New York Art Deco Buildings

Hi all
Many thanks to Rosemary for giving us such a juicy subject to dwell on. I have really enjoyed exploring several ideas and have 3 pieces on the go and several more possibilities that have evolved from it. Unfortunately getting ready to move house has interfered with getting all of them finished, but I have managed one! I decided to call it 'A New Dawn' as it reminded me of a spectacular sunrise.
I 

A New Dawn (front) Claire Passmore 2020

I'm sure you can see it is an abstraction of the top section of the famous Chrysler Building, probably one of the more famous Deco buildings in New York.  It is a 3D piece that is more or less 16 inches x 20 inches overall. It is double sided  and is made from several layers of thick interfacing that have been printed with a lino cut block.  It is formed from 10 sections (20 prints in total) each cut to shape and then stitched in layers with long straight stitches using Aurifil 12 weight cotton thread. These are the red, orange and yellow areas between the triangles. The sections were positioned to create a fan shape and finally stitched together. 
The thread was very kindly given to me by Auriful and was perfect for this piece as it provides the vibrant colour for the sunrise and great visual texture.

A New Dawn (back) - Claire Passmore 2020

The exploration of New York Deco buildings also led to another unexpected learning opportunity, the use of Trademarking. I am reasonable familiar with the law surrounding copyright, and early on in my explorations I thought it important to find out exactly the score was with these buildings. Generally speaking, buildings constructed prior to December 1st 1990 were not copyrighted,  but they can be, and often are, Trademarked. This opens up a whole new can of worms and caused me to delve deeper to make sure I was not going to land myself in trouble. Dorothy Raymond, a fellow SAQA member helped my understanding.  As the Deco buildings in New York are pre-1990 I thought I was on safe ground until I discovered that the Chrysler Building, my choice to work with, is a Trademarked building.  As ever, this is a complex minefield full of urban myth and complex language, not to mention differences in law between different countries. However, in a nutshell, this is what I discovered with regard to Trademarking in this instance:

A trademark is infringed when the mark (in this case a recognisable reproduction of all or part of the building) is used in commerce, without the consent of the owner, in a manner that causes confusion as to the source of the goods, service or brand. 

So as long as I don't try and put an image of my work onto plates, tea towels, greetings cards or such like and try and confuse people who may think it is official merchandise, I am safe!

BEREA STYLE - DURBAN

Durban, where I live, is known as the Art Deco city of South Africa.   Hence I have twisted the challenge from NY Art Deco to Durban Art Deco with a hint of New York.

The building I have chosen is Surrey Mansions, Currie Rd and I have taken the lions head on one of the fluted pilasters as my starting point.

With a bit of imagination I could see the New York Beauty block in the design.  I also noticed  near the top of another building, Quadrant House along the Esplanade , a design that shouted out peacock.

Unfortunately with lockdown I have not been able to get out and take better photographs of the  buildings (we are only allowed out for shopping and healthcare facilities) and also my choice of fabrics was restricted to working with what I had at the time.

With all this info gathered my piece transformed into an art deco peacock.

I had quilted two of the feathers when I realized it was not working as I had imagined but it was too late to unpick as I would have had a problem getting rid of the 'holes'. I can live with it! 

And the next challenge is ...

... not a style of architecture but an architect - Mies van der Rohe.

When my husband was still boyfriend/student architect his favourite architect was Mies van der Rohe. At the time I was more into Edward Lutyens but now Mies van der Rohe's use of grids and straight lines really appeals ... and there are always his chairs if his buildings don't appeal.

See Wikipedia or  https://www.archdaily.com/350573/happy-127th-birthday-mies-van-der-rohe for more examples of his work.

Farnsworth House (Illinois) by Mies van der Rohe

THE NEXT PERSON TO CHOOSE IN THIS SERIES 

Hi to all of you during this time where we are in different stages of lockdown due to this virus.  Trust you are all well and are creating beautiful pieces.

Rosemary has drawn the name of the next person to choose and has asked me to post it on her behalf for our next interpretation/inspiration in this series.  So the next person to choose is:

LINDA B

Lockdown in France

We have been in lockdown now for four and a half weeks and have at least three and a half weeks to go. I am used to being at home most of the time, but I found myself at first nonplussed, not just because of the situation, but also because I had to adjust to my space having been invaded by my husband and children during the daytime. As a result I couldn’t do anything the first couple of weeks. We are very lucky in that we have a small garden and our housing estate is in a quiet area (apart from the Paris-Lyon motorway which is 200 metres from our house, but which is a bit quieter thanks to the lockdown), so we are able to go out for our authorised one hour walk within a kilometre of home, in the meadow between our houses and the motorway and through the passageways that link the roads on our estate.  It is in part thanks to this I’ve been able to start working again. I have been watching the video tutorials on Sketchbook Revival (https://www.karenabend.com/schedule-2020/ until 26th April). I tried Karen Stamper’s tutorial ‘How wild is your garden? Drawing and mark making in black and white’ https://www.karenabend.com/sketchbook-revival/st-en/, and here is the result:

It’s not extraordinary, but has helped me to find the urge to do something, and I plan to do some more. I took photographs of the silhouettes of the leafless trees and their bark whilst out on my walks, and I am planning to do drawings in black and white and see what comes from that.
   Another thing that I have been doing, not every day, but most days, is a small four inch square, playing around with scraps with no plan in mind. I started doing this when I read an article in a recent Quilting Arts about Liz Kettle and the ‘stitch meditations’ that she does, which she explains in her video here: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lizkettle&view=detail&mid=0CCE2E527F179D09C0F20CCE2E527F179D09C0F2&FORM=VIRE
I liked the idea and decided to try it.

I have enjoyed doing it, especially as I have no expectations about the results: some are not very interesting, but others have sparked an interest in taking an idea further. I have particularly enjoyed playing with transparent fabrics, and with the flimsy cotton net bags that our local supermarket puts organic lemons and clementines in. The latter I twisted into cords and couched down.

NY Art Deco Inspiration

Seeing Claire's post made me realise that I could share my inspiration without giving anything away - there's no lino carving involved, that's for sure. I love the results of lino prints but need a lot more skill to be able to achieve the standard I'd like.

Ironically I anticipated that March and April would be very busy months for me so rather than dithering around and testing ideas I went with the first idea I thought of and was almost done before lockdown hit us here in the UK. Usually the deadline needs to be on a very close horizon before I get started.

I too love the curves on the Chrysler building, but I'm saving those for when I have time to develop a larger piece. After lots of searching I found this door at 7500 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn Photo - David Cobb Craig: Art Deco Doors in New York City. I understand that the building is now derelict but I knew that I could use those curves - and I have!

New York Deco - great inspiration for long days at home

Hi all
I hope you and your respective families and friends are all doing ok and managing the new routines of daily life in these odd times.
It has given me lots more time to explore and experiment with ideas for too many things, so my studio is looking like a tornado has swept through. I have about 6 different projects on the go there is stuff everywhere!!!!
I have a couple of ideas germinating for the New York Deco quilt, so I thought I'd share some of the work in progress. I don't think it will give the game away too much as I'm not exactly sure how they are going to develop myself. They are based around this lino block I have carved of probably the most famous building of them all......

Take care
Claire

LOCKDOWN SOUTH AFRICA

Lockdown in South Africa starts at midnight tonight.  Our rules are very strict.  No walking or jogging (including the dog) at all.  Only one person per car (the driver) to go out and get food and medical requirements.  So, my first stop this week was not to clear the shelves of toilet rolls but to visit my Bernina store for....

Had to get my priorities right!
I have a number of community tops to quilt so I am having fun getting back to basics and free motion quilting.

I just have the outer blocks to finish and then bind. 4 more to go.  In between when I have down time I am crocheting a family of Ellies who will be sold for funds for my local guild.

These are my sassy Ellies who will be dressed in the fabric they are sitting on and I will give them a sling bag.

These  are my angelic Ellies who will have tutus made out of the tulle they are lying on and then I need wings.   Need to play around and see what will work.
And then of course my 10 minutes of Vitamin D is benefitting my garden as it is now getting a look in. 
As somebody shared ...... Quilters have been preparing for this for a long time.  
Stay safe all.

Time to Play!

Sometimes I think it just needs a brave step into the unknown (scary place) to experiment and try things out.  Well, now we all have plenty of time during lock-down so let's play! 
Please post any experiments, with good or bad results, here.

Today I will be space dyeing a background cloth which is for a school children's project I'm involved with.  They have drawn around their hands onto Bondaweb  - about 35 children between 5 and 8 - and I have transferred the shapes onto fabric which have each been fused to a felt backing, appliqued with a satin stitch edging and cut out.  Their school logo is a tree of leaves and the idea is to make a big wall-hanging substituting the leaves with their hands.  I raided my green stash and they were able to choose their own fabrics.

Each hand will eventually have the child's name embroidered on it but I need to have the background finished so the hands can be placed and the names angled to be able to be read easily.

School logo

Some of the hands

Rough layout

It was at this point I realised that the piece of fabric which Phil and I had dyed years ago, wasn't big enough.  Hence having to dye a bigger piece.   Wish me luck with the dyeing - I am NOT a dyer!

Hilary

Artists inspired by architecture

Hi all

This landed in my inbox today from Textile Artist.org.

There is a link at the bottom.

Love
Claire
x

Textile artists inspired by architecture

We’ve posted several articles about landscape textile artists, and now it’s time to showcase those who focus on architecture. While architecture indeed rests within landscapes, these four artists pay particular attention to stitching buildings’ structural details in the most amazing ways.  Debbie Smyth’s thread drawings capture historic and current architecture in simple, yet intricate, ways. Harriet Popham uses thread in a similar fashion, but she combines architecture with animals and nature to create whimsical interior art pieces.  Karen Goetzinger uses a mixed-media approach with her urban scenes featuring thread designs on painted surfaces. And Ruth Chalk literally knits her architecture into being, using reclaimed and recycled materials in the most novel ways. Step into these architectural worlds of stitch and enjoy the view

In the process of moving interstate

Hi there
I just thought I would mention that I am in the process of buying, selling and moving interstate. I am looking forward to getting back to the window creations and having a good look and making some comments. Not long and I will have the luxury of time to do that.
Thanks
Amanda

Hello again fellow bloggers . You will notice that I have commented twice on Diane's Hong Kong scene as I was having problems with getting into the Blog . My head is still filled with Sophie Standing's thread painting class which I attended over the past 4 days and found wonderful !! Rosemary