , Quilting , Textile Arts :: link
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