The first day of a new adventure, and my very first ever blog. I've transferred my embroidery studies to Open College of the Arts, Textiles, and my first module is Textiles 1: Exploring ideas.
Feelings at this point: Excited, overwhelmed, brain doing a butterfly across all the different options. Project is Cultural Fusions - Interpreting cultural sources. And the world is my oyster! so much to choose from.
Initial reaction was to work on flat textiles from Africa. there are some beautiful examples in the British Museum (Left). From the top: Indigo resist on cotton, from Senegal, late C19 - early C20.
Woven textile from Turkey (front) and appliqued from Egypt (rear)
Silk and cotton narrow weave by the Yoruba people of Nigeria, C19
I love the bold colours and stong geometric designs of these pieces. There is also a wonderful selection of lengths of cloth for wear from west africa, each printed with symbolic texts and designs, and i can't find my images right now.
Thinking about the texture, the broken nature, incomplete, no longer able to hold the water. I'd like to take this theme further, but at the same time want to get back into using more colour again, so perhaps I'll leave this one for now.
A third option is more modern ceramics, like this delicate example from national Museum wales
looking at the transclucency and moulding of the white porcelain, the subject matter relating to the fascination of the day with exotic blooms and the language of flowers, and the quirky choice of a moulded pear for the handle, adding dimension, form and fun. the wider collection also relates to one of my local industries. Also the collection of studio pottery such as that of Bernard Leach and Lucy Rie gives fabulous form and beautiful glazes.
I'm spoilt for choice here. Tomorrow is a visit to the History of Cotton exhibition at the Whitworth in Manchester, so perhaps that will make my mind up for me.
And I really must find a less long winded way of reducing image size and uploading.
Good night for now!
