Posts from the ‘Pillows’ Category
There is expansion in life! I am not hovering!! I have 7 followers. This is fantastic because I have had a steady five forever…When I have 50 followers, I am giving away a pillow so click on the button kids!
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| And I on a soft pillow will lay down my limbs. Sappho. |
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| Vintage Silk Scarf cut & re-patterned. |
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| Large “Musique” Silk scarf. Cut and repatterned. |
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| Wonderful acid turquoise, yellows pinks and chartreuse. |
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| The alchemy of scissors and thread. |
Piece work for me is about re-inventing and re-designing and re-patterning. It’s the alchemy that comes with cutting something up and putting it back together.
I started collecting vintage silk scarves after a summer course at Fitzwilliam College in 2000. I had a friend there who told me about a distant cousin he had just met in London. The cousin was in his 70’s and lived in South Kensington with his partner in a house filled with antiques. They had a collection of tea cups and silk scarves. At 30 I imagined being 70, in a large house with everything that comes with it, and a collection of silk scarves. I got back from England and I found an Hermes Scarf in a thrift store and my collection began. It is quickly filling up one of my Halliburton suitcases. Pictured here are pillows I made out of a couple of the scarves.
Yes, I know! I’m experimenting with my own product photography. Somebody save me!!! These are 15″x14″ (Clodagh always told me, “We DON’T do square pillows.” …I never asked why…but it was always about the feng shui).
I take it to heart when I’m cutting out pillows. Cush Cush. This is a 1960’s linen appliqued with the found classic Galbraith & Paul Sunflower fabric. So pretty with transitional cotton inserts and exposed zippers. Who needs invisible! –we all know you are there.
World of Interiors is particularly good this month. To start we have the minty arsenic of the cover story with a framed vintage scarf. I thought this light fixture dynamite–I’d been thinking of this exact thing for my deck if only I had learned to crack off.
Then, we have Bonnard and a new book which would certainly be on my must read list if I happened to read anymore. I have been going back to the books that I should have read at some point but have not. Last night I downloaded The Custom in the Country as I’ve almost finished up with Moby Dick. Okay they are on tape, but how I do wish wish Librivox would do Swann’s Way in English because then I would feel all caught up. Having someone read Proust to me while in bed embroidering pillow fronts seems like it would be quite fun even though I do not have cork lined walls.
Apparently, I like a lot of color. The 19th c Morrocan Fez embroidery pillows are a custom job I finished up last week. They are alongside some Laotian embroideries silk on homespun cotton. There is also a handwoven red, blue, and white textile panel on the back that I think perhaps is from the Balkans or there about. Also, simple orange silk pillows that I did up for my vintage orange sofa.
“Someone will remember us I say even in another time.” Sappho. Linen and silk ground fabric embroidered in vintage cotton thread.
Vintage needlepoint textile with embroidered text in vintage cotton thread.
Strip Pillow. Repatterned Vintage Japanese Silk.
Pillows like belts or ties pull together an ensemble. They allow the eye to rest. Pillows are like the peacemakers of your environment: bridging colors and adding textures and creating focal points. They should have substance, be well done, and they must not be forgotten!
Be Bibelots’ new line of pillows are a mix of craft, imagination and wit.
