Gold embroidery from India

As I mentioned in my last post, I was really blown away by some the "bejeweled carpets". The fabric, often velvet, underneath is barely visible, only a bit on the borders, the rest of the surface is covered with embroidery and semi-precious stones. In the Islamic Art Centre brochure, they are called "bejeweled carpets" but my search with that name did not lead me very far. I finally found out that the technique is called "zardozi". At the Centre, most of the pieces were of small/medium size (approx. 2' x 3' and a bit larger) but there were a few that were really carpet size. Now, just picture yourself in a very large room, very high ceilings, white walls, wood floors and these pieces are hung on the wall and perfectly lit. It takes your breath away (at least it did mine).

Look at the video from this link
http://www.indiavideo.org/uttarpradesh/news/zardozi-embroidery-2563.php.

The pictures are not always clear and the lighting is poor but you can get a glimpse of what I am talking about. The image I add here is from the Islamic Art Centre brochure but it does not even begin to show the beauty of these things.

Arshid, our host at the Islamic Art Centre, said that these were family affairs: one person transfers the designs on the fabric (and from my quick research, I have the feeling the designs are actually stampted), another sets the stones, and others do the actual embroidery.

On my way to learn more about them! I cannot die until I am at least 150 because there is still so much I want to know about!

Islamic Art Center

Many things in Dubai were fascinating but one of the highlights of my trip was our visit to the Miraj Islamic Art Center. I could not take photos there but click on the link below to see some images and a write up. (you need to left-click on the page to make it big enough to read).
http://issuu.com/kalimat_group/docs/ta_dec_008/48 .

Unfortunately, the center does not have a website.
The following description from another newspaper article is pretty adequate:
"Miraj Islamic Art Centre is a unique blend: a museum, showroom and a showcase for creative art forms from the world of Islam. Miraj takes the best creative art forms of last 500 years and combines them with cutting-edge design and techniques to make objects d’art for today’s lifestyle.Miraj Islamic Art Centre is a cornucopia of decorative splendours of the bygone era."

I have truly never seen work of this quality of refinement and workmanship. Although one of their major goals is to sell the artwork, there is no pressure on the visitors. A young man from Kashmir took us around the showrooms and explained to us the various techniques and objects. If you look at the photos on the link above, you may get a little idea of what it was like, but no words can come close to help me share the experience. Needless to say, because of the quality of the objects, the prices were way beyond our means, but as an artist myself, I had no problem understanding why. One of the art forms that really fascinated me the most, and unfortunately it is neither mentioned nor photographed in the magazine article, was bejewelled carpets. I must humbly admit that I did not know anything about them and I no idea there was such a thing. There were a few rooms filled with them. They are not to put on the floor but are used as wall-hanging. I am still completely in awe. I am searching the web to find out more information and hopefully images before I tell you more about them and I will try to add more about my trip within the next few days....so keep in touch!

Back to the studio

As you can see, I am back from my trip to Dubai. It was very short but wonderful. I am waiting for my suitcase to arrive (which should be this afternoon) so that I can get my documents and share some of the things I have seen with you.

Fundraising event with fiber art exhibit

Salon Blue Ridge in Hendersonville "is your complete source for kitchen and bath products and innovative design". They are hosting a fundraising party on Friday, May 1, from 5 to 8 pm to benefit the Free Clinics in Hendersonville. There will be wonderful food, wine in the beautiful show rooms, which will also be the set for an exhibit of fiber art, pottery (Claude Graves) and woodwork (Bob Precourt). Tickets for the event are $60 per person and can be purchased by calling The Free Clinics at 828 697 8422. The Free Clinics offer medical attention to people who would otherwise would not get any. To find out more about this non-profit organisation, visit http://www.thefreeclinics.org/.
Go to www.salonblueridge.com to see the beautiful things they offer for your house. Even if you cannot come to the event on Friday, the exhibit will be on until July 10 and everyone is welcome to stop by.
One last note, three of my "Offerings" are part of the exhibit and it is the first time they can be seen in this area.

Call for entry for fiber artists

Wendy Outland (WHO KNOWS ART - Consultant to Visual Artists & Arts
www.whoknowsart.biz) just forwarded the following call for entry. If you know anyone else interested in submitting work, please forward the information:

Below is a Call for Entries for our upcoming book: 1000 Artisan Textiles All the information can also be found at this website, where downloadable files are also available:
www.1000artisantextiles.com
Please forward this information on to any fiber artists, quilters, felters, and weavers you know. Feel it free to post it to your blogs or websites if you wish.

Thanks so much for helping us get the word out.
Best Wishes,

Mary Ann Hall
Executive Editor
Rockport Publishers/Quarry Books Quayside Publishing Group

Art with sand

A friend send me the following video a few days ago. Well worth looking at it!

Nuno felting

My friend Nancy Bruce had talked about nuno felting for a long time and had shown me some wonderful pieces she had made with the technique. This past Saturday, she very graciously shared it with some of us, Judy Simmons, Mari Stori, Patsy Thompson and myself. We met at Judy's and even though the weather did not cooperate, we had a wonderful time.

The technique is based on felting roving though thin fabrics, so that the felt is permanently attached without stitching and creates designs. It is possible to get wonderful textures (of course, that would be what I am particularly interested in!) because the wool roving shrinks as it felts and gathers the surrounding fabric free of roving. It does involved quite a bit of work and some elbow grease but the result is so cool! I am always so thrilled to learn something new, and
there is no fear that I will ever run out of things to learn. Here are some images from our day




The roving is laid out on the fabric with bubble wrap underneath,





then lots of work and manipulations are necessary to get to the end result.
Of course now, I will have to add some kind of embellishment and beads!

Look how the silk fabric is gathered by the felted wool on Judy's scarf.
Check out Judy's blog (Windyhill happenings) and Mary's (The inside Stori), both on my blog list, to see more images of what we did and of Nancy's gorgeous work. My camera did not fully cooperate and the colors of their images are truer than mine.

A useful tip

I am back home after teaching at the Campbell School. It was a very nice week, with a small class but very enthusiastic and creative students. It makes such a difference when there is good positive energy between everyone.

Before I left, I had prepared things to work on and discovered something quite useful. You may know this and I am not sure why I had not thought of it before, but here it is:
when you write on fabric, you are supposed to stabilize it with something (freezer paper or masking tape) so that it does not stretch under you pen. However, if you are tracing a design or letters, the freezer paper or masking tape makes it impossible to see. I had to trace some very delicate letters written in calligraphy so it was very important that I traced them accurately. And all of the sudden, it donned on me that I could use transparent packing tape instead of masking tape. That would stabilize the fabric but yet be perfectly transparent to do the tracing. Duh! Wish I had thought of that a long time ago!