No Sour Meadows on Nowness.com

陶芸作家 原田省平さん Japanese Ceramic Artist - Shohei Harada

This skilled Japanese artisan makes amazing keramic treasures in designs traditional and modern alike.(check the little robot incense burner of his hand!)

Some Quick inspiration for watercolours

Jellyfish dress

I really enjoyed the project I undertook together with Solos, that's why I'm glad they are organizing a little exhibition of the designer's of the "design your own piece" group. Though I have made quite a lot of sketches I haven't realized a whole lot of them, until I decided that even if I am not gonna realize all of the more complex sketches in a day, the mind needs practice for sewing just like it does for drawing. So I started with a concept I was sure I could sort of mould into shape on a mannequin. I found a gorgeously colored polyester fabric that has a wonderful soft sheen to it and I have been dying to realize some designs inspired by "Heart of the sea" The fabric subtly shades to purple, lilac and a beautiful sunset yellow. The colors remind me so much of the jellyfish I have been studying for drawing skills ^^ So here are some goodies:

See what I mean? Of course it's not finished yet, by far. But I can't wait till it is :)

This dress is a draft too, The front was delicately folded over and over to create a corset-like feel to it.

Needs more sugar

I haven't posted a thing for ages now, mainly because I have been occupied with school for so long. Furthermore I have learned and created so many different things by now. I always saw art as some sort of genre-mainly containing painting and drawing-separated from other categories like cooking and fashion. Mainly because people sometimes used to tell me it's better to stick to one thing if you really want to progress. But I have learned through the last few years that some people don't work like that, that I don't work like that.
I enjoy exploring the entirety of art in all it's forms. I see patterns, designs and textures for clothing in cakes and flower arrangements. I think of whimsical blues and purples when I picture France in my head or hear a french word. I smell colours when I cycle past a field of wild flowers and I dance on images when I hear music. Art is everywhere and I can't simply detain myself if even for a minute to not hold it down in ink, paint, thread or sugar and spices. I must Create objects, concepts or dreams out of empty space because I cannot bear a blank canvas, wherever it may be.

So bear with me for some more diversity on this blog :)

''Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.'' Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832), German poet, dramatist. Serlo, in Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, bk. 5, ch. 1 (1795-1796), trans. by Thomas Carlyle.

What do you do with your life when you want it all? A few years ago I felt like I didn't have anything to live for. That there was nothing in life I cherished doing. And frankly there are still times I feel like this. Hopeless and gloomy. But lately it's been more because there are so MANY things I would like to do. And once chosen remains chosen doesn't it? Or does it?

Through my life there were lots of people who thought I would amount to nothing. Shying away from people I "collected" so many hobbies that I got quite good at a few of them. Good enough to consider turning them into a profession anyway. A few of those I could combine, like photography and fashion, putting it to good use for photographing my designs(or dishes for that matter.) But if I don't start setting priorities here and there I might end up the only tattoo-artist working in frilly pink dresses, donning nonetheless some pretty crude tattoos and piercings, and being a part-time pâttisière to top it off(I love sculpting, and edible sculptures, or "cake" is fantastic!)

I can't help it. I love art. Everything about art and being creative. I love it in food, I love it in and on fashion. I love it sitting on people, being part of someone else and of myself. I just love art, and thus I think I should live life creatively. With EVERYTHING I love. Because to me it's the only way to live the life I want: ten lives at a time. I don't want to look back later and regret the things I DIDN'T do. Even if it means living life at full pace.

Finally the hunt for fabric has come to a more satisfying conclusion. For those who missed the recent lamentations of my problem I shall rewind:

Every year there is an amazing ball masque in Belgium, attended by some of the most competitive costume designers of Europe. This years dresscode that made we want to go after years of "Kinda wanting to go but not really being sure" involved the Elizabethan fashion. As the theme is:

"The Pope's Daughter"

Ah, the wonders of these three simple words. The wonderful satiric possibilities one might endow on them! I opted for a flashing gold display of wealth of the elizabethan fame of the golden age but soon had to give in to the lure of the satire (as I cannot simply turn down a possibility to stab the papal institution where it hurts) So the choice came for a display of Lilith, the first wife of Adam who was supposedly responsible for the fall of man(quite a paradox too to tell a man and a women with no knowledge of good and evil that eating from the tree that bears this exact knowledge is in fact evil)

And continuing on this satire I decided to embroider the front panel with this exact display(see picture) from bottom to top: -Adam and Eva and the tree of knowledge of good and evil -The gates of heaven with Michaël banishing them from paradise -The head of the paganistic Baphomet, more commonly seen as satan, with the following sentence inscripted in gold at the very top of the bodice: "Sic transit gloria mundi" a rather clever pun stating "Thus passes the glory of this world"
Words that used to be spoken to a new pope during his coronation to reming him to his vow of giving up worldly things as something fleeting. And deliciously applicable to the theme of "the pope's daughter"

Anyway, to finally get to the goodies(kudos if you are still reading!) I had a theme and tied to that also a color scheme which fairly limited my choices to a deep, scarlet or rather: bloodred(the wonders of symbolism) Which I finally found!

The dress stand with the hoop skirt in need of adjustment. And it's blocking half my room..=.=

The primary sketch

A hastily drawn detail of the bodice embroidery

The fabrics from left to right: The bloodred silk tafetta, the purple-ish lining and the fabric for the costume of my love<3