whip up » Historic Craft

Book: The Art-Full Tree

KateG — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 11:22:21 +0000

November (and a little bit into December) is book month at Whipup.net

The Art-Full Tree; ornaments to make. Jan Gilliam and Christina Westenberger. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2011.

If your thoughts are turning to decorating your tree this year, you might like to have a look at The Art-Full Tree, which is inspired by objects in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum.

The book begins with a quick history of the museum, that was started by Abby Aldrich Rockerfeller who started collecting and exhibiting folk art in the 1920’s, at a time when common crafts and amateur arts were not highly valued. She left her collection to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and this collection forms the core of the current Folk Art Museum in Willamsburg, Virginia.

The museum has had a long and treasured tradition of decorating a holiday tree every year with ornaments made by staff, volunteers and guests of the museum. Some of these ornaments are inspired by items in the collection, and others are based on the skills of each contributor.

The Art-Full Tree presents 33 ornament projects that have been inspired by some of the most popular items in the museum collection. The book is an interesting combination of museum catalogue, inspiration notebook, project instructions and stitch guide and template sections.

Each project features the original artwork, with a short history of the item and some information on the artist or style of art. There is a very detailed materials list, and step by step instructions and photographs on making each ornament.

There is a wide range of crafting techniques used in the creation of the ornament projects, including needlepoint, paper craft, punch needle embroidery, foil work, metal punching, painting and collage. My favourite ornaments are Recycled-Card star (inspired by a compass design quilt), Scherenscnitte Birds (inspired by a cutwork picture), and Aluminium Butterfly (inspired by a metal weathervane).

I really like the process of taking a formal artwork in a formal setting, that is meaningful to the people around it, and appropriating all or part of the work to inspire the creation of anther objet, in this case tree ornaments. I feel that readers of The Art-Full Tree will be inspired to look around them, in their local museums, public spaces, or around their own treasured and meaningful objects, and to create ornaments for their own family trees that are small and perfect reminders of things that they love.

~~To win a copy of The Art-Full Tree, please leave a comment on this review. The comments will be open for 72 hours, and a winner will be selected at random. Good luck!~~ Congratulations to Becky!

About the reviewer: Kate is a busy mother of four with many craft projects on the go, including, but not limited to, crochet, knitting, sewing, dyeing, paper making, spinning, felting and bookbinding. Kate has challenges in the areas of finishing things, saying no and craft supplies storage. She also has a very very patient and tolerant husband.

DISCLOSURE: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation PROVIDED WHIPUP.NET REVIEWER KATE WITH A FREE REVIEW COPY.

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Guest blogger | Khadija – Pakistani truck art

kath_red — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:27:22 +0000

Khadija loves to make creative things she is interested in recycling, DIY and Fashion based crafts. You can find her online at Creative Mind.

Pakistan is rich in an art and craft tradition. I am proud to be a Pakistani. My post today is amazing because today I will share a unique Pakistani art tradition which is mostly done by illiterate working class people such as truck drivers or their fellow mechanics and painters. You will definitely feel amazing after watching their creativity and art. I will try to write less and show you more!

I enjoy watching these awesome motives and paintings on trucks while driving on the highway but the other day when my car was stopped in traffic I saw a big colorful truck. I thought to take its picture, but the truck was so big I was unable to take the full picture of the whole of it from car window, then the traffic again started to flow – so when I returned home I looked up these images via google. How Creative!

Examples of Pakistani Truck Art

The artists use lots of materials besides the paints for embellishing like colorful tapes, mirrors, shining stickers, beads, glitter and sometimes fabric it is a lengthy procedure to design a truck…

Haider Ali, is one of Pakistan's finest Truck Artist - he has had his work displayed at the Smithsonian Museum, USA in the Silkroad Folk Festival. He started his work when he was just 12, working alongside his father after school.

Each brush stroke is done by a human, not any machine, not a single technology at work. Would you like to see some artists who are creating this art from a long time. Every Stroke is AWESOME by these workers, they don’t have professional training or education but their work speaks.

Truck artists at work

Many artists, designers and fashion designers are inspired by truck art.

Fashion designer Deepak Perwani whose latest collection was inspired by Pakistani Truck art.

Many objects are painted in this style.

Examples of truck art style on objects

And many people copy this style to paint their cars too.

Cars painted in the truck art style

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Fashion Sketches from FITNY archives

kath_red — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 10:54:51 +0000

New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology’s flickr account (FITNY) is full of images from their archives. I love the Jerry Miller collection and the Bonnie Cashin sketch collection. Thanks to where the lovely things are to pointing me there.Similar Posts:

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19th century changes in fashion

kath_red — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:25:22 +0000

I am loving these historic fashion plates [The [new] 19th century Fashion Plate Collection consists of 475 images hosted by Claremont Colleges Digital Library in California] found at Bibliodyssey.

Archery dress: The woman on the left wears a green archery dress with full skirts, a large, pointed, white lace collar and long sleeves with double puffs at the shoulders. A gold and green tassel hangs from one side of the belt, while an ornate gold and green hip quiver holding several white, feather-tipped arrows hangs from the other. The woman on the right wears a blue and white archery dress with a high, lacy collar and a short, sheer apron. The bodice and sleeves are extremely ornate and reminiscent of a doublet.

Carriage dress: A pink bonnet with a large feather plume and bias striped edging.Her large multi-colored shawl is light blue with pink, yellow, and white in the paisley and floral pattern, and has wide fringe edging the hem.

Court dress: The low, square neck is edged in pink ribbon and two rows of white lace. Three columns of pink chevrons decorate the bodice. The skirt is sprigged with pink and has a wide border of puffed, ruched white fabric striped with pink and interspersed with pink rosettes.

Dinner and walking dresses: The woman on the left wears a white dinner dress with a peach bodice and trim. The skirt has three ruffled tiers and the collar is a high, lace ruff. The woman on the right wears an empire waist long, blue walking dress.The hem and vertical seam are edged with blue and white diagonal stripes, and each gold button is set off with a band of blue that matches those of the cuffs. The dress has a small, blue capelet trimmed in darker blue.

Dress with apron: An empire waist dress of black fabric patterned with a small yellow and white design. Her sleeves are tight and end at the elbow. She wears a white apron tied below the bust and a soft pink and white plaid kerchief wrapped around her shoulders and tucked under the apron.

Fashions: The woman on the left faces away and wears a green bonnet, a green and black striped dress, and a black, green and red shawl. The shawl has a black background with wide red edging, and has large red and green plant designs. The woman on the right wears a white lace cap with a red flower and green leaves, and red and green trimming at the hem.

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General good stuff {+ a giveaway}

kath_red — Sat, 28 May 2011 05:23:52 +0000

A few cool things to end the week with …

Grosgrain is ending their month of free patterns with something from me - head on over to check it out – and they wrote some really nice things about me too ;) Thank you Kathleen! Be sure to check out the rest of their month of free patterns and meet some very cool bloggers at the same time.

Parent map featured one our guest contributor tutorials (Marcie from mossymossy) on their 15 homemade gifts that kids can make for teachers roundup.

Make sure you check out this Etsy video - a portrait of a village in Cyprus where the women have been practicing a regional tradition of lace-making since the 15th century. It was recently nominated to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Element collection, but the skill is dying out…. and the famous Lefkaritika lace is being replaced by imported machine-made replicas to meet the demand of tourists. Read a bit more about ithere.

Craft supplies giveaway

And finally Design Memory Craft is offering two Whipup.net readers a chance to win some art supplies: Mix & Match Mixed Media Sampler (the set includes a Stamper’s Brush, Gelato Metallic Stick, Pastel Pencil and Watercolor pencil) + Color Gelatos & Clear Stamp kit (creamy sticks infused with color – use for stamping). These kits are super fun I know because they were kind enough to send me some samples to try out! They also have a blog where they show you what you can do with some of their products. ~~Leave a comment here for your chance to win. I will leave this open over the weekend – and choose a winner on Monday.~~

Update: Thanks everyone for entering – the 2 random winners are: Amy from Crooked little house and Crystal from not so crystalline. I will be contacting you via email.

And look what you have won!

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guest post: secret life of sewing machines

contributor — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:21:00 +0000

Today I would like to welcome Erin Gilday from Patchwork Underground – Erin is passionate about sewing and today is going to share a little sewing history with us.

The Secret Life of Sewing Machines: Top 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Sewing Machine

If you’re like me, you spend lots of time with your sewing machine. You went out, picked it out among millions, brought it home, named it, and loved it. You talk to it (sometimes, maybe…OK, a lot…) and you pamper it like one of your own. Your machine is with you through thick denim and thin calico. You think you know your machine so well, but you don’t know the half of it! Your dear friend, the sewing machine has a long, strange and sordid past.

Riots. Did you know that the first serviceable sewing machine ever made was burned in a hand sewer’s riot? Forget stitch ‘n bitch – this was old school stitch and destroy! In 1830, a french tailor named Barthelemy Thimonnier invented the first functional sewing machine. His invention was met with rage by French tailors, who feared that the machine would put them out of a job. The group organized themselves in protest and burned his garment factory to the ground. Another early sewing machine inventor, Walter Hunt, chose not to patent his creation because he, too, foresaw that it would obviate the tailor trade.

Rock ’n Roll. Foot powered sewing machines (a.k.a. treadles) were revolutionary because they freed up both hands for sewing. But when treadles were first invented, sales suffered in Britain because all that rocking action going on down below was deemed “unladylike.” In fact, a French woman, Caroline Garcin, and a clock-maker, M. Adam, patented the single-pedal treadle machine in 1872 specifically designed to counteract the sexual arousal women were thought to experience while using the dual pedal machines.

Steampunk. Before settling on electric motors, sewing machine engineers attempted to power their stitches with steam, clockwork and waterwheels. You thought it was a pain to deal with plugging in that power cord? Try firing up ye ol’ waterwheel.

Circus Freaks. Isaac Singer, maker of the Singer sewing machine, also owned an acting company. Singer was fond of advertising his sewing machines at his famous circus sewing shows. Singer insisted on hiring female demonstrators for his circus sewing shows to combat the prevailing notion that women were, on a whole, too “flighty” to deal with such complicated machinery as a sewing machine. It worked! Soon, sewing machines, initially thought of as masculine tools, became synonymous with women’s work.

Mrs. Needles. The first zigzag stitch machine was invented by a pioneering female engineer, Helen Augusta Blanchard. This handy lady – sometimes called “Lady Edison” – was born in 1840 to a wealthy family from Maine. But when her family lost their fortune, she started patenting her inventions (all 28 of them!) to support her kin. Though her sewing machine related patents accounted for 23 of her 28 inventions, Helen also patented surgical needles and a number of other non-sewing related pointy-stick related goods. You can find Helen’s 1873 zigzagger on display at the Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

References: Ptak science books, The Mechanical Chameleon, Photosearch.

Additional references: Image of Barthelemy Thimonnier, Similar Posts:

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paper doll project

kath_red — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:32:47 +0000

fold some Japanese paper dolls - traditional Japanese bookmark doll (shiori ningyo) with or without kimono sleeves. … The dolls are perfect for cardmaking, framing… or simply admiring!

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snowflake doily

kath_red — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:21:08 +0000

I love this doily hanging in the window – pattern here.
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book: sew retro

kath_red — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:50:50 +0000

Sew Retro: 25 Vintage-Inspired Projects for the Modern Girl & A Stylish History of the Sewing Revolution by Judi Ketteler. Voyageur Press (July 10, 2010)

Lots of quick and simple sewing projects that have been inspired by vintage designs – The projects included in this book for me I have seen most of them elsewhere before – headbands, skirts, bags, simple quilts – although lovely you won’t be buying this book for the projects alone. However what this book does have that other sewing books don’t is lots of interesting historic sewing facts and glorious vintage sewing images – its worth it for this alone.

The images of 100 year old sewing machine advertisements and pattern packaging, as well as old photographs are just beautiful. There are mini essays on 19th century sewing practices and how these relate to us today – what we can learn from our womanly history. A bit about quilting and politics, and how fashions have changed – all accompanied by the imagery.

Throughout there are bios of modern day sewists who have made their mark and their business from sewing – such as Barbara Brackman and Betz White. This is more than a sewing pattern book – it makes for a lovely afternoon of reading and I know I will get a lot of inspiration from the historic imagery. Well done!

[check out the sew retro blog for more - bonus projects + ]Similar Posts:

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hand stitched ornaments

kath_red — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 23:18:36 +0000

Annekata has a tutorial to make these hand stitched ornaments – she says: It looks much more complicated than it is and with a little practice, you can make a few and join them together for necklaces, or use them as christmas tree ornaments. They also make unique gift tags. [thanks ina for the link]

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