Love Lace

Recently I have been busy with family life with the addition of baby number two.  So creative pursuits have been placed to the side for a while.  In February we did manage to get away to Sydney though and while there got to see the Love Lace - Powerhouse Museum International Lace Award.

This is an amazing exhibition that is on until April 2013 at the Powerhouse Museum.  134 lace works by 130 artists from 20 countries.  As the museums website states 'playful and inventive, the works on display present a provocative challenge to traditional concepts of lace. The artists push lace techniques in surprising new directions'.  If you are reading this blog no doubt you are interested in the contemporary use of lace in design, fashion and art.  So if you happen to live or be visiting Sydney it is a must see Exhibition.  If you can’t get there the Love Lace website is amazing with images of the works, video commentary and much more.

No doubt many of the artists will be featured in future blog posts.   Congratulations Powerhouse for a such a vibrant, contemporary take on the use of lace in the 21st century.

Triennial Lace Awards

Australian Lace hold the Tirennial Lace Awards to encourage lacemakers to create amazing designs based on a theme.  The 2009 award was themed Rainforest and there were eight categories.  The images above are only some of the amazing creations.

Britt Fiarchild created the beautiful flowing bodice which she wore with pride to the AGM.  The second image shows the detail of this design.

Olwyn Scott created the amazing pictorial frames, one of which is pictured. 

It would be great to see such amazing works featured on the Lace Guilds Website.  These images were scanned from the Guilds journal so apologies for the poorer quality.

Rope Interlace

I found this image in the 2008 Australian Lace Journal.  Christine Wareham-Norfolk used 3 metres of decorative rope and gradually subdivided it to grow into a multi-stranded wall hanging.  One piece of rope is gradually divided into 288 individual threads.

Christine used coir door mats as her pillow and nails as her pins.  Torchon stiches were used to make the piece in a free style.  This helped to create such a unique organic form.

Congratulations Christine for turning an idea formed with friends over a bottle of wine into this stunning finished piece.

Part B

I came across Part B through a friend.  This innovative group aim to engage other artists and the public with what they term 'research jewelry' by displaying pieces beyond traditional means.  Or for a more eloquent description in their own words click here.

So off I headed to Hosier Lane for Steal This.  The aim - for pieces to be displayed within the lane until stolen and it may well have been the world's shortest exhibition as most items were bagged within minutes.  However I did spot a nice wire lace adornment that was bagged before I could grab a picture.

I love the genius behind Part B and will definitely keeping an eye out on their movements.

A Poppy For Rememberence

This wire lace poppy was spotted bursting from the grass at Federation Square's Amphitheatre, clearly a creation to mark Remembrance Day.  Its metallic finish seemed to merge into the facade of the sqaure and it was soon surrounded by bikes.

Not too hidden though as by lunch it had been 'picked'...perhaps for a vase, perhaps to adorn a bike or to give to that someone special.

Architectural Hats - a must for the races

Sammifi is a fashion-lead textile designer focussing on headwear.  All designs are original and her Architectural hats incorporate digital embroidery to create contemporary lace designs. 

Sammifi won the "George Jackson" travelling bursary for her research and design for this collection.

Thanks Sammifi for demonstrating how contemporary lace techniques can produce stunning results that will be sure to turn heads come race day.

Guerilla Lace

Inspired by guerrilla knitters is this the first guerrilla lace?

This torchon tie was spotted on the Three businessmen who brought their own lunch; Batman Swanston and Hoddle on the corner of Bourke and Swanston streets in Melbourne.  The sculpture itself was unveiled in 1994 as a gift from the people and government of Nauru and it was made by Melbourne sculptors Alison Weaver and Paul Quinn.  This playful sculpture is much loved and its position and size leaves it begging for further adornments and offerings.  In fact at the time of snapping these pics another of the men was sporting a briefcase laden with oregano.


So will this tie start a trend  amongst business folk to soften their look with lace?  Will there be more guerrilla lace popping up in the streets?  I know I will have my eyes peeled.