I just stumbled upon the website for Fiber Scene, a gallery and “artist resource” right here in San Francisco. (Never knew!) Their gallery page is currently highlighting a show now in Berlin, “Taktha, Contemporary Batik in Europe”, part of that city’s yearly fiber art fair. So, long story short, the fiber artist Peter Wenger is represented in the show and above is his work, “The Valley” (2000). It’s wonderfully minimalist!
Out from the dense (endless) number of fabric wings I often scan through at the showrooms, the fabric above from Clarence House leaped out at me last week. Something about the scale, palette and honeycomb pattern is very quieting / soothing. (Larger cloud-like medallions of different colors - partially shown here - float above the ground pattern.) The fabric is named “haori” after a type of Japanese kimono. According to the Met Museum website a haori is one of two types of dofuko, a jacket worn by high-ranking Samurai. The haori is a short jacket with sleeves and a jimbaori (the second type of dofuko) is a sleevlees jacket. The jimbori pictured above is part of the Met’s collection and shows the same type of honeycomb pattern in its interior lining.
Anne Kirk is a textile designer based in San Francisco with a really beautiful aesthetic. Her fabrics have a satisfying weight to them and her patterns can easily work in both contemporary and more traditional projects. (I particularly like her printed velvets - they have a very old-world quality and the printing is finely done so the velvet is not stiff or crackled.) She also does custom work for clients. Click here to view her website.
Based on a comment posted to my first monthly-textile-related-book-posting last month, I’m adding 20th Century Pattern Design by Leslie Jackson to the category for May. I’ve also added it to my Amazon wish list! Amazon says “currently unavailable” with no idea when it will be back in stock. So it’s a rare commodity! Weighing in at 3+ pounds and with 200+ pages it looks like a real find.
The most recent issue of Domino magazine (the one with Julianne Moore on the cover) has a little blurb about the Italian based company Indoroman, specializing in fabrics of all kinds from India. It doesn’t look like they actually sell things from their website but there is a link for distributor information, etc. They also have this great “textile map of India”. The version on the site has hyperlinks for each region, leading you to a list of textile types for each area. Definitely worth exploring — plus it’s just a fun visual aid.
The May issue of Vanity Fair arrived in today’s mail and with it a brief introduction to Luke Irwin’s carpets (page 110). A wide range of designs are displayed on his website and custom commissions are welcome. I particularly like the carpet above, called Stonehenge.
Here’s quite a find: www.rugrabbit.com. The site is a clearinghouse for individual carpet and textile dealers and enthusiasts to post items available for sale. The textile above is described as, “silk-velvet Ikat, Bukhara c1870 mounted. 81×33cm”. The seller is Tina Tabone, tinatabone@gmail.com.
On the subject of famous artists designing (or in this case being the inspiration behind) fabulous textiles, here’s a new pattern from Rubelli’s 2008 collection called Rothko. (First, a a shot of it upholstered on a chair from Rubelli’s website, then a larger view of the pattern itself and finally, a close-up.) For reasons I can’t quite articulate the pattern seems very Japanese to me — perhaps it’s the simplicity of the pattern combined with the organic contours of the multiple colors swatches (the overall repeat is over 15″). The depth and thickness of the patches makes the fabric especially appealing. As I’ve tried to show in the close-up image each color is built by a mass of overlapping threads, many going in opposite directions. The effect really is of pigments dabbed onto a painter’s pallette.
The April issue of The World Of Interiors includes a short article about the textile designs of sculptor Henry Moore, an article that coincides with a new temporary exhibition at the Henry Moore Foundation: “Henry Moore: Textiles”, on display from 4/1/08 to 10/19/08. Apart from the particular case of Moore, the article touches on other fine artists who forged relationships with textile manufacturers in the early 20th century — a topic I’d definitely like to explore further in future posts.
Two (of four) beetle carpet offerings from Veedon Fleece. Visit the “about us” portion of their website for an interesting history of the company — and for a tie-in to Tibet, a country looming large as the Olympic torch passes through San Francisco.
