Each Little World

Textiles: The Whole Story at Monroe St. Library

Professor Beverly Gordon of the Design Studies Dept. at UW-Madison will read from her new book, "Textiles The Whole Story: Uses, Meanings, Significance" at the Monroe St. Branch Library in Madison on Monday, Dec 12 at 7 p.m. The evening will include a slide show and Gordon will have some copies of her book for sale. The event is free and open to all.

Not long ago I went to a similar event celebrating the publication of "Textiles The Whole Story" and the many people who assisted Gordon along the way. Judging from the presentation that day, this should be an equally entertaining and informative evening. The book is beautiful, filled with visual riches that the cover doesn't begin to suggest. It's a must for anyone who loves textiles. The illustrations include almost 60 objects from the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection, part of the School of Human Ecology at UW-Madison.

Here's what the book's publisher, Thames and Hudson, says about it: 

"There are few aspects of our lives — physical, emotional, spiritual — in which thread and fabrics do not play a notable part. Beverly Gordon reminds us memorably and movingly of the powerful significance of fabric throughout human history.

The author bridges past and present from the Stone Age, when humans first learned to make cordage or thread, to twenty-first-century “smart fabrics,” which can regulate body temperature or measure the wearer’s pulse. Her discussion integrates art, science, history, and anthropology, and she draws on examples from around the globe.

A dazzling array of illustrations includes paintings and photographs of both historic and contemporary textiles and a broad collection of textiles being created, worn, and lived with."

Inspiration: A quartet of my favorite femmes

I am one of those readers of the New York Times newspaper who always turns to the obituaries first. The reason I always look at NYT obits is that they often include many people who I've never met but feel I know. 

Sometimes I feel a personal connection because the person opened up a new world to me via their own passionate interests like Mary Hunt Kahlenberg with Navaho rugs and Indonesian textiles. Or it may be because I've spent a lifetime enthralled by their bohemian style like Loulou de la Falaise. Sometimes I was charmed by their story-telling ability like Florence Parry Heide of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Or, like Phyllis Love, they embodied an imaginary character so totally that they have remained a capricious teenager in a role committed to film 55 years ago.

Suddenly, many of my quirky interests collided in one brief moment as these four women all looked out at me the last few days from their final stories in the Times.

. . .

In the 1970s, when Mary Hunt Kahlenberg was head of the costume and textile department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she organized “The Navajo Blanket” with Anthony Berlant, an artist and textile collector. The exhibit — which I saw at the Elvehjem Museum in Madison when I was a textile student — stunned the art world as she presented American Indian blankets hung on the wall as works of art. Being in the presence of those wonderful creations was one of those rare moments when you know you are seeing something that will forever change how you look at the world. “The Navajo Blanket” was one of the first textile books I ever bought and it still has pride of place on my bookshelf today. For those who love textiles, a number of Kahlenberg's books on the subject are available locally through the South Central Library System.

For decades, Loulou de la Falaise was both St. Laurent's muse and collaborator; and as such, she was a fixture in the fashion pages in the days when I poured over them. Loulou was one in a long line of famous family beauties. But now I realize that what was perhaps most lovely about her is that she at once looked wonderful and her age.

LOULOU DE LA FALAISE

I discovered the books of Florence Parry Heide when I was an elementary school art teacher on the East Coast. It was a job that gave me access to new generations of children's books published long after I had stopped reading such things. My contact with young people — along with a wise school librarian — and brilliantly inventive book's like Heide's "The Shrinking of Treehorn," showed me that I would never be too old to enjoy kid lit! 

I've known and loved Martha True Birdwell since I first watched "Friendly Persuasion" with my mother when I was ten years old! Actress Phyllis Love played many more well-known and well-regarded roles during her career, but for me she will always be the young daughter — Mattie — in this story of a Quaker family on their Indiana farm during the Civil War. The cast has a pair of perfect parents: a rueful Gary Cooper matched with a feisty Dorothy McGuire. Anthony Perkins played the older son in a breakthrough role. The parents were a long-married couple who put up with each other's foibles out of both love and respect. And they watched with amusement and concern as their children struggled toward adulthood with a war and an outside world moving ever closer to tempt them from their Quaker — and pacifist — beliefs. In many ways it is a throwback 1950s movie, but one with such sweetness and charm that I never grow tired of watching it. Or watching Mattie/Phyllis fall in love with the soldier pictured below.

The Birdwell family with a soldier neighbor in the Civil War movie "Friendly Persuasion." Phyllis Love is on the far right.

GBBD: 02.15.11

No flowers outdoors as yet, but we are enjoying a bit of a warming trend that's helping to melt our huge snow piles. There are abundant blooms indoors however, all from a beautiful book on Swedish scarves and shawls sent to us by our friends, Julie and Mats, who spent Christmas with Mats' family in Sweden. Enjoy these colorful bouquets from "Folklig Grannlåt" by Birgitta Farhang and Ingrid Herrdin. 

And be sure to visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what's blooming in gardens around the world.

Advanced style

If you are even remotely interested in fashion and style then you no doubt are familiar with the what I consider the triumvirate of top talent who cover the subject:

• The Sartorialist is a New Yorker who shoots the fashionable — but usually unknown — folks he discovers on the street
• Garance Dore is an illustrator, street photographer and typically elegant French woman who smokes cigarettes and knows how to wear a scarf
• Mrs. O is the creation of Mary Tomer and follows the fashion — what and whom she's wearing — of America's First Lady Michelle Obama

But if you are a woman of a certain age there is really only one fashion blog that is an absolute must-read: Ari Seth Cohen's Advanced Style. Self-described as "proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age," it is a revelation and an inspiration. Two recent posts looked at the ladies below:

Bridget Soujourner (above) is 72 and fighting ageism with color and fashion. A nice little interview accompanies more great photos at "The Right to Wear Bright Colors."

My current favorite image is of this unnamed NYC woman who is "looking great at 98!" Can you believe it? I think I need to keep working on my wardrobe so I will still have something fashionable in the closet when I reach this age.

The books are back!

We're down to the "punch list" in our remodeling project. That's the list of all the little bits and pieces that need to be dealt with by the contractor before a job is finished. We're close enough to being done that we've started on the fun jobs: planning where to put our favorite artworks and decorative objects, and unpacking the 34 boxes of books we moved out of the old library and re-shelving them in their new setting.

We knew we'd have enough room for all those books but I suggested we discard the equivalent of two shelves worth of titles — about ten percent — as we unpacked. That would give us space to buy more books and it would allow us to combine volumes on a given subject that were previously scattered around the house. What a pleasure to discover old friends and also to admit that we've moved beyond some titles, subjects, obsessions. But looking at the rows of cookbooks, books on textiles, costume, interior design — it's clear some subjects will always be favored.

This weekend we hope to move the couch and the big Chinese armoire that holds the TV and other electronic media back into the room. Let the fun begin! 

I put down a throw to keep cardboard boxes of books from getting the new carpet dirty. The carpet is un-dyed wool in a tweedy-gray made of all the natural colors of fleece. Wonderful on bare feet. The new shelves are 44 inches high and made of cherry. 

Easter Parade

Easter is the last refuge for those of us who love hats. I'll take all three of these, though I confess these bonneted beauties were actually snapped at Ascot — where else?

Hope you have the perfect hat and a perfect day!

Caring for your textiles

My wedding dress has been buried in various closets for the last 20+ years while my husband's christening gown and my First Communion dress have been residing in the basement. We have some Japanese textiles and a few African pieces stored in a bit more protected fashion. But the truth is, I don't know what I'm doing. I've always intended to learn how I should be caring for my textile treasures and pieces of family history.

    

 

Now those of us who live in the Madison area have an opportunity to do so — free of charge — courtesy of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection at the UW-Madison. Diana Zlatanovski, HLATC's Assistant Curator and Collections Manager, will show us "practical guidelines" for the care and storage of our textiles at home. You may remember that Zlatanovski was in charge of the team preparing HLATC's textiles for their move to temporary quarters while the collection's home is redone as part of a larger campus building project.    

    

"Caring for Your Textiles"

Sunday, March 7

1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

UW Foundation, 1848 University Avenue

Free parking on site

While this event is free and open to the public, reservations are recommended. To do so, contact Diana Zlatanovski at zlatanovski@wisc.edu.    

    

You can learn more about the two textiles pictured here at the HLATC link in the text above. If you are unable to participate but love textiles, be sure to check out the digital textile collection.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 1.15.2010

Botanical jewels

    

 

 

 

 

    

Gertrude Stein declared, "Certainly glittering is handsome and convincing," in her ground-breaking book, "Tender Buttons." These six 19th Century steel buttons, however, are anything but tender. The mere fact of their continued existence defines them as tough little treasures, showing their years in a patina of fine lines and bits of rust. Nestled at the bottom of an ancient Chinese bowl, they're January's Bloom Day offering; as beautiful to my eyes as any bulb in its glass. 

The first one pictured is the smallest, about the size of a dime; the fourth button is the largest at the size of a quarter. As always, thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts this world-wide look at what's blooming where.

Update: For all you button fans, here is the store to visit next time you are in NYC. If that's never going to happen, then there is a book that is almost as good as a visit.

His significant blogs of 2009

The Future Buzz cites these 2009 statistics:

• 133,000,000: number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 900,000: average number of blog posts in a 24-hour period

So, please be understanding if I've overlooked yours, and accept my heartfelt thanks for reading ours.

When I first encounter a blog I'm hoping to find one or, preferably, more of the following - unique content, wit, intelligence, superior design, excellent photography, quality links, creativity, and personality. I've chosen ten blogs that I've returned to many times in the past year because they have made a significant impression on me.

The first (in no particular order) is A Bloomsbury Life. Who can resist the joie de vivre of Lisa Borgnes Giramonti? I can't. And not for lack of trying. The depiction of her perfect life, husband ("the divine Italian"), son, house, and travels are just ... too perfect! And still, like a train wreck, I can't help looking. To her credit, the woman has taste, charm, wit and intelligence. I can't help wanting her to be my friend. 

I'm a reluctant traveler at best, but that shouldn't suggest a lack of interest in other places and other cultures. Art Propelled is the blog of an artist, Robyn Gordon, from South Africa whose aesthetic sense and list of "interests" mirror my own. She generously shares her blog space with other artists whose work she loves; and intersperses her reviews with fascinating glimpses into her life in Africa. If invited, I would travel to her world.

Avuncular American is the title of a blog by Gerald Loftus, self described as "an expatriate view of America and the world from Europe", by a former diplomat. Many years ago I had an opportunity to spend five weeks in Europe. It changed my view of the United States for ever. Reading Loftus transports me outside the borders of my country, gives me back that outsider's view of things, and provides a measure of objectivity that is very hard to come by in our national press.

Stephen Szczepanek has spun off a blog, Sri Threads, from his business site and dedicated it to "commenting on the world of Japanese folk textiles." His blog is a model of an informative site, full of difficult to find information about a subject that excites me on many levels. The objects he discusses are lovely in themselves, beautifully photographed and often (unlike so many beautiful things) available to own at prices within the budgets of almost anyone. I've succumbed several times.

I have to admit that Rustwire is a blog I would probably not have taken up if it had not been co-founded by my niece Kate Giammarise, with Angie Schmitt, two outstanding young journalists who have been downsized out of jobs at newspapers. That being said, I have found their view of our nation's rust belt cities insightful and, more than I would have thought, encouraging. They have delved below the cliched views of TV news and found stories both heartbreaking and inspiring.

BibliOdyssey is all about images. It's a feast for the eyes. Extremely modest, Paul (or "pk") is from Sidney, Australia. He claims to be "just the curator" of this fantastic resource. Woodcuts, etchings, water colors, and drawings along with charts, maps and calligraphy illustrate every conceivable subject from nearly any country you can think of. They attest in a magnificent way to the creativity of mankind throughout history. 

I go to Janet Blyberg for the photography, both hers and the links she often includes to other exceptional work. Her blog, ~JCB~, is as understated as its title. Her posts are as elegant, succinct, and rich as petit fours. Her trouvee photographs are always a delight and have moved me to see my family's albums in a whole new light. I always leave her site feeling refreshed.

Each fall, as seasonal effective disorder threatens to engulf me, my thoughts turn to philosophy. Who is the absurd man?, by Rick Bomstein, is subtitled: Ruminations on the meaninglessness of it all. It is a blog that embraces the absurdities of life. I realize that it may seem odd (absurd?), but reading his ruminations always make me feel better. They make me think, and thinking seems to lift the gloom, to bring me out of my seasonal funk for a while. Reason enough to find his blog significant.

I admit, I'm a bit of a slob. As an art student I worked on a persona that made a virtue of poverty. Blue jeans and Salvation Army Store shirts were my uniform. Reading Easy and Elegant Life has shamed me into trying harder to dress and act like a grownup. Chris Cox may wear black tie for Christmas dinner, but he also shows you how to look elegant in jeans. His expectations are modest. He just wants us to "dress a little better than you have to."

And, finally, my most recent internet inspiration: Altoon Sultan's Studio and Garden blog. She paints beautifully, hooks small sculptural rugs, gardens, cooks scrumptious looking meals, and still has time to share it all through her blog. But the thing that I think sets her apart from so many other bloggers is the fact that she is a natural teacher. Her text is always full of information, explanation and insight into whatever interests her.

I hope you will visit each of these blogs, every one a work of personal passion and commitment. And, having read them, if you think you know of another I would enjoy, please pass it along.

Have a healthy and happy new year.

Mark

Quilted gardens

The temperature was 40 degrees outside when I woke up this morning. Lots of leaves and branches were down in the yard after a day and night of rain and high winds. When I heard the forecast on Sunday, I pulled some cold weather bedding out of the closet so we were warm and toasty despite the falling temps. It's suddenly the season of quilts — in the bedroom and the art gallery. 

Locally you can enjoy a vibrant exhibit of traditional and contemporary art quilts at the annual Olbrich Botanical Gardens Quilts in Bloom event now through October 11th. The quilts are displayed with grasses and fall plants keyed to the color and design of the textiles. There's a quilt raffle and even the outdoor Herb Garden is enlivened with a "quilted" courtyard planting. The quilt show is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a $2 donation is suggested.

The star of this show must surely be Nora Bebee's quilted "Kokoro Kimono." An actual kimono is the foundation of the piece which has been enlarged and embellished with hand-beading and batik patterned leaves and images of Whitnall Park near Milwaukee (above and below). 

"Kokoro is a Japanese word that means heart, soul, spirit and mind," Bebee told the PR folks at Olbrich who noted the detail in an email to me. Bebee said she thought that was an especially appropriate title for her quilt, since "all those parts of me were used in creating the kimono."

If you're looking for artful quilted bedcoverings but can't make it to Madison, check out the Sundance catalog. They offer a wide array of quilts made from antique Indian saris (below). These come in different sizes, colors and patterns and are all handmade using antique textiles. 

Another attractive offering from Sundance is this Suchitra quilt (below). It comes in Queen and King sizes and is made of hand-printed cotton bordered in a matching floral and backed in brown cotton. Kantha stitching binds the layers together without batting. 

The top three photos are courtesy Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the bottom two are from the Sundance catalog web site.