Traditional kroj + LADYFITS
Showing posts with label FOLK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FOLK. Show all posts
NO.7
This issue follows my exhibition at the National Czech + Slovak Museum. The show took place earlier this summer. The exhibition was based around my definition of Bohemian and the ways I embrace this aspect of my life. I wanted to share a few of my compositions + process in issue no.7 of LADYFITS. You can pick up a copy at Goodwill locations in Cedar Rapids + Marion stores.
You can see one of my compositions in person on August 20th, part of the Farmers Market in downtown Cedar Rapids. It will be part of the museum's space in Greene Square park.
QUILTS STORIES
LADYFITS will host Eliza Fernand of Quilt Stories in Cedar Rapids, IA
I'm excited to share my hometown with her through textiles and spaces. Of course, I will share all of this with you as well. Get your textile + quilt stories ready for this event - Spread the word. I hope to see you there!
I'm excited to share my hometown with her through textiles and spaces. Of course, I will share all of this with you as well. Get your textile + quilt stories ready for this event - Spread the word. I hope to see you there!
OPEN STUDIO
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| (left) Detail of kerchief from Pozlovice 1860 + (middle) mid-process LADYFIT + (right) Sewn laces from Roznov 1880 |
ON THIS DAY
Yesterday was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the National Czech & Slovak museum and library as well for the city of Cedar Rapids. The energy in the Village was something I will never forget and will use as strength in my studio to keep pushing.
On this day, most of my conversations were about my dress. I wore a LADYFIT that summed up my feelings, bringing together a few old CR Czechs/Czech Village buttons as adornment + floral Babička head wrap + thrifted houseware items. Some thought I was from a different country or the Czech princess in the village. I took it as a compliment that I managed to figure out a contemporary garment composition for a Folk Costume. To me, it is about the layers and shapes. These conversations may have started about dress. They continued with discussions on thrift, arts in our community, Czech history, and the flood of 2008.
I gave myself a treat from the Czech Antique store to document this day's event. I've been wanting this old folk costume book from 1979 (Slovakian book brought back to America). It shows a folk culture of children's games in their classical form. An excerpt from the book is shown above with its beautiful photography. The authors of these types of books always define their purpose as it it folk culture not to be forgotten. It is now documented for the ages. I'm proof of that. I will continue the book's purpose......
My mind jumps each time I pick this book up: connecting folk cultures to the idea of Mother Nature as the resource to adornment (of the head dresses) - connecting with the Omo people. .......something I'm connecting to LADYFITS + thrift objects (resource cabinet).......
Much more to come on this book as it narrates through my work - heading towards June 23rd exhibition event at the NCSML.
I have to add this IPR report about the move: MUSEUM ON THE MOVE
FURTHER ODE....
to Iowa. This is part of my studio space + process. To get started, I create compositions based on materials I might use, color schemes, and/or the overall feeling for the LADYFIT. It begins with images and moves to combining the materials I've collected over time.
IOWA
My Ode to Iowa: a skirt made from towels.
These were all made from Iowan ladies. I'm giving the towels another chance + another use. A majority of the towels were made by someone's Babička (Czech Grandmother). I rescued a few from garage sales and others from Czech Village. The majority of the towel stories followed the same storyline: my grandmother or Babička kept everything. If it were to unravel, she would embroider...crochet....tatt on it. Her way of giving it a new chance.
Iowa has great thrift material. It's not only the textile as material. It is also the stories as material. This is the part of LADYFITS I enjoy most, hearing the textile stories that make up the culture, the people and the history of Iowa.
Background Textiles: thrifted silk Iowa scarf (left) and my Babička's tablecloth (right).
A ONE POCKET KIND OF LADYFIT
This composition was created from a bag of discarded fabric pieces in Czech Village, placed on a skirt purchased from Goodwill. The fabric pieces made perfect sense in the bag both aesthetically + to the environment surrounding it: Czech Village. It began my fascination: a bag of items being a small window into someone's curation of objects. What were these textile pieces part of? The colors reminded me of discarded pieces from a folk costume. It brought together my fascination with a thrift store being a cultural pocket to a community + an example of a cultural neighborhood of Cedar Rapids.
When I purchased this skirt, it was for the enlarged pockets - the structure to the garment. It would serve as a blank canvas. I've only completed one pocket. The pocket on the other side is left blank, awaiting another inspirational material purchase to create an equally balanced appeal.
This is another uncovering of my collection from last Spring. I'm already looking forward to presenting a new layer to this garment. More to come.
LADYFIT
This is part II for yesterday's LADYFIT. I often switch things up from AM to PM, depending on my mood + thoughts. This switch-up is a typical LADYFIT___elements of my folk dress. The structure to the top layer (black) interests me the most, its grid formation. I've already started to work on this layer. Sometimes it takes a good day of wear to realize the garments movements + to build on ideas.
RECOVERY_EMBROIDERY
EMBROIDERY_an object I tend to recover from the thrift stores to give it another chance. I have placed the embroidery on another object of dress, utilizing both sides.
Front of embroidery_the result of work
Back of embroidery_the process work
Equally beautiful on both sides
(Embroidery is a common theme that will continue to evolve with LADYFITS)
PIN COMPOSITION
I collect pins, hoping the collection makes sense enough to create a composition or storyline on my dress.
Story through adornment_everyone has a story to go with the pin they are wearing.
ELMA
OBJECT STORIES
ELMA_I call this LADYFIT by this name solely on the story of the adornment. I purchased this pin from Czech Village Antiques_the vendors are always there to attach the story to the object.
The flower pin is from the 1930s, worn by a school teacher in Hills, IA named Elma. This woman had an incredible story behind the pin and the wearer. It was told through her daughter (vendor in Czech Village). Female teachers could not marry during the term of their contract. Elma eloped anyways and feared she would loose her job. They thought by eloping it wouldn't be printed in the paper, a secretive way around the situation. However, it was printed in the Des Moines Register. Her principal found out and allowed it. Elma was always greatful to her principal.
Elma worked until she was 85, from school teacher to owner of a corner grocery store on Ellis Blvd. in Cedar Rapids, IA. Later in her life, the flower pin always sat nicely in her drawer. Elma's daughter never knew why it just sat there. It was impressive to hear the description on the colors of pins_Elma's collection of adornments. Teachers at that time (in a one room school house) could not wear bright colors.
So Elma's object becomes my object of adornment_2 completely different time periods for women_2 completely different definitions of the object's use.
TEXTILE FOLK ART_VACLAVIK
TEXTILE FOLK ART_ANTONIN VACLAVIK
Probably THE book that inspires me the most regarding this subject matter_folk dress_his personal view on cataloguing_beautiful photography of a people. Vaclavik states that this book "is not simply a catalogue of facts about exhibits in glass cases." He spent many years studying and helping revive this impressive art. This book serves as a survey of materials to create the folk dress_colours + designs_techniques favored by the skillful people behind the embroidery.
Vaclavik said it best, "This art, therefore, links the remote past with the living present; it is one of the richest and most rewarding areas of European folk achievement."
I only came upon this book out of a random discovery_researching through the internet to find resources for LADYFITS. I'm in the beginning stages of my process to create folk dress with thrift resource. This undertaking will take some time to complete. The art form of this dress, detailing takes immense amount of time. So far, it has been a great experience to allow the fast, bustling life I'm in to slow down.....and create.
Each time I step into the world of this book, I bow to the creators of this folk dress. I hope that this blog, newsletter and events in Goodwill Thrift stores_all followers be given the creative stimulation that I receive throughout this process.
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