One of my favorite vintage finds was this late 1800s Men's Frock Coat made by Ward Stilson Company. According to this article, http://www.heraldbulletin.com/peopleandplaces/x2117290144/Ward-Stilson-Co-bloomed-after-move-to-city, the company was founded in Ohio and later split and moved to Indiana.

What I find so impressive about this piece is that the embroidery all over the coat, makes for an amazing ornate design. This is the ideal Saint Patrick's Day celebration garb.

Search for Bark Cloth Part 2 (Floral and Pattern)

Now this particular fabric swatch piece was something I was very excited to find. Its a very different vibe then the cowboy piece, but the geometrical design with elements of  floral are so cool! It has sort of an abstract whimsy feel to me.  The colors were like Neapolitan Ice Cream to me! The Circular shape feels like a cosmic orb doesn't it! Enjoy!

Bark Cloth Search - Part One (COWBOYS!)

The other week, I was thinking that I should revisit the fun of some bark cloth fabrics. I decided to go flea marketing and didn't have much luck. lots of boxes of boring fabrics or severely damaged goods, and I was starting to get discouraged when I came across a huge plastic bin of fabric odds and ends. The lady who sold them was a bit of a pain, nothing had an official price until I was done shopping, and I had some intuitive reservations on what I should get. I cautiously picked out some small fabric samples to find out how much they would be. Here price for small fragments was $25. So I was a bit disappointed and had to put some of them back. I couldn't justify buying random swatches for that price, even though I am sure they were worth it. As anyone who shops for bark cloth knows, some of the designs can get pretty high priced.

Finally, I put back some odds and ends novelty fabric swatches and just kept a few of the bark cloth pieces at $15.  As you can see from these photos the pieces are small, but the designs are very cool. Definately worth picking up for my personal collection. 

The Color schematic for this is also interesting and I may end up pulling some color swatch options out of this for an awesome color story for a future design piece.  Does anyone out there know much about Bark Cloth? What is the signature design construction for this type of fabric?

I Definately want to research and get some books on the subject in the future and really learn from the pieces of fabric.  I have also picked up another patterned Bark Cloth Swatch that I will post photos of at a later Time.

Blue and White Woven Table Cloth

This was another goodie find of a hand woven fabric. This particular one was designed as a Table cloth, the woven structure is actually very loose and the fabric quite soft. I don't know that I will actually use it as a table cloth. I am debating about cutting it up and making some sort of lounge pant with it. I have to process it first, ultimately before I go ahead and cut up a good woven vintage piece but you never know!

This was a continuation of the previous post, as this was a similar find where I wasn't in the mood for shopping but went anyways and found sucha  great find! The nice thing about collecting vintage fashion and textiles is that even on a 'bad' shopping day out on the rounds of hot spots, you can always find something!

Handwoven Throw Blanket

Found this beautiful piece at a thrift store by happenstance. I wasn't really in the mood for shopping but my gut said "go!" so I decided to trek the on hour drive to the thrift store and low and behold I found a throw blanket that was labeled 'Hand Woven" which is always exciting. It certainly made me miss the days of hand weaving in my textile college days. I've been so tremendously busy of late, that its hard for me to post blog posts, much less have time for design and creative stuffs. Hopefully, I will be able to settle down in for a great day or two of design in the near future.

Fabric Swatches- Shirting and Novelty

These three swatches are more from the lot of quilters remnants. In fact, these three pieces appear to have been pulled from various sources. The purple pinstripe fabric is a woven plain weave shirting fabric that I believe was at one time indeed a shirt that was torn up for scraps. Because of the checkerboard white patterning I was excited thinking that was part of the woven structure until I started picking that fabric apart with my pick glass in hand and realized, that they actually PRINTED the darker purple lines and the white checkerboard pattern on top of the plain weave light purple fabric. The fabric swatch with florals in light pink and purple actually originated as a nightgown and appears to be some form of non-woven material that has a felted feeling to it. The Third Fabric swatch shown above has a very cool sketchy feel to the floral pattern placed on an alternating line pattern in the background that reminds me very much of hand knitting knit and purl sections in a checkerboard pattern.  And what is the single connecting color of all three fabrics? Why yes, Purple it is indeed. Since they all three had purple in them I decided I would post them as a trio.

Fabric Swatches- Raggedy Ann and Andy Vintage with Apples

Recently, I acquired a bunch of fabric left over odds and ends from a person who was an avid quilter. To a quilter these gemstones would be great used in a project of many varieties but to myself, a textile designer, these fabrics score untold inspirations! This Fabric is a fine example.  A small scratch piece of fabric is posted here with cute Raggedy Ann and Andy pictorials of wagon play, apple picking, and sitting on a fence. I am sure, at some point this lovely fabric was made into ascents for childrenswear or decor in a childs room, but I think its very cute and i love the color palette of lime green, aqua blue and orange!

Creative Doors in the Sky, Opened and flying

This afternoon after work I decided it was time to purchase some inspirational tunes and set out to the music shop to buy a stack of music. Of course, this isn't really remotely related to textiles, but it is indeed inspirational towards the end goal. I started this blog and then had so much going on in Life that I pretty much didn't get very far with blogging. I did however gather together a pile of things that I found amazing, and inspirtional that I could blog about, and so hopefully over the course of the next few weeks with the inspiration of the music in the background I will be able to rant and rave about textile related goodies. One of the compact discs in my new stack of purchases was the Cd from the Band BLUESTONE. I had never heard of them before but the cover art was incredible, and so I told myself I must buy it on the merit of cover art alone, and then low and behold  love the music and just as much the lyrical content.

One of my favorite lines is this:

‎"Wait, you will find the doors hidden in the sky, Just when you think you'll never find them there, Open your eyes, They've been closed for many moons. Time to Start, Re-align you." ~Bluestone: Messages CD

So much of my time since the turn of the year to 2011 has been consumed with works relating to my job and not related to the creative side of my brain, and I feel it is time to return back to the creative and start execute some of these ideas that have been bouncing around in my mind, demanding an outlet of artistic response. So here is to great new tunes and the opportunity to create and be inspired by textile related goodies!

The Yarn Carrier- Wyomissing Industries

I found these newsletter style publications from 1934, 1925, 1947, and 1948 at an old and antique book shop last weekend. The title drew me in immediately, though when I opened up them I was a wee bit surprised to find that they weren’t so much a yarn magazine as much as a newsletter for a former industry.  It is exciting reading the articles and finding out what was new and thrilling to those who were working for the company at this time. From the article Twenty Thousand Guests in the July 1934 edition, I found this quote:

“One of the most outstanding attractions at the exhibition was the ‘Reading’ full fashioned knitting machine which operated before capacity crowds.  This 24-section, 45 gauge “Reading” legger, entirely assembled by apprentices, afforded many of the visitors their first glimpse of how full fashioned stockings are made.”

In the following year, they have listed a series on how to work these full fashioning machines discussing loose course and regulating motion.

As I read through them, I get a sense of nostalgia, but also a sense of desire to work for such a company where there are all sorts of picnics, several after work groups that meet for various outings and generally the ability with the newsletter to discuss different factors in their business to every department.

Two Highlights from the pages for me were on page two of 1935 July issue they honor those with Twenty five years of service by calling them “Textilians.” The second thing I find humorous is an article called “How to Tell Good Stockings” in the same issue where there is certainly some humor in the listing. One such listing to tell good stockings states the following:

“Twist of the thread must be right for dullness, strength, and elasticity.  Loose thread and loose weaving make sleazy-looking hosiery.  Beware of cheap ‘sheers’ that are merely loose.’

I laughed when I read that considering that lousy stockings relate to being loose and how those terms could also be the terms used for someone who is prone to sleeping around or a prostitute. It is better, after all, to NOT be loose in your personal life, but don't forget to keep your stockings from being sleazy and loose as well. J

Ulster- Linen Towel Birdcage

“Spirituality is not just about the ability to grasp something from the outside and bring it in, true spirituality and creative spirituality is creating something from the inside and expressing it on the outside. You express what is inside and it becomes an outward manifestation.”

John Paul Jackson in The Creative Spirit- CD 4

In view of this perspective by one of my personal favorite teachers (who I have lots of honor for), I pondered this as I viewed this linen towel that has been in my archive for many years. I have recently sold it and it is being sent out to another state. The linen towel states at the bottom “All Pure Linen made in Ireland… Birdcage by Ulster” I wonder what was going in inwardly in the mind and soul of Ulster when he was creating this linen artwork. The Birdcage is very reminiscent to me of the classic tree of life story that appears through out centuries in art and décor.  But this tree of life surrounded by vibrant flowers cascading around is a cage. I cage where birds are seemingly ‘trapped’ or closed in and yet this boundary of the cage does not deter the beauty that is reflective in these birds. Also noting that the birds on the lower half seem to have some sort of irritable anger power fuming in their eyes, yet those who are much larger and towards the top of the tree canopied cage appear to be more grandiose and contentment. I wonder if Ulster was reflecting outwardly an inward frustration of the powers that be, and how that relates to life, albeit the tree of life typifies freedom, it may also express the nature of both good and evil happening simultaneously in this large birdcage of life. Unless this artist is still alive and connections are made to discuss his or her thoughts, we will never know what was going on inwardly to create such a glorious outward manifestation of creativity. Regardless, I am very thankful for its beauty, and even more thankful that in parting with this piece of my archive, another soul will be brought much joy through its display.