My, what nice drawers you have...

 

Bryonie Porter takes old beat-up pieces of furniture and transforms them into works of stunning beauty by application of wallpaper.  She applies the wallpaper with normal wallpaper paste and then applies numerous coats of lacquer to finish.  I'm sure this is way harder than it sounds.  Visit her website to see more of her intriguing work.  I imagine it is just a matter of time before we see a Morris piece!

Can you embroider a human genome?

Science 9 October 2009:
Vol. 326., pp. 289 - 293

This magazine cover showed up in my mailbox a few months ago and my first thought was, wow, wouldn't that make a beautiful embroidered pillow!  or a floor cloth.  or a bedspread.  or any number of things.  It is a Hilbert Curve, a "one-dimensional fractal trajectory that densely fills higher-dimensional space without crossing itself."  It is named after its discoverer David Hilbert, a German mathematician, and contemporary of Morris, "recognized as one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries" (sounds kind of like a William Morris of math).  The curve is now being used to describe the three-dimensional architecture of the human genome.  Amazing.

[Image: Leonid A. Mirny and Erez Lieberman-Aiden]

Mughal Empire Florals at the V&A

 floorspread, painted and dyed cotton, late 17th-early18th cent.

 tent hanging, printed painted and dyed cotton, early 18th cent.

 hanging, silk embroidered cotton, c. 1650-1700

tent hanging, velvet stamped with gold paint, 18th cent.

tent hanging, printed painted dyed cotton, late 18th cent.

carpet, wool warp, cotton and silk weft, wool pile, 17th cent.

It is well-known that Morris was inspired by Islamic art (see, for instance, this post).  The above pieces are all from the Islamic Mughal Empire that ruled the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the mid-19th centuries.  They are also all in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and featured in their new box set V&A Pattern (these being from the "Indian Florals" volume).  Who knows, maybe Morris had a hand in acquiring these specific pieces?!  According to E.P. Thompson's book William Morris - Romantic to Revolutionary, he was often consulted by the museum curators when they were considering expensive purchases of textiles or tapestries.  Certainly Morris would have studied Mughal textiles.  He was a leading scholar of the decorative arts and felt there could be no division between study and practice--he considered the South Kensingtion Museum (now the V&A) to be his personal playground and once remarked "perhaps I have used it as much as any man living".

Carl Jung and his Big Red Book

A very private press....

 

 

 

 

 

The designs and color (Red) in yesterday's post reminded me of a huge event that recently occurred in the world of books and psychology -- the publication last October of Carl Jung's mythical, long-hidden, self-analytical tour-de-force, the Red Book which he wrote between 1914 and 1930.  Three months later it is in its fifth printing (available from Amazon here).  In the seemingly over-the-top words of the Philemon Foundation, which is dedicated to the publication of the complete works of Jung, "While Jung considered the Red Book, or Liber Novus (New Book) to be the central work in his oeuvre, it has remained unpublished till this day, and unavailable for study and unseen by the public at large. The work can be best described as a work of psychology in a literary and prophetic form. It is possibly the most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. Its publication is a watershed that inaugurates a new era in the understanding of Jung’s life and work."  

Sounds exciting!  If you want to see the real thing, the Red Book is being exhibited at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan until February 15th, then it travels to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and then goes to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in June.  

I can't help but wonder if Jung was aware of, or inspired by, William Morris and/or his illuminated manuscripts (see this earlier post).

 

The Red Book

A door that makes you never want to leave...

The inside of the entrance door to Red House

It is hard for me to describe how beautiful I find this door (you must click to enlarge).  It is in Red House, a house built and furnished for and by Morris in collaboration with his friend and architect Philip Webb (while they were in their twenties!).  The door captures everything I love about Morris and his art -- how he takes his "formal" wallpaper (in this case Apple) and pairs it with this wacky fun paint job.  Is it medieval? or modern hipster?  It's certainly very cool.  The picture is from a lovely book "William Morris and Red House" by Jan Marsh.

New year, new decade!

Today the holidays are officially over for me -- back at work and kids heading back to school.  Over the last week, like many others, I have reflected on what was accomplished in 2009 and what 2010 will hold (many surprises I hope!).  The biggest change for me in 2009 was my youngest child moving out in August.  A few weeks after he left, the idea for this blog popped almost fully formed into my mind, name and all.  I set it up and gave it a shot, not really knowing if I would be able to keep it going.  Now four months and 70 posts later I am enjoying this experience more than ever, in large part because of all the interesting people whose paths I've crossed in the ether -- the artists, the writers, the crafters, the Morris fans.  You are regularly checking in from every continent (except Antarctica, I'll work on that) and I hope that in my future travels I may meet those of you who have generously offered to show me local Morris sites and even their studios!  Thank you all for enriching my life.

Other unanticipated benefits of WMFC:  This project has sent me to my books and to the internet many times to research posts; Amazon is doing a brisk business with me as I find ever more topics to investigate.  Not only have I learned much more about Morris, but I have been reading about many other artists such as William de Morgan, H. H. Richardson, Gertrude Jekyll and Charles Voysey (you'll be hearing more about these folks).  The blog is also forcing me to learn more about my camera but I really have to credit the beauty of the subject matter for any perceived success in this arena.  Finally, I've learned a lot about blogging and html code and hope I can figure out how to customize some more aspects of my blog page before too long.

I'd like to thank three people in particular here -- each gave me encouragement early on that I really took to heart.  One is my friend Dan Cooper of Cottage Lace, an acknowledged expert on late 19th/early 20th century Arts and Crafts and interior design.   Dan, thanks for everything you've taught me over the years and for letting me play in your sandbox!  Can we go to Olana soon?  The second person is Margaret, writer of the beautiful blog "The Earthly Paradise".  Margaret, many many thanks for the early and enthusiastic shout-out (and continuing tweets) which no doubt have helped many find my blog!  The last person I'd like to thank is Prof. Tony Pinkney, a well-known Morris scholar who writes the blog "William Morris Unbound".  As a fellow university professor (in a field that has nothing to do with Morris), I have a first-hand appreciation of how academics can savage people they feel are intruding on (or worse, trivializing) their domain, especially if they don't have the requisite Ph.D.  Tony, a heartfelt thanks for your positive comments and support!  I always look forward to reading, and learning from, your posts (I had to get out my Mythology fandeck and my dictionary for the last one). 

What's ahead in 2010?  Lots of travel, mostly work-related but as I do not have to be home for kids (empty nest bonus) I'm sure I will find time to visit new museums, old buildings, and local craft markets along the way.  I leave for eight days in Seoul next week and my guidebook from Amazon should show up on my porch soon.

I'll end with a few of my favorite pics from the last four months that speak to Morris's continuing influence on the modern world of art and design.  Morris unbound!

Wishing you all the best in 2010,

mo

Artist David Mabb, Morris/Fruit, Rodchenko/Triple Peaks (2006)
original post

Artist Dan Funderburgh
original post 

Artist Dan Funderburgh

"a repudiation of the fabricated schism between art and decoration"
original post

"Kabloom" by Flavor Paper
original post

 Artist Mattias Adolfsson, "William Morris I Salute You" 
original post
 

Back to snow, memories of Exuma

 

old house, Rolleville

 

straw market, Georgetown

beautiful lady weaving straw - I love the matching table (click to enlarge)

greens for sale

Top II Bottom, hardware store

 to life boats (click to enlarge)

Beachcombing beauties

This beautiful beach cottage lamp and stone sculpture were both made from objects found while beachcombing.  My dad made the light out of driftwood and a woven lobster trap that had washed up with tide (he hollowed out the small log with a paddle bit and lined the shade with cotton duck).  The carved cobble was my birthday present, carved by a Dingle stonemason who looks for perfect cobbles to carve on the beaches of southwest Ireland.

1/6/10:  I've since found out the stone carver's name is Jindrich Stanek.

May the Font Be With You

 

 

 

 

 

A week or so ago I wrote about Wm. Morris and the Private Press Movement.  When Morris founded Kelmscott Press he also designed two new fonts in which to publish his books, Troy (1892, first line above) and Golden (1890, second line above).  Golden has a rough-edged feel designed to mimic the look of printing on handmade paper.  Troy was designed later, shortly followed by a smaller version he called Chaucer (1893).  I signed my name in the Morris Ornament font which can also be seen in original use here.

You can play with these fonts, purchase them, and also find a little more history here and here (among other places on the web).

Winter walk, the beach

ahead

behind

Happy Holidays from Starlight House

by vicki, 18

Climate Change and Stained Glass Windows

Le Mans Cathedral, full-colored windows

Tours Cathedral, full-colored windows

Cologne Cathedral, grisaille windows

Last week I was in San Francisco attending the annual convention of the American Geophysical Union.  Every day was filled with cutting-edge climate science presentations, none of which had anything to do with Arts and Crafts or William Morris---until I came across the work of graduate student Christopher Simmons!  Simmons has visited many of the great cathedrals of Europe measuring light transmission through stained glass windows.  He has documented how a shift in the color choices used in stained glass windows, the "Grisaille Revolution", paralleled a shift to wetter and cloudier climates in Europe at the end of the 13th century.  He hypothesizes that "climate changes operating in tandem with trends in aesthetic tastes likely motivated a permanent shift in architectural daylighting strategy" and with transmissivity data collected using a Extech 407026 illuminance meter and a Canon Digital Rebel XTi SLR camera, Simmons demonstrated how "grisaille" windows let in much more light, especially on cloudy days (see pics above).

As Simmons concludes, with a minimum of scientific jargon, "this has important implications for understanding thresholds between climate and architectural design, an increasingly important concern as we undergo a period of rapid climate change."

 LeMans, detail

Tours, detail

Cologne detail

Some more examples of grisailles......

 

Grisailles: A term that applies generally to stained glass windows that are kept predominately white.