Hidden Gardens

Sometimes you're missing so much, while doing too much. I'm still in my 'what do I want' phase, but the year is already in half and I'm just doing a lot of things, great things, but no time to think things.
Good thing is that sometimes you have time to do something you didn't organize, like the "Hidden Garden" route in Rotterdam yesterday.
With a rented bike, me, Koen and two sweet friends living the good life in Rotterdam, cycled through the city. Adventure was out there! And hidden, green oases where out there to discover!

Courtyard garden in Rotterdam

Greenhouse in the middle of a neighborhood

Throughly hidden surprizes

Ikebana at the Japanese Cultural Centrum

Ladies relaxing in the sun

This morning, drinking my coffee, reading the newspaper, I was thinking about the great day and the things I missed. In May me and Koen de Wit organized a front yard competition in our neighborhood. Every garden was in the competition and every neighborhood resident could vote on their favorite garden. We also had a jury and different activities during the month like a pruning workshop and building bee hotels. When I was in Cambridge I received the flyer layout by Koen. And oh what a wonderful design it was. It made me very happy. 

Vanuit bed's Front yard competition 2014, design by Koen de Wit

It was a great project and it's so nice to give people prizes for having a beautiful, green, well kept garden. Could do that every week! 

But being busy with different projects, leaves less time to blog or to enjoy Batiks and Wax print designs. To my surprise Vlisco launched their new collection this week. I didn't even blogged about Vlisco's lecture at the Graphic Design Festival in Breda (NL). Which was great and quite funny. Roger Gerards gave a quick introduction on Vlisco and how they now focus on the designers, the makers of the Wax prints designs, and the stories behind those designs. He showed different examples like the famous fans and Michelle Obama's handbag. Normally only building get names by the public, but in the Wax print world every fabric design gets one. 

Roger brought a new, freshly wax printed fabric for us to see, but he didn't realize the crowd would be full of smartphone holding social media sharing listeners. So he couldn't show it and hide it under the speaking stand. Even I made a blurry photo of the small piece of fabric still popping out. Hidden fabrics are even more interesting! 

Designer Erwin Thomasse was Vlisco's next speaker. He is working for Vlisco 3 years now. And I felt a bit jealous. Maybe even a lot. He was working, and still is, as a visual artist in Eindhoven and was discovered by Roger. He invited him to design for Vlisco. First year he didn't designed, only learned about the proces, the technique and the archive. When he made his first design he was well informed and could easily combine his own handwriting with the Vlisco brand. 

What a great opportunity that must be. His style is very graphic and next to his previous designs, he added some new ones in his presentation. Which he than had to skip through really fast!

Well I knew than that the new collection would be graphic and I noticed a pattern in the Vlisco collection release. 

One collection is figurative, more illustrative and soft in style and color, the next one is more graphic with geometric patterns and stronger coloring like the new collection 'Voilà for you'.

The previous collection 'Bloom' had a textile design landmark Roger told during the lecture. Vlisco is well known for their big patterns, but now they made a fabric, a Java print with only one figure: a big, fabric width, flower. And apparently its sold out (some color combinations are still available)!

My favoriete one of the previous collection is the hidden garden (I loved all the designs in this collection actually), what a synchronicity! 

Vlisco design from Bloom collection

 A magical hidden garden

VL051423.06, but no stock at the moment

Another pretty design from the Bloom collection

"If you know who you are, than you know how to communicate"

- Roger Gerards

Fashionblogger Walhalla

Watching  "The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern" **

Oh did I feel like the luckiest girl on earth, not only could I make art in Cambridge and meet great people in the process. I could also see these great exhibitions and blog about them and make everyone jealous at home...!

Well I'm still a very lucky and happy girl, and I can still blog about what I saw, but the best thing: You can see this exhibition too!

The wonderful exhibition "Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol" is coming to the Netherlands. The TextielMuseum in Tilburg will present it from 14 June 2014 till 14 September. 

In April I went with artist and family member Surya de Wit to see this exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. It was a colourful feast with samba music playing loudly, projections of Picasso (who I normally don't like, but I did liked his textile designs) and a lot of fashionbloggers with their smartphones. I was amazed by that, and I felt a little proud, I'm a blogger too and I'm here! Surya comment, "You know, people here actually say it's their profession". 

‘Artist Textiles. Picasso to Warhol’: 

a fascinating overview of 20th-century textile designs from some of the world’s most renowned artists. More than 200 home furnishing and clothing fabrics trace the history of textile design, with examples from Fauvism, Cubism, Constructivism, Modernism, Surrealism and Pop Art. Featuring work by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, Fernand Léger, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol and Alexander Calder, the exhibition shows how modern art became accessible to all.*

After Art Nouveau

"From William Morris onwards, many artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries attempted to make their works more relevant to the lives of ordinary people... 

Between 1910 and 1939, many members of the Fauvist, Futurist and Constructivist movements in particular became involved with textile design, which quickly came to be seen as an important aspect of an artist's work"

- Exhibition text

The Fifties

"Running deer" and "Harvest time" by Rockwell Kent, 1950, made for Bloomcraft Inc

Detail of Harvest time" by Rockwell Kent, 1950, made for Bloomcraft Inc

"Fish", textile design by Pablo Picasso, 1955 

"The farmer's dinner" by Miro

The Sixties

"Buttons", textile design by Warhol

"Happy Bug Day", textile design by Warhol

"Wedding picture", textile design by Saul Steinberg

I didn't document all the names & titles, but from the titles I have, it's clear that the artists see their textile design as an artwork. A canvas that can be watch flat,  per meter, and shaped into a dress. 

"The Farmer's Dinner" by Miro, is for me a 'modern' interpretation of how the symbolic image of a chicken is used everywhere in the world. A symbol for good fortune: if you own chicken, you have food. And if you wish good fortune, you were something with chicken on it.

"The Wedding Picture" by Saul Steinberg, is a very funny, yet subtle design. Surprisingly not for dresses but to sit on...

Warhols buttons and bugs are simpel and very trendy. I think these fabrics would still be very populair for clothing or decorating the house.

This exhibition showed me that even if your medium as an artist isn't textile, you can definitely design for textiles. But you first have to be famous...

The Collier Campbell designs

A very nice part of the exhibition was in the last room. On the walls framed sketches, notes, prints and watercolours of the marvelous collection of designs made by Susan Collier & Sarah Campbell. This introductions for me was a mix of joy and envy. The colorful patterned seemed to be put on paper with such ease. Only a ton of talent could provide your hands with such skills. 

Silk scarves with jumping sheeps, greeting cards with butterflies and bed linen with birds. A patterned world sold not only for a few fans, but made for Marks & Spencer and other shopping giants. 

I hope they include this part of the exhibition in Tilburg!

Fashionista's and fashionbloggers ***

* More information on www.textielmuseum.nl and www.ftmlondon.org

** Nice video about The Collier Campbell Archive: 50 Years of Passion in Pattern

*** Some Fashionblogger posts I found online about this exhibitions or textiles shown in this exhibition:

- by Historically Modern Modern Print Monday: Andy Warhol

- by The Clothes Maiden Artist Textiles: Picasso to Warhol

- by Marguerite Designs From Start to Finish - The Collier Campbell/Sarah Campbell Story

- by Monica D. Murgia Textile designs by Rockwell Kent

(If you posted or found a post about this subject, please share it in a comment! Thank you!)

Soon

Dear readers, 

You might have noticed my posts aren't as frequent as normal. I simply do not have the time to write at the moment. I did gather enough nice photos, so in the near future I hope to share them with you.

Sunday I'm off to Engeland. I'm invited for the Cambridge Sustainability Residency. You can read more about in on my website www.sabinebolk.nl. 

The last weeks have been crazy with finishing things that have to be ready for when I get back end of April.

On the 21th of April I celebrate the 5 year anniversary of my blog! I would love to celebrate this with more Batik Statements! I made some myself already, like the one in the grass above, but I would also love to share your Batik Statements!

So please put on those Batiks (Wax print Statements are also very welcome!) and send them to sabine@sabinebolk.nl.

For inspiration check out the previous Batik Statements on my blog.

Thank you!

And see you soon!

Warm batik wishes,

Sabine Bolk

Pimp My Wax

AFRO STREETSTYLE ... Dans les rues d'Amsterdam, 

photo Cryingbear Littlepictures/Nothing But The Wax

With this post I like to introduce you to the wonderful blogger of Nothing But The Wax, Chayet on nothingbutthewax.blogspot.nl.
In March 2013 she contacted me because she was going to Amsterdam and also wanted to visit the Vlisco shop in Helmond. She ended here email with "PS : I'm blogging about Wax fabrics :-)". And what a great wax print loving blog it is!
Ever since I'm following her posts and liked her on Facebook. She has a whooping 3022 likes and hopefully more after this post.

AFRO STREETSTYLE ... Dans les rues d'Amsterdam, 

photo Cryingbear Littlepictures/Nothing But The Wax

In February she and her boyfriend (now fiancee, congratulations!) where in the Netherlands again. So I travelled to Eindhoven to meet them. In the morning she went to Helmond to get some wonderful wax prints. And of course we started with looking at them!
It was so much fun. We instantly started to talk about Vlisco, about beautiful fabrics and fashion and why we blog. Her boyfriend is just like my fiancee an expert himself, because they have to listen to all our Wax print/Batik talk all day.

Chayet & Me

Wax prints bought in the Netherlands, photo from Nothing But The Wax on Instagram

Pimp My Wax, photos Nothing But The Wax

Chayet uses the Wax prints not only to make clothes, but also to pimp objects like notebooks, boxen and pillows. I love this part of her blog!
She also shares the greatest fashion. There is a lot of great things being made of wax prints. I hope one day it would be the same with Batik. Of course already nice things are being made with Batik, but it is difficult to get them here.
Her project inspired me to make also things of the fabric I like, so I can wear and share it. I'm making bows with matching earrings (from Bintang beercaps) with Batik fabrics at the moment, more about that in a next post.

Enjoy Chayet's blog Nothing But The Wax and don't forget to like her on Facebook!

Transhumance

Carole and her sheep, still from Winter Nomads*

Ever since I seen the wonderful documentary "Winter Nomads" I'm stressed out. The clear choices made by the sheepherders in the movie made me realize I have still so much choices to make.
In a slow pace the two totally different characters lead their herd through a landscape covered with snow. I was first sooo relaxed after seeing it, but that changed rapidly.
I have many balls in the air at the moment and it's always scary if you catch them or if they just fall to the floor with a disappointing 'plof'. I was waiting for many conformations and in the process you lose time. Time I should spend on blogging or reading that big pile of books waiting to be read. Instead I gather more things to blog about! The great and strange thing about that is that they somehow start to overlap.

It started in December. Me and Koen went to the exhibition 'Suspended Histories' at Museum van Loon in Amsterdam. The museum is named after the Van Loon family, the last residents of the house and founders of the museum. The family originates from the town of Loon op Zand, near the city of ’s Hertogenbosch in the south of the Netherlands. In the 17th century, they moved to Amsterdam, and from then on were involved in commerce and city governance, like other leading families in the Golden Age. In 1602 Willem van Loon was a founding member of the V.O.C., the Dutch East India Company, and his grandson was the first Van Loon to become mayor of Amsterdam. The Van Loons were raised to the peerage in the 19th century. The canal house, in which the Museum is located, came into possession of the family in 1884, when the Honourable Hendrik van Loon purchased it for his son Willem as a wedding present.**
The exhibition tried to tell the tale of role the Van Loon's had in the VOC. Apparently there is almost no virtual historical material, so they asked eleven artists to reflect on the VOC past of the Van Loon family. The exhibition tried to make a point, but with all the wealth filling the halls in the canal house, it was difficult to see it.
On internet I saw that a few rooms were covered wall to wall with bold patterns. One room was called the sheep room ("Schaapjeskamer"). Oehh sheep are my favorite animals! But where were they, I only saw a tree pattern on the wall.
To my surprise the sheep were laying cozy under the tree, one sheep was even feeding her lamb. Why on earth would you put this on your wall? I would, but for these people it's like MTV Cribs. It's not what you like, it's what shows your wealth the best. Maybe the sheep are associated with sleep, although in another room a huntress is killing exotic animals in a stylish blue and there was a bed as well...
Maybe it's not the sheep it's their wool. It was one of the things the VOC traded in.

Photo of the Sheep room from Museum van Loon website**

In the eighteenth century, the Dutch textile industry flourished. Many wool factories increased their production and made thousands of woolen blankets. 

One of this factories was the AaBe woollen mill in Tilburg. The company was founded in 1929 by Adolf van den Bergh. AaBe was highly successful, even through the financial crisis of the 1930s. After the Second World War, the company grew to become the largest blanket manufacturer in the country, with almost 1500 employees. In addition to blankets, AaBe also produced clothing and uniforms. However, by the end of the 1960s, things were looking less rosy. Reorganizations, (unsuccessful) restructuring and job losses followed. In 1978, a much-diminished Aabe set up a successful branch specialized in producing fire-retardant fabric for the airline industry. The blankets too remain a fixture. In 1996 after filing for bankruptcy, the company starts afresh at a new location, and under a new name: AaBe Textiles. Then, only eight years later, the company is forced to close its doors. The 38 employees are made redundant.

The name lives on in the trade organisation AaBe Textiles Trading, which still flourishes in developing quality woollen blankets.***

In the TextielMuseum in Tilburg they made a very nice exhibition about AaBe (till 16 march). They give a nice insight of why AaBe was so successful. The marketing plans, nice designs and happy workers makes you wonder were it went wrong. The exhibition really fits well with our longing for the back in the day-homemade-handmade kinda feel we are looking for today.  

AaBe blanket with Art Nouveau design

AaBe label on retro blanket

"Styles your identity...indentifies your style", brilliant!

A Golden sheep pendant for free with the Golden Curtain Collection

Original photo made in Finland on which the AaBe label was based on

Stained glass window from the factory

"Working together gives you joy and achieves a product to be proud of"

Same as the clock, but with reindeer

What also fits perfectly with our "It use to be so much hipper"-feel, are the coats by Wintervacht. It's therefore very nice that these lovely coats were represented at the exhibition. 
In October last year a Facebook friend of mine shared a campaign by Wintervacht. If you liked and shared, you could win one of their lovely coats. The coats are handmade out of AaBe blankets. Every coat is therefore unique. Next to coats they also made very cute mittens. It wasn't really a cold winter, otherwise I'm sure I would have tried to save for my own sheep to wear.****

Coat by Wintervacht at the TextielMuseum

Campaign by Wintervacht at the old AaBe factory in Tilburg****

Campaign by Wintervacht at the old AaBe factory in Tilburg****

The mittens! ****

To end this post More Wool! Not from a sheep, but from a rabbit. We all saw the horrible images on how Angora wool was gathered on Facebook and in the media. That this can be done differently, shows the great clip made by Kimberly Buchy starring Furby the Angora rabbit. The video is featured in the Future room of the new, very nicely furnished exhibition "Living Spaces" at the TextielMuseum (till 11 May). The exhibition gives an overview of a hundred years of textiles in Dutch interiors. If you go, make sure to watch the great video in the 1950-1960 Goed Wonen room! For now enjoy the happy Angora rabbit!



* Winter Nomads, a film by Manuel von Sturler, www.hivernomade.ch
** Information from website Museum van Loon, www.museumvanloon.nl
*** Information from website TextielMuseum, www.textielmuseum.nl

**** More about Wintervacht on www.wintervachtjas.nl