Our move from the vast and sparsely populated French Midi to mega-city Berlin requires a period of
adaptation. Life in a beautiful place came to an end and is missed
tremendously. Luckily, it is not material possessions we miss. It is friends one cannot easily visit any longer, it is my country cat Howard
who did find a new home but is missed every day, and there is le
Lauragais landscape, the infinite fields, wide horizons, Pyrenees mountains, the Montagne Noir, and the sky with sunrises and sunsets beautiful beyond description - all of this having been the main reasons for
living in that part of France for almost two decades.
Timbuctoo - adding new circles
In many ways we are lucky to have found a true home and friends in so many places,
be it in Germany, the UK, the United States or in France - so I would like
to belief that we will feel at home again someday in this big city of
Berlin. I am slowly picking up my threads again in the truest sense of the word, getting my
yarn stash organized and continuing dormant projects. The cowl Timbuctoohas made a few steps forward - moving along the road to Timbuctoo inch by inch so to speak. As one
says, the path is the goal. And who says one has to hurry knitting ...
This is the last part of ART TEXTILE BERLIN - highlighting a few more artists participating in the exposition in Berlin. The vast array of arts kept the visitor almost spellbound - each room held new surprises, affording lovely insights into old and new crafts and creations. Click here to see all four blog posts on ART TEXTILE BERLIN.
Two more works by Eva Lippert- showcasing her art in a glass cabinet. Such lovely gatherings of materials, be it beads or buttons, yarns or fleece, an almost transparent precious look at one time, darkly glossy and beautiful the other, combining knitting, crocheting, beading, quilting, weaving, just following the voice of the materials.
Mormon, Anne-Marie
- See more at: http://www.textile-art-berlin.de/teilnehmer/mormon-anne-marie#sthash.pdtXab17.dpuf
Beautiful gathering of sensuous materials
Mormon, Anne-Marie
- See more at: http://www.textile-art-berlin.de/teilnehmer/mormon-anne-marie#sthash.pdtXab17.dpuf
Mormon, Anne-Marie
- See more at: http://www.textile-art-berlin.de/teilnehmer/mormon-anne-marie#sthash.pdtXab17.dpu
See this interesting blog by Tara for excellent pictures of bracelets made with the Wikinger Strickliesel. You can see how the wire is wound and stitched around a stick, its size determinant for the length and diameter, crocheting in the round so to speak.
Jewelry made with Wikinger Strckliesel (spool knitting)
Bracelet made with Wikinger Strickliesel (Bracelet and picture by Tara)
Closing this post with a picture of folded Origami ornaments, bringing bright rainbow colors into the church St. Maria, in Angermünde (Uckermark, Germany). I was thinking of how lucky we are that we are able to live in a safe place and how urgently we need to help those less fortunate.
If you wish you can leave a message via the comment link below or use the e-mail link in left column. Looking for a list of genuinely useful information and tutorials? See this post.
In all colors of the rainbow - Origami in St. Maria (St. Angermünde, Germany)
Yoomchi = Korean Art of Papermaking - Artist Sang Hoon Yang ”Love
Song”, 600x1800m, Joomchi, Wire and handmade Paper. Hanji is strong and
long-lasting traditional Korean paper, made from the inner bark of the
dak (mulberry) tree, famous for its ability to resist fading, even after
1,000 years. This material is popularly used in the fashion industry,
normal life and artwork creation, such as Yoomchi.
The TEXTILE ART BERLIN presented the work of amazing textile artists. I would like to show you the creations of two more artists who participated in the exposition. Click here for all posts with the topic Textile Art Berlin
Hildegard Braatz: 9-Patch 1. Old Lace Fragments and hand-dyed fabric
Hildegard Braatz - quilt artist extraordinary. An interview with her can be found here, also more pictures of her beautiful, unusual quilt creations.Click herefor her personal website. Some of her quilts combine handmade paper with pieces of antique lace and embroidery - and she sells small treasure packages with different lace snippets and pieces so you can fulfil your personal lace dream collage! (hildegard.braatz@quiltware.de). The pictures are by Hildegard Braatz.
Hildegard Braatz - Spitzencollage - Lace Collage
Hildegard Braatz- Spitzencollage - Lace Collage
Another artist presenting her work at the TEXTILE ART BERLIN was Eva Lippert.
She is catching and weaving textile dreams on a small table loom, combining treasures such as beads,
lace, yarns, feathers etc. into glistening, precious pieces of jewellery-like cuffs or long wrist / arm warmers. If you wish to own some of her creations, write to her at: evalippert56@googlemail.com
Cuffs by Eva Lippert
Aren't these cuffs just magic: each one is different and it takes time to discover and sufficiently admire all those lovingly added details. I stood at the glass vitrine that held some of her creations for a long time and found it so hard to leave, especially since a small and very pretty girl was dancing around in the booth, bringing a smile to everybody's face!
The last day of June 2013 was a special day for lovers of blue, pastel blue to be precise. It was the first event by the Association "Accompagnement et Développement de la Filière Pastel" in celebration of this ancient craft: Fêtes de l'Or Bleu en Pays de Cocagne - 30 Juin 2013 in the park of Chateau de Loubens-Lauragais. And the sun spread its golden rays on all those wonderful memberswho had worked incredibly hard to make this a spectacular event.
The Pastel plant (Isatis tincoria) has been known even before Roman times for its many beneficial uses. Within the course of the centuries, it was recognized as the miraculously versatile plant that it is, and in other times was condemned and even prohibited by heads of state, even misinformed kings, to be grown or used in some countries for being an invasive and health-threatening toxic plant. As always, it is the right measure that makes the difference.
Chateau Loubens-Lauragais (France) Note the window panes,
picking up the sky's blue to join in the color scheme of the festival!
Quote:"If this plant is known around the world, Lauraguais was one of his election land. "Given below in the kingdom, pastel comes although Lauraguais" writes Olivier de Serres in his Theatre of Agriculture in 1600. This
small agricultural country Languedoc became the most famous granary of
Europe pastel the Renaissance culture knows a remarkable growth and is
the wealth of this entire region. But this blue gradually falls into oblivion with the arrival of indigo dyes and chemicals."
Pleu Pastel Balls = Coques / Cocagnes and Pastel seed in the small bowl
Luckily, it evaded extinction and its use never died out completely. Towns and regions became prosperous (Toulouse in France and the five Färberwaid (dye woad) towns in Thuringia, Germany). Little known is the fact that the French expression "Pays de Cocagne" stands for that imaginary and miraculous land of milk and honey, land of plentyParadise on Earth, a bountiful Schlaraffenland.
Carded sheep fleece dyed Pastel Blue
The "Blue Dye" industry prospered indeed, and the wealth can still be seen in some places in France, England and Germany, where beautiful mansions by Pastel growers and traders recall the haydays of Pastel Dyeing.
Upright Loom Weaving
Why "Cocagne" ? The word comes from "coques" (shells) which is the ball shape of the traded form of the "bleu pastel dye". There are various places in European countries where the curious-minded Pastel fans can see and even participate and take classes in dyeing with Bleu Pastel, such as inLectoure, France. Online sources will make this beautiful yarn available to textile fans around the globe, notably Renaissance Dyeing in France.
Sur le Pont d'Avignon... that is what they were singing!
Spinning with a spindle - note the Pastel Blue hands!
Pastel Country Bovine - note the shimmering horns!
Dyeing for blue...
Carding the fleece to spin into much coveted skeins of Pastel Blue yarn
Town Crier with a modern mike
This link might come in handy for knitters and crocheters alike: Helpful Tips (at bottom of post).
Also see this postfor information on a store in Revel (Midi, France) selling Pastel products: Elisabeth.Tricot.
We first met in 1966 in Evanston, Illinois - but it has been decades since we met last. I remember so well a visit to Lynn's Silverbirch Spinning Shop in Whiting Bay (on the Isle of Arran), learning how to spin, my two small children in tow.
Today, for no specific reason, I search the web again for Lynn, again using different search words. And she was, almost unchanged but for the color of her hair - almost forty years whizzed past, and throughout those decades we had both pursued the same directions in different ways. What a wonderful surprise this Tuesday held for me!
On her Rainbow Textiles website I found pictures of her and her children, two of whom I had met all that time ago! And look at her beautiful textile art projects! The one above Lynn called: California Storm 2009.
