Having chosen the theme for this posting I was very interested to see what ideas would evolve and I was not disappointed . Everyones piece was so different and the number of different buildings which were chosen was excellent . The great part too were the friezes and sculptures which some members cleverly chose .
I was also delighted to see how many comments each piece engendered.
Last week I had open heart surgery and had my aortic valve replaced . Being me I thought I would bounce back very quickly , doing everything I was used to doing very quickly . Much to my surprise I felt (and feel) as weak as a kitten So much so that I am opting out of comments at the moment but hope that within another week or so my energy will return to the point of being able to comment on each individual piece, because they certainly deserve that . However I thought the standard of work was very high and that everyone had put a lot of thought and expertise into their individual pieces.
How to tackle Mies van der Rohe is quite beyond me at present but I am sure ideas will flow
sometime soon.
Love and best wishes to Amanda's Mum ( a dear friend of mine) and Mae -Britt as they gain strength.
Rosemary
The group blog of eight quiltmakers and textile artists scattered around the world in 4 countries and across three continents. Our aim is to create a small quilt every three months. The theme is chosen by the members in turn. Our website is: www.12bythedozen.weebly.com
Friday 5 June 2020
Allison Moorcroft
I really enjoyed this challenge. I have always been
interested in the many Art Deco buildings of Durban, South Africa, where I
live, so it was exciting finding and creating 3 of our buildings.
Quadrant House, in blue, is an example of the Spanish
Revival Architecture.
After making sketches from the images I had in hand, I
found 3 different base fabrics. Machined guide lines helped me keep the
perspective of the pieces correct. The shading was very important to get a 3-D
effect.
My husband Lawrence, cut out a stencil of the lettering
Art Deco into an old X-ray photo so that I could step and repeat a pattern at
an angle across the background of the piece.
The buildings were built up with cottons, net, organza,
ribbon and cord and then finished off with oil pastels and Japanese pens and
brushes.
Wednesday 3 June 2020
Comments
Hi all, Just thought I'd let you know that I'm not that slow in adding my comments to all our work. I actually added lots of comments on our posting day, only to log in a couple of days later to discover they had all disappeared. No idea what when wrong - they were all there for a couple of hours at least.
Linda
Linda
Tuesday 2 June 2020
Westmount Square
I am reposting this as Heather wrote it as a comment in the original design selection post and I'm not sure everyone got to see it. It really is a special building - and our Text'art group loves to lunch there after one of our outings. No guesses as to my theme.
Dianne
Dianne
Heather Dubreuil28 May 2020 at 15:55
As
a former member of 12btd, I follow your challenges with great interest.
I love seeing your imaginative interpretations of the themes.
Dianne alerted me to your next challenge, and suggested I share some tidbits about our Montreal condo, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe. Four years ago we bought a weekend "pied-Ã -terre" in Westmount Square, built in the 60's. The buildings opened in 1967, coinciding with the Expo 67 World's Fair and the opening of the Metro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmount_Square (or do a search for images)
Because of heritage preservation laws, the building is very much in its original state. We actually get our mail delivered directly to our unit, through a slot in the door, because it would be a violation of the heritage laws to install mail cubbies in the lobby. The lobby and each hallway is furnished with furniture in the style of van der Rohe, no doubt copies rather than originals.
The below-ground garage is unusual, in that it is not hidden behind concrete interior walls, but rather the cars are "featured" by glass walls. The cars themselves are an impressive collection of mostly Porsches, Beemers and Jaguars, putting our (usually muddy) Subaru in its place as a country cousin.
We live in Tower 3, one of four buildings in the complex, all grouped on a large plaza. The towers are made less imposing because of the height of the lobby and entrance, more in keeping with the "human-scale" of the heritage buildings on the adjacent Greene Avenue. Aside from the black steel, travertine marble is widely used in the lobby and in the underground concourse, which connects directly to the Metro.
Sadly, all the things that made our weekends in the city so much fun (theatre, museums, restaurants, galleries and libraries) are not available during lockdown. We hope to resume our weekends in the city soon!
Dianne alerted me to your next challenge, and suggested I share some tidbits about our Montreal condo, which was designed by Mies van der Rohe. Four years ago we bought a weekend "pied-Ã -terre" in Westmount Square, built in the 60's. The buildings opened in 1967, coinciding with the Expo 67 World's Fair and the opening of the Metro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westmount_Square (or do a search for images)
Because of heritage preservation laws, the building is very much in its original state. We actually get our mail delivered directly to our unit, through a slot in the door, because it would be a violation of the heritage laws to install mail cubbies in the lobby. The lobby and each hallway is furnished with furniture in the style of van der Rohe, no doubt copies rather than originals.
The below-ground garage is unusual, in that it is not hidden behind concrete interior walls, but rather the cars are "featured" by glass walls. The cars themselves are an impressive collection of mostly Porsches, Beemers and Jaguars, putting our (usually muddy) Subaru in its place as a country cousin.
We live in Tower 3, one of four buildings in the complex, all grouped on a large plaza. The towers are made less imposing because of the height of the lobby and entrance, more in keeping with the "human-scale" of the heritage buildings on the adjacent Greene Avenue. Aside from the black steel, travertine marble is widely used in the lobby and in the underground concourse, which connects directly to the Metro.
Sadly, all the things that made our weekends in the city so much fun (theatre, museums, restaurants, galleries and libraries) are not available during lockdown. We hope to resume our weekends in the city soon!
Monday 1 June 2020
Sorry for being a bit late. I thought I could be cheeky and claim it is still 31 May in some parts of the world though, of course, not where I live. I really thought I wasn't going to be able to submit a piece this time round but about 3 weeks ago, I realised I would be able to. That was about the time that I heard termites in my sewing room so that meant everything I had just unpacked into it, had to come out again and, to this day, I am surrounded by chaos. So, I got what I needed and set up in the dining room and, well, then accepted my first invite for a bush walk in my new town. I really needed to accept this and it was only for the morning so I would have the rest of yesterday to myself. Well, we didn't factor in the car breaking down among other unforeseeables! So, it has been a mad rush to do this piece last night and today.
So, the background story. Just as Australia and NZ closed their borders, my mother got admitted to hospital (in NZ) and became seriously ill and was in there for 4 weeks. I flew down to Sydney, turned up 3 days in a row at the check-in desk. I had got permission to leave Australia on compassionate grounds but was waiting to get permission to enter NZ from their immigration. Why would they say no - mum has no family in NZ, is elderly, was seriously ill and I had grown up in NZ, lived there as an adult, paid taxes, visit there sometimes as many as 10 times a year? But no. They said no. I had a spectacular breakdown at the airport and then had to head home.
After a month in hospital, mum had another month in a serviced apartment at her retirement village and that was really up and down. She needed a lot of support. She has now been home for 2 weeks and that has been up and down too. My mum is 81 and has a serious blood disorder which is not curable. I am faced with the possibility that it will be many months before NZ allows me (and others) in. It has been the hardest time of my life as my mother and I are best friends as well as family. Hence, I really didn't think I would be able to participate this month.
However, I started to think how it was like mum was in prison when she was in hospital. She was so very desperate to go home. And I felt like I was a prisoner - not free to move freely between countries as I have been so privelleged to be able to do all my life. So, I asked my friend from the US who had lived in NY if she knew of any art deco prisons. She came up with the Women's House of Detention - the only art deco prison. Perfect! And then I came across a photo of the sick ward. Even more perfect!
I used cotton organdie I had left over from a pojagi workshop. I used two layers with a third layer of self-dyed yellow for the main window. I folded a few structural lines into the fabric and then mostly free motion quilted and finally, painted with water colours.
You will see that I haven't included the woman in the photo in my work. Initially, I was going to sew an image of a woman lying in bed looking towards the window and the sun (mum craved to be in fresh air and feel the warmth of the sun on her skin). But then mum was discharged and I just couldn't bring myself to have anybody in my piece to give the clear message that mum and I don't want her to go back in there, ever!
Below is a link to the fascinating history of the house of detention and also to the site where I got the image from.
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