The Moldy Doily

BEADmania: ART TO WEAR

(amazing neck piece by artist Joyce Scott)

KRUGER, Daniel

these hands spin romance

when you have a crush on delicate doilies and a perverse attraction to the creepiest of crafts ( like me), all you need to do is search the word DOILY on the etsy site.

ohio, the heart of it all

I'm from the heartland. No seriously, the back of the auto license plates actually declare OHIO:the Heart of it All. It's nice to be from someplace that has underdog appeal. I remember in high school we took a vacation to North Carolina and some local teens asked where we were from, & when I said, " OHIO ", one of them muttered, "Isn't that where they grow potatoes?"
Um, no. Well maybe, but God knows I never saw a farm in my John Hughes suburb. Just Valley Girls, jocks, Dunkin Donuts and an occasional mini mall.
I always think someday it may be nice to venture back and find a school house or a farm and set up a craft camp or gigantic painting barn and a ceramics kiln. I could make teepee forts and smash vintage china plates and mosaic everything in mirrors.
I recently stumbled onto a website for designer/crafter Amy Butler. She makes patterns, purses, homewares and just happens to be living back in her homeland OHIO.
Her place and space will inspire envy. You know you can actually buy a home in Ohio. For the same price as a shed on a scrap hill the size of a postage stamp in L.A., you can acquire 6 acres and a 4 bedroom dream house in OHIO. Hey, you can even have a creek with a lil bridge!

Amy actually states on her website: "David and I moved back to Ohio (my home) in 1992 and started our little Art of the Midwest studio with two cats and about $1,200. Time was spent chopping wood for the 150-year-old cabin/house that we had rented on 190 acres of rural farmland, tending chores, and making art. I started creating surface designs for a friend who went into business as a design rep. in NYC. This I did at night mostly. We loved it."

for more details on how to get her books, her patterns or her products go here:
AMYBUTLER

coral crochet collective

For all of those Doily lovers, this crotchet project will stir excitement:
In 2003 Margaret and Christine Wertheim—twin sisters from Queensland, Australia formed IFF a group “dedicated to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of science, mathematics and the technical arts.” It organizes exhibits and lectures (recent talks were on “the mathematics of paper folding” and “the physics of snowflakes”) around LA, where Margaret, a science writer, and Christine, a professor of critical studies at CalArts, are now based. In 2005 Margaret Wertheim heard about a breakthrough in geometry involving crochet; the sisters immediately wanted to make an IFF project out of it.

The Chicago Cultural Center – Gallery Guide Essay
By Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim reveals the following:

“We could crochet a coral reef,” Christine had mused, pointedly using the conditional tense while the woolly forms piled higher on our sideboard. We innocently put an announcement on the Institute For Figuring website seeking crafters to join us in this potential hyperbolic undertaking. From around the globe pictures started to arrive by email, then packages in the post. Helen Bernasconi, a former mathematics teacher and computer scientist, now sheep farmer in Bonnie Doon, Australia, sent in a fan-like form budding with hyperbolic curlicues made from wool she had sheared from her sheep, then spun and dyed herself. A Hungarian graphics designer in Liverpool, England, Ildiko Szabo, posted a shoebox of pastel-colored anemones. Heather McCarren, a PhD candidate in geoscience, mailed in a collection of tiny mercerized cotton florets. The tectonic plates of our continent shifted when Vonda McIntyre, the author of a novel about Louis XIV’s encounter with a sea monster, emailed photographs of her beaded jellyfish and flatworms.

Hooked now, we began trawling on Flickr and discovered Helle Jorgensen, a former research geneticist, who had given up academic science for a life of handicraft and beachcombing; Helle was crocheting sea creatures from plastic bags. A net search revealed that we were not the only ones hand-making coral. In the Australian town of Bendigo, Marianne Midelburg had already crocheted her own reef from yarns scavenged in thrift stores and junkyards; in Vienna, Petra Maitz was presiding over the “Lady Musgrave Reef”; in the 1960’s, Helen Lancaster had preceded us all with her appliquéd “Coral Forest.”

Each of these new outcrops realizes potentialities we had not even guessed at. In Rialto, CA, Shari Porter crochets hyperbolic forms guided by the Holy Spirit; latter day versions of the Shakers’ “gift drawings.” In Boston, Rebecca Peapples makes miniature marvels of beaded Byzantine splendor, while in Cedar Hill, Texas, Evelyn Hardin crafts a steady stream of woolly mutants seemingly coughed up from the stomach of some bilious leviathan.

Every person who takes up this craft creates new species of crochet organisms and we have come to see the project as a collective experiment in textile-based evolution. Just as all living creatures result from variations in an underlying DNA code, so the species in these handi-crafted reefs arise from deviations in a single simple algorithm. Slight variations in the kind of yarn, changes in the rate of increasing stitches, even shifts in crochet tension make significant differences to the morphology of the finished form. Sarah Simons in Culver City has invented an entire taxonomy of “radiolarians” by combining the insights of hyperbolic crochet with traditional doilies patterns.

HYPERBOLIC CROCHET was itself the outgrowth of an unexpected branch of geometry. For two thousand years mathematicians attempted to prove that the only possible geometries were the flat, or Euclidean, plane, and the sphere. Great minds expended themselves on the effort, only to discover in the nineteenth century that a third option was logically necessitated. The discovery of this new “hyperbolic space” ushered in the field of non-Euclidean geometry, the mathematics underpinning general relativity, which aims to describe the shape of the cosmos. Mathematicians’ skepticism about hyperbolic space had been based in part on their inability to imagine how it would look, for they had no way to model it physically. Most were thus astounded when, in 1997, Dr. Daina Taimina, a Latvian émigré at Cornell University, presented a hyperbolic structure made with crochet.

Nature, meanwhile, had discovered the form in the Silurian age. Lettuces and kales - the crenellated vegetables - are manifestations of nearly hyperbolic surfaces, while in the oceans, corals, kelps, sponges, nudibranchs and flatworms all exhibit hyperbolic anatomical features. And so a woolly manifestation of a reef is not as unlikely as may first be supposed. Through the lens of crochet we may thus discern a hitherto unsuspected line connecting Euclid to sea slugs. Ways of constructing once perceived as “merely” women’s craft, and dismissed from the cannon of scientific practice, now emerge as revelatory forms of a more complex, embodied way of thinking about the world both mathematically and physically.

“EVERTHING has been created out of sea-mucous, for love arises from the foam” wrote the German polymath Lorenz Oken in his Elements of Physiophilosophy, a poetico-scientific account of evolutionary processes that preceded Darwin by nearly half a century. From simple mucul protoplasts, Oken imagined the spectrum of life unfolding over the eons. Coral reefs, too, are generated from protoplasmal seeds: On a single night, timed to the cycles of sun and moon, whole sections of reef release gametes into the water in a mass-synchronized spawning ritual. These spectacular displays allow sessile coral polyps, which cannot move themselves to disperse offspring over vast distances. So too crochet reefs send out spawns. Starting from an initial garden of anemones and kelp, the IFF and our contributors have now produced a variety of different sub-reefs, while other crafters have been inspired to their own fully formed wonders: among them, the mysterious Dr Axt in Portland, Inga Hamilton in Belfast, and Barbara Wertheim in Melbourne. The Chicago Reef exhibited here is a magnificent result of this spawning, a communal triumph created by more than a hundred Windy City women, who have each, as it were, inhaled a hyperbolic spore.

But this collective celebration is motivated also by an ecological urgency, for coral is being devastated by global warming, agricultural run-off, urban effluent and marine pollutants. 3000 square kilometers of living reef are lost every year, nearly five times the rate of rainforest elimination. Ironically, as reefs disappear a sinister substitute is growing beneath the waves: In the north Pacific ocean the world’s plastic garbage is accumulating, fifty years of plastic trash building into a vortex twice the size of Texas and 30 meters deep. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it is known, is a ghastly analog to the Great Barrier Reef, an aquatic “wonder” of appalling dimensions that continues to accrete. To highlight this monstrosity and our own role in its making, the latest spawn of the IFF is a toxic reef called Bikini Atoll - a hybrid assemblage made from yarn and plastic garbage. Our challenge for the future – and the reason we have chosen to exhibit this work– is to help raise awareness of this plastic problem, an ecological cancer whose stain will mar our planet’s face for geological time.

this one is by karen norberg

more paper crushes

PETER MAX psychedelic stationery

Edith Head original fashion illustration (we are born the same day!)

Atelier: Far Beyond HANDMADE

My favorite Show Pony contributing creator has always been artist/designer AMY HEMMENS. Her knit crotcheted pieces are spun from another dimension. Each hat balanced with an intricate craft compostion that allows multiple options on the head. Every piece so original that it not only tells a story but commands a precious place in the owner's closet. Amy has recently opened her very own space called ATELIER :Dressmakers Workshop, Vintage & Handmade Boutique. The darling SHOP is located on 1617 16th St. in Sacramento, CA.

I recommend locals to hang out and experience her designs by trying them on and seeing all the cool ways they can be worn. When people would ask me about the designer and I mentioned she lived in Sacramento, they always assumed she was from Berlin, or Iceland making custom things for Bjork.

Check out her store site too: http://ateliershop.blogspot.com/

Oh, Theodora!

Once again THEODORA ELSTON, beloved American Smithsonian Artist has some pieces for sale on ebay.

NEEDLEPOINT & MACRAME NECKLACE PAIR

elstonnecklaces

clay and such

Miss Cynthia and I decided we should attend the annual Glendale College Ceramic Sale. It wasn't a good idea considering we both highly appreciate the art form, and have no self control (nor excess cash).
She told me on the way there that her mother once took her to this particular sale when she was a child and she threw a fit because she wanted all of the cool colorful enamel vases and could only get one small item. Funny because the same feeling came over both of us. Hoardes of crazy Xmas shoppers rushing the isles grabbing the one of a kind lovelies.
I scored some great stuff as gifts and a couple of cuties for myself. Don't act surprised, you and I both know that's the Shopping way.

My favorite thing I bought was this incredible rare teapot! There are juggling circus men handpainted and a tiny hands.

The Show Pony Opening was also later that night.

Over at FLOUNCE they had a cool 5 year anniversary celebration with lots of bands. The best was NERD ARMY- a group of 10 year olds who rocked out to a full house.

Albert Reyes had a new show over at Lucas

artist Rebekah Miles with her father (who had some amazing stories of his own artist days here in Echo Park during the hippie era)

new hairdoo!

another super ceramic sunday

then off to the PCC flea market...oh no

the greatest page from one of the books we saw today

look what I found when I got home- Al Bundy in front of the t.v.

Tis almost that season...

I always say "this is going to be the year that I make all of my Xmas gifts", and then of course procrastinate and panic and buy stuff last minute. But I figure as long as someone else had the patience and time to create amazing gifts- perhaps that's nearly as good. So from this point on I will occasionally post some ideas for shoppers -gift selection. If you are ambitious maybe you can make some magical crafts on your own.

found this website featuring rad handsewn animals and organic things...

http://www.stephaniecongdonbarnes.com/

PERFECT gifts can also be found at FAMILY

http://www.familylosangeles.com/

inspirational BOOK about making changes in the world with art

if your good at knitting- this would make anyone smile...

Discover this Hooker

I bought the latest issue of my favorite craft mag- FIBER ARTS. This issue features some amazing Female artists (Lousie Bourgeois, Jenny Hart--) and my favorite Whitney Lee. I first heard about her from my friend Amy Lou's blog. Lucky for me I'm headed to Chicago where Whitney's new work will be displayed throughout the fall. Her latch hook work portrays sexy 70's style ladies in organic fantastic envrionments. Her psychedelic colors (lime green burnt orange and magical plum) seem to burst from the busts of these women. These women who seem so confidant in their sexuality are the product of many feminist classes and women's studies. I was surprised to see that she hails from Columbus Ohio originally- my college town.

If you too would love to learn how to be a professional hooker- check out the latch hook kits she has for sale & her work
www.madewithsweetlove.com

Feathers and Tutus

I discovered the best fabric this week downtown. IT is absolutely repulsive in a lovely sort of way. I tend to have categories for the things that border on grotesque and fascinating when it comes to fashion. These of course are the top 3

1. The Mafia wife- anything that is animal print- Miami style/ gaudy- shiny HUGE sunglasses etc...
2. The Jewish Mom- sort of hand in hand with the Italian wife actually- gem covered sweaters- HUGE
sunglasses and gold lame fanny packs
3. Crazy hippie - loud crazy ethnic prints and embroidered Guatamalan bags- tribal headbands and
the shamen style gear. Think dream catchers and gypsy layers.

This fabric is definitely in the #3 category-- it is so wrong that it's sort of brilliant.

Later that day Vinca discovered how to use my digital camera and took about 50 pictures of the Echo Park crowd and of course about 15 of the ground. She asked me to take some pictures of her in her ballet outfit as well...

Cindy informed me of her "badluck" theory. She seems to think that all our bad luck arrived after we both received pedicures at the nailstation. The dark dragon grape color made our lives miserable. (my car accident and her head injury) So today we traded our jinxed toes in for a new happy coral. Check out how good things seemed to get after that...

We ran into Bradley- our pal who is now Bravo's favorite on the new Project Runway.

At the Echo we ran into lovely ZEPHA- my favorite dancer.

The opening band--the SESS was pretty amazing. They looked like 16 year old Latino boys perforrming songs to have a seizure by. Always a nice touch.

She told a friend and so on and so on...

The interesting thing about exploring on the internet is the connected stream of creativity buried within the text. I was happy to discover the lovely textile designs of Lena Corwin- her organic prints on pillows and magical dinner plates...

you can order or ask questions of Lena at: info@lenacorwin.com

and she led me to another Brooklyn based artist named Eddie Martinez. His paintings are amazing and can be found online at : http://www.ziehersmith.com/artists.html

I had just recently asked Miss Cynthia about selling my handpainted plates at her shop. When I saw these amazing ones by Eddie and Lena I was inspired to get busy.
IF anyone has any artistic plate requests feel free to contact me.

Mr. Whimsy R.I.P.

This past week-- Whimsical Ceramic Genius, Bjorn Wiinblad died at 87.
For those of you who have never seen his happy saucers and wild vessels- you should take a look. You can still find great deals on his collectable pieces on EBAY. He was a good pal of Mr. Marcus (of Neiman MArcus) and created mosaic tiles for the him in the 60's. Eating off of his plates would make anyone happy.

most of these images are from: www.skovsantik.dk/kaehler%20ceramic%20pottery%20Denmark.htm

The following is his obituary- found at Political Gateway:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 12 (UPI) -- Painter Bjorn Wiinblad, known for his decorative
ceramic and furniture designs, died last week at the age of 87 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Copenhagen Post reports that Wiinblad, the son of a typographer, was known for
his sense of color and form, along with his ability to work with anything ranging
from clay to paper.
Having lent his abilities to designing and decorating works of art from a deck of
cards to a cruise ship, Wiinblad was widely recognized as one of the world's most
prolific artists, the newspaper said.
Claiming to have created his designs from music he heard in his head, Wiinblad produced
works of art that are on display in museums and art galleries around the world,
the newspaper said.

NeedleNoodles

Once again I've discovered some koo koo crafts to die for. I look at these things and I think of JAPAN and wonder how anyone can make a cuttlefish out of crotchet.?? The artist confesses to being a
geeky lass with a fondness for crafts.
Her site also invites you to come and look around at her recent obsession with
sea creatures at the moment, send her a message if there's a creature or pattern that you'd like to see listed-- cause she is always looking for new ideas :) . . .
Hmm- wonder if she has ever made jiggly JELLYFISH with long curling tails?

Check it all out at www.needlenoodles.etsy.com
here is Scary Square

happy heart

Mr. Cuttlefish

this next one reminds me of Laura Le Pink

Balancing Act

When I was a kid, I obsessed about a few things. I always wanted to build forts in the house and tents over my bed. This later found me fixated on trying to create things that could hang and move above me. I would check out countless books at the library on how to create mobiles, and Alexander Calder. I would often take wire hangers and bend them- attach colored paper drawings or objects. They never had the balance- (I was never good at math--) but they did make the room have a crafty charm. I remember making one entirely out of yarn god eyes. I must have been about 10- and decided to hang it over the lamp in my room so that it would dangle and create colorful lighting. I awoke to the smell of smoldering yarn and my dad yanking the smokey art piece into the trash.
When I was in college & lived in Ohio I worked at this darling gallery for home and garden. We sold these natural metal mobiles that hang from trees in the garden. The artist had made sculptures since the mid 70's. I decided to look up some kinetic artists-- that are creating Miro/ Calder like work that could hang someplace overhead. I love that mobiles seem so delicate...
Julie Frith is a mobile artist who appreciates modern design and structure and started making mobiles in the early 1980's for fun. These images are all from her website- where you can custom order designs

http://www.humboldt1.com/~mobiles/

The next pictures are from the artist Joel Hotchkiss- one of the the artists that we carried at the gallery. find them at : http://www.artmobiles.com/

this last site will help show you how to make your own mobile- (did I ever tell you I received my first degree in ARt Education?)
http://www.mobilesculpture.com/makeyourownmobiles/

Get Your Key Cozy or adopt a bee

Maybe you never thought of it before- but hey- your key is cold and needs to be protected. Why not get that spare house key a key cozy? I also found these adorable tiny knit creatures

The artist describes herself and her creations here:

I am a Japanese living in Australia with my sweet Aussie husband and a naughty but very cute cat.
I love making “Amigurumi-Japanese style crochet doll”, making beads accessories and illustrating cute animals on the PC.
All the Amigurumi here are my originals. I am trying to make something cute and lovely.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Just for your information and a little bit of a Japanese lesson, some of my Amigurumi names have “-kun” or “-chan” at the end of names. Those can be translated in English as Mr. or Mrs. We normally put “-kun” for boy and “-chan” for girl. For example, I can be called Tamami-chan^^.

My name is Sabo-chan and I am a lovely amigurumi cactus!
Your room is not hot enough for me??
Don’t worry, you can be my sunshine! All I need is your warm and lovely smile(^-^)!!

Most of these were between $6- 15 Dollars!!
If you want to see more of her shop go to www.tamagurumi.etsy.com

sort of reminds me of Sonic YOUTH cover for Dirty by artist MIKE KELLEY-

SELL-OUT

No longer must you wait in huge lines for the buzzelli goods. (kidding) I have finally decided to respond to the requests that I put my things online for sale. I was told of this fine site by my fair friend Niki- who also sells her designs now online. Today I uploaded mostly one of kind t-shirts- but the future will hold many illustrations and artpieces. I have been holding on to these things too long and must feng sui.
Here are a few things you may find at:

www.kimebuzzelli.etsy.com

The Lez-B-friends shirt is always a crowd pleaser. Or maybe you want to represent the groupie girls?

Come and get it- before the good stuff is g o n e

Return of The Living Doily

Sometimes when I get bored I go for a long walk. But then sometimes I get bored and decide to spend countless hours in front of the computer looking up things to make me excited abut the world. Today--folks I had the rare opportunity to do both extremely well. I will spare you more pictures of my trail flowers and today focus on the web candy. ATTACK OF THE KILLER MOLDY DOILY!

I found an interesting site where these women all over the world were given yarns /fiber threads to create an original piece. They designed unique freeform knit pieces for a collaborative art show.
FACTS:
61 fiberartists, all members of the International Freeform Artist’s Guild were given a unique challenge. Each artist selected one yarn and sent 61 five-yard skeins of that yarn to a central location. In return each artist received 61 different skeins from fellow artists all over the world. There was no coordination of color, texture, or any other artistic components. The Challenge was to create their own interpretation of fiber art using only those yarns. Artists include members from Australia, Canada, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Kuwait, UK, US, Wales and Yemen.

this one was made by an eleven year old girl--she said she likes things that "dangle"

I found this amazing blue free form crochet jacket-- looks like someone dragged the bottom of the ocean and found this in a net

Frances Dawson-a knit design student made these pieces for a competition

These delicate white DOILY knit pieces were created by Ivana

This dress is by laura hodgkinson--for a school competition

This made me feel two things: A.) overwhelmed with a desire to acquire patience to knit and sit still
B.) Extreme sadness that I have never had the dedication to such detail

HOLY DOILY! Where does one find the time?

Ok here is the book to get you started. Go buy some silky threads, glitter fuzzy yarns, and a rocking chair and then get back to me with the results. I'd love to cover my entire wall in these pod like webby things.

This is an outfit designed by my friend Cory Madley--she works out of Venice. We did a fashion show together a few years ago --her pieces are awe-inspiring.

Groovy Easter- only one bad egg

I must apologize folks...I do declare I had the best intentions last evening. I planned on producing high quality designs on these Easter eggs. I boiled the eggs with love and then waited for them to cool down. I sat and pondered the tools of my trade and prepared for a nice quiet evening in watching Saturday Night Live. But then the phone rang-- and my social coordinator informed that I had to attend a very very very important meeting on the dance floor. I dedicate these psychedelic eggs to my pal David Scheid a.k.a. the comic genius.

I made this one BAD EGG of Hitler. He was a real rotten fool. We are off to JUNIOR's Jewish Deli to celebrate Uncle Lou's 97th. This Gentile prefers potato latkes to crappy Easter bread and ham anyday.

Fabric+ ART+holes =good

This is what I'm always talking about. The combination of painting skills and composition--craft and handiwork. If I lived in a mountain house...off a winding road perhaps this creative energy could manifest. These are both vintage and yet timeless designs. .

When I was a painting student I would collaborate with my friend Danielle to create paper dresses that were distressed and stricken with tiny holes from a meat tenderizer. The thick papers all drenched with stains and water...mildew green/grey colors hung neatly in our studio. I would take vintage wallpapers with dainty flowers and make lingerie that was pierced enough times with moth holes like lace. Then sometimes I'd leave the paper to soak in liver blood. Although this seems horrid, the results were quite lovely. Mission today is to locate these images.

Magic Fabric

These are some super pieces of fabric that need to be sewn into babydoll dresses.

more hippie shit...

I can't seem to get out of the craft commune vibe lately. Seems like the things that are patchwork make me feel happy. I rebought a nice HORIZON book from Spring of 1968 and found some of these great images of HIPPIES...

I mean these three ladies cover all the bases of "good stuff" You've got the dark black cape witch 60's look- the cool leather mama and the floppy sister of the street look complete with macrame beads