Thursday, May 14, 2009
The art dreams of wool weaving
Brief introduction of Theresa Honeywell:
A Washington DC native, Theresa Honeywell attended Montgomery College in 1995-1997, University of Georgia 2001-2005, and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in 2004. After graduating with a Master degree in Sculpture, she began her artistic explorations of Pop art and Tattoo imagery. Using the traditionally “feminine” mediums of knitting and embroidery, she began to create a distinctly non-gender specific body of work that reflects her interest in low-brow art and “macho” tattoo culture. This dichotomy between art and craft, macho and feminine is where she finds her inspiration.
Provocative imagery and macho icons are rendered into delicate and beautiful pieces of art that seem to question the notion of what art is, and what is “only” a handicraft. Her work is very labor intensive and densely rendered. She takes a craft that is considered to be “pretty” and merely decorative, and creates art that comments on our rigid notions of gender roles and high/low culture.
Theresa’s work has been featured in various international publications, including W magazine, Nickelodean, Victim, Needled, and Make Magazine. Her work has been displayed in many galleries and museums from San Francisco and New York.
Monday, May 4, 2009
High-tech home sewing machine
Products of this machine,code-named Quattro 6000D, has nearly 50 inches working table. Equipped with a 4.5 x 7-inch HD LCD screen which produced by Sharp,through the screen you can easily get to control.
The brothers use its exclusive two technologies "InnovEye" and "Up-Close Viewer". The two technologies can provide you a bird's eye view of the browser through a camera beside the sewing needle.
Monday, April 13, 2009
West Lake silk umbrella
Moreover, the story of "Sending Umbrella by the Lakeside" in The White Snake popular among the Chinese further lends a legendary color to the West Lake silk umbrellas. Nowadays, Umbrella is a symbol of romance in Hangzhou, Inspired by the beautiful and brave lady White Snack, nowadays some youngsters still use umbrellas to express their adoration.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Chinese Blue Calico in Wuzhen
Wuzhen (乌镇) is a scenic town, part of Tongxiang, in northern Zhejiang Province, China.It's one of the orginal place of Blue Calico.It is the great place to travel during this season.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Textile - Bhutan
Textile art plays an important role in Bhutanese life. These weavings are produced using a technique called supplementary weft that involves inserting small pieces of colored thread among the warp threads by hand. This allows very intricate designs, but leaves the back side of the fabric with an unfinished look. Due to their labor intensive nature these hand loomed fabrics are very expensive, especially when done in silk or cotton, because of the number of weft threads per inch.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Uzbekistan Fabric
This contemporary suzani textile is handwoven and hand-embroidered by women incorporating designs traditionally used in the 18th and 19th centuries in the
The silk used in the embroidery of these pieces is colored with natural dyes from various plants and insects. The reds come from madder and cochineal; the blues come from indigo; the yellow from a variety of local plants; the black from pomegranate, and so forth. The brilliance of the dyes, along with their subtle variations, results in an appearance unmatched by the flat regularity of modern chemical dyes.
The ground fabric is handwoven with a silk warp and cotton weft. The silk warp gives the ground fabric a “hand” or touch that is superior to that of a simple cotton fabric. The silk adds a subtle visual richness to the surface. Compare it to the machine made 100% cotton backing, which, while a very nice quality material, does not have the same look or feel.
The fabric has been woven on a narrow loom by hand, resulting in a piece of cloth typically about 17-20” wide. The strips are then tacked together to make the larger piece of cloth. Then a master draws the design on the fabric with a pen. The pieces are then taken apart and each is embroidered separately by hand. When the pieces are rejoined the design will never match exactly at the seams and changes in color will also be noticeable. These slight variations were not traditionally considered to be a defect. Rather, they add some interest and give each piece its own character. This is how these items have always been made, and the variations do little to detract from the color, beauty, and rhythm of the designs. Each piece is also a slightly different size, slightly different color, and even if made by the same artisan, never exactly the same design.
Dimensions: 39" x 54"