I love going to exhibitions. There is something so inspiring about seeing someone else’s creativity and trying to understand how they came to it. Personally I don’t mind if it is medieval embroidery, 18th century Japanese art or the work of one of the most important couturiers of the 20th Century, which I visited with the lovely Helen Kurtz.
Cristobal Balenciaga was born at the very back end of the 1800s and was apprenticed early to a local tailor in the Basque region. Clearly learning pattern cutting and how fabric behaves helped him well on the way to his career dressing some of the most famous women in the world. The exhibition contains so many dresses and suits that I immediately recognised but hadn’t realised were his.
What I really loved about the show at the V & A was how they deconstructed some of his most famous pieces to explain his art, using X-rays and animations. There was even a pad showing one of his most famous coats. You could peel off a page, follow the fold lines and perforations to make a little model. I would love to know if I could scale it up to a Juliet-sized coat.
The final room showed how other famous designers had been inspired by Balenciaga. Amazing!
The exhibition is on until February 2018 so plenty of time to go and see it. I might just have to go again.
Last Friday I very proudly made my way up to Manchester. My eldest son has been studying three dimensional design for 3 years at 
Following on from his dissertation that covered the democratisation of design and open source furniture, Joe’s final project was called Miss Marble. He worked with a paper marbling artist in Bristol to learn how to use the technique on wood. And the hard work paid off. He won the alumni award for this work, but it doesn’t end there. He picked up more awards for a collaboration with a glass blower.
The Project was called Breathe and Joe created the mould in beech wood based on sound waves before Jadhay blew the glass cylinder to go in. The scorch marks you can see is because the wood burns when the glass hits it. They will be doing an exhibition together in 2018. Joe was really quite overwhelmed with all the accolades, especially because they were from fellow crafts people.
I loved this mixture of media.
A nice mix of machine knitting and crochet.
Quilting in an intriguing plasticised fabric.
Just look at those colours!
Interesting structure on this sleeve.
Printing on knitting.
Not sure how these were made but they are fascinating.
Are you as sick of my yarn diet as I am? Well, I had a bit of inspiration a week or so ago and was led astray by the lovely Helen from 
I took Helen’s advice to split the fibre before spinning to keep the colours reasonably consistent when it came to plying but, as you can see, I didn’t split it evenly enough and I still have a lot of singles on a bobbin. I will have to try Navajo plying to use it up. But aren’t the colours glorious? I haven’t spun with a silk blend very often and I will need to increase the draw speed so that I don’t get as much twist when I spin the next lot. Now to decide what to make with my new yarn.
As part of my year of stashbusting, which already seems endless, I am tackling a simple poncho to get to understand her work better. It is taken from her book called Knitting – Stitch Led Design which I managed to find on Ebay. I haven’t followed her colour scheme exactly but am using up some Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal and Noro Silk Garden sock yarn. Garter stitch is a favourite of mine and these mitred squares are like therapy. I have tinkered with the pattern a little to get them to sit properly.
I remember going to an exhibition in around 1985 or 1986 at Leeds art gallery featuring the work of sculptor Jacob Epstein. You may be familiar with his work The Rock Drill that I first saw at the Tate. He moves between post apocalyptic, realistic, religious and voluptuous figures. I was completely fascinated especially since the gallery was quite small and you could get so close to the sculptures.
Jacob Epstein preceded Henry Moore and influenced his work. I didn’t ever really feel that much for Moore’s work, feeling a bit smug about discovering Epstein, which is probably why I have never been to Hoglands at Perry Green. This was Moore’s farm and now home to his foundation with a fantastic new visitor centre. It is just 45 minutes from where I live and now I could kick myself for not visiting sooner.
I went with my husband and 3D designer son on Saturday. The weather was amazing with huge fluffy clouds punctuating the blue sky and apple blossom everywhere. IT jus couldn’t have been a more perfect way to discover his work and marvel at the curves, his vision and drive.
A new exhibition called Becoming Henry Moore is brilliantly curated to include the artists and teachers who influenced him as well as his contemporaries to give his work context. The exhibition included early South American carvings from the British Museum as well as Modigliani, Hepworth, Epstein, Brancusi and other names I can’t remember. I just couldn’t help smiling as I wondered round just captivated by the richness of inspiration all gathered together in two rooms.
If you do get a chance I can’t recommend this exhibition highly enough. It is immersive, interesting, historical, inspirational and plain joyful.