EXPO ‘Arline Fisch : Creatures from the Deep’ – Bellevue Arts Museum, USA – 22 juin-11 oct 2010

For almost forty years, world-renowned jeweler Arline Fisch has pioneered the application of textile techniques in the creation of jewelry, but she has rarely forayed outside this realm. Creatures from the Deep, originally commissioned by Racine Art Museum in 2008, challenged the artist to bring her work to a grand scale, using knitting and crocheting techniques to create ‘families’ of jellyfish out of her signature color-coated copper wire.

Arline Fisch – ‘Creatures of the Deep’, 2008 – Coated copper wire

Each of Fisch’s ‘families’ in the installation varies dramatically in form and color, suggesting different species of jellies. A series of corals and sea anemones rest below, all fabricated in the same very small gauge of wire through hand and machine knitting and hand crochet.

Fisch first explored jellyfish in her silver work in the mid-1960s, fascinated by their many forms and brilliant colors, and then revisited the form in a necklace based on the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish in 1999. For this commission, she again chose the creature as her theme, inspired by Racine Art Museum’s proximity to the waters of Lake Michigan. The larger-than-life sea creatures in Fisch’s installation, now traveling for the first time, seem right at home in the Puget Sound. Suspended in air and swaying together in the galleries, they submerse visitors in a captivating and otherworldly undersea environment.

Arline Fisch is a perennial figure in the metals community and author of the book Textile Techniques in Metal, published in 1975, 1996 and 2001. She currently holds the title of Professor of Art Emerita at San Diego State University.

Arline Fisch – ‘Corals’ (detail), 2009 Coated copper wire
Arline Fisch – ‘Orthocannas’  (detail), 2008 Coated copper wire  (Photos:  William Gullette)

Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep is organized by the Racine Art Museum, Racine, Wisconsin. This exhibition is made possible by Racine Art Museum

 

Bellevue Arts Museum (BAM)
510 Bellevue Way NE 
Bellevue, WA 98004  (USA)
tel  [phone]

COUP de …. BLUES ! Sharon Lindsay Ferguson (IRL)

« My approach to working with textiles is eclectic in that I am essentially a collector and my work is a consequence of this infatuation. I collect memories, thoughts, images, snatches of conversation, colours and objects. These fragments combine to form the ideas that in turn shape my work.
During the past year I have worked in varying media to develop my applied art ranging from digital and screen printing to hand and computerised embroidery and 3D constructed textiles.
The pieces shown here are part of a series of work related to childhood stories and dreams, and how they relate to our lives and shape our imagination by influencing our subconscious with their illogical nature and meaning. »

Sharon Lindsay Ferguson ‘The Butterfly Wing Portrait’, 2007 – Neckpiece: Plastic/rubber mix base, carved, sewn together, dyed, lined and embellished with stitch and found objects. (Photo David Pauley)

 

Craft Northern Ireland (CraftNI)

COUP de COEUR ! Sandra KOCJANCIC (Slovénie)

« Sandra Kocjancic was born in Koper-Slovenia. She is a jewellery designer and she use gold, silver and cooper wires in combination with precious and half precious stones, pearls, metal and other available materials (even trash material). She use a technique of crocheting that enables her to design all possible pattern combinations, which means a great variety of outstanding final creations. Her jewellery collection consists of a wide range of tipes of jewellery and her necklaces, bracelets, rings etc. are exhibited into the most known galleries, mostly in Ljubljana, Triest and Madrid. She work with some fashion designers and stylist upgradeing theirs collections with her creations. In this case the jewellery is used as an ornament, completing the suit or sewn in as a part of it. This kind of technique is useful in obtaining a great range of fashion accessories of designs styles, especially for a high fashion textile designing. »

silver ring -  earrings

 

Frédérique Coomans – bijoux de tensions

Frédérique Coomans : « ses bijoux sont composés de fils tricotés et de blocs translucides. Chaque pièce joue du contraste de ces deux matières, l’une souple, l’autre compacte. Le textile emprisonne le plexiglas, les masses de plexiglas étirent la maille. Le bijou est donc fait de tensions. »

parure de cou – plexi et fil polyester taupe métallisé – sculpté, thermoformage, sertissage de tricot

« Créer l’étonnement en conjuguant des matières, des couleurs, des techniques qu’on n’imagine pas capable de se marier. Amener le « spectateur » à découvrir une autre dimension. Que l’esthétique de l’objet « bijou » sublime sa réelle valeur financière.
Pour réussir à réaliser ces « sculpture de corps », j’aime scruter les éléments qui m’accompagnent au quotidien. Je cherche sans cesse, je teste, je manipule, je m’abreuve de toutes les techniques qui me permettront d’amener le bijou à son terme, aussi anodines et aussi éloignées de la bijouterie soient-elles. C’est une des parties essentielles de la naissance d’un bijou. J’essaie de n’écarter aucun domaine de recherche.
Au final j’obtiens le bijou, qu’il corresponde ou non à l’idée de départ.
Un bijou qui permette de s’affranchir, de s’affirmer, de se libérer de certains carcans.
De plus, un de mes plus grands souhaits serait de pouvoir croiser mes idées avec celles d’un sculpteur, d’un designer textile, d’un photographe, d’un scientifique, d’un philosophe et bien d’autres encore pour pouvoir donner naissance à une idée commune qui reflèterait, en partie du moins, la société dans laquelle nous vivons actuellement. » (Frédérique Coomans)

parure d’oreille – plexi et fil polyester taupe métallisé

voir son BLOG
à « La vitrine ASBL » – La Vitrine et ses invités
« La vitrine ASBL » a pour but de promouvoir toute activité dans le secteur des arts, de la mode, du design et de l’architecture et de donner une visibilité aux créations de ces disciplines et à leurs créateurs. Le fruit des ventes est réinvesti dans la gestion de l’asbl afin de poursuivre son but. L’idée consiste à faire exposer, dans un local commun, divers créateurs venant de réseaux différents. Il s’agit alors de surprendre et d’attirer l’attention d’un public de passage, autant les touristes en promenade dans ce quartier Saint Jacques, que les habitués nombreux à fréquenter les cafés et terrasses alentours, de jour comme de nuit. (site d’Isabelle Azaïs, créatrice de bijoux également)
La vitrine :
Rue du marché au charbon, n°96
1000 Bruxelles ( à côté de la place Fontainas )
Tél : [phone]

EXPO ‘Lines Inside’ – Lam de Wolf – Audax Textile Museum, Tilburg (Hollande) – 26 juin-12 sept. 2010

from 26 June to 12 September 2010 the Audax Textile Museum Tilburg is presenting an overview of the oeuvre of visual artist Lam de Wolf.

Lam de WOLF- Sieraad Draagbaar object, textiel, hout, 1981

« Textiles often form the basis of her work - varying from monumental space-filling installations to sculptures, murals, clothing and wearable objects. Her particular oeuvre covering thirty years emanates from a logical and clear concept.
Lam de Wolf’s (1949) works are composed with detached elements, grid patterns, rectangular and square lines of textiles. By repeating these elements she creates graphic patterns bearing her hallmarks: rhythms, stratifications and three dimensionality. Moreover, they open the window to a contextual interpretation.
In the early 1980s Lam de Wolf caused a furore with her wearable objects : extremely-protruding headgear, neck and shoulder objects made of sticks, textiles and flexible combinations. She later created monumental ‘Muurwerken’ composed of painted textiles, attached to sticks or pressed in between steel strips or wooden slats. This work gained international recognition when, in 1992, she was invited to take part in the renowned Lausanne Biennial. In the 1990s, in the reactive interplay with the space in which the work was presented, she produced large ‘Muurtekeningen’ displaying detached, square handkerchief edgings in the form of abstract grids.
Words play an important role, embroidered on a handkerchief or a ‘Sinnerok’. Taken out of their normal context they not only communicate, they confront the onlooker. The ‘Sinnerokken’, skirts with a ‘sinne’, a thought or a moral, are constructed of traditional and new fabrics with embroidered texts. De Wolf collected texts written by poets and writers such as Remco Campert and Arnold Grunberg, about living with awareness, injustice and transience.
Repetition and rhythm never result in a monotone visual image in Lam de Wolf’s work. Since 1997 she has constructed works she calls ‘Handcomputer’. These comprise thin strips of rolled-up fabric that are pinned perpendicular to the wall. They are inspired by the computer but produced by hand. In 2009 Lam de Wolf spent six months in the ‘Van Doesburghuis’ in Meudon (France). Here, inspired by artist and writer Theo van Doesburg’s house, she created spatial compositions of grids in coloured surfaces. They comprise networks of torn strips of fabric and plastic knotted together in different layers, with the plastic of the binding tie-rips projecting from the knots.
The exhibition displays a large selection of her diverse, wide-ranging work : from wearable objects of frayed textiles and sticks from the 1980s to monumental ‘drawings’ on the wall. Film material of the various periods sheds light on her work. »

 

Audax Textielmuseum Tilburg
Goirkestraat 96
5046 GN Tilburg
Tel :[phone]
Fax :  [phone]
E-mail : [e-mail]

http://www.textielmuseum.nl/

 

BOOK :

recently published book with an overview of her work ‘Lam de Wolf, monumentaal en dichtbij’ (Monumental and Close By)(published by Voetnoot, Antwerp) is on sale in the Textile Shop, price € 45 – 260pp – 2010

COUP de COEUR ! Sarah KEAY knitted wire jewellery

« I knit enamelled wire tubes that I then layer together to create strong and durable structures. »

j’adore les couleurs, j’adore ce travail minutieux de crochetage/tissage du métal, qui forme comme un nid d’où jaillissent des éclats de couleurs !

 

silver bangle – Silver, swarovski crystals, monofilament, enamel.

 

« My creative practice is heavily influenced by botanical elements. They are recreated and fragmented by units constructed from filament, precious beads, swarovski crystals, found objects, suspended by enamel.
The repetitive techniques used in the production of the pieces are mirrored in natural structures: tree branches, lacewing eggs, sea anemones.
The pieces are designed to allure and capture the wearer using movement and colour, whilst exploring the boundaries between jewellery, textiles and sculpture.
Utilisation of unconventional mixed media, alongside ancient techniques such as bobbin knitting, allows my jewellery to continually develop and diversify, whilst also questioning the traditional roles of jewellery and it’s perception » (Sarah Keay)

pink bangle – Silver, monofilament, enamel, plastic.

collier proposé dans son livre

 

BOOK :

Jewellery using textile techniques – ‘Design & make’ collection- Sarah Keay- A & C Black Publishers Ltd- 2009

Mary Lee Hu … Using metal the way clothiers use thread – de l’OR, pour une fois …..

“Mary Lee Hu uses twined structures in 18- and 22-karat gold to create extraordinary pieces of jewelry which are impeccably crafted. She has developed a double twining technique for her exquisite earrings, rings, brooches and neckpieces. Her elegant work explores intricate patterns and surface texture. She weaves with 18k and 22k gold wires, using multiple warps and wefts. » (Arline Fisch, Textile Techniques in Metal)

Habituellement, l’or et moi ça fait deux ….  mais là ! c’est au-delà du matériau ! devant cette technique époustouflante et qui pourtant à l’air … de couler de source, chapeau bas !

Et, encore une fois, j’aimerais TOUCHER ! est-ce que c’est souple ? doux ? mouvant ? rigide ?….

Hu was introduced to jewelry and metalsmithing in high school. She was also exposed to small scale metalworking during a summer camp program. She was immediately attracted to the scale of the work, the processes and the image of herself wearing what she made. She went to University of Miami, Ohio for two years and then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield, Michigan to complete her undergraduate degree. Hu learned various metals techniques. What was so unique about this experience is that at that time the student body was composed of mostly graduate students. Hu went on to graduate school at University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale. Her work consisted mostly of jewelry and small scale objects. Hu’s designs were based on natural forms, movements and symmetry. During her graduate education, Brent Kington (her professor) encouraged her to seek for and develop her style. Kington’s commitment to metalworking was inspiring to Hu. He became a very strong role model for her and her classmates. Kington, at the time, did not have his own separate studio and worked in the main studio with his students. Hu worked directly across from her professor. During her second year of graduate school Hu started to investigate weaving and knotting techniques with wire. She wanted to emulate the lines in her sketches in her metalwork. Hu quickly noticed that the twined wire recreated this effect.
One advantage to working in this manner is ease of portability of tools and supplies. This aspect suited Hu’s lifestyle during that period of her life, since she was frequently traveling. Upon her return to the United States, Hu entered numerous competitions to build up an exhibition record.
Hu also became involved with the Society of North American Goldsmiths. She served as president and was also a contributing member to the development of the organization. Hu is also involved with the American Craft Council and the World Crafts Council. She currently is a professor at University of Washington, Seattle. Hu has exhibited extensively nationall and internationally. 

Arline FISCH – Textile techniques for jewelry

Arline FISCH – Works from 1960 to the Present

4 crocheted bracelets 

« Arline Fisch explores textile techniques such as crochet, knitting, and weaving in wire and precious metals to create elegant works that recall ancient civilizations. She has established herself over a career that spans decades as a versatile artist who creates beautiful objects of adornment. Examples of Fisch’s work from 1960 to the present will be exhibited, demonstrating her truly fantastic craft.

Fisch is Professor Emerita of Art at San Diego State University, where she founded the Metals Program. Her work is in many public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; The Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In 1985 she was named a “Living Treasure of California” by the State. She is the author of Textile Techniques in Metal and Crocheted Wire Jewelry. » (passed exhibition at the Mobilia Gallery, May 2009)

Medallion Halo Necklace

 

Arline Fisch ? ce n’est pas un « coup de coeur », c’est un amour permanent et immodéré depuis que je l’ai découverte il y a quelques années de ça ……… mon rêve ? avoir un de ses bracelets ………

wire jewelry by Ines Schwotzer

Ines Schwotzer is a jewelry and accessory designer who lives and works in the small town of Feilitzsch, Ggermany. She has worked as a freelance designer since 1995, creating her own pieces and working for the likes of fashion house chanel. Many of her works are done in stainless steel using non-tradition technique she learned through textile background. Using thin wire, Schwotzer weaves and braids the metal to create delicate works that contrast the coldness of the material.

Ines Schwotzer wire jewelry

German artisan, Ines Schwotzer’s wire frame jewelry is like no other seen before. Her 3D jewelry stands apart from the typical wire work we see. That’s because Ines uses her own unique weaving and braiding frame style technique gleaned from her background as a textile designer. She has an interest in bobbin lace making and that is reflected in her finely wrought work.

She uses mostly fine stainless steel wire although some of her work is with gold plated silver. Stainless steel is difficult to work with so her skill with this material is astounding.

Les bijoux en métal de la designer allemande Ines Schwotzer sont assez étonnants. Elle utilise des techniques habituellement associées aux textiles, comme le tissage et le tressage. Résultat: les bijoux en métal de cette créatrice dégagent une impression de légèreté et de fragilité… des effets que l’on associe rarement à l’acier!

EXPO ‘Jewelry Circus’ Felieke van der Leest – West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, Bergen (Norway/Norvege) – 29 Mai 2010- 9 Janv. 2011

 ’Jewelry Circus’ – Felieke van der Leest

Felieke van der Leest uses toys, yarn and precious metals to create colourful and humorous jewellery and objects.

This Dutch artist who lives in Hardanger combines the traditional art of the goldsmith with well-known textile techniques in a way that leaves us unsure of what we are actually seeing. In this way she creates a magical world of stories and playful art objects for us to look at, fabulate over – or just to decorate ourselves with ?

Art Museums of Bergen
Rasmus Meyers allé 9,
5015 Bergen, Norway
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]